Students, faculty, staff provide Strategic Plan input at town halls

In the leadup to his five-year Strategic Plan for Renewal, Growth and Recognition for Campbell University, President Dr. William M. Downs held three town hall-style gatherings for students, faculty and staff between Oct. 28 and Nov. 5.

The 90-minute forums, hosted by Downs and featuring a panel of members of the Strategic Planning Committee, allowed interested members of the Campbell community to offer their input and elaborate on questions asked in a survey sent out earlier this fall (a survey that garnered more than 2,000 responses, according to Downs).

The Nov. 5 town hall - attended by more than 150 staff members in the Oscar N. Harris Student Union Theater, overlooking the Academic Circle - focused on discussions surrounding enrollment growth, fiscal sustainability, community engagement and strengthening the University's identity.

"The Strategic Plan takes vision and commits it to paper," Downs said. "It maps out the vision for who we at Campbell want to be in the next five years - what we want to be known for, where we want to invest our resources, what we want to improve and what we want to create. It is our strategy document for making Campbell successful over the course of at least the next five years.

"It is a forward-looking process that we're engaging in today, and it's a forward-looking document that we will be drafting."

Asked what Campbell could do better moving toward the future, staff members at the Nov. 5 event spoke on topics like career development, student retention programs and communication with prospective students and the existing Campbell community.

Much of the discussion focused on ideas to increase undergraduate enrollment, which Downs has consistently pointed to since becoming president on July 1 as a top priority both now and in the coming years. More presence on billboards across the region and state, more radio and television advertising, partnerships with churches and more opportunities for students from two-year schools were among the many topics discussed. Downs spoke of the importance of creating clearer pathways for Campbell undergraduate students to transition into Campbell graduate programs.

"We have this really strong array of graduate and professional programs, and they enroll very well," Downs said. "What they don't tend to enroll enough are our own undergraduates. I think we must do a much better job in the future marketing Campbell to 18 year olds who'll come here as new freshmen, because they can see a clear pathway to go into med school at Campbell. To go into law school at Campbell. To go into pharmacy school at Campbell, because they're here. And when you look at the numbers, I don't think we're leveraging that opportunity and marketing ourselves as a place where you can get that second or third 'hump' - that second or third degree. Because you can come here and get the hat trick."

A large portion of the discussion was dedicated to incorporating Campbell's Christian mission into the Strategic Plan. Staff members talked about a culture of inclusivity and love - remaining a Christian university with Bible-based, Christ-centered roots. That topic carried over into Campbell's role in the community, as Downs said Harnett County government officials are "hungry" for a stronger partnership with their flagship university.

According to Downs, the committee will take feedback from the three town hall meetings and the survey to begin drafting the Strategic Plan in the coming weeks.

"A good university strategic plan should probably be no more than five pages in length, and it should set out to focus on three to five big commitments," Downs wrote in a blog post on the subject in September. "Within each of those commitments, there will be a limited number of specific objectives to pursue. Each objective must be measurable, and a strong plan will be one that clearly articulates the metrics to be used in charting our institutional progress."

Once written, vetted and revised, it will be presented to the Board of Trustees, and the plan will be to "transform vision into action." The second phase of the plan will involve "unit-level planning," with more detailed five-year plans created by 14 schools, colleges and major departments on campus.

Read President Downs' blog post outlining the Strategic Plan playbook here: https://blogs.campbell.edu/launching-a-new-strategic-plan-for-campbell-university/

The Strategic Planning Committee

• William M. Downs, President and Committee Chair
• Michael Adams, Provost
• Sandy Connolly, Vice President for Business and CFO
• Sherri Yerk-Zwickl, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO
• Vincent Benbenek, Chief Marketing Officer
• Louisa Ward, Dean for Spiritual Life and Campus Minister
• Michael Larsen, Associate Professor of Biology and Chair of Faculty Senate
• Tara Wilson ('89), Chair of Presidential Board of Advisors
• Maren Hess, Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness
• Trent Elmore, Director of Human Resources
• Cutler Bryant, Undergraduate Representative and Student Body President
• Anna Fish, Graduate Representative and Doctor of Physical Therapy Class of '26 Student Body President

Contributors