Apri 15, 2008
Staff members bring fresh perspective to strategic plan steering committee
As work on AU’s strategic plan continues, members representing staff and alumni on the steering committee are deciding just what role they’ll play and how they’ll keep their constituencies informed of the progress.
“At this point we’re still in the information gathering stage, reaching out to all alumni to get their thoughts, ideas, indeed, even their dreams for what AU can be,” said Brian Keane, president of the AU Alumni Association. “Once we collect all these thoughts and ideas we’ll take them to the committee as a whole and give each idea a full and thorough vetting.”
Amir Tejani, assistant director of special events and continuing legal education at WCL, is representing Staff Council on the steering committee.
“We want to build in the importance of commitment to staff at the university,” he said.
“We’re looking at things like professional development, retention. We want to make a point of making that clear in the plan that we’re all doing this together. The underlying support for all the great things the university has to offer is staff. My role is to make sure we keep talking about these things.”
As a relative newcomer to the university, director of Multicultural Affairs Tiffany Speaks brings a fresh set of eyes to the process. She’s also an adjunct professor.
“I’ve only been here for eight months, so part of my goal is to add a new perspective,” she said. “I think I can help the committee look at collaborations across divisions.”
Gwendolyn Reece represents the university library.
“The library is here to support the academic mission of the institution, so determining what direction the academic mission should be going will help dictate where the library goes,” the access librarian said.
The staff members of the committee said they have various plans to keep their coworkers informed of the committee’s progress. Among these are regular updates at division meetings and e-mail communications.
The steering committee will hold its next town hall meeting Apr. 28 at 4 p.m. in the McDowell Formal Lounge. For more information, click here.
