March 30, 2022

 

My March Blog: “Kicking Off Our Institutional Strategic Planning Process: Part II”

 

Dear Baruch Community,

 

In my February blog <https://pmail.baruch.cuny.edu/PoliteMail/default.aspx?page=Nz7EK2XxfUid3p_oFgBMRA&ref_id=79cl7jDKTkyADBMGG1sPEg> , I invited your comments regarding our upcoming strategic planning process. Specifically, I asked for your thoughts about Baruch: What do you think are the College’s strengths, assets, and accomplishments that differentiate us? What is your idea of an aspirational future for Baruch? What do you perceive as the challenges that we can and should address together? What priorities should we focus our attention on and address?

 

I am delighted that so many of you responded—with more than 17 pages of comments! While I realize this is neither a scientific survey nor a well-designed qualitative analysis, the responses nonetheless represent a distinct set of perspectives that are worth sharing and can perhaps stimulate additional thoughts and conversations. Further, the feedback provides us some sense of the scope and complexity of the engagement for the community-centered planning process on which we are about to embark.

 

At the risk of making this a very long read, I am quoting, as directly as possible, the voices from different corners of the Baruch community. 

 

What Differentiates Baruch

I was heartened to see a great deal of consensus and agreement concerning Baruch’s strengths, assets, and accomplishments that differentiate us. The most frequently used words and phrases were “students,” “diversity,” “high-quality education,” “dedicated staff,” “dedicated faculty,” and “heart of New York City.” Several comments summarized these sentiments particularly well:

·         “Baruch is very inclusive and accepting with one mission—to educate at a high level to all students.”

·         “The ability to provide an affordable, top-quality college education that enables so many students to transform their lives and the lives of their families. . . . The concentration of world-class researchers who conduct and publish amazing work that is the same caliber as other institutions that have order of magnitude more resources devoted to supporting research… a New York City culture and character, striving, scrappy, resourceful, tough and resilient, collaborative, and civic-minded.”

·         “We have dedicated, experienced, and highly qualified staff working in all student-facing areas of the college.”

·         “Our location and our academic programs go very well together. There are great opportunities for internships, field trips, and other forms of major-specific experiential learning nearby, as well as job opportunities for graduates.” 

 

Your responses to the questions about Baruch’s aspirational future, its challenges, and our shared priorities were equally thoughtful. For this reason and more, I invite you to read my March blog post, “Kicking Off Our Institutional Strategic Planning Process: Part II <https://pmail.baruch.cuny.edu/PoliteMail/default.aspx?page=wHU1HYe-2UGcrtp75LvkGg&ref_id=79cl7jDKTkyADBMGG1sPEg> ”—comment, subscribe, and sign up for notifications. 

 

The very point of a strategic plan exercise is for our community to think clearly about who we are and where we are heading and to listen carefully to one another and our stakeholders. I look forward to hearing from you and to beginning the next, formal stages of Baruch’s strategic planning process.  

 

Sincerely,

 

S. David Wu

President, Baruch College

 

 



 

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