Strategic Planning Taskforce

Dear COAS Stakeholders, 

I have formed a taskforce to help me develop a new Strategic Plan for the College of Arts and Sciences. The taskforce is chaired by Dr. Quinton Williams, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  Our new strategic plan will set the course for leading COAS to the next level of achievement in the liberal arts and sciences while supporting the University’s Howard Forward Strategic Plan. The COAS Strategic Planning Taskforce will solicit input from multiple stakeholders to be synthesized into an integrated strategy that we can all rally around to make COAS a dynamic learning environment where interdisciplinary research and scholarship are encouraged and valued. 

My charge to the taskforce is to produce a strategic plan by May 1, 2020 that will provide guidance as we seek to accomplish the following:

1. to develop and prioritize strategies to modernize academic programs within COAS,
2. to foster innovative interdisciplinary research for the time period covering academic years 2020-2025,
3. to solidify experiential learning throughout the College, and
4. to succeed with development activities via the support of a vibrant Board of Visitors.

Achieving these goals includes establishing several interdisciplinary Centers of Excellence among the Divisions of Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences for the purposes of increasing academic preeminence, providing leadership on contemporary domestic and global issues, and enabling the financial sustainability of COAS. 

To the COAS community, I want to underscore the fact that members of the Strategic Planning Taskforce Executive Committee are working collaboratively on behalf of the College, not their individual research interest or the needs of their home departments. As we move forward, I strongly encourage you to become engaged through the various town hall meetings and focus group sessions that will take place over the next few months and to complete the surveys that will follow. Remember that this is the College's plan and the more input received, the stronger the plan.  I will depend on your input to help shape the plan and guide the future direction of COAS. 

Excellence in Truth and Service, 

Rubin Patterson, Ph.D. 

Dean, College of Arts and Sciences