Academic Strategic Planning Preparation Group Appointed to Guide Next Steps in Planning Process

Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, has appointed an Academic Strategic Planning Preparation Group (ASPP) to develop a schedule, scope and design for a refresh of Syracuse University’s Academic Strategic Plan.

The group will study the 2015 “Trajectory to Excellence” academic strategic planning process, evaluating the methods and steps that yielded the University’s Academic Strategic Plan. They will also evaluate the effectiveness, transparency and integration of the planning processes that followed at the college, school and unit level. The group will consider academic planning best practices used by peer institutions and will use these findings to develop a roadmap for the refresh of Syracuse University’s Academic Strategic Plan next year.

In her charge to the ASPP, Ritter asks the group to consider how to develop a process that fully integrates University goals and values and current market dynamics. These include diversity, equity, inclusion and access goals, graduate and undergraduate enrollment objectives, the effect of the pandemic on higher education, post-graduation outcomes for students and areas of distinctive academic excellence.

Members of the ASPP Group include:

• Lois Agnew, associate dean of curriculum innovation and pedagogy, interim chair of African American studies and professor of writing, rhetoric and composition in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Steve Bennett, co-chair, senior vice president for international programs and academic operations and chief of staff, Academic Affairs
• Rick Burton, David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and the University’s faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference
• Elisa Dekaney, associate dean of research, graduate studies and internationalization in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and professor of music education in VPA and the School of Education
• Jerry Edmonds, senior assistant provost, institutional effectiveness and assessment, Academic Affairs
• Amy Falkner, senior associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of advertising, Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Lauryn Gouldin, Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and director of the Syracuse Civics Initiative, College of Law
• Julie Hasenwinkel, professor and chair of biomedical and chemical engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Kira Reed, associate professor in the Whitman School of Management and Provost Faculty Fellow
• David Van Slyke, dean and Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Jennifer Stromer-Galley, professor and senior associate dean for academic and faculty affairs, School of Information Studies
• Ryan C. Williams, vice president for enrollment services
• Ryan O. Williams, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of practice, College of Professional Studies
• Amanda Eubanks Winkler, professor of music history and cultures and chair of art and music histories in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Jamie Winders, co-chair, associate provost for faculty affairs and professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School

Amy Fulford of enlight Advisors will facilitate the process and provide professional development to ASPP members and other participants.

The ASPP will map a planning process based on the findings of their review, advice of subject matter experts both on and off campus, study of higher education strategic planning and facts and circumstances relevant to a contemporary strategic plan. Based on this analysis, the ASPP will issue a specific set of recommendations to Ritter by the end of May. These recommendations will outline the design of pre-planning workshops for academic leadership and stakeholders and clearly outline the design and execution of strategic planning at the University, school or college and unit levels.