President Launches Tech's New Strategic Plan
Download the Strategic Plan (9MB Adobe PDF) file
August 31, 2010 – Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson launched Tech’s new 25-year Strategic Plan before a crowd of more than 800 faculty, staff and students at the Ferst Center Aug. 31. The plan is the culmination of a yearlong process that brought together hundreds of members of the Tech community. Participants were provided a printed copy of the new plan, along with supporting materials.
More >
Near-final Draft of Strategic Plan Now Available
July 16, 2010 – The near-final draft of Tech’s new Strategic Plan is now available online [6.4MB PDF]. The first public draft that was posted in May has been updated to include several suggestions from the Tech community, including comments submitted through an online survey. Printed copies of the final plan will be available August 31, when President Peterson will officially introduce it to the campus community in an Institute Update at the Ferst Center.
The plan outlines five overarching goals that are designed to help take the Institute to its 150th anniversary in 2035. The process has been inclusive and comprehensive, with numerous town hall meetings, focus groups, “Days of Engagement” and other opportunities for feedback.
More >
Draft Strategic Plan Near Completion
April 29, 2010 – The first public draft of Georgia Tech’s Strategic Plan is near completion, and will be posted on the Strategic Vision website the week of May 3. The draft plan is the result of collaboration between thousands in the Tech community over the past nine months, including faculty, staff, students, advisory boards, and friends. The plan includes a vision and five overarching goals to take the Institute to its 150th anniversary in 2035.
More >
Some 200 town hall participants got an update on the Strategic Planning process and a sampling of ideas submitted thus far in a presentation by Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson at a meeting held January 21 at the Georgia Tech Hotel ballroom. President Peterson made his remarks after the keynote presentation by Joe Bankoff, president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center. The event was open to the campus and the community.
In December, preliminary plans from the eight Strategic Planning subcommittees were submitted for initial review. Reviewing the work will be core contributors from the larger community, as well as a number of advisory boards. Individual action plans will be combined into an overall Campus Action Plan. The Office of Organizational Development (OOD) is serving as a resource for leaders and contributors from across the campus in developing the strategic plan.
The open community discussion period in fall 2009 has included nearly 60 town hall type meetings with students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends and advisory boards, as well as open solicitation of ideas on the Strategic Vision Web site. As part of Dr. Peterson’s investiture activities on Sept. 3, planning sessions were held with more than 700 individuals from the campus and community. More than 1,200 ideas have been submitted.
Work will continue throughout the spring, and the final campus action plan will be introduced in fall, 2010. The new Strategic Plan will provide a roadmap to help Georgia Tech fulfill its vision as the technological research university of the twenty-first century.
On September 3, following a luncheon celebrating the investiture of President Bud Peterson, members of the campus, city, and state communities turned their attention to shaping Georgia Tech's next twenty-five years.
Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and affiliates of Georgia Tech were invited to provide input in at least one of nine strategic themes, ranging from the Institute's culture and preserving research preeminence to Tech's statewide and global role. Approximately 700 turned out to participate.
"A fundamental challenge in higher education is reaching a consensus with faculty and staff about strategic issues and actions," said Chet Warzynski, facilitator and executive director of the Office of Organizational Development. "A meeting of this kind is based on the premise that the people most closely associated with the work have valuable information and experience from which good decisions can be made and appropriate actions determined.
"The participation of these individuals in an open and self-regulated planning and learning process leads to greater understanding, which in turn leads to greater coordination and commitment, as well as better results."
Now, Steering Committee members will take suggestions and the "big ideas" from the public discussion forums and either reinforce or reshape the key points. Steve Cross, the vice president and director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute who also is serving as a meeting facilitator during the planning process, said "These [nine] themes may change. We want [them] to be defined by the big ideas generated by the community. These ideas will be road maps to help inform the Institute's direction for the next twenty-five years."
The process will continue through November, with a preliminary draft report completed by the end of that month. Final drafts are planned by May 2010. Feedback will again be solicited from members within and outside of the campus community in summer 2010. Tech's new strategic plan will be introduced in fall 2010.
"There has been a high degree of enthusiasm at all levels for the strategic planning initiative," said meeting facilitator and Industrial and Systems Engineering Professor William Rouse. "At the same time, there have been many questions about how best to think twenty-five years into the future. We have addressed this concern by developing scenarios of alternative futures—not specifically for Tech, but of the world in which Tech will have to succeed."
Tech's strategic plan, he said, will have to be "sufficiently resilient" to be adaptable in the coming years, regardless of the world that exists at the time.
"Public dialogue about the future circumstances we are likely to encounter, as well as the future circumstances we hope to create, will be a very important and invaluable element of the community's involvement in the process," Rouse said.