April 19, 2000

Dear Colleagues:

Strategic planning is one way for universities to take advantage of their opportunities and deal with their challenges.  The idea of strategic planning comes for the corporate world and any application to an academic institution requires adjustment and modification. In an institution of higher education, strategic planning is a process through which a university community  considers broad issues of institutional direction, develops explicit goals and priorities, and subjects these to open evaluation and debate.  The ultimate purpose is to build a consensual vision of the institution and a plan to implement and achieve that vision.  Through on-going strategic planning, the academic institution continually renews its vision and reformulates strategies for realizing that vision.

This document reflects a University-wide strategic planning process that was completed in March 2000. It includes material on the organization of the planning effort (e.g., the planning structure and process) and some guidelines for developing strategies, as well as an integrated vision of North Georgia College & State University for the next two to five years.  This vision is systematically connected to both budgetary and curricular decisions. The strategic planning process which produced the University-wide plan also stimulated ties among the plans of the units on campus and yielded a short list of priorities for new initiatives.

Many thanks to those who dedicated much time and energy to making this process successful.

                    With best wishes, I am,