Strategic Planning Survey and Spring Roadmap
A Message from Renée T. White, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Co-Chair; and Lara Penin, Professor of Transdisciplinary Design, Parsons School of Design, Co-Chair
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
This semester marks the final phase of our University Strategic Planning Process. When we began this process in Spring ‘22, we wanted to broadly engage our community in a conversation about where we want to be as an institution in the years to come.
We write today to provide updates on what you can expect in the months ahead and opportunities to ensure your input and aspirations for The New School are reflected in the final outputs outlined below.
Thank you for your participation, input, and engagement throughout this entire process. Our community’s continued investment and involvement in working towards a better future here shows.
Community Survey
The Strategic Planning Steering Committee wants to hear from you. You’re invited to share your reflections based on a series of key questions informed by the work leading up to this point, from outreach with the colleges, departments, governing bodies, and other constituency groups, Compassionate Critique sessions, and Visioning sessions.
Your feedback will help shape a final set of community priorities that will be included in the final strategic planning report and toolkit. The survey will remain open through Thursday, February 15.
Look for us on campus through next Thursday for giveaways and incentives for completing the survey!
Collage Kits
In the Fall, we shared that creative practice and community research would be part of our data collection methodology this semester. In an effort to find new ways of gathering input from our community while also embracing different ways of knowledge production, we have distributed 300 collage kits designed to support the creative process.
To contribute your own collage, take a look at this instructional video. You can see a sample of collages New School students, faculty, and staff made with members of the Steering Committee earlier this month above.
Spring Roadmap for the Months Ahead
Our primary goal for the spring semester is to finalize and adopt a set of community recommendations that can be used to set institutional priorities going forward. This will take the form of a final report, an executive summary, and a toolkit for ongoing engagement.
- February – will concentrate on increased student participation, with opportunities to imagine our future through collage kits and the community survey.
- March and April – will be focused on assembling all of the data and insights to inform the initial draft of our university’s strategic plan which will be shared with governance bodies for refinement and collective endorsement.
- May – will mark the culmination of this work with the release of the final report and a Community-wide Celebration.
Stay tuned for future updates throughout the semester as this work advances and aligns with other university-wide initiatives.
Have a question about the survey, collage kits, or the spring roadmap? Please reach out to us at strategicplanning@newschool.edu.
To learn more about our process up to this point, visit the Strategic Planning website.