Planning Process

The Strategic Directions for Gettysburg developed through an open and comprehensive process that relied on information, input, and counsel from a wide range of sources within and outside the College community. The process began in September 2005 with the appointment by President Katherine Haley Will of a 13-person Steering Committee made up of faculty, administrators, students, and trustees. President Will and Provost Riggs are committee co-chairs. President Will's charge to the committee articulated three overarching goals:

• To provide the best, most compelling liberal arts experience possible for Gettysburg students;
• To strengthen the College's national reputation; and
• To capitalize on the College's distinctive strengths.

The committee commissioned research on the College and on the broader context in which we operate. The research included a survey of the impressions of Gettysburg held by 563 prospective students and 300 parents of prospective students. The results were extremely informative, underscoring, for example, the significance prospective students attached to the College's historical roots, the importance of programs in public policy, and the desire, especially among the best students, for opportunities to conduct research with faculty. Throughout spring and summer 2006, the committee carried out an extensive analysis of the College's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The process involved numerous meetings and conversa¬tions with members of all sectors of the College community. This led to the initial framing of five strategic themes, which were presented in fall 2006 to members of the campus community, to alumni and parents during Homecoming weekend, and to trustees at their October meeting.

Feedback from our community led to a further distillation to four themes and the development of a preliminary draft outlining strategic priorities. This document reflects further refinements to that draft made during winter and spring 2007. Upon approval by the Board of Trustees, we will move forward to realize these strategic
priorities. This effort will also provide the framework for a feasibility study for a comprehensive campaign to raise funds that will be needed to advance the strategic priorities.

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