Planning aimed to find values and goals
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Planning aimed to find values and goals

Year-long process involves many people

by Abby Person

This year the College underwent the heart of a long range planning process initiated last year by President of the College Nancy Dye.

The purpose of the planning process was to facilitate the formation of long range goals which will guide the direction the College seeks to take in the future. (To read the broad goals and strategic recommendations of the long range planning reports, see pages 21-3)

The planning process was the most inclusive the College has ever undergone. About 450 members of the Oberlin community participated in the focus group process. Seventy were faculty members, 37 staff members, 28 students, eight alumni and 24 were trustees.

The process began early first semester, with focus groups meeting around campus to discuss issues of concern. Students, faculty and staff met to discuss the goals of Oberlin.

The Office of the President released an all-campus mailing inviting students to join focus groups. Faculty and staff were also invited to participate.

"The response among faculty and staff was excellent," Dye said in October. "There was not as much student involvement as we'd like to see."

After several weeks of focus groups meeting around campus, the ideas that emerged were compiled in a report that outlined the general direction of the discussions to follow.

Over Winter Term, 14 broad topics were extracted from the focus group discussion report to form planning teams that focused on the main issues of concern. Each team was composed of students, faculty and staff and met through the first half of the second semester.

In March, the planning teams held an all day 'Town Meeting' to further solicit input from the College community. Attendance at the meetings varied, but team members felt the meetings were positive. Overall 220 people participated in the 'Town Meeting' process.

"I think they went very well. The ones I went to were very substantive," Dye said.

At the 'Town Meeting' the planning teams met in three sessions with four or five concurrent meetings going on during each session. Student, faculty and staff participants moved from meeting to meeting, listening to presentations by the planning teams and giving feedback.

Most teams presented a list of questions that the team used to shape its discussion, and let members of the group respond to the questions. The discussion varied in style, from organized to free-form. Most participants felt good about the openness of the discussions.

The planning teams used the input and re-direction of the town meetings to draft a one-page progress report.

The planning teams revised their reports and resubmitted them to Dye in April. In total, Dye received about 70 pages, which she summarized in a brief report which was distributed on-campus along with the planning team summaries.

The report includes statements defining what the College is about. According to the report, Oberlin is about providing an excellent and diverse faculty, learning to live together in a richly diverse community, learning how to learn, educating ourselves in the arts, maintaing excellent science programs, providing a physical education and engaging in citizenship and a lifelong committment to social responsibility.

The report also includes general strategic recommendations for how the College can foster these goals.

"The theme of community is a continuous and powerful one in all of these reports. Oberlin feels a deep need to strengthen its sense of community through every aspect of linving and learning here," Dye said.


Oberlin

Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 25, May 23, 1997

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