Background
In the summer of 2004, Case Western Reserve University began a university-wide strategic planning process. This important initiative is designed to establish the priorities that will guide the university over the next five years.
In December 2005, then Provost and University Vice President John L. Anderson convened a steering committee, consisting of faculty, staff and student representatives, to move the plan, then called the Academic Strategic Plan, forward to completion. Since its inception, the steering committee has grown to include a faculty representative from each of the schools.
In April 2006, given the university's budgetary issues and leadership changes, the decision was made to refocus the planning process from the development of a classic strategic plan, one with extensive detail and defined metrics, to a more fundamental document, one that defines the institution's purpose and direction and can help guide decision-making during the transition.
With Barbara R. Snyder becoming the new president of the university on July 1, 2007, she will lead a formal strategic planning effort, yielding a plan that would most likely build on the kind of foundation that has been laid.
The steering committee's goal is to take a statement of institutional direction and priorities, now renamed the University Plan, to the Board of Trustees for its review and approval.