Skip to Main Content
Boston University
  • Bostonia
  • BU Today
  • The Brink
  • University Publications

    • Bostonia
    • BU Today
    • The Brink
  • School & College Publications

    • The Record
Other Publications
BU Today
  • Sections
News, Opinion, Community

Setting the Course for BU

New strategic planning Web site invites comment from community

December 19, 2006
  • Chris Berdik
Twitter Facebook
Douglas Sears, associate provost and assistant to the president for outreach and special initiatives, chaired the task force. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Boston University’s challenges for the next decade: “expand and enrich” the quality of student life on campus, eliminate “bureaucratic barriers,” and most important, continue the efforts to become “One BU.”

Unification is the major theme of the framework for a new University strategic plan released this month by the faculty and administration of the Strategic Planning Coordinating Task Force, appointed by University President Robert Brown last spring. Months of discussions went into the new report, which outlines long-term strategies and visions for undergraduate and graduate education, research, faculty, student life, and administrative services. The idea, say task force members, has been to create a strategic vision for BU from the bottom up. 

On Friday, December 15, the task force launched a Web site featuring the framework and inviting all members of the BU community to post comments. In the next weeks and months, members of the task force and Brown will lead discussions of the framework at assemblies of University leaders, such as the Faculty Council, and at alumni events and meet with faculty at individual schools and colleges across the University. Student feedback will be collected through the Student Union and a special task force led by the Office of the Dean of Students. The report’s broad recommendations include finding ways to improve the on-campus residential quality of life for students and fostering integration of BU’s schools and colleges, including the elimination of the barriers to interdisciplinary learning, teaching, and research. 

“One of the great attractions of the University is its fantastic breadth and diversity,” says task-force member Laurence Kotlikoff, a College of Arts and Sciences professor of economics. “[But] we operate far too much as separate parts. We are not connecting enough and not taking advantage of our synergies.”

And while seeking to make BU more inwardly cohesive, the framework also calls on BU to build on its tradition of engagement with both the city of Boston and the world through internships, community service, study abroad programs, and training for students and faculty that will prepare them for “global shifts in economics, politics, and research.” The result, says Brown, is a document that examines the University’s foundation, and cultivates a core ideology that will guide future growth.

“This report is really about an image for the University as a whole,” Brown says. “It’s about our principles and what our competitive advantage may be if we craft a university around them, and it offers a way to think about the decisions we make, going forward.”

There are a number of specific recommendations, such as providing first year students with small, faculty-led multidisciplinary seminars, asking alumni to mentor a current undergraduate, and creating a graduate student center. But most of the framework’s bullet points are much broader objectives, including calls to define more academic and professional “pathways” for BU students as they select courses and fields of study, to reduce reliance on part-time and adjunct faculty, and to streamline administrative offices “relating to research and grant support.” But administrators note that there’s a lot more talking to do before a final plan is in place.

“At this point, it is an aspirational document,” says Douglas Sears, associate provost and assistant to the president for outreach and special initiatives, who chaired the task force.

According to Sears, once the strategic plan is finalized and approved by the Board of Trustees, it will serve as a guide for the University’s major decisions over the next decade. “Its general directions and priorities will be what we have in mind as we’re allocating resources, promoting programs, fundraising, and committing time and creative energy,” he says.

Sears also notes that BU is already moving forward on several of the objectives outlined in the framework. The vision of One BU, for instance, received a boost earlier this year when the University hired two faculty members as “site miners” to foster research collaborations between the Charles River Campus and the Medical Campus. In addition, the framework’s goal of greater diversity at BU is shared by the Council on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion, initiated by Brown this fall, and the Admissions Student Diversity Board, created in 2002. Finally, the Student Life Task Force endorsed by the new report began meeting this fall under the direction of Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore.

As for next steps, task force members say they’re eager to hear from the BU community. “In the end, we really have to get feedback,” says task-force member Juliet Floyd, a CAS professor of philosophy. “We have to get people to tell us what works.” Floyd emphasizes that she found discussions about a vision for BU’s future “intellectually exciting,” and she hopes this enthusiasm will be shared by faculty, students, and staff.

“I came prepared to be skeptical — I teach skepticism,” she says of the strategic planning process. “But I believe that the plan is realistic and that we can be very ambitious and try to move the University forward.”

Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu.

Explore Related Topics:

  • Robert Brown
  • Students
  • Share this story

Share

Setting the Course for BU

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Chris Berdik

    Chris Berdik Profile

Latest from BU Today

  • Rowing

    BU Rowing Teams Prepare for IRA National Championship Regatta

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Beacon Hill Art Walk

  • In the City

    Getting to Know Your Neighborhood: Davis Square

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: The Light in the Piazza

  • Jobs

    Job-Hunting as a New Graduate: What You Need to Know

  • Education

    What’s Behind the Rise in Violence Against Teachers?

  • Fine Arts

    How I Made This: Jacob Whitchurch (CFA’26)

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Seaport Sweat

  • Film & TV

    Did You Win Free Tickets to See Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning Tonight?

  • COMMENCEMENT 2025

    Experience BU’s 2025 Commencement from a Terrier Point of View

  • Obituaries

    Remembering Leslie Epstein, Pillar of BU’s Creative Writing Program

  • Voices & Opinion

    POV: This Memorial Day, Remember BU’s Fallen Heroes by Visiting the New Online Honor Wall

  • University News

    23 Charles River Campus Faculty Promoted to Full Professor

  • Commencement 2025

    Photos: A Look Back at BU’s Commencement

  • Theatre

    It’s “Prom Season” at Wheelock Family Theatre

  • Things-to-do

    Six Spots to Check Out This Memorial Day in Boston

  • Commencement 2025

    Video: Class of 2025: What We’ll Take with Us as We Begin a New Chapter

  • Health & Medicine

    What Does Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Mean?

  • Watch Now

    BU’s Class of 2025: What Are Your Plans After Graduating?

  • Fitness

    BU Sports Rehab Therapists on Jayson Tatum’s Achilles Injury and Recovery Ahead

Section navigation

  • Sections
  • Must Reads
  • Videos
  • Series
  • Close-ups
  • Archives
  • About + Contact
Get Our Email

Explore Our Publications

Bostonia

Boston University’s Alumni Magazine

BU Today

News, Opinion, Community

The Brink

Pioneering Research from Boston University

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Weibo
  • TikTok
© Boston University. All rights reserved. www.bu.edu
© 2025 Trustees of Boston UniversityPrivacy StatementAccessibility
Boston University
Notice of Non-Discrimination: Boston University prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex or gender, age, national origin, ethnicity, shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, military service, marital, parental, veteran status, or any other legally protected status in any and all educational programs or activities operated by Boston University. Retaliation is also prohibited. Please refer questions or concerns about Title IX, discrimination based on any other status protected by law or BU policy, or retaliation to Boston University’s Executive Director of Equal Opportunity/Title IX Coordinator, at titleix@bu.edu or (617) 358-1796. Read Boston University’s full Notice of Nondiscrimination.
Search
Boston University Masterplate
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Setting the Course for BU
0
share this