NOTE
LATEST PLANNING DOCUMENT FOUND HERE:

https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/FC-Agenda.html

Posted April 2, 2002.

 

FOR COMMENT


Agenda for Excellence

 

A Strategic Plan for the University of Pennsylvania


 

To the University Community

This draft strategic plan, Agenda For Excellence, proposes a series of critical priorities for the University for the five years from now through 2000. As part of our planning effort, during the past year we have engaged faculty across the campus in a variety of discussions about issues facing the University. In addition, we have conducted extensive planning sessions with the deans of the schools and the senior administrative officers of the University.

We furnished an early draft version of the plan to the Academic Planning and Budget Committee this fall. They have spent the semester reviewing and discussing the work in detail. The constructive criticism provided by the Committee has enabled us to recast and refine the document. We and the Committee now publish the plan as our joint product for comment by the University community.

We have chosen to present this plan in outline form as a set of specific goals and strategies. The plan includes several goals that contain specific numerical targets. These target numbers are meant to serve as guideposts that will help the University determine whether it is moving in the right direction at the right speed. As further specific implementation actions are elaborated, additional benchmarks to help us monitor the progress of those activities will be identified.

The University of Pennsylvania gains strength from the special character of its component parts and the synergies among those parts. This spring, we will be asking the deans to lead their faculties in developing or reviewing their schools' strategic plans to ensure that the University's goals, as articulated in this document, provide a foundation for school-level programs and initiatives.

We invite you to share your comments and reactions to the document with the Academic Planning and Budget Committee so that they can help us bring the plan to final form. Please submit your comments by December 8, to the Academic Planning and Budget Committee, 110 College Hall/6303, or send your remarks via e-mail to plan@pobox.upenn.edu.

Judith Rodin
President

Stanley Chodorow
Provost


Agenda for Excellence

 

A Strategic Plan for the University of Pennsylvania


 

Introduction

The University of Pennsylvania's roots reach deeply into the history of American higher education. Founded as the Charity School of Philadelphia in 1740 and chartered as the first non-sectarian college in 1755, the College of Philadelphia was guided, as the University is today, by its founder Benjamin Franklin's admonition to "learn everything that is useful and everything that is ornamental." As such, it developed the first liberal arts curriculum in the nation, offering both a scientific and a classical education. Early on, it established a close relationship between the liberal arts and the professions, with faculty teaching courses in medicine and law, and subsequently developing professional schools in these areas. In 1791 Penn became America's first university, introducing multidisciplinary education well before the term was invented. Throughout its history, Penn has been remarkable in the degree to which theory and practice have been married in its teaching and research.

Over the past 255 years, Penn has renewed itself periodically as it has adapted to the changing nature of higher education, the changing demands of society, and the expanding knowledge base of the modern era. By directing scarce resources to targeted areas of opportunity, Penn has been able to build and support excellence in a number of selected fields and programs, assuring its place among the truly distinguished modern universities. For Penn to ensure its stature as one of a small number of genuinely outstanding universities in the 21st century, the University must establish and project a clear institutional identity, and it must strategically deploy its considerable yet limited resources to achieve excellence in every academic program it chooses to offer. In doing so, Penn will need to guard against a leveling effect that could diminish the stature of its best schools and departments; instead it must either bring those programs that do not yet meet its high standards up to acceptable levels of excellence or reconsider their role or existence.

Because it is vital that Penn clearly define its mission and strategic goals, this strategic plan, Agenda for Excellence, has been crafted. The plan is ambitious--as any plan for Penn should be. Although it will be implemented at a time when the rate of growth of traditional resources is in question, the plan will require the University and its schools to secure additional funds from such traditional sources as government research grants and private fundraising. In addition, to achieve its goals, the plan will require the University and the schools to secure new funds from less traditional sources, such as corporate research programs and administrative re-engineering. Reallocation of existing resources within schools and across schools also may be needed to realize the goals of the plan.

Agenda for Excellence is the latest chapter in strategic planning at Penn, and a number of this plan's initiatives are well informed by earlier plans. Looking ahead, the successful implementation of this new plan will depend on, the development of complementary school plans and a range of initatiatives such as the 21st Century Project for the Undergraduate Experience, the unification of academic and budgetary planning, and the institution of school reviews. The result will be increasing fulfillment of the mission of the University of Pennsylvania.


Mission of the University

The University of Pennsylvania's roots are in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy. But Penn's reach spans the globe.

Faithful to the vision of the University's founder, Benjamin Franklin, Penn's faculty generate knowledge that is unconstrained by traditional disciplinary boundaries and spans the continuum from fundamental to applied. Through this new knowledge, the University enhances its teaching of both theory and practice, as well as the linkages between them.

