Dear Baruch College Community,

I am pleased to announce that on November 1, the Baruch College Strategic
Planning Council will release to the Baruch community a draft of a new
Strategic Plan, 2006-2011, for Baruch College. I very much hope that you
will read it, discuss it with your colleagues, participate in some of the
meetings we have set up for discussion of the draft, and share with us
your feedback.  You are invited to attend a Town Hall meeting for Faculty
and Staff, on Thursday, November 10, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Room 14-250
of the Newman Vertical Campus, where the Strategic Planning Council will
hold an open forum to discuss the draft document.

Our strategic planning began formally in late March of 2005, when I issued
a memo to the campus outlining five overarching goals, and describing a
process by which we would work together to chart the course for the next
five years in the College's history. A Strategic Planning Council was
convened, including deans and vice presidents, the chair of the faculty
senate and other faculty representatives, graduate and undergraduate
student representatives, and an alumni representative, to guide the
process. We also created new committees and called upon some already
existing committees to address specific issues including research,
curriculum, teaching excellence, student affairs, finance, productivity,
human resources, facilities, and enhancing the College's visibility. These
committees include faculty, staff, student, and in some cases alumni
representatives. Shortly after Commencement this year, we held a two-day
planning retreat, facilitated by an outside consultant, and included
members of all the various planning subgroups as well as the Strategic
Planning Council. The committees continued to work over the summer, and by
late last month, all had submitted written reports with recommendations to
the Strategic Planning Council.

All faculty and staff with Baruch email accounts may access the November
1, 2005 draft of the Baruch College Strategic Plan, 2006-2011, beginning
on November 1, via our Blackboard community; a reminder notice will also
be sent out on that date. Once you have registered and logged in to
Blackboard, you will notice a distinct tab marked "Strategic Planning" at
the top of your page. Please follow this link to access not only the
document, but all of our planning committee reports, and other background
materials that went into the creation of this strategic plan.  If you are
new to Blackboard, you may find information on how to log on by following
this link: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/cunyportal/.

In addition to posting the draft on Blackboard, hard copies of the
document will be made available to each academic department and
administrative unit head, and provided to each employee in units where
computer access is not standard. Copies of the document will also be
placed on reserve at the Newman Library.

I look forward to meeting with and hearing from you in the coming weeks,
as we decide how best to move the College forward.

Many thanks,

Kathleen Waldron
President