April 29, 2008
Broder explores strategic plans
From left, Chelsea-Rae Abbate, Barron John Weyerhaeuser, Josh Sticklin, and Cat Nickels performed a play during Interim Provost Ivy Broder’s address. (Photo by Jeff Watts)
Interim Provost Ivy Broder’s annual address to the faculty focused on the history of strategic plans at AU. With apologies to AU’s legacy of engaging academic leaders, it seems safe to say that seldom if ever has a provost’s address been so, well, entertaining.
“I actually found an uncataloged verbatim transcript of the planning session that took place in Bishop Hearst’s office back near the turn of the century,” Broder said at the beginning of her speech, entitled “Despite all our plans . . . we still need a plan!” Those words were the cue for four student actors to walk onto the Abramson Recital Hall stage where they performed an amusing play with a cameo by Vice President Don Myers as Quasi, the guardian of AU’s $29 endowment.
Barron John Weyerhaeuser ’08 played Bishop Hearst.
“My dear friends, as the founder of this university I stand before you today to announce our first strategic plan,” he said, eliciting laughter from the crowd. “A plan that will employ all of our values and aspirations, a bold vision crafted by all eight of our faculty and no students.
Like all plans it must boldly proclaim what we do and who we are. We must think of this place as more than just ivy-covered walls. We are here first to serve, so this is a plan to engage in service, and from there service into action and action into ideas. Service first, ideas last, lots of action in the middle.”
When the production ended, Broder continued her address, focusing on AU strategic plans through the years and how they relate to the university today.
“If plans purport to summarize, predict, or proclaim the core values, identities, or soul of an institution, then some messages have been very clear from the beginning of our university,” Broder said. “It’s been remarkable that AU’s concerns have been relatively consistent through its more than a century of existence. Graduate and professional studies have dominated our thinking and our identity, as has our relationship with the city, the location in the nation’s capital, and the advantages and the linkages that such a position offers.”
The concept of a global university appeared in AU’s first plan in 1912, Broder said.
“Having surveyed AU’s planning history, I’d like to communicate my own sense of the core elements that must be incorporated in our strategic plan,” she said. “Our sense of place is of course fundamental to this institution. When the 1912 plan established an institute of research in Washington, it did so to make available for the advancement of knowledge the unparalleled facilities of Washington to graduate students so they could utilize the facilities and materials for study and research in the various historical, literary, scientific, artistic, and technological departments and collections of the U.S. government.
“That plan also recognizes the importance of international dimensions,” she said. “No matter who our president or provost, faculty or students, our identity cannot be severed from Washington or from our global connections. These linkages will always form the basis of any strategic plan but they must flow from our history, our relationships, and our distinctive strengths.”
Almost 95 percent of AU’s operating budget comes from student tuition and fees, Broder said, so enrollment stability must be a critical component of the university’s next strategic plan.
“How do we do this?” she said. “In part by providing distinctive and student-centered education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Here is how I would summarize our formula: an outstanding faculty rooted in Washington D.C.; a center of activity in every discipline we teach; where AU fosters theory and practice that encourages service and values multidisciplinary inquiry in a student-centered environment. This must be the basis upon which we enhance academic excellence and our external reputation. We have been moving steadily in this direction since 1912, with our newest strategic plan, we need to seal the deal.”
