Per the request of USF Board of Trustees Chair Will Weatherford, Interim President Rhea Law appointed administrators and faculty to the new nine-member committee.
Courtesy of USF
By Annalise Anderson
On Tuesday, Interim President Rhea Law appointed nine members to the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, a new committee tasked with overseeing the progress of USF’s 10-year strategic plan to become a Top-25 public research university.
USF Board of Trustees Chair Will Weatherford requested the committee be created to review the strategic plan and establish clear goals and measurable outcomes; consult university stakeholders, like department deans, faculty, staff, students and alumni; and assess feedback and make necessary adjustments to the plan.
The committee is made up of the following administrators and faculty:
- Pritish Mukherjee, co-chair; vice provost and associate vice president strategic talent recruitment, university reputation and impact; professor, Department of Physics
- Theresa Chisolm, co-chair; vice provost for strategic planning, performance and accountability
- Anthony Rolle, dean, College of Education
- Charles Stanish, professor of anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences; executive director, Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment
- Melanie Riedinger Whitmore, professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences
- Moez Limayem, Lynn Pippenger dean, Muma College of Business
- Paige Geers, acting chief of staff
- Usha Menon, senior associate vice president, USF Health; dean, College of Nursing
- Zacharias Pieri, assistant professor of international relations and security studies, College of Arts and Sciences
The Board of Trustees announced the 10-year plan in June. Intended to make the university eligible for membership in the Association of American Universities, the plan focuses on making USF an urban research university.
The plan is composed of seven strategic initiatives: Analytics and Data Science: Integrating USF Digitally; Design, Arts and Performance; Global and National Security; Health, Society and Biomedical Science; Social Justice and Human Rights; Sustainability, Environmental and Oceanographic Sciences; and Biology by Design.
It also outlines 11 core institutional commitments: Faculty excellence; student success; staff distinction; diversity, equity and inclusion; operational excellence; athletics; research support; institutional infrastructure; the value of the arts; sustainability; and engagement and outreach.
In December, then-President Steve Currall appointed a 19-member Strategic Planning Advisory Task Force to draft the 10-year plan and gather input from faculty, staff and students at all three campuses.
“The bold plan reflects a great deal of time, effort and input over the spring semester from you and members of the USF community and provides a blueprint to focus USF’s momentum as one of the nation’s fastest-rising universities with respect to research productivity, student success and positive impact on the communities we serve,” Law wrote in Tuesday’s announcement to the university.
“As we prepare a glidepath for USF’s next president, it is critical that our plan includes clear measures of accountability to our university community and the Florida Board of Governors,” Law wrote.
During Wednesday’s Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting, Faculty Senate President Tim Boaz said he’s “delighted to have some representation.”
In the meeting, St. Petersburg Faculty Council Chair David Rosengrant said faculty were concerned that business executives makeup the majority of USF’s Presidential Search Committee. However, he’s pleased to see three faculty members on the Strategic Plan Steering Committee.
“One of the concerns that we had was the presidential search committee and the bulk of the members are CEOs. So, just the lack of faculty representation,” Rosengrant said. “We’re very excited with the strategic realignment and with the new group that we have the representation there.”
