Creating CMU's Academic Vision and plan for the future
Anticipating the needs of society and elevating the human condition through our teaching, scholarship, and service in a rapidly changing world
The initiative to develop Central Michigan University’s Academic Vision and Plan has been underway since March 2023 and has engaged hundreds of individuals for their input. Nearly 200 people participated in on-campus activities, including workshops, committee involvements, and interviews. Additionally, nearly 1200 individuals participated in the Academic Vision Survey, to share their thoughts and aspirations about our academic environments of the future. By shaping the Academic Vision and Plan, an essential element of CMU’s 2023-2028 Strategic Plan , A Call To Action: Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging at CMU 2023-2028, and the OIT strategic plan, CMU will position itself to thrive as it navigates through a wide range of challenges and opportunities in the future. The Academic Vision and Plan will contribute to organizational efforts that will ensure institutional sustainability in alignment with Strategic Priority 4 of CMU’s 2023-2028 Strategic Plan.
The Academic Vision and Plan was created through the use of scenario planning, which is a strategy-related methodology employed by many organizations to test their long-term assumptions and explore the uncertain landscape of their future environment. One of the greatest strengths of scenario planning is the engagement of the organization in imagining a wide range of possible futures over a long-term horizon and developing strategies to prepare CMU to thrive. The process is designed to make deeply held assumptions and beliefs explicit and to test those beliefs and assumptions against the critical uncertainties facing the university. Critical uncertainties become the building blocks for scenarios. The resultant scenarios provide a context to develop strategy and for monitoring the external environment in which CMU operates as it strives to build adaptive capacity and proactively shape its future.
Scenario development
The university community provided valuable insight into the critical uncertainties facing Central Michigan University. These insights served as the foundation for scenario development during the first workshop in May of 2023. After exploring the strategic implications of each of the CMU 2045 scenarios, participants collectively identified both robust and game-changing strategies stemming from scenario-specific analysis. Together, these strategies represent the Academic Vision and Plan, which sets the agenda for change over the next 20 years. The details of these Global Scenarios and the Vision can be found using the links below.