Penn excels in instruction and research in the arts and sciences and in a wide range of professional disciplines. Penn produces future leaders through excellent programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels.

Penn inspires, demands, and thrives on excellence, and will measure itself against the best in every field of endeavor in which it participates.

Penn is proudly entrepreneurial, dynamically forging new connections and inspiring learning through problem-solving, discovery-oriented approaches.

Penn research and teaching encourage lifelong learning relevant to a changing, global society.

Penn is a major urban university that is committed to strength and vitality in each of its communities. In this connection, Penn will:

 


Executive Summary of Strategic Goals

1. The University will solidify and advance its position as one of the premier research and teaching universities in the nation and in the world.

 

2. The University will aggressively seek greater research opportunities. Recognizing that vigorous research and the unimpeded pursuit of knowledge are at the heart of the University's mission, Penn will strive to attract an increasing share of the available research dollars, and will aggressively seek out new sources of support for research.

3. The University will manage its human, financial, and physical resources effectively and efficiently to achieve its strategic goals.

 

4. The University will support strategic investments in master's programs and other programs of continuing education in the arts and sciences and in the professions, when they are consistent with Penn's academic mission and capacities and the needs of society.

5. The University will plan, direct, and integrate its government and community relations to enhance its missions of teaching, research, and service. The University also will clarify and strengthen the links between its academic programs and the public service performed by its faculty, students, administrators, and staff.

6. The University will vigorously pursue efforts to increase significantly Penn's role as an international institution of higher education and research.

7. The University will creatively deploy new technologies, recognizing that technology is revolutionizing the ways in which knowledge is acquired, created, and disseminated.

8. The University will effectively communicate to its various constituencies the ways in which it contributes to the advancement of society.

9. The University will identify and secure the funds required to support its strategic goals.


 

Strategic Goals and Initiatives


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 1

The University will solidify and advance its position as one of the premier research and teaching universities in the nation and in the world.

Subgoal 1(a)
Penn's exceptional undergraduate programs will position it among a select group of research universities as a school of choice for the ablest undergraduates in the nation and in the world. To enhance its ability to fulfill its mission, the University will be considered among the top ten in undergraduate education.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve subgoal 1(a) the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 

Subgoal 1(b)
Penn's academic departments and programs will be considered among the top ten in the United States or will develop and implement strategies for moving toward the top tier. Penn's doctoral and professional programs will be the programs of choice for the ablest graduate and professional students in the nation and in the world.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve subgoal 1(b) the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 2

The University will aggressively seek greater research opportunities. Recognizing that vigorous research and the unimpeded pursuit of knowledge are at the heart of the University's mission, Penn will strive to attract an increasing share of the available research dollars, and will aggressively seek out new sources of support for research.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve this goal, the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 3

The University will manage its human, financial, and physical resources effectively and efficiently to achieve its strategic goals.

Subgoal 3(a)
Penn will create a more responsive and effective planning, budgeting and outcomes evaluation process to ensure that its resources support its academic mission.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve subgoal 3(a), the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 

Subgoal 3(b)
Penn will broaden its administrative restructuring initiative to encompass all major administrative activities and processes, both in the central administration and in the schools.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve subgoal 3(b), the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 4

The University will support strategic investments in master's programs and other programs of continuing education in the arts and sciences and in the professions, when they are consistent with Penn's academic mission and capacities and the needs of society.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve this goal, the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 5

The University will plan, direct, and integrate its government and community relations to enhance its missions of teaching, research, and service. The University also will clarify and strengthen the links between its academic programs and the public service performed by its faculty, students, administrators, and staff.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve this goal, the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 6

The University will vigorously pursue efforts to increase significantly Penn's role as an international institution of higher education and research.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve this goal, the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 7

The University will creatively deploy new technologies, recognizing that technology is revolutionizing the ways in which knowledge is acquired, created, and disseminated.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve this goal, the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 8

The University will effectively communicate to its various constituencies the ways in which it contributes to the advancement of society.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve this goal, the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


 

STRATEGIC GOAL 9

The University will identify and secure the funds required to support its strategic goals.

Strategic Initiatives
To achieve this goal, the University, working with the schools, will take the following steps, among others.

 


Deadline for comment: December 8, 1995

Send comments to:

Academic Planning and Budget Committee
110 College Hall/6303

NOTE
LATEST PLANNING DOCUMENT FOUND HERE:

https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/FC-Agenda.html

Posted April 2, 2002.