Colleagues

President Emmert has indicated his desire to chart a new direction for the UW. He intends to do this by articulating a vision followed by concrete goals - whose achievement will enable attainment of the vision. To this end, the College was asked to prepare a one-page statement of its vision and goals. It has been several years since we systematically engaged the CFR community in a discussion of this nature.

I believe it is an opportune time for the College to re-examine its strategic direction and opportunities. We have successfully transformed our undergraduate and graduate programs, reorganized the academic structure of the College, are engaged in the development of a research agenda for the future, and are hiring many new faculty. A new Provost is likely to raise many important questions related to the academic, research and outreach mission of each College and School. Lastly, responsible organizational planning and management necessitates that we periodically engage our community in discussions of this nature so that we remain on-tract and relevant in what we do.

I propose that a group of faculty and staff engage the College community in a dialog that follows the orderly process outlined below.

1. Review existing performance criteria and benchmarks for continuing relevance as indicators of our overall success.

2. Perform an assessment of where the College is at this point and identify some things we might do to improve. In the process, identify activities that may contribute to a thematic-presence for the College.

3. Convene an open meeting with the College community to seek their input and feedback of these preliminary ideas. The purpose will be to seek their thoughts on future direction and how to move the College to achieve these goals. This presentation, based on a broad set of indicators, will also indicate how we intend to involve the CFR community in this comprehensive examination.

4. The output from this discussion will be presented to the College's Visiting Committee. We might devote an entire meeting to the discussion, encouraging full participation from the group. We could also invite people who participated in the Working Forest Forum or others from industry, agencies and NGOs. All of this will help convey that we take discussions about our future direction seriously and that we continue to think about the direction of the College and wish to bounce ideas off of them.

5. Refine all of this into something called "some preliminary considerations for future directions" and use it as a way to continue discussions with the broader College community (faculty, staff, and students). This could be the focus of our fall meeting, given that steps 1-4 may be scheduled over the spring and summer quarters. At this stage (or perhaps earlier) we may also want to enlist the services of the two facilitators who helped in the retreat a couple of years ago.

The results of the fall meeting would be a revised set of directions (goals) across those areas that are important to the college's future.

I wish for Associate Dean Steve West to chair a group composed of Professors Bradley, Gustafson, Edmonds and Marzluff as well as Mr Boyle, Ms Trudeau and Ms Paul. I will attend as many meetings as I can and will actively participate in the all-college gatherings.

B. Bruce Bare, Dean