Strategic Imperatives Advisory Council

We have now outlined three strategic imperatives that form the foundation of the L&C Advantage, which is a combination of educational experiences and opportunities that develop leaders who possess in-demand skills and are ready to make an impact on their communities and the world.

As part of this process, we invited the campus community to craft “Big Idea” proposals. Those proposals significantly contributed to the drafting of the three imperatives, and can now be a starting point towards developing initiatives and specific goals that will move the institution forward.

Charge

In order to move our process forward, we have established an advisory council made up of faculty and staff to help us refine, clarify, and move the institution forward. The charge of the group includes the following tasks:

• Review and recommend to the president and Executive Council initiatives that will enable L&C to accomplish the three imperatives. This should begin by reviewing the Executive Council’s provisional determinations about which Big Ideas should be considered strategic plan priorities and the distribution of Big Ideas among the three strategic imperatives.
• In making recommendations about initiatives for each of the strategic imperatives, the council should consider which Big Ideas would benefit from being integrated with others and how to characterize any such new Big Idea project, as well as any new proposals that the group believes the president and Executive Council should consider. This will likely require reaching out to faculty and staff outside the committee for consultation and feedback.
• Write a narrative that unifies the Big Ideas in each strategic imperative as a step forward in creating a unified implementation process for the strategic plan.
• Create a timeline that indicates how the Big Ideas in each strategic imperative might be implemented. Make recommendations as to what components of the selected Big Ideas we begin work on within the next year, allowing us to gain “proof of concept” of that idea. The timeline should break down (to the extent possible) the steps in implementing the initiatives in each strategic imperative into three periods: (a) in the next year; (b) in years 2–3; and (c) in years 3–5. It will likely be the case that the implementation of some initiatives can begin almost immediately upon approval of the strategic imperatives, while others will require significantly more planning and/or available funding. Include here any additional resources (not mentioned in the Big Ideas themselves) that the institution will need to consider related to implementation of the projects included in the strategic plan.
• Serve as ambassadors to the community about the Big Ideas process and help build momentum, excitement and inspiration for our goals. The successful implementation of the strategic plan will benefit significantly from the group’s service as ambassadors to the larger community. This may be through informal communications with colleagues as well as planned events that we might consider together. The launch of the next comprehensive campaign will also benefit from the insights of the group in helping to prepare case statements for the major projects included in the strategic plan.
• Raise any potential benefits and challenges of implementing these ideas for the Executive Council to consider.

It is envisioned that this council will meet beginning in fall and continue throughout the academic year. Council members will regularly update their deans and/or vice presidents on recommendations and the work of the committee.

The council’s work will allow us to give an update on the Big Ideas process and status at the February meeting of the Board of Trustees. A final report to the president and Executive Council will be created by the committee no later than April 15, 2025.

Membership

Kathy FitzGibbon, Cochair, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities

Elizabeth Safran, Cochair, Associate Professor of Geological Science

Janice Weis, Cochair, Associate Dean and Director of Environmental, Natural Resources and
Energy Law Program

Brian Detweiler-Bedell, Professor of Psychology and Executive Director of the Center for
Entrepreneurship

Cort Dorn-Medeiros, Associate Professor, Counseling, Therapy, and School Psychology
Department Chair

Amy Dvorak, Director of Sustainability

Reiko Hillyer, Associate Professor of History and Department Chair, Director of Ethnic Studies

Robin Holmes-Sullivan, President

David Johnson, Associate Vice President for Foundation Relations and Strategic Philanthropy

Jonathan Manz, Director of the Lewis & Clark First-Year Experience

Raj Reddy, Associate Professor of Animal Law

David Reese, Vice President, General Counsel, Chief of Staff, and Board Secretary

Ellen Seljan, Professor of Political Science and Program Director of Data Science

Josh Walter, Vice President of Advancement

Maika Yeigh, Associate Professor of Teacher Education