Strategic Planning Process
About Institutional Strategic Planning
The College’s five-year strategic plan is a comprehensive blueprint for our institutional future. Each plan is developed through an extensive and vibrant exchange of ideas across the entire Baruch community with the goal of imagining and articulating priorities and a shared future vision for the College. It is imperative that our strategic plan reflect the perspectives of everyone who has an important stake in the College—our students, families, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, employers, and business and community leaders.
The strategic planning process reflects and ensures our mission—a unique combination of excellence and value that allows Baruch to deliver academic quality to a tremendously diverse and talented student population. Baruch’s lasting legacy has enabled the College to lead meaningful change toward a society that values opportunity for all.
Strategic Plan 2023–28
In Spring 2022, Baruch College launched a major strategic planning effort. The resulting plan will help ensure that Baruch not only continues our legacy but capitalizes on the innovations of a rapidly evolving world—to scale what we do and expand our impact, while achieving an even higher level of quality and excellence.
Strategic Plan 2023–28 discussions, meetings and events, feedback and development, and more took place throughout our yearlong collaborative process.
Framing Our Approach
The overarching theme and framing concepts for the strategic planning process can be described as differentiation and engagement. This is articulated in President Wu’s blog:
Differentiation: “If the audacious idea behind Baruch’s success is making excellence accessible to all, what can we do to cultivate, expand, and elevate quality in the pursuit of excellence? How do we stay true to our mission of serving not the privileged few but the ‘privileged many’? How do we transpose our institutional purpose and aspiration to our own journey—how do we find our role in the master script? By intentional and multifaceted engagement with our community, our stakeholders, and our partners and supporters, we will learn to do this together in an inclusive, collaborative, transparent, and honest but respectful way.”
Engagement: “Strategic planning is a form of institutional learning. Specifically, it is the act of collective thinking and sharing aspirations that lead to buy-in, action, and sustained change. Consistent attention to where we are going as an institution ensures that the collaboration process remains energized and at the forefront of who we are and who we can be. Individual participation is the crux of this process; true change can only be accomplished with broad support and commitment. As we move forward, it is essential that each of us personalize our roles—whether as a member of the Baruch community, as a stakeholder, as an alumnus/alumna, friend, partner, or supporter—and figure out the part we could play in impacting Baruch’s institutional future.”
Process
More than 70 community members volunteered to serve on the Baruch Community Strategic Planning Committee, and all stakeholders had opportunities to be engaged in some way throughout the entire process. The committee membership itself consists of students, faculty, alumni, staff, and administrators. The members of the Baruch Community Strategic Planning Committee reviewed data, led meetings and focus groups, chaired subcommittees, and drafted and revised the material that comprises the strategic plan and implementation plan.
Timeline
The planning committee selected Blue Beyond Consulting to assist us in the strategic planning process. Their work with us encompassed four phases:
From the Co-Chairs
Provost Essig and Chief of Staff Lee appreciated this opportunity to fully engage with the Baruch College community in new ways and to collaborate on the development of our shared vision for the future of Baruch College.
Feel free to send your comments to: StrategicPlanning@baruch.cuny.edu