The holiday season is a time both for reflection and for looking ahead to the future. As I reflect on UBC’s first 100 years, I am also looking ahead to UBC’s future as an eminent public research university.
To help secure this future, UBC is embarking upon a comprehensive strategic planning process. Our new strategic plan will serve as a road map as we embark upon UBC’s second century. The strategic plan will help us focus even more intently on our core priorities of education and research. It will allow the UBC community to define our collective priorities and the means by which we can build upon the achievements of the past century.
I will be launching the strategic planning process in January 2017. If you’d like to learn more about what I have in mind, please listen to my installation address at https://president-2023.sites.olt.ubc.ca/installation/address.
In preparation for the launch of the process, I would also like to hear from you on a few important questions:
- What is UBC’s greatest strength?
- What differentiates UBC from other universities?
- What is your main priority for UBC’s next strategic plan?
- We want to engage as many people as possible in the strategic planning process. Do you have any suggestions on how best to do this?
Please take some time to think about these questions and, if you wish, to discuss them with others. You may also like to review the vision and values set out in UBC’s current strategic plan, Place & Promise, at http://strategicplan.ubc.ca/the-plan/vision-statement/.
You can respond to these questions online at https://survey.ubc.ca/s/strategic_planning_launch/. Please provide me with your thoughts by January 20, 2017. Your ideas are a very important part of the planning process. I will share your insights with a steering committee of faculty, staff, students and other members of the UBC community and publish some of the best ideas on a strategic planning website.
This is your first opportunity to be involved with the strategic planning process, and it’s an important one because it will help to shape our early work. In January, we will explain the different ways in which you can help build the plan that will shape UBC’s next century.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Professor Santa J. Ono
President and Vice-Chancellor