The trick is to find the right balance between focus and flexibility. Lange will chair the planning steering committee, which will include faculty chairs of the Academic Council, the President's Advisory Committee on Resources and the Academic Priorities Committee as well as deans and administrators. John Harer, the new vice provost for academic affairs, will serve as coordinator for the committee and the planning process. Planning will work in two stages with the initial effort devoted exclusively to the academic priorities, which will provide a framework for discussions about other parts of the university. Administrative, support and auxiliary units will begin planning efforts in the second semester.
Several issues loom over the planning effort.
One, Lange said, is how to give the best support to schools and departments while also taking advantage of interdisciplinary opportunities. There can be a tension between the two, and in the past there's been a lack of confidence on the part of some university officials that the differing priorities of school and university can be neatly joined. Shaping Our Future also recognized some of those cross-university tensions. John Harer, now a vice provost and a member of the current steering committee, has recently served as chair of mathematics. He said he saw how university planning could help departments.