 
Provost urges participation in
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In the last five years, the size, credentials and geographic distribution of our undergraduate student body have dramatically changed.
The amount of external funding and internal support for research at our institution steadily has increased. The structural, aesthetic and technological presence of our campus also has been greatly renewed. This progress responds to the increased expectations of the University's students, their parents, our alumni and our larger community, as well as the need to recruit and retain excellent faculty and staff. At the same time, changes in technology, health care financing and higher education are influencing our work.
It is time for the University to begin the planning process that will build on the University's success and enable us to meet the challenges of the future. This plan will help define the University's ideal educational dimensions, including the undergraduate class size and composition, the institution's research emphasis and our position in higher education. This planning process also will assist us in framing the statement for our upcoming capital campaign.
Our strategic planning process will promote the widest possible participation among all members of the University community and be coordinated by my office. Students, faculty, staff and administrators will be called to work on several University-wide committees whose membership will be announced shortly. It will be the task of these committees to review external and internal environmental factors affecting the University; identify important issues in higher education; and develop the direction for the University in the years ahead.
Schools, colleges and centers will form their own planning committees of students, faculty and staff, which will be chaired by the dean/director. Those committees will contribute to the University-wide process by providing an analysis specific to their situation. Later in the process, these units will set goals and objectives that are compatible with the direction set in the University-wide planning process.
I invite each of you to participate now by responding to a short questionnaire that will help us determine the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that confront the University. Please take a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire, which appears on the World Wide Web at www.slu.edu/provost/strategic. I also encourage you to discuss these questions in appropriate committees or groups of which you are a member and to submit responses from those groups. We would like to receive all responses by Nov. 15, so that we may begin to analyze the results.
I want to thank you in advance for participating at this stage of the planning process and assure you that your continued involvement and support are critical to the success of this important project
Sincerely yours,
Sandra H. Johnson
Provost
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