Memo from the President - March 12, 2013

Date: March 12, 2013
To: FIT Community
From: Dr. Joyce F. Brown, President
Subject: Strategic planning update

I write to provide you with updated information on our progress in our effort to refresh the colleges eight-year-old strategic plan. As I have been reporting in a number of venues, our Planning Council has been hard at work since last year in an attempt to build on our achievements and to elevate even further our goals and ambitions. Throughout the year, representatives of the entire community---faculty, staff, students, administrators, FIT trustees and Foundation directors---participated in interviews and group discussions, bringing insight and new perspectives to our plans. Subcommittees have been formed to address three specific goals: building academic and creative excellence, empowering students and our community, and driving innovation for the creative industries.

I have put everyone on a very ambitious timetable so that we can present the plan, along with a suggested revision of our mission statement, to the Board of Trustees at its June, 2013 meeting for approval. At this point, we have an almost-completed draft of the plan. In order for the revised plan to be successful, however, it will require your involvement. Although we have already included a large cross-section of the college in its development to date, I want to ensure that every voice in the community has an opportunity to be heard. Therefore, I will be sharing a draft of the plan with the entire community later this month through our website in order to get as much feedback as possible. I will also host two roundtable dinner discussions for about 200 people. These methods helped us in 2005 to refine and enrich considerably the original plan---and I fully trust that with your participation we will emerge with a revised plan and mission statement we can all enthusiastically endorse.