When Chancellor Kent Syverud came to Syracuse University, he launched Fast Forward Syracuse, a three-part initiative that will serve as a framework for administrative decisions at the university moving forward. Going into the spring semester, there will be many important decisions made relating to Fast Forward. To help you better understand the initiative, The D.O. collaborated with SU administrators to provide a breakdown of the three components and what you need to know.

 

Academic Strategic Plan

What is the Academic Strategic Plan?

The Academic Strategic Plan is the Fast Forward initiative that focuses on improving the student experience, discovery, research and innovation; expanding SU’s commitment to veterans; and fostering internationalism and institution-wide excellence on campus.

 

What’s Happened: The Academic Strategic Plan emerged from a year-long collaborative process to refine the university’s institutional vision and mission in light of current and emerging needs and opportunities, and identify broad university-wide goals that will advance progress toward achieving that vision.

 

In Process: SU’s Academic Strategic Plan Oversight Committee announced the appointment of faculty, staff and students to six working groups that will help inform the committee’s work to implement the university’s new Academic Strategic Plan. Each of the six working groups is charged with focusing on one of the themed areas of the plan: The Student Experience, Discovery, Internationalization, Commitment to Veterans and Military-connected Families, Innovation and One University.

 

What’s Next: The working groups are prioritizing the objectives and developing clear plans of action for achieving them. This is a multi-year plan and a living document, which means that SU fully expects it to continue to evolve even as it moves more deeply into the implementation phase.

 

Campus Framework

What is the Campus Master Plan?

The Campus Master Plan is the Fast Forward initiative that focuses on the improvement of SU’s infrastructure. It serves as a guide for campus and landscape architecture, urban design, transportation, parking and utilities.

 

What’s Happened: For more than a year, The Campus Master Plan Advisory Group, comprised of faculty, staff and students, has partnered with Sasaki Associates to improve the SU campus both inside and outside of the classroom.

 

In Process: Sasaki has gathered thousands of input points and developed a draft Framework Plan that was shared with the Board of Trustees at its November meeting.

 

What’s Next: The drafted Framework Plan is being assessed and aligned with university priorities. That process is underway and will be further explored in the coming weeks. A comprehensive update will be provided to the campus community at that time.

 

Operational Excellence

What is Operational Excellence?

The Operational Excellence component of Fast Forward focuses on how the university can be more cost-efficient and save money. The plan also aims to increase effectiveness and efficiency within SU’s individual departments.

 

What’s Happened: Cross-functional teams, including faculty, staff and students, continue to re-think how the university buys goods and services to fully leverage the purchasing power of “One University” while being good stewards of students’ tuition.

 

In Process: Initiative teams are improving and refining university processes, modifying or implementing systems and communicating these changes. Identification, evaluation and selection of further opportunities for operational improvements are moving forward.

 

What’s Next: Metrics and other assessments are being developed and refined to report progress on university savings.

Published on December 9, 2015 at 11:50 pm

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306