Workgroups
Seven working groups have been created to critically review themes collected from the broader university community.
Workgroups are the foundation of the strategic planning process at the University of North Dakota. Each workgroup has been assigned one main idea to critically review. These ideas came from major themes collected directly from our university community; UND students, staff, faculty, alumni, and our community members, during the months of February and March.
In the development of workgroups, the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) also took into consideration several of the foundational documents that are helping inform the new Strategic Plan; our two recent task forces on DEI and the Future of Higher Education, the UND Comprehensive Campaign, our UND Branding, UND’s Grand Challenges, and the strengths and lessons learned from our current Strategic Plan, OneUND.
Seven Strategic Plan Workgroups
Taking all this information together, the SPC started to see common ideas, strengths, and concerns emerge. These thoughts were then categorized and combined into the seven workgroups below.
- UND Community: Climate and Culture
- Creativity, Discovery and Innovation
- Collaboration and Engagement
- Student Success Through Academic Excellence
- Student Success Beyond the Classroom
- Valuing and Supporting UND Employees
- Fostering Equity and Inclusive Excellence
Workgroup Members
Each workgroup will be comprised of members of the broader UND community who will bring their specific expertise and knowledge into these important conversations. They will take the months of April to November to critically examine the idea they are assigned.
About Strategic Plan Workgroups
The SPC has given each group a series of questions to consider during their work, but they are not confined to just these questions. Each group is encouraged to holistically consider the themes that fall under their topic, including ones that the SPC may not have listed, and broadly think about strategic areas of importance that fall into these topics during the process of their work.
Throughout these months, Workgroups will be hosting critical conversations with our UND community to gather important university feedback as they look for opportunities, strengths, areas of possible growth, and ideas of strategic importance for the institution as we move forward with our next university plan. During this time, it is critical that all our voices have a chance to be heard and our ideas taken into consideration as we develop a plan that is truly by and for the University of North Dakota.
Deliverables
Workgroups will then be asked to make a recommendation to the SPC, based off their work, on Strategic Pillars which the new plan will be based around. It is possible, and even likely, that several Workgroups may find common overlap of themes and opportunities during the scope of their work. Consequently, they may decide to combine their findings into one Strategic Pillar recommendation. As such, collaboration and engagement between Workgroups is highly encouraged.
Ultimately, the Strategic Pillars should reflect the greatest opportunities of growth for UND. Each Pillar will then be accompanied by an Action Plan that has defined priorities, actions, and metrics on which to track our institutional progress. Our final Strategic Plan, which will be presented to the President in December and launched in January 2023, will provide a clear direction for how the University of North Dakota will advance under a common unity of purpose. It will allow us to focus institutional efforts and investments on strategic areas that have the greatest opportunity to differentiate ourselves and demonstrate the impactful work happening across our university.