Brock’s Interim President and Vice-Chancellor Tom Traves today (Jan. 23) launched a major strategic planning project that will welcome input from across the campus as it examines and updates the University’s academic and operational priorities.

In a letter to the Brock community posted on the Office of the President website, Traves announced the planning project as well as an online questionnaire where faculty, staff, students and Board members can respond to specific questions as well as provide general comments and suggestions.

The strategic planning survey is being organized to focus on eight different strategic directions, or themes. The first two have been posted today on the survey site, and two different themes will be posted each week for the next three weeks.

Each of the four weekly postings will be followed by a two-week period during which people can respond. Spreading the input period over the course of a month is intended to give the Brock community time to reflect on the different, complex strategic directions being examined.

“Effective strategic plans require widespread input,” said Traves in his letter, “and to accept and promote a plan’s essential components, the Brock community must first understand it thoroughly. So … we are requesting your creative thoughts and best ideas about how to shape our future.”

People can respond to the online survey anonymously, or can identify themselves if they want to be contacted for further details. All comments will be held in confidence.

Once the survey instalments have all been posted and responses have been processed, “we expect to identify a small number of critical initiatives under each of our eight Strategic Objectives, and will consult further to ensure that we get this analysis right.”

While Traves has been responsible for getting the strategic planning process up and running, finalizing and setting new priorities for Brock’s future will not be determined until Traves’ successor, the University’s next President and Vice-Chancellor, is in place later this year.

“This important exercise will bring focus to Brock’s operational and budgetary plans for the next several years. As projects conclude, we will identify new initiatives that advance our goals. The strength of this planning initiative will rest on our ability as an academic community to pull in the same general direction.”