Most comments about the proposed university strategic plan for 2000 to 2005 were positive during three open forums held recently. Attendance was small at the forums, averaging less than 20 people. He also said he is pleased that the university's mission of becoming the best land-grant university in the nation remains in the proposed plan. He said those outside the university recognize this goal, and he would have a difficult time defending a decision to remove it from Iowa State's aspirations. Scholarship needs to be at the center of the strategic plan rather than just one of the three themes, she said.
Scholarship affects all areas of the university.
She said all faculty, whether doing research, teaching or outreach, think of themselves as scholars. Jischke pointed out that the strategic plan shows that the three themes overlap, but Hendrich said that overlap was not enough. Discovery doesn't include sharing information and peer review, he said, while scholarship does. Jischke also emphasized that the strategic plan is used for budgeting decisions, as well as a communication tool for telling others what Iowa State is about. Stan Johnson, vice provost for extension and a member of the committee that prepared the proposed plan, noted that the plan purposely is less detailed than the existing strategic plan to allow more of the university's constituents to use the plan in expressing goals specific to them.