ASG holds final forum to discuss new Strategic Plan

The final forum to discuss the proposed Strategic Plan for Emporia State the next five years, was held in the Kanza Room last Thursday following the ASG meeting.

“ASG asked us to come have the forum,” said Bill Barnes, instructor of business administration and education. “They created the environment for us and then they invited other students. It is the largest forum we have had.”

Barnes and the rest of the writing staff presented the plan at four other forums prior to the ASG meeting. There will be no additional forums until the all feedback is considered and the plan is revised. The writing staff has put in between 2,000-2,500 hours into the development of the strategic plan.

“I think we are definitely on the right track,” said Lynn Hobson, assistant vice president of student life. “The plan is so encompassing, it attempts to cover every aspect of the university so it is a really large undertaking. The people who have gotten it to this point really have to be committed because they have put in hours of work.”

The strategic plan consists of five themes and each theme has several sub-points. At the forum, the students were able to comment and critique each of the themes and sub-points.

Barnes and the rest of the writing staff said that they were pleasantly surprised with the quality of questions and research that ASG brought to the meeting.

“I am really glad that everyone who attended did their homework and actually read the strategic plan ahead of time,” said Todd Fitzsimmons, senior accounting major. “I think we had a lot of good questions not only from the students that attended, but also the faculty that was there contributed, too.”

Among the attendees were President Michael Lane and Jim Williams, vice president of strategic planning and student life. Lane and Williams were available to answer questions that the writing committee could not and to add their comments to the discussion.

“I was really appreciative of Dr. Williams’ clarifying points and also Dr. Lane’s clarifying points,” Fitzsimmons said.

The writing committee has now entered the revision phase.

“We take all the feedback that we have received and as a committee over the next three to four weeks we will rewrite the strategic plan,” Barnes said. “At that point it will go back out to the campus community for one last time.”

Once the final adjustments are made, the writing committee’s job will be complete. The strategic bill will then be transferred to the implementation committee where it will begin being phased into the ESU system.

According to Barnes, feedback forums are what make the strategic plan stronger and more in depth.

“I think overall the response was excellent,” Barnes said. “We had good input, good questions, they were well thought out and we had a couple ideas that we hadn’t heard before, which is what these forums are all about.”