From the President. . . DRAKE UNIVERSITY in 2007 is healthy, vital and exciting, with powerful indicators that we are keeping the promise of the University’s mission to our students and their parents, our alumni and friends and to the community. Needless to say, the University’s present vitality did not happen by accident. It is the direct and intentional result of a collective vision of the University’s future and a detailed plan identifying the steps necessary to realize that vision, carried out through the dedicated efforts of hundreds of faculty, staff, students, members of the board of trustees, alumni and other friends. This past year, the campus was deeply involved in the preparatory stages of our next round of planning. In the fall, all departments (academic and administrative) undertook environmental scans that identified the trends, challenges and opportunities that confront them in the next five to six years. In the spring semester, each unit prepared a “white paper” that outlined their aspirations and proposed goals for the next five years. All of these efforts culminated in late June at the first-ever Drake University Summer Futures Conference attended by nearly 200 faculty, staff, students and members of the board of trustees. At the conference, the plans of each unit were subjected to extensive small-group discussion. For all of us, it was one of the most remarkable and rewarding experiences of our careers: a large crosssection of the University community coming together to discuss, in a highly focused, collaborative and creative manner, the future of Drake University.
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This fall, the Planning Council (chaired by the president and comprising faculty, staff and students) begins the creation of the next iteration of the Drake University Strategic Plan. The discussions from the Futures Conference will play an important role in the Planning Council’s deliberations. At various stages of the plan’s development, it will be shared for feedback and guidance with the campus community, the board of trustees and the external advisory groups that provide such important guidance to the University (including
experience for our tens of thousands of alumni and our current students. At the same time, we must keep moving forward to meet the challenges, needs and opportunities of the future. Our aspiration for Drake in the next five years is ambitious, but realistic and vital to the ongoing fulfillment of our promise. We believe that Drake’s approach to higher education — the deliberate integration of the best of liberal arts and sciences with professional preparation carried out in an intensely interactive and collaborative environment — is a very powerful and very effective model. We have already been recognized by U.S.News & World Report as the top Master’s Large University in the Midwest and by Kiplinger’s as one of the top 50 universities in the country. But our goal, as stated in Drake University 2012, simply put, is to become — within five to six years — a national model for excellence, effectiveness, innovation, accessibility and accountability in higher education. Our purpose is not recognition for its own sake, of course, although recognition is an important factor in admissions and fundraising. Recognition is a consequence of fulfilling our
“We have to ensure that everything we do as we go forward is faithful to the promise of the University’s mission.” the Alumni Board, the Parents Board and the National Advisory Councils connected to the schools and colleges and to Cowles Library). There are two vitally important considerations that frame the strategic planning process: Drake University’s mission statement and our collective vision for the University’s future. To put it in simple terms, the planning process is pushed by the mission and pulled by the vision. We have to ensure that everything we do as we go forward is faithful to the promise of the University’s mission to provide an exceptional learning environment and prepare students for meaningful personal lives, professional accomplishment and responsible global citizenship. We have to ensure as well that we remain faithful to the core values and core sensibilities embodied in that mission that have informed a Drake education for more than 125 years — that we preserve and enrich that sense of community, the opportunities for personal development and those vibrant personal relationships that define the Drake
promise, of ensuring that Drake continues to be an exceptional learning environment. The articulation of our aspirations in these terms raises many questions about what it means to be a national model for the best in higher education, and our planning discussions this year will focus at the outset on the answers to those questions that reflect Drake’s traditions and values. I look forward to sharing our progress — and our excitement — with you as we move forward.
Dr. David E. Maxwell, president
DRAKE
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The Magazine of Drake University