ASUW is working on creating and adopting a plan that will guide its direction for the next five years.
ASUW President Hunter Swilling spoke to the senate regarding the development and timeline of the new strategic plan for ASUW.
“At its core level, it’s an organization’s process of defining its goals and priorities,” Swilling said, describing a strategic plan.
The Ad-hoc Strategic Planning Committee was created in an effort to help generate a plan for ASUW operations from 2023-2028.
Ad-hoc committees, compared to standing committees, are ones that are created for a limited time-span, with a specific goal in mind.
Numerous senators, executives, ex-officios and professional staff currently sit on the strategic planning committee.
“[This is an effort to] make our values, and our goals and objectives clear, well thought out, and with a solid idea on how we can achieve them,” Swilling said.
This all comes as the university is also in the process of creating their plan for the next 5 years.
“We both have the opportunity to work together, and sort of get that synergy of creating two new plans at once,” Swilling said.
“[We want to] make sure we can improve ASUW year-to-year, and address our shortcomings.”
The committee spent the fall and start of the spring semester reviewing past plans, and creating guiding principles for the committee to follow.
“We will work hard to ensure that this process and its outcomes are transparent and give everyone we can, a voice in our future,” Swilling said.
To meet these goals, Swilling, along with other members of the committee, will be conducting multiple ‘listening sessions’ in the coming weeks.
These sessions will be an opportunity for the university as a whole to give their input into the plan that will be constructed.
All other committees, ASUW’s strategic partners, student organization leaders, professional staff, and the general student body of the university will all have the chance to raise questions, concerns, or highlight positives in these meetings.
“We are really just trying to get as much input as possible from students,” Hazel Homer-Wambeam, ASUW chief of staff and a member of strategic planning, said.
The ‘listening sessions’ began March 8 and will continue until April 1.
Following this, the strategic planning committee will then spend its time writing the plan.
The plan will be brought to the senate for a first reading on April 19, and a second reading at ASUWs final meeting of the administration on April 26.
However, Swilling said the timeline laid out may not be final.
“We’re not going to rush a bad product if we are unable to do it in time.”
In the event that the plan is not finished or accepted the duties of finalizing a strategic plan will follow on to the next administration, which is set to be elected in the coming months.
