Revised Academic Plan ready for review
Following the release of the revised draft of Concordia’s Academic Plan on August 25, Provost David Graham is encouraging faculty, students and staff to submit their feedback before a final draft is presented to Senate for approval.
“I’m grateful to the working group for how seriously they’ve taken their responsibility to forge a plan that sets our main directions for years to come,” notes Graham. “The revised plan is a significantly changed document, and I’m eager for it to be read widely and thoughtfully.”
He hopes members of the Concordia community will provide “substantive comments like the ones that were so helpful in guiding the members of the working group as they revised our plan.”
People can submit their comments by visiting the discussion and feedback web page, or by sending the Provost an email at dgraham@alcor.concordia.ca. Comments can also be sent to members of the Academic Plan Working Group and Academic Plan Steering Committee.
The first draft of the plan was released in February, and the working group received more than 400 pages of responses. “Every revision proposed in the pages that follow has been substantially informed by the community’s responses to the first consultation draft,” Graham wrote in the preface to the revised draft.
The main challenge for the working group charged with drafting the plan was narrowing down the list of potential actions. “Based on where we want to end up as an institution, namely, focused on our common objectives, we had to determine actions that we believe will get us there, as well as the sequence of actions most likely to prove successful,” says Bradley Tucker, Director of Institutional Planning, who chaired the working group.
The Academic Plan fulfills a key mandate of Concordia’s Strategic Framework, Reaching Up, Reaching Out, which was approved in June 2009. This framework reaffirms the university’s commitment to high-quality academic work, an outstanding student experience and strong community engagement; however, according to Graham it depends on a number of action plans, of which the Academic Plan is the most central. “The action plans are intended to move us in the direction outlined in the Strategic Framework, in other words, becoming a top-tier comprehensive university,” he says.
Once Senate approves the Academic Plan, task forces will be formed throughout the university to implement key actions. These task forces will be given mandates, nominal budgets and timelines, based on a comprehensive planning grid that will be released soon to support the action plan. “We see wide participation as essential in putting this plan into action,” Graham says. “An academic plan is an expression of commitment, and it will take our collective will and wisdom to ensure that our best-laid plans come to fruition.”
Provost David Graham, Concordia Student Union President Lex Gill, and Graduate Students Association President Robert Sonin discuss Concordia's revised Academic Plan:
Related links:
• Academic Plan comments page
• Members of the Academic Plan Working Group
• Members of the Academic Plan Steering Committee
• Academic Plan documents and resources
• Strategic Framework