Bruce Schulte

Faculty and staff at Western Kentucky University are moving ahead with a process to redefine the university’s long-term mission and will hear the campus community’s feedback in forums this week.

“This is a way that we want to capture our shared aspirations,” said management professor and department head Paula Potter, referencing comments made by WKU President Timothy Caboni.

Potter is co-chairing the university’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee with biology professor and department head Bruce Schulte. She described the goal of the process as creating “a visionary roadmap for WKU over the next decade.”

WKU will host two open forums to field questions and hear community feedback about the process. The first takes place at 3 p.m. Monday in the Ogden College Hall Lecture Hall.

The first meeting is also available for online viewing at zoom.us/j/150596717.

The second meeting is at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the auditorium in Jody Richards Hall. It’s also available online at zoom.us/j/988313305.

Faculty, staff and student representatives have been participating in the process through specialized working groups. Each group is responsible for analyzing and developing goals for its area of focus.

They include committees for Academic Excellence and Innovation; Budgeting, Efficacy and Infrastructure; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, External Relations and Alumni Engagement; Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors and Student Success and Experience.

“Their commitment has been absolutely incredible,” Potter said of the working groups.

Potter said group members have been analyzing the university’s strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results within their focus areas.

“We have been given a pretty aggressive timeline when we were given the charge by President Caboni,” Potter said, adding that a final plan is supposed to be ready for WKU’s Board of Regents to vote on this summer.

Potter encouraged those attending the forums to check out each group’s progress online at www.wku.edu/strategicplan. The website also allows people to submit feedback.

“When this whole process began we wanted to have a method of keeping people informed about what is happening with the strategic plan,” Potter said. “It’s something that we really do want people to use.”

As the university imagines its long-term vision, it’s also facing significant financial challenges.

Earlier this month, Caboni traveled to Frankfort to make the case to lawmakers for “stable and predictable” funding for higher education. During a presentation, Caboni told lawmakers on the House Budget Review Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education that WKU faces a combined $27.6 million deficit.

“Over the last decade, state funding has been down in most years,” he said at the time. “At best, state support has been sporadic and unstable and certainly not a predictable budget source for us.”

Potter noted that the strategic planning process is separate from WKU’s Budget Council.

That group is working privately to figure out how to address a current year budget shortfall of roughly $15 million within the larger deficit Caboni described.

At this point, Potter stressed, the process is still open to feedback.

“We are going to continue with that visionary and planning process,” she said.