 |
ADGP Strategic Planning Retreat, November 1-2, 2005
Session Summaries: [session 1] [session 2] [session 3] [session 4]
(Note: Audio recordings of meetings, flip chart contents, etc. available in ADGP Prescott Offices.)
Introduction: Prescott College Strategic Planning Process
At our ADGP Strategic Planning Retreat (11/1-2), ADGP faculty and staff from Prescott and Tucson offices came together with local ADGP students to launch our 5 year planning process. The retreat began with a review of the institution-wide Prescott College Strategic Planning Process initiated by President Dan Garvey at the October Community Meeting. Specifically, each unit within Prescott College is to organize their own planning process to respond to the following questions by March 15:
- What are the three most important goals your group would like to see achieved over the next five years?
- What are the three most important changes you’d like to see in the College, outside of your particular area?
- What ongoing processes do/will you use to ensure the activities of your group are achieving your intended goals over the next five years?
President Garvey also laid out a set of underlying assumptions that should be considered in our answers to these questions:
- Goals and changes should increase the diversity of our community and promote increased access the College.
- Goals and changes should support excellence in learning and scholarship so that we continue to be known for our academic programs.
- Goals and changes should improve and support our physical and technological infrastructure to help create positive learning environments and healthy communities.
- Goals and changes must be financially sustainable; necessary enrollment growth must be attained; “needs” must improve the financial sustainability of the College.
Session 1: ADGP Core Values & Identity: Our Shared Beliefs
Process: On the afternoon of November 1, we worked individually and as an all ADGP group to brainstorm and discuss the core values and identity of ADGP that we feel we should preserve, nurture and develop into the future. The content of these conversations was captured on audio recording and on flip charts by facilitators. Individuals then constructed meta-categories to group the content of the earlier brainstorming and discussion.
Summary: On the morning of November 2, Paul B. summarized these larger categories of ADGP Core Values & Identity back to the all ADGP group for approval.
- Community-based: ADGP students can remain connected to their local communities, families, careers; ADGP students learn through the social relations and expertise of community-members in an apprenticeship / mentor model; ADGP students are empowered to transform themselves and their communities in culturally appropriate ways; the quality of learning community relationships are high touch, intimate, engaged and effective across local, global, academic and natural communities; our integral approach to relationships with others in our communities is ethical, humane and holistic.
- Student-directed / Student-centered: Flexible, student-designed programs empower students to learn through the creation of engaging, relevant, appropriate, interdisciplinary, high-quality and rigorous programs of study; ADGP pedagogy centers individual students in their education, values experiential education integrating theory with practical action and life experience.
- Social Justice / Environmental Sustainability: ADGP communities recognize the fundamental connections between unjust social relationships and the threats to environmental sustainability; social & ecological literacies are key competencies that ADGP students develop through their programs; ADGP practices with each other, our students and our surrounding communities strive for social justice and environmental sustainability.
[back to top]
Session 2: ADGP Visioning: Our Shared Futures
Process: Later in the afternoon of November 1, we broke into groups intentionally composed of ADGP people with whom we don’t usually work closely. Each group developed their own specific vision of how our 2005 planning process resulted in wonderful success by 2026 and reported their vision back to the larger Prescott College community. Audio recordings of these visions and flip chart illustrations are available in the ADGP Prescott Offices.
Summary: Remarkably, the individual visions developed and expressed by the groups overlapped and were compatible in their structures and key elements. Significantly, one group focused more on the shorter term steps necessary to move in the direction of the larger vision summarized below without overextending ADGP. On the morning of November 2, Paul B. summarized the ADGP long term vision back to the all ADGP group for their approval.
- ADGP will build upon our existing strengths (e.g., the “Tucson Model”) and relationships (e.g., community partners; k-12 schools; faculty, student, alumni, mentor & advisor connections) to develop into a connected network of “bioregional” hubs or clusters composed of students, alumni, mentors, faculty & staff working collaboratively with local community groups and organizations to address local needs.
- These local bioregional hubs / clusters will develop social and physical connections to the local community and environment to achieve social justice and environmental sustainability.
- A decentralized administrative model will assure the coherence and integrity of academic programs and work environments while allowing the local flexibility to work in a variety of contexts in culturally appropriate ways.
