Strategic Plan

Ramapo College’s Strategic Plan was approved in June 2013.  Under the leadership of President Peter Mercer, significant resources were redistributed to meet institutional goals as outlined in the Strategic Plan. In the year and one half since the plan was approved, much has been accomplished. The Strategic Plan Update Report 2013–2014 is now available for review, it denotes the progress and challenges associated with the Plan’s 52 achievement targets.

Through the leadership of Dr. Dorothy Echols-Tobe, Chief Planning Officer, the implementation of the Strategic Plan is underway. Modeling the highly collaborative and cross-representative approach that was used to develop the Plan, the implementation of the Plan will be guided and monitored through a similar process. The Strategic Planning Implementation Team’s charge is to review Unit Plans re: Strategic Planning Objectives/Target Strategies (52 outcomes/measures), discuss plans with Target Lead Agents, prepare and make recommendations to the Planning Steering Committee; and to analyze recommendations from the Cabinet re: Program Reviews.

The Team includes: Nicole Pulliam, Asst. Director, Cahill Career Center; Sandra Diaz, AVP, Institutional Advancement; Stephanie Barlow, Asst. Director, Residence Life; Mike DiBartolomeo, Assoc. Director, Enrollment Management; Thierry Rokotobe-Joel, Associate Professor, Anisfield School of Business; Scott Frees, Associate Professor, School of Theoretical and Applied Science; Missy Long, Counselor, Office of Specialized Services; Stephen Sondey, Director of Purchasing; Gurvinder Khaneja, Director of Instiutional Research; Vinnie Guinta, SGA President; and Dorothy Echols Tobe, Chief Planning Officer.

The Planning Steering Committee reviews recommendations/actions from the Implementation Team and forwards them, as appropriate, to Cabinet. The Planning Steering Committee includes: Beth Barnett. Provost and VP of Academic Affairs; Maria Krupin, VP of Administration and Finance; Cathy Davey, VP of Institutional Advancement; and Dorothy Echols Tobe, Chief Planning Officer.

Throughout the months of March and April 2013, the Strategic Planning Task Force solicited feedback from the College on the March 1, 2013 draft of the Strategic Plan. During this time the Task Force presented 22 “On the Road” presentations of the draft plan to faculty, staff, and students, and collected notes from 19 of them; received 51 Web feedback forms, 9 emails, and 8 missives; and the draft plan was covered by The Ramapo News in its April 4 issue. Sans the News article’s readership, the SPTF made approximately 600 touch-points throughout the feedback process.

The Task Force reconvened throughout May to review all of the feedback and to incorporate it, as it deemed appropriate, into the draft plan. Among the more prominent revisions to the draft were:

• the inclusion of “Diversity and Inclusiveness” as a goal and the development of objectives and targets therein;
• a more aspirational vision statement;
• the inclusion of achievement targets aimed at measuring the collection of alumni data as well as student indebtedness; and
• the enhancement of existing targets to include more measurable language

What followed was a June 1 draft of the Strategic Plan that was presented to the Board of Trustees at its retreat early that month. With only minor revisions, a final version of the plan, dated June 3, 2013, will be presented to the Board of Trustees for endorsement at its June 24 meeting.

The Strategic Planning Task Force has largely completed its authorship of The Ramapo College Strategic Plan 2014-2018.

The Task Force originally convened in January 2012 and has been meeting routinely since that time.

During March and April, the Strategic Plan 2014-2018 will be available for College-wide feedback on the plan. During this time, small sub-groups of the Task Force will be taking the plan on the road. These “On the Road” presentations of the plan are designed to provide College stakeholders with an overview of the plan’s development and content, and to collect feedback on the plan’s conceptual and strategic strengths and weaknesses.

The “On the Road” sub-groups are available to address small or large audiences from Unit Council meetings to departmental staff meetings. To schedule an “On the Road” presentation for your colleagues or your club/organization, please contact Brittany Goldstein, Office of the President, at (201) 684-7609 or bwillia1@ramapo.edu.

In addition, College stakeholders are invited to review the plan online and share feedback via the accompanying online feedback form. Feedback gleaned from the “On the Road” presentations and the online feedback form will be incorporated into the plan as the Strategic Planning Task Force deems appropriate.

The Task Force looks forward to your feedback and to presenting the plan for endorsement to the Board of Trustees at its June 24, 2013 meeting.

The College’s current Strategic Plan for 2007-2012 comes to a close in June.

In September of 2011, the College embarked upon a new cycle of Strategic Planning by seeking nominations for faculty, staff, students, and others to serve on the 2012 Strategic Planning Task Force.

At its fall retreat, the President’s Senior Cabinet gathered input from faculty, staff, students and others regarding the most significant issues likely to confront higher education over the next five years and how to engage constituents in the deliberations over a renewed strategic plan. As a result, the Strategic Planning Task Force, a representative body comprised of College stakeholders, will embark on the development of the new strategic plan in January 2012.

Adapted from John Bryson’s Strategic Planning in Public and Nonprofit Organizations, the challenge of the 2012 Strategic Planning Task Force will be to deliver a strategic plan that will serve as a management tool to help Ramapo College focus its energy, to ensure that all College stakeholders are working toward the same goals, and to assess and adjust the College’s direction in response to a changing environment. Per Bryson, strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.

President Mercer will chair the 2012 Strategic Planning Task Force. The Task Force, a dynamic group of 25 individuals, meets regularly throughout the spring semester and hopes to present a final Strategic Plan for endorsement by the Board of Trustees in June of 2012.

More information and updates on the Task Force’s work will be forthcoming.

If you have questions regarding the 2012 Strategic Planning Task Force, please contact: Brittany Goldstein, Special Assistant to the President, bwillia1@ramapo.edu or Babette Varano, Assistant Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Planning, blanni@ramapo.edu.

The Strategic Planning Task Force (SPTF) began meeting in January 2012.

The SPTF updated the College at recent Communications Meetings and the Board of Trustees in June. There have been significant achievements, including the SPTF’s endorsement of a revised mission statement.

Ramapo College is New Jersey’s Public Liberal Arts College, dedicated to providing students a strong foundation for a lifetime of achievement. The College is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. Ramapo College emphasizes teaching and individual attention to all students. We promote diversity, inclusiveness, sustainability, student engagement, and community involvement.

The SPTF has also endorsed three guiding principles:

• Principle 1 is to ensure mission and vision consistency
• Principle 2 notes that there will be due attention to assessment, accountability, and analysis
• Principle 3 emphasizes collaboration and transparency

The three principles, in turn, inform the four planning goals:

• Goal 1: Advance Academic Excellence and Engagement
• Goal 2: Cultivate and Support Diversity and Inclusiveness
• Goal 3: Enhance Institutional Viability and Foster Operational Sustainability
• Goal 4: Improve Internal and External Relations and Operations

The objectives for each goal are currently being refined and the SPTF continues to meet with the Master Planners and the Master Plan Steering Committee to ensure alignment between the two plans.

The next steps of the Strategic Planning process will involve:

• Consultation with a third party consultant
• Fora with the College-at-large so that the SPTF can get direct feedback
• Kick off of the Outreach and Establishment of Achievement Targets Process through “on the road” work groups who will go out to individual units and discuss with them how they, in turn, respond to the Strategic Plan
• Compilation and vetting of Achievement Targets
• Development of an internal resource group to help others implement the plan
• Board of Trustees review and endorsement
• Implementation, annual assessment, and iterative development on defining and using data to make decisions.