MUNCIE, Ind. – Ball State University officials are seeking public input on a new five-year strategic plan now in its draft stage.

The strategic plan will be used to guide the university through 2006, said Warren Van Hill, Ball State provost and vice president for academic affairs.

"When the school year began last August, President Blaine Brownell created a 25-member task force to draft a strategic plan," Vander Hill said. "The task force focused on the Ball State community – who we are and what we aspire to be during the next few years, as well as some of the ways to help get us there. "This was done in an interesting historical context since Ball State has not done any university-wide strategic planning for many years," he said. "In my memory, the university has never before developed a plan that includes specific goals, objectives and measures."

The strategic plans general goals call for Ball State to:

• Enhance excellence in undergraduate and graduate learning.
• Create a campus learning environment that values diversity, promotes civility, celebrates the arts and protects the environment.
• Attract and retain high quality faculty and professional personnel.
• Attain optimal enrollment based on selective admissions policies and excellent retention programs.
• Broaden, diversify and enrich its relationships beyond the campus.
• Become a best-practice institution in the use of technology.

"It is now the public’s turn to give us your reaction to this first draft," Vander Hill Said. "I emphasize that, at this stage, it is just a draft of a plan."

Faculty, staff, students, parents, taxpayers, alumni and area residents may provide comments and perspectives during the feedback period of Jan. 8 through Feb. 9.

Comments should be sent to Strategic Plan, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, 47306 (or to Strategic Plan via campus mail) or e-mailed to strategicplan@bsu.edu.

The draft may be viewed online at www.bsu.edu/strategicplan. Hard copies of the draft will be available at the periodicals/reserves desk in Bracken Library to people who request it or who do not have access to a computer.

Once the task force has received feedback and comments, the group will reconvene regularly from mid-February to mid-March to meet the goal of giving Brownell the Ball State Strategic Plan by early April.

The plan will be a "living document," allowing it to be revised at any point to meet the needs of the university, Vander Hill said.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about this story, contact Vander Hill at (765) 285-1333.)