Frequently Asked Questions
Why do we call it strategic thinking?
Lehigh's strategic thinking is about challenging ourselves as a university and setting our common vision, goals, and priorities for the coming decade. We have an opportunity to build from our individual, departmental, and college goals into institutional goals. This requires us to have a collective conversation and to encourage input from all members of our campus community.
How is this different from strategic planning?
Our strategic thinking will provide the foundation for strategic planning and strategic action. As a university community, we need to think about and talk about our shared goals and aspirations for making Lehigh the best it can be. Now is the time for us to use our collective thinking to set a path for our future. This thinking will generate goals as well as steps to lead toward those goals. We will present these institutional goals to the Board of Trustees in a summer retreat July 13-14, 2008. We will move directly into planning and implementation in the fall of 2008 to develop strategic action plans, strategic behaviors, and metrics to measure our achievements. The work we do now will set the direction for future budget and fund raising priorities for Lehigh in the near future.
How far into the future should we be thinking?
We cannot predict the future nor can we foresee all of the changes we will need to adapt to. We can, however, ask ourselves where we want Lehigh to be in five years and ten years. Our best thinking should create a path to lead us to action plans and implementation.
We seek the input of the campus community. Our planning and actions will be much stronger with greater participation from the campus.
How can I get involved?
The input process is winding down, but there is still time to read the first drafts of the Working Group reports and share your thoughts on our online forum. We are taking an "open source" approach throughout; the more members of the campus community we hear from, the better our final product will be. We welcome your thoughts and encourage you to share your ideas with the community.
What is the product of this thinking?
In addition to a report from each of the three Working Groups, there will be an overview from the Steering Committee. These documents will be the end product of our months of discussion. They will provide goals, priorities within the goals, desired time frames to achieve these goals, description of impacts of achieving these goals and beneficiaries of their achievement, and estimates of degree of cost and difficulty in achieving these goals (high/medium/low). They will form a road map for implementation groups to use next fall.
Now is the time to be engaged and involved in setting the direction for Lehigh University. The work we do now will directly impact future budgeting and fund raising priorities.
