Inclusive Planning

Cultivating a university-wide culture of planning means embedding strategic planning and thinking into all we do. This will allow us to be a modern, agile university that is constantly seeking innovative solutions and opportunities for our students, while being responsive in our actions to the communities and organizations around us.  

Integrative planning aligns institutional strategies and actions in each office and division up to our shared priorities (vertical planning), while also ensuring collaborative operational efforts across the university (horizontal planning). Planning and budgeting decisions are consciously integrated so that we tackle the two in concert, rather than in isolation. Internal data and research support our planning efforts, utilizing the strengths of our collective talent and resources and the power of collaboration. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including RWU’s Equity Action Plan, drive our thinking and are embedded within each strategic focus area. Inclusive excellence is at the core of all our initiatives. This full-university focus on our vision and goals models the interdisciplinary learning, collaborative problem-solving, and research-based approaches to problems that we work to instill in our students.

Strategic action must be an ongoing process of planning, implementation, and improvement that provides a sense of direction to our annual initiatives. Rather than making a static plan, RWU will review and refine our processes, share data openly, celebrate our successes, and seek new initiatives based on our interconnected goals. This planning model allows RWU to remain nimble as new opportunities emerge, and to respond dynamically to the changing needs of our students.