STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER

Dear fellow faculty and staff:

     This is the first of what I hope will be a series of interim reports on
the activities and progress of the Strategic Planning Committee, which has been
instructed by General Watts to create a strategic plan to guide The Citadel
during the next five years.  This is a task of great importance to everyone
connected with The Citadel, and one in which I hope you will all take an
interest.

     Before I describe our plans and progress, I would like to emphasize that
the process of strategic planning is not beginning all over again at The 
Citadel.  As most of you know, General Grimsley appointed a Strategic Planning 
Committee, to be headed by Colonel Gary Nichols, in September, 1987.  That 
committee submitted an extensive report to Gen. Grimsley in December, 1988, and
was also responsible for naming and staffing Task Forces whose reports were 
consolidated into the planning update entitled A Focus on the Future.  This was
published in the Spring of 1993.  The Task Forces, meanwhile, continued their 
work, and their reports eventually became the foundation of the 1993 
Institutional Self-Study.    

     A great many faculty and staff made significant contributions to the work 
of these Task Forces, and their efforts allow the present Strategic Planning
Committee to begin its work with much already accomplished.  I would like to
thank all of you who were involved, and particularly Colonel Nichols and the
director of the Self-Study, Colonel Suzanne Ozment.

     The work of the present Strategic Planning Committee began in the spring, 
when new Task Forces were named and staffed with members of the committee.  The
Strategic Planning Steering Committee then met throughout the summer,
completing three primary tasks.  First, it revised the college's Mission
Statement, incorporating mandates from SACS and CHE.  This revised Mission
Statement will soon be considered for approval by General Watts and the Board
of Visitors.  Second, the committee wrote a statement explicitly defining the
"Role and Responsibilities" of the Strategic Planning Committee.  This
statement will also be given to the President and the Board.  And finally, it
developed specific charges for each of the Task Forces. 

     At the beginning of the fall, the Steering Committee also took part in a
workshop conducted by Dr. Don Norris, the president of Strategic Initiatives,
Inc., a company that has done extensive work with colleges creating strategic
plans.  The approach he advocates, and that the Steering Committee has adopted
for The Citadel, emphasizes using Key Performance Indicators (or KPI's) as the
foundation for the Strategic Plan.  KPI's are essentially key areas or issues
that are closely linked with the health of a school.  There are some standard
KPI's, such as student head count, applications for admission, faculty-student
ratio, admissions selectivity, or graduation rates, to which all schools must
pay attention.  Others might be specific to a given institution.  (At The
Citadel, for instance, a comparison of the contributions made by the Corps
program and the College of Graduate and Professional Studies might be a KPI.) 
The important thing is that the institution needs to identify 20-30 KPI's,
covering as many of the crucial areas and issues as possible, and to determine
present performance in those areas.  It then supplements this information with
analysis of the school's strengths and weaknesses and its opportunities and the
external threats to it.  The last stage of the process is to establish for the
KPI's desired performance levels five years in the future and to create
strategies to reach those levels.

     The various Task Forces are now at work identifying Key Performance 
Indicators that will focus on either problems that need correcting or goals 
that are worth pursuing during the next five years at The Citadel.  They are 
meeting at least twice a month, and by the beginning of the Spring term they 
should be ready to make specific recommendations, which the Committee as a 
whole can then consider and begin the process of transforming into a single, 
coherent Strategic Plan.  Any member of the faculty or the staff who has 
something to offer to this process is encouraged to do so.  We welcome all help.

For future reference, I am planning to include this document; a list of the
Task Forces and their members (Appendix A); the statement of the role and
responsibilities of the Strategic Planning Committee (Appendix B); and the
charges for the Task Forces (Appendix C) in INFO under Committees and Minutes. 
They will be there as soon as I learn how to input them!

     And that's all for now.  Thanks for your interest.