Sent: 2010-12-08
From: President Bill Perry
To: Students, Employees
Subject: Planning a Sustainable Future for Eastern Illinois University
I am asking the EIU community to create in calendar year 2011 a strategic plan for a sustainable academic and
financial future for the university. The plan will be built on the foundations of our mission statement and our
fundamental values of excellence, personal relationships, opportunity, and service. The plan will be short,
understandable, and action oriented. The plan will comprise ten pages and will contain a list of five to ten strategic
priorities; three of the priorities will be chosen for initial implementation in calendar year 2012. All priorities
must support our goal of being the best university in the nation at integrating the academic and personal development
of students; support a sustainable academic environment at EIU; and support a sustainable financial environment at
EIU. At the intersection of these three emphases lies integrative learning.
The plan is to take into account at least the following: enhancement of our institutional capacity for
excellence in teaching, research, and public service; the globalization of higher education; our competitiveness for
enrollment of students inside Illinois and out, and how it should change; our culture of retention of students and how
it should change; the strength of our connections to, and development of, supportive partners of EIU, including
alumni, friends, and others in the local, regional, state, national, and international communities; trends in
population, income, employment, revenues from various sources, and technology; the role of diversity in sustaining our
university; and other factors deemed important by the participants in the process.
This plan is a means to forge our destiny as a university and create advantage for EIU. We must expand our
horizons in competing for students. Higher education is going global and we must compete for students on a wider
scale; we must recruit faculty and staff on a wider scale; we must enhance our reputation to garner the support
necessary for a sustainable future. We must assure a dynamic and vibrant community of scholars, teachers, and public
servants, in a place of intellectual ferment and challenge—the kind of place which students, faculty, and staff love
and in which they thrive. It is time to take the long view; to make the commitments now that will pay off in the long
term. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, as long as we
can see far enough.†We must be energetic and timely in this planning process. The strategic plan must be completed by
January 2012, and this deadline is firm. We will not tire if we remember that positive, forward-looking action is in
the offing, and if we keep our eye on a horizon that features EIU as a university in the first rank of distinctive
service to society.
The planning process is being led by a broadly representative steering committee, with majority membership
from the faculty, and led by co-chairs from the faculty, staff, and administration. Each committee member will bring
the value of experience in his or her role and connection with EIU and use that perspective and experience for the
good of the university in the committee’s work. The process will include open forums, email communications, a
dedicated website outlining the planning process and providing opportunity for comment, and meetings with multiple
constituencies to include faculty, staff, and students. The process will lead to a report to the Board of Trustees at
its January 2012 meeting. The Board will have a member on the steering committee to enhance communication on plan
progress during the year. More details will be forthcoming from Dr. William Weber’s office. I encourage your
participation in framing our future.
William L. Perry
President
