Summer 2004

New strategic plan seeks to take GU to "next level"

By Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.
 Gonzaga University President

(Originally published in the Summer 2004 edition of

GONZAGA, the alumni publication.)

As I noted in my previous column, we are about to embark on a strategic planning process at Gonzaga University which will take approximately a year and one-half, and apply to the period between 2005-2015. The reason for initiating the process now is twofold. First, we completed the goals of our previous strategic plan "Momentum 2007" in December 2003. As you know, this plan was oriented toward 1) alleviating budget uncertainties; 2) increasing enrollments; 3) increasing academic profile; 4) building much-needed facilities (science, business, engineering, Florence, fitness center, freshman-sophomore residence halls, junior-senior residence halls); 5) increasing endowments (for financial aid, merit scholarships, high-need scholarships, faculty enrichment, diversity, five mission areas of faith, service, justice, ethics, and leadership); and 6) increasing our name recognition/reputation both academically and institutionally.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our Trustees, Regents and benefactors, we will reach our Capital Campaign goal of $119 million early, and thanks to our remarkable basketball team, administrative team, and faculty, we have reached our enrollment and recognition/reputation goals very early. Our basketball team's fantastic, inspirational performance led to a huge jump not only in athletic recognition/reputation but also in academic reputation on a national level. Their excellence also paved the way for funding our new McCarthey Athletic Center (to open on Oct. 15 and to be dedicated Oct. 23).

The second reason for initiating our new strategic plan concerns our recent accreditation. Gonzaga received a positive reaccreditation with seven commendations to the administration, faculty, Trustees and staff. We also have received several excellent recommendations which will help to improve our assessment evaluation and planning systems. Our strategic planning process affords an excellent opportunity to respond to these recommendations while pursuing our educational quality objectives as well as our student life, mission, facilities, technology, human resources and athletics objectives.

Our previous Strategic Plan ("Momentum 2007") was oriented toward stabilizing the budget and catching up with much-needed facilities, renovation, and building. Since these objectives have in great part been reached, the new Strategic Plan (

Momentum 2015) will be less oriented toward "catch up" and more oriented toward "reaching the next level" in academic quality, educational delivery, student life programming, mission programming, facilities, technology, and athletics. This will entail making an accurate long-term assessment of our revenues and expenses, endowment growth, return on endowment investment, compensation policy, budget process, and quality improvement. We hope to complete the planning process through three phases over the next 18 months:

Phase I

.Determination of Financial Data:

A.

Enrollment Revenue Goals: The enrollment team will determine revenue expectancies and maximum retention rates from undergraduate, graduate and law enrollments.

B.

Capital/Endowment Campaign Revenue Goals: The campaign team will determine new goals to complete the current Capital Campaign and for the 2007-2012 Endowment Campaign.

C.

Investment / Endowment Revenue Goals: The investment team will determine market valuation for total return increases to the endowment.

D.

Budget Goals: The long-term budget team will use the material from A-C (above) to determine high and low goals for revenue, necessary expenses, discretionary expenses, and quality improvement investments.

Phase II.

Academic Goals:

A. Stephen Freedman, academic vice president, will organize a team with deans and faculty to develop a process for obtaining faculty input and review of an academic strategic plan.

B. This process will be oriented toward developing a plan to implement the six academic recommendations from the accreditation commission.

C. The process will also determine first, second and third priorities for the maintenance and improvement of educational quality (within the financial parameters determined in Phase I of the Strategic Plan).

Phase III. Cross-Academic and Extra-Academic Goal Areas:

A.

Trustees / Regents Goals: The Governance Committee and board chair will form goals for Trustee and Regent projects.

B.

Student Life Goals: The student life team will form goals for residence life, student health, campus culture, student activities and safety/security.

C.

Facilities Goals: The facilities team will form goals for facilities, property acquisition and renovation through 2015.

D.

Cross-Academic and Extra-Academic Mission Goals: The mission team will form goals for the five distinctive mission areas (faith, service, justice, ethics and leadership) and integrate these with educational mission goals.

E.

Athletic Goals: The athletic team will determine goals regarding fund raising, media contracts, marketing, Division I athletic support, and intramural and club sport support.

F.

Technology Goals: The technology subcommittee will form a team to assess a timeline to meet technology needs.

G.

Image/Marketing/Communication Goals: Image/Marketing team will determine goals for internal and external communication.

As you can see we have our work cut out for us, but it will be worth it as Gonzaga's academic and mission quality continue to improve as well as its endowments, facilities and reputation. I want to thank all of you as well as our Trustees, Regents, faculty, administration, staff, students, and athletic teams for making our past and future improvements possible. Gonzaga is taking off like a rocket ship and has become a well-known, well-ranked, national university with exceptionally high academic, educational, and mission quality.