- Local ADGP programs and personnel will be connected via effective and appropriate communication technologies.
- A diverse range of ADGP programs will develop that focus both on local needs and expertise as well as on the more global connections between issues and localities (e.g., green building & design; community wellness programs; solidarity studies; community organizing; sustainable organizational development; social entrepreneurship; etc.).
[back to top]
Session 3: ADGP – Today’s Strengths? Tomorrow’s Opportunities?
Process: On the morning of November 2, we worked together in mid-sized groupings of people who usually work together to assess our existing strengths and weaknesses and also to look forward to future opportunities and threats. Each group listed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats on flip charts and posted these lists on the walls. All ADGP members individually read all groups’ charts and prioritized the top two items in each category for each group’s list. The flip charts are available in the ADGP Prescott Office and have been transcribed into an excel file listing that group strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and list items by the number of priority marks.
Summary: Working from the prioritized list on the sorted excel transcript, the following categories of most highly prioritized strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats emerges:
- Current Strengths:
- Flexibility & accessibility of programs / pedagogy for diverse learners
- A curriculum overseen by core faculty that is individualized, transformative and student-focused
- Dedicated, committed & visionary staff, faculty and students
- Relevance to and sharing of knowledge with community & fields
- Cost structure of Program & Facilities: low overhead, little need for facilities
- Practical programs based in real world experience
- Learning community that cares about social justice & environmental sustainability
- Current Weaknesses:
- Limited resources: money, facilities, staff, faculty, technology, professional development, PR/market, salaries
- No planned model for sustainable carrying capacity of ADGP
- Lack of proactive contact with students / isolation of students
- Monitoring academic integrity/quality
- Communication: between Prescott and Tucson, interdepartmental, senior management & faculty/staff/student, etc.
- Tuition driven
- Lack of quality mentors
- Reliance on professional certification programs for student numbers (Ed / CP)
- Diversity of programs, students, staff & faculty
- Future Opportunities:
- Increasing number and diversity of community coalitions & affiliations to support learners in all ways (students, mentors, tuition assistance, reciprocity)
- Increased student contact electronically
- Partnerships, MOU, HUBS--International Seminars
- To be a leader by creating a replicable model / Visionary Academic Leadership
- Increased ADGP / RDP connections: Colloquium be an all PC community anticipated event
- Democratic Participation: student, faculty, staff
- MAP graduates as ADP mentors
- Alumni network/participation; Mentor network
- Faculty, staff, and community development
- Future Threats:
- Growth expectations given current resources
- Tuition driven
- Challenge of diversifying the institution
- Faculty and staff workloads maxed; Burnout & Turnover
- Insufficient compensation to mentors/advisors
- Lack of awareness and connectedness of larger PC institution to ADGP
- Unmonitored quality of adjunct faculty
- Being reactive instead of proactive with credential guidelines
- When tuition increases and scholarships/grants don't – Accessibility
- Limited participation in decision making process
- Lack of data for decision making
- Changes in economy / society
- Non-involvement in retention issues
- Competition
[back to top]
Session 4: ADGP Planning Processes: Common Trajectories
Process: Later in the morning of November 2, we worked together both in all ADGP groups and in groups defined loosely by program or site to dialogue and discuss our ongoing planning processes this year. Small groups elected faculty and staff representatives to a ADGP Strategic Planning Task Force. To inform the work of this task force, we will discuss how we might best communicate and work together to assure the integrity & coherence of our processes across programs and sites, how we will share our process with RDP, etc.
Summary: The following representatives were elected to the ADGP Strategic Planning Task Force:
Christina Lawson, MAP Tucson Faculty
Rick Medrick, MAP / PhD Prescott Faculty
Debbi Wilson, ADGP Prescott Staff
Kim Belli, ADGP Prescott Staff
Jerri Brown, ADGP Prescott Staff
Terril Shorb, ADP Prescott Faculty
Tom Potter, ADP Tucson Faculty
Esther Almazan, ADGP Tucson Staff
Ann-Marie Benz, ADGP Student
Kaia Lael, ADGP Student
Amara Mitchell, ADGP Tucson Staff
[back to top]
|
|
