Thriving both virtually and on campus during a pandemic required developing a new set of skills for many people, increased collaboration across campus, creative and innovative thinking, and the willingness to try new ways of operating and managing our campus. As campus operations returned to more traditional practices, GSW President Dr. Neal Weaver felt it was important to look at the lessons learned from the pandemic, to determine which new practices we should keep and where we should return to pre-pandemic routines, and what we should continue to explore to determine the best means of operations. For that reason, in Fall 2020 President Weaver called together a large group of faculty and staff to form the GSW Post-Pandemic Task Force. This group was tasked with talking through those lessons learned and determining what we want to promise to students as the GSW Experience. These pillars would guide our budgeting, programming, operations, academics, and overall campus work.

The Task Force, comprised of approximately 25 members, represented all departments and units on campus. They first met in October 2020, where President Weaver shared his vision for the committee, discussed a few readings that were shared prior to the meeting, and guided an initial conversation about how we have changed during the pandemic as well as what type of experience we hope to provide to our students. This meeting set the stage for the work to come.

In November 2020, (previous) Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Suzanne Smith began leading the process to talk about how to take the three pillars that were developed by the group and talk about what we are already doing for each, what we could modify to better align with these elements, and what additions or changes would provide a better student experience. The group met once and worked in small groups to answer these questions, and then came back together two weeks later to discuss the results as a group to determine commonalities and to use group think to develop the elements of each pillar. Each committee member was then tasked with going back to their units or departments to share the results and gather their thoughts about the pillars, what was missing, and where we could improve over the next two months.

In February 2021, the group met twice and started by talking about what they had learned from their peers and how we could narrow our list of objects for each pillar to aspirational goals for our campus. We then looked at student data collected at GSW such as our Motivate Labs report on student behavior, what we learned from the 2020 National Survey of Student Engagement about our students, and what national trends exist around the general topics of our pillars to ensure we are meeting the needs of our students and to learn from others about what they have found to be successful working towards the same goals. By the end of these meetings, we had the defining elements of the GSW Experience, our objectives for each pillar, and the elements we wanted to include for each of the pillars.

In March 2021, the group met once and focused on developing the action plan for each of the three pillars. This included things we wanted to focus on in order to ensure all students have the type of campus experience we determined is important and reflective of our beliefs and values. We discussed both how to define these for the purposes of our plan, as well as how different units on campus could interpret them for their own purposes to ensure every person on campus feels connected to the GSW Experience.

In April 2021, we met to review the revised document reflecting the GSW Experience, to wordsmith the goals and their elements, and to celebrate the work that was done over the course of the year. The defining elements of the GSW Experience laid the groundwork for the strategic planning work to take place the following year and was reflective of both the committee members and the areas they represented. Because of the relationships that had been built and the shared beliefs about the elements included in the work that was done, group members were asked to think about whether or not they would be willing to continue this work in the fall to develop the GSW Strategic Plan which would be based on the GSW Experience identified throughout this process.

The initial meeting of the Strategic Planning Task Force took place in September 2021. The process was led by Dr. Smith. We started by talking about the GSW Experience and how it had been used since its development. For example, President Weaver talked about the three pillars and our promise to students during Storm Days. We then talked about the work of Simon Sinek and how our planning process should be guided by infinite rather than finite thinking so we are reaching for goals, working as a team to achieve student success and thinking outside of the box as we move forward. The rest of the meeting, we talked about “finding our why” and reminding ourselves what our roles and purpose are on campus.

In October 2021, we talked about our “why” and how it is expressed in the GSW Experience, which we decided is the foundation of our strategic plan. We then divided into three groups based on the three pillars, and each group was tasked with meeting over the next month to draft goals for their assigned pillar. Task Force members were challenged with having no more than four goals, as we wanted the strategic plan to be very focused on providing the best student experience possible around these three elements. We met one more time prior to the holiday break to discuss and choose the goals for each pillar. Members were then tasked with going back to their areas/departments and seeking feedback about the goals that were set for each pillar and reporting back to Dr. Smith by the end of January. They were given a copy of the GSW Experience to share with colleagues and were provided with talking points so we all shared similar information across campus.

In February 2022, the group was given a document which detailed the feedback provided by individual committee members. We went through each goal and discussed the feedback that was given. Based on those conversations, we altered the goals as needed to better reflect the thoughts and perspectives of the campus community at large.

Dr. Smith took the feedback that was provided and revised the working draft of the GSW Experience which was becoming the Strategic Plan. Some areas required more specific details, some areas needed a change in language to better reflect the intent of the bullet point, and some areas needed an additional goal to better encompass the desired outcome. These revisions were reviewed at the meeting in March 2022. Once there was agreement in wording and content changes, this became the new Strategic Plan for GSW. In April 2022, the Task Force met to talk about next steps and how to present the information moving forward. 

Fall 2022 will be spent having department chairs and deans, unit heads, and directors work with their teams to develop action items for their areas of responsibility. They will be tasked with providing a strategic plan to the Provost’s office by the end of Fall 2022 which reflects their measurable goals for providing student success as defined in the Strategic Plan. This will include a timeline for implementation of their goals. Once all documents have been produced and reviewed they will be put together to form a single document which will be available on the GSW Strategic Plan webpage. Direct reports of the President and the Vice Presidents will be tasked with reporting on progress made each year as a part of the annual review process. 

Approved and adopted June 2022