Strategic Plan has long-term goals

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by Peggy Lai

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The Strategic Planning Committee finished a report on the future plans of Rice on March 28 and released it to the Rice community. The committee was commissioned a year ago by President Malcolm Gillis to review Rice's progress since its founding and make recommendations for improvements.

"[The strategic plan is] something that has been missing from Rice for a long time. [It is] all about establishing priorities," Gillis said.

"This [plan] is an ongoing process. You don't just do a plan. You keep working on it, improving on it year by year," Gillis said.

Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho said, "I think every issue raised is a valid one and the recommendations are appropriate. Probably the most difficult issue will be to determine the time table to carry out each of the recommendations."

Gillis did not specify any deadlines for the completion of any of the recommendations; he stated only that some parts of the plan were long-term, and some were short-term goals.

"It is the source of our pride, our richest opportunities and our most vexing challenge -- to be a small undergraduate institution dedicated to liberal education of the highest order and, at the same time, a research university of national rank," lines 43-46 of the plan state.

The plan is subdivided into six sections: undergraduate education, graduate education, the unity of teaching and research, the library and information systems, reaching beyond the hedges and the financial future of Rice.

Recommendations for undergraduate education include:

* A more liberal program of general education to allay concerns that the curriculum is overspecialized;

* Involvement of undergraduates in research programs;

* Experimentation with collaborative, inter-divisional courses;

* The incorporation of a writing component into the undergraduate curriculum;

* The establishment of a Language Center where teachers are taught methods of foreign language teaching;

* The development of a comprehensive program enhancing the international experiences and perspectives of Rice students;

* The development of a recruitment strategy which will attract the best students from a variety of cultural, racial, socio-economic and national backgrounds;

* The providing of adequate staffing and resources to the college masters in order to sustain a residential environment which complements the educational mission of Rice;

* And the construction of a new college in the near future to ensure that as many students as possible are able to live on campus.

Recommendations in other areas include the building of a Graduate Center on or near campus to replace the Graduate House, greater efforts in recruiting and retaining outstanding scholars and teachers, improvement of information systems, increasing Rice's involvement beyond the hedges and greater disclosure of important information concerning budgeting and resource allocations to the Rice community.

An online copy of the Strategic Plan is accessible at http://www. ruf.rice.edu/~pilgrim/form.html.

The committee encourages feedback through the online form.

This item appeared in the News section of the April 12, 1996 issue.

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