In October of 2012, a Joint Task Force on Strategic Oversight (JTFSO) was charged to "make recommendations to the Chancellor with respect to a high-level Strategic Plan" to be submitted to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) as part of the campus's fifth-year interim accreditation report in August 2013. JTFSO is a group of 31 faculty, staff, and students appointed by the Chancellor and the Faculty Senate to lead the planning effort. That group, together with numerous committees and subcommittees, produced a draft of a first phase document that was put before the campus for review and comment during the spring semester of 2013. In all, more than 130 members of the community contributed to this document. JTFSO members presented the draft to more than two dozen administrative and governance groups, and convened four campus-wide open forums. On May 9, 2013, the document was presented to the Faculty Senate, which voted unanimously to "specifically support the report's broad goals of establishing UMASS/Amherst as a "destination of choice for the next generation of the Commonwealth's high school graduates" and as an "investment of choice in the Commonwealth's and nation's future" and to "recognize and applaud the fact that this was the first strategic planning process in the institution's history that was genuinely collaborative among faculty, students and administration."
The first phase document is called "Innovation and Impact: Renewing the Promise of the Public Research University." It sets an agenda for the campus, and will guide subsequent institutional-level and departmental implementation plans.
Innovation and Impact: Renewing the Promise of the Public Research University (Phase I)
Interactive Forum with Chancellor Subbaswamy
Joint Task Force on Strategic Oversight (JTFSO) Charge
JTFSO and committee membership
Open Forums
Thursday, April 4 8:30 a.m., Campus Center 163C
Tuesday, April 9 2:30 p.m., Online Interactive Forum
Wednesday, April 10 2:00 p.m., Campus Center 163C
Tuesday, April 16 3:00 p.m., Campus Center 173
Faculty Senate Meeting
Thursday, May 9 3:30 p.m., Herter 227
Contact JTFSO: jtfsoplanning@provost.umass.edu