The T&D.com August 23, 2011 Trustees' role in developing SCSU plan debated By Dale Linder-Atlman South Carolina State University's new five-year strategic plan has been placed on hold at least until the September board meeting. The administration's new plan has been handed to an ad hoc board committee, but the group decided on Monday to urge the full board to call a "time out" so that it can "refocus" on the shared vision and decide how much it wants to be involved in the process of creating the strategic plan. Trustee Walter F. Johnson III, who heads the committee, said the plan contains "voids" where it fails to carry out part of the board's vision for the university. He also said that it lacks sufficient board direction. "It is clear to me from my perspective we need a time out in the process. We need to sit down and re-focus the planning process," Gen. Johnson said. "It is clear that we don't have sufficient strategic (view) of where we want the president - of where we want this board to be - this institution to be five, 10 years from now." Johnson said the plan fails to show the value of a shared vision. Other "voids" include failures to address a business perspective and the vision for the Clyburn Transportation Center, he said. "We talked about making the Transportation Center pre-eminent in the nation, if not in the world. ... I didn't see that defined as such," he said. While the committee agreed to recommend that the full board put the plan on hold at its September meeting, several members questioned whether the methods used by for-profit businesses should be followed by the university. Trustee Patricia Lott said when she's been involved in creating strategic plans at other institutions, the university was in charge. "I'm having mixed feelings. In each of these cases that I have worked with these plans before, it has been through the university and not through the board," she said. "The board has participated, but not been in charge. Now all these other times and places, was that wrong? "I'm really having issues with the university board being the one to be in charge." Lott also noted that a lot of work was involved in creating the strategic plan, and she doesn't want the board's involvement to create strife or division at the university. "I don't want what we do as a board to become a conflict with what the university has already begun," she said. "I think even if on the surface people say that's fine, those who worked on this are going to be angry." Lott said she agrees with the board being involved in creating and monitoring a shared vision, as long as the university develops the vision and carries it out. Trustee Robert Waldrep expressed concerns about the board becoming overly involved in the business of the administration. He doesn't want to become involved in the "minutiae of administration unless it comes to the point that it conflicts with our shared vision," he said. "There's got to be some kind of Chinese wall that goes on between us as trustees and the administration." Johnson said he doesn't feel that Chairman Jonathan Pinson intends for the board to take charge of the strategic plan. "But clearly, it's the responsibility of this board to start that shared vision. ... Where do we want to be as a board five years from now?" Johnson said. The committee also discussed the possibility of using the strategic plan as an evaluating tool and plans to bring it up at the September board meeting, he said. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.