The Strategic Long-Range Plan II (SLRP II) has already been in development for 15 months and is expected to remain in development for another year. The administration currently has little specific information to offer. SLRP II will determine the college’s long-term goals in the next five years. The plan is a continuation of SLPR I, which was implemented in 2005-2010.

Jeff Favolise, assistant to the president for planning and management, said that SLRP II is far too early in development to say anything definite about the plan. Since everything is currently subject to change, Favolise said that he does not want the community to think that anything is “written in stone.”

“If faculty, staff, students, and the community get this impression, it would be wrong,” said Favolise. “It would also needlessly cause problems and – even worse – limit our chances to get more valuable input and participation from the students and community.”

Favolise said that although SLRP II has another year before finalization, the SLRP committee is far ahead of schedule. In fact, Favolise said that the SLRP committee had to slow down in order to obtain more community input, as gathering this input stands paramount for the administration.

Favolise said that the administration has scheduled open forums to discuss SLRP II in the spring.

“The first SLRP was everyone’s,” said Favolise. “We need to make sure SLRP II is everyone’s as well.”

However, an important issue in formulating SLRP II lies in finances. As Vice President of Enrollment Services Randy Doss explained at the Community Senate meeting on Dec. 2, Guilford College is constrained by the small endowment of $55 million.

“Everyone wants all these things,” said Doss, “but no one wants to ask the question, ‘what are we going to stop doing?'”

In spite of that, Patchouli Oerther, the academic affairs chair of the Community Senate and a student representative on the SLRP committee, said that right now the committee is primarily writing rough drafts for ideas for the plan, which is partly why nothing is finalized.

“We are focusing on ‘blue sky’ scenarios – the ideal situation if everything was perfect,” said Oerther. “After we finish brainstorming, then we can look at how we can realistically implement these goals. Finances may be an issue later in development, but right now, it’s not a factor in the decision making.”

Favolise added that despite the intention of the SLRP committee to think boldly and not let brainstorming be limited by any constraining factors, everything right now seems realistic and achievable.

The administration has already done a SWOT (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats) analysis of Guilford with the Community Senate to help decide the direction of SLRP II.

According to Jack Zerbe, co-chair of the SLRP committee and professor of theatre studies, a key distinction between SLRP I, is SLRP I focuses more on institutional goals.

The main goals of SLRP I were to achieve financial equilibrium, strengthen Quaker influences, and expand the student body.

Guilford achieved financial equilibrium by balancing the college’s budget and strengthened the Quaker influences by offering courses on Quakerism. SLRP I also focused on technological advancements for the college, like creating an e-portfolio for holding various works that students have done in college.

SLRP II, on the other hand, will aim for more student-centered initiatives geared towards strengthening programs that will help empower and prepare students for their goals outside college.

As a part of SLRP II, the administration has discussed enhancing programs such as study abroad, internships, and the Center for Principled Problem Solving in order to prepare students for life outside of college.

“We want students to be more engaged in their majors,” said Oerther. “We want students to think ‘I’m majoring in biology. What does that mean?'”

Director of Center for Principled Problem Solving Mark Justad said that all these programs, especially the Center for Principled Problem Solving, highlight core values at Guilford College. The Center’s goal is to apply the Quaker core values to working in the world. SLRP II, said Justad, focuses on making values Guilford holds, such as applying Quaker core values to working in world, more integrated in the college.

“This has always been something Guilford has been about,” said Justad of the Center for Principled Problem Solving, “but with the Center, we are now being more intentional about it.”

Overall, according to Zerbe, the administration has come a long way since SLRP I. Zerbe said back when SLRP I was being formed, Guilford College had a “culture of not-follow-through.”

“We have filing cabinets filled with SLRP-like proposals that were never implemented.” said Zerbe. “We weren’t coordinated and no one delegated anything.”

Today, the administration, said Zerbe, is far more efficient as an organization.

“We have overcome most of the issues that were in SLPR I,” said Zerbe. “We now have the machinery in place to accomplish what we want to do.