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Message from the Dean

Welcome to the College of Science strategic planning website.  Starting in January and for the duration of the planning, I will provide monthly updates on the planning process, work of the committees, and highlight upcoming important events.  I will look forward to posting the 2008–2014 strategic plan this fall!

January 2008 marked the launch of the effort to prepare a five-year strategic plan for the College of Science. This important endeavor has been intentionally designed to take a highly interactive, bottom up approach, and engage the college’s stakeholders—faculty, students, peers from other colleges and centers, staff, and alumni—throughout the planning process. 

The intention is to achieve a transformation in many of the attitudes currently held towards the college and university, and towards the strategic role that science plays in our society.  This will help us define the leadership role for the College as we move forward.

The strategic planning committee members are a phenomenal group of individuals charged with developing a college wide defined plan that will best meet the needs of our constituents as we plan for the future. The diverse set of individuals will help us understand the interconnectedness of the college’s stakeholders, and have the effect of broadening the discussion beyond anything a purely internal group might achieve. It will be a fun and challenging process—two very good things!

The 2008–2014 strategic planning effort will build on the excellent main tenets of the 2002–2007 plan.  Maintaining a theme of continuity and change, the focus will be on the best ways to strengthen our core disciplines and promote multidisciplinary collaborations. We will increase our efforts to create and nurture a community at the college that mirrors our diverse cultural, international and multidisciplinary world. We will explore ways to make science, technology, and mathematics exciting to K-12 students and build the next generation of scientists—as well as a steady pipeline of recruits to our college and university!

We will be aligned with the university’s strategic planning and establish close links with President Córdova’s eight vision initiatives. Our efforts will strengthen Purdue’s rankings as one of the nation’s premier research institutions.  We will be mindful of our obligation to fulfill Purdue’s mission as a land grant institution.  We acknowledge that the historical values upon which the university was founded—making higher education and scientific knowledge accessible to the citizens of Indiana and the nation—are even more important today than they were then. Science holds the key in providing solutions to many of society’s most complex and pressing problems.

The College of Science is celebrating its 100th birthday.  The Centennial celebrations have made us appreciate the men and women scientists of the past century whose intellectual brilliance and hard work has made our quality of life possible.  I am confident that that the 2008–2014 strategic plan will position the college well to prosper and thrive as we set the stage for the next century of science.

-- Jeff Vitter

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