March 25, 2003
Dear Colleagues,
We had another good day at ULM. The Browse on the Bayou this Saturday was an overwhelming success with almost 1,000 people in attendance. Prospective students and their parents from all over Louisiana and eight surrounding states were on our campus most of the day Saturday. I want to especially thank our staff from Recruiting and Admissions for planning and executing the event, the staff from the physical plant for all the work with tents and grounds, the pep band, ARAMARK, various vendors, and all of the wonderful faculty and students who spent their Saturday morning with us. In the middle of all this fun, many got to see our National Championship Water Ski Team for the first time. There is no way I can explain what a wonderful, fun-filled day we had.
The "Browse" was just the start of the weekend. ULM's baseball team swept three games and the softball team took two of three from Sam Houston State, and our tennis team won again. There was a high school softball tournament, a gymnastics meet, and a full football scrimmage on campus this weekend. In addition, our international students held a very colorful flag ceremony in front of the Library to signal the start of International Student Week. This is and will continue to be a very busy campus.
Earlier last week Dr. Bob Shirley held a strategic planning workshop on campus as the kick off of our planning efforts. A Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) will lead the campus over the next several months in the development of our strategic plan. Serving on the steering committee are Dr. Nick Bruno, Dr. Carlos Fandal, Dr. Jeff Galle, Dr. Paul Sylvester, Dr. Dorothy Schween, Dr. Terry Jones, Dr. Mark Arant, Dr. Tammy Parker, Dr. Joe McGahan, Robin Evans, Traci Murphy, and two students Evan Earl and Janeca Foster. Also serving on the committee in an ex-officio role is the Chairperson of the Faculty Senate Dr. Charles Pryor. To promote continuity in the Faculty Senate role, we asked next year's chairperson, Dr. John Rettenmyer to begin service on the committee at the current time. The individuals were selected for the SPSC because of their diversity of perspective, not their organizational affiliation. They will have to wear the corporate hat during this entire process.
The SPSC has begun to meet and develop the organization necessary to develop a forward looking strategic plan for ULM. Part of their work will be the development of a number of task forces to examine very specific areas related to our campus. For instance, two groups will be established as companions to the Academic Program Committee. One task force will be assigned to examine, much the way we examined academic programs, all of our administrative areas and the other group will look closely at student services and intercollegiate athletics. Task forces will be appointed to examine several other areas such as the economic, legal, political, competitive, and demographic environment. In addition, the SPSC will be asking for assistance in evaluating our
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in areas such as human resources, finance, facilities, governance, organization, technology, and other areas that will affect the future of the institution.
Hopefully, the task forces will be appointed and start work by the middle of April so that we can get a good deal of work done before graduation. It is expected that some work will continue this summer so that task force reports will be ready for discussion by the SPSC at the beginning of the fall semester. We currently anticipate having the university level strategic plan completed by the end of November and starting the second phase of the strategic plan, implementation planning, early in the spring of next year.
As you can see, there is ample opportunity for broad faculty, staff, student and community participation in this planning process. The SPSC will be forming the task forces in the next few weeks, and we will be contacting a number of you for membership on one of the task forces. When asked, we hope you will join us as we look to the future for ULM.
James E. Cofer, Sr.
ULM President