Strategic Planning Process and Timeline

Our planning process focused on UNC’s vision and goals. It both honored our historical mission and acknowledged that we have become much more. We may need to revisit our mission when this work is done. Similarly, we may find it necessary to update the language of our university values. 

Fall 2019 work was focused on developing a draft vision to take to the Board of Trustees in November. In the fall of 2020, we will finalize draft goals for the Board of Trustees to consider.

The planning process began in September 2019 with a series of campus forums and external discussions, facilitated by the president and provost, to discuss what UNC should aspire to be in 10 years. Campus forums invited participants at tables of 8-10 to discuss visioning questions and record their responses on easel paper to post on the walls. Participants were grouped so responses could be segmented by the following roles: undergraduate students, graduate students, classified staff, exempt staff, tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, and contract renewable and adjunct faculty. The same (or similar) visioning questions were used for external discussions, as well as for an online survey available during the same time. Feedback was summarized by UNC’s Social Research Lab, a campus-based data collection and analysis service staffed by professionally trained researchers led by Sociology professor Josh Packard.

The PLC used this feedback to draft a vision that includes five to six vision elements reflecting UNC’s highest priorities for 2020-2030. We shared the draft with campus and online survey collected feedback, which the Social Research Lab summarized. In consultation with the PLC, the president and provost used the feedback to refine the draft vision. The Board of Trustees considered it in November 2019. 

At the start of the spring semester, the PLC formed a subgroup for each vision element—adding non-PLC members as needed—to discuss the goals but this work was paused due to the pandemic. In fall 2020, the PLC and the subgroups will revisit each vision element and finalize the draft of goals to discuss with the PLC. The PLC will identify synergies among potential goals and develop a draft to share with campus. Feedback will be collected, summarized and used to refine the draft just as it was in 2019. Work will be completed by the end of the spring semester, and the Board of Trustees will consider the draft goals in June.