Greetings,
I am sure by now that most staff at UW have heard at least a reference to the 6th Decade Plan. For those that haven’t, or for those that have only a passing knowledge of the document, the 6th Decade Plan is the guiding general principles of the direction that UW is going in its sixth decade of operation. It is a fairly comprehensive document that allows the University to be flexible to new opportunities and challenges. The overriding theme of the document is the pursuit of global excellence and UW is already on its way to meeting this goal of an international presence with locations in: New York City, USA; Rome, Italy; Nanjing, China and Dubai, UAE.
The Framework for the 6th Decade Plan is based on academic excellence, relevance and connectedness. Benchmarks defined within the document require that, by 2017, UW have approximately 25% of its departments/schools ranking among the top 12 in North America, with almost half of them ranking within the top three in Canada and that all be ranked within the top 25% in Canada. A very ambitious plan for such a young University. In order to meet these goals the plan gives direction in several critical areas;
- Academic programs
- Teaching and research
- Undergraduate and graduate student recruitment
- Co-operative education
- Student engagement and support services
- Role of faculty and staff
But what does this mean to staff at UW? Many of these critical areas fall directly on the shoulders of staff at UW and in a time of financial prudence it can seem overwhelming. I encourage all staff to read the 6th Decade Plan to understand how it affects them. The Plan encourages growth of staff and calls for staff to be engaged in planning and problem resolution at all levels. Over the past 18 months, due to the current economy, senior UW officials have used the term “mission critical” when making tough calls affecting UW. Many question just what is “mission critical”, reading the 6th Decade Plan will give staff a much better understanding of just what this means.
The 6th Decade Plan can be found at http://secretariat.uwaterloo.ca/sixth_decade/
The University of Waterloo Staff Association is seeking feedback and comments from staff related to the 6th Decade Plan. Please send them to your UWSA Area Representative or email the UW Staff Association at staffasc@uwaterloo.ca. You can also post your comments below.
Sincerely,
Douglas Dye
President,
University of Waterloo Staff Association
