STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE

STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE

November 5, 2004

MINUTES

Present: Chris Bailey, Jim Chase, Carolyn Denard, Muriel Godbout, Michael Groth, Ellen Hall, Diane Hutchinson, Frank Lacomb, Meghan McCune (Phone), Nicole Pellegrino, Laura Purdy, Susan Sloan, Jonee Smith, Amy Staples, Susan Talbot.

10:30 am –Carolyn Denard called the meeting to order.

Approval of minutes for October 29, was put off for the next scheduled meeting.

Report from Nicole Pellegrino and Jonee Smith on student meetings

N. Pellegrino reported that the first Student meeting scheduled on November 1 had no attendees.

The second meeting on November 3 had 7 attendees with some lively discussion of goals and priorities.

On Goal # 1 – A high quality educational experience was the suggestion.

On Initiatives # 20 – Increase connection to Cornell, make sure it’s recognized and realized.
#21 – Make sure the course catalog is updated regularly.
#22 – Expand study abroad options to include science majors and others who have difficulty.
#23 – Evaluate career services, improve.

Priorities in order of what they suggest are Top 3 –

#2 Greater access for Physically Disabled
#1 New Science Building (Question from students on how to pay for new buildings and positions)
#10 Expand one-person departments

Other top Priorities are

#3 Increase Library Holdings
#9 New Website
#19 Plan every semester to have a lecture by noted scholar and/or researcher.

On Goal # 2 – Goal - Wells as a Woman’s College

Priority # 4 Wells Women Hall of Fame a living history museum.
#14 – Program to insure continuation of a womens centered education is too vague.
New priority #15 – Make annual trips to Seneca Falls.

Priorities in order of what they suggest as top 3

#11 – Introduction to Women Studies as a College Wide Curricular Requirement.
#6 Tenure-track lines in Women’s Studies
#13 New Faculty Hires in Women Studies.

On Goal # 3 – What is meant by gender? Diversity addition of gender identity/sexual orientation should be in the goal.

Priority # 3 Recruit more diverse students
Priority # 5 – Make community standards statement a living document and create a way to enforce it.
Priority # 7 – advertise more Locally
#10 – Design and intentionally build community (questions on this).
New Priority # 11 – Post Community Standards Statement
#12 – Have all community members sign honor code.
#13 – Mandatory diversity training for all faculty and staff
#14 – Increase services available to international students.
#15 – Educate dining hall on religious holidays (Ramadan as example).
#16 – Make diversity courses a requirement
#17 – Offering domestic partner benefits.

On Goal # 6 – Goal should be Student Life

#1 Improvements to dormitories (what does this mean.)
#9 New campus card ID system and access to computers via ID cards
New Priority # 18 – Expand van destinations to other cities
#19 – New dish machine in dining hall for cleaner dishes and silverware.
#20 – Improve locking system – swipe cards.

Priorities in order of what they suggest as top 4

# 4 – Increasing access and use of technology in learning
#8 – Improvement in food service – less fried foods.
#10 – Design office or program to help students utilize Wells-Cornell connection
#17 – Expanding WILL program to include house where single moms could live with children.

On Goal # 8 – Transition

#17 – Make Board of Trustees by-laws and resolutions available, and find avenue of communication between students and trustees.
New Priority # 24 – Push year back to 2008 for transition to co-ed.

Priorities in order of what they suggest as top 3.

#20 – Do not withdraw from the endowment for co-education adjustments.
#12 – Have open communication meeting once a month
#21 – Create budget for transition and make it accessible.

On Goal # 9 – Physical environment

#7 – Plaza with a Fountain – refurbish Glen Park fountain
New Priority # 15 – Improvement to Sommer Center Lawn
#16 – Vegetable garden
#17 – Recycle program
#18 – Nature trail

Miscellaneous suggestions from students

#1 Yearly outside review of the State of the College. D. Hutchinson shared with the committee that there is an outside review but not on specific programs. There is a self study every 5 years (2007 will be the next one). There is a possibility that a self review – assessment plan can be included.
#2 Strengthen connection with Alumnae, make it more direct for students.
These should be added as new suggested Goals starting with #11. Wells College for Social Justice.
On numbers 17 – 20 – Need a community Vision statement C. Denard suggested the committee members send her emails on how the list should be organized on new Goals and established Goals.

It was suggested that an email be sent before the next scheduled student Strategic Plan meeting to increase greater turnout.

N. Pellegrino and J. Smith said that the first meeting did not require ground rules, it was very comfortable. 20 people may be harder to facilitate without the ground rules. The consensus on priorities was voted upon with a majority. If one person felt very strongly about a priority and it was more than the 3 required, it was added to the list.

The students had a question on Goals 4 and 5 which were not on the Student Meeting list. N. Pellegrino shared that the students wanted to see all goals, they were suspicious about why all goals weren’t included in the discussion. C. Denard stated it was due to time constraints. It is hard to discuss all of the goals in one meeting but said that all of the goal had been shared with students via email and the boxes around campus. However, she said that all of the goals would be included for the next meeting.

C. Denard on the Monday Staff meeting will share her notes and get easel for the German Culture Room with all the other meeting materials.

C. Denard mentioned that out of 9 boxes only 2 responses were included. The Zabriskie box was not found. C. Bailey said it was in the anti-room of Zabriskie. It will be collected before the next meeting.

Assignments for Staff and Faculty Open Discussion Meetings.

The November 15 Faculty meeting will be changed to Tuesday November 16. Facilitator will be Laura Purdy, Recorder Susan Talbot, Minute taker Amy Staples

Friday, November 19^th the Facilitator will be Susan Talbot, Recorder Michael Groth, and C. Denard will ask Bill Roberts to be the Minute taker.

C. Denard will send out notes and guides for the meetings.

Refreshments for Meetings?

The general consensus was that juice or coffee and cookies be offered for faculty and staff meetings.

Subcommittee memberships

The sub-committee groups were discussed. Michael Groth was added to #I.
Chris Bailey was removed from IV,
Meghan McCune removed from # V,
Amy Staples will be replaced with someone else on # VI,
Carolyn Denard was added to VII,
#X Susan Talbot was changed to Susan Sloan, Cathy Bellomo will be asked to join by Diane Hutchinson.
VII Subcommittee for Goal #8 – Transitioning to a Co-ed Institution – consensus was that all Senior Staff should be on this committee, Meghan McCune suggested she should also be included, N. Pellegrino asked that a faculty member also be included, Susan Talbot was added.

Time line

C. Denard asked that committee members think about how to plan the work. What the priorities and process would be. Then establish a 5 year benchmark. The meetings in the future will focus on this, and be ready for substantive meetings.
C. Bailey suggested establishing chairs for the sub committees.

C. Denard asked that committee members read the strategic Plan Process on Page 5. She will send a new draft by email that will be 3 or 4 pages longer with information on the Student suggestions.

Meeting ended 11:30am

Minutes recorded and respectfully submitted by Verna I Dugan