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Upon taking office at the start of the 1997-1998 academic year, President Martin initiated the reinvigoration and reorganization of strategic planning at Randolph-Macon College. He introduced the College to a cyclical five-year planning process based on four principles, namely that (1) planning should be inclusive, initially involving the entire community, (2) strategic goals should be clearly defined, open and measurable, (3) the planning cycle should be no more than five years, and (4) the strategic plan should be linked to the budget. In the fall of 1997, a Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) was established, consisting of four elected members of the faculty and four persons appointed by President Martin. Chaired by the Dean of the College, the Committee's charge was to consult with the entire College community and then, together with the President, create a strategic plan composed of a limited number of measurable goals that could be accomplished in the five-year life of the plan.
Informed by the results of a presidential survey of the College's constituencies, the SPC met to identify the goals along with a series of initiatives to achieve these goals. During that winter, the SPC hosted a series of small group discussions with faculty, staff, and students to ascertain institutional goals and general ideas on what the community wanted to change and accomplish. Ten themes emerged from these discussions and were presented at an all-college "town meeting." The SPC met during March to convert the themes into what are now the five goals of the strategic plan. Later that month, a second all-campus meeting was held to discuss and refine the five goals.
With established goals in hand, the SPC began to develop a set of supporting initiatives, specific courses of actions designed to contribute to the achievement of a goal. The SPC also considered potential discrete measurable activities aimed at accomplishing an initiative. Five open discussion groups, one for each goal, met beginning in April to encourage community input into the formulation of initiatives and activities. In M, the goals and a number of initiatives were presented to the faculty and Board of Trustees. The SPC then went out of business to be reconstituted five years hence when planning begins anew.
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