In the fall of 2004, President Jones launched a major planning effort at Trinity College, the Cornerstone Project.   Unlike previous strategic planning efforts at the College, this one is an on-going planning and implementation process with a new cycle each year.  It is broad in scope, inclusive in execution, and has many aims.  The project forms a strategic framework for the allocation of resources in people, funding, and energy.  It provides guidance and priorities for the annual budget process, new initiatives, and fund raising efforts, especially the next capital campaign.  The resulting plan and recommendations are not limited to new initiatives and resources; they also include possible shifts in personnel, space, and resources and changes in policies and procedures.

Seven “Cornerstones” of program and resource effort were established that are crucial for the mission and future of the College.  The seven were

·         Capital Improvements
·         Diversity
·         Experiential Education
·         Global Initiatives
·         Information Technology
·         Teaching and Research
·         Urban Initiatives.

It was anticipated that the the Cornerstones may change as the planning and implementation evolve, but the basic structure of the planning process will continue, albeit with improvements made through a careful and continuous evaluation of the planning process.

Leading the planning was the President’s Cornerstone Planning Group (PCPG) comprised of the  President’s Group of top administrators and the chairs of the committees that developed recommendations in each of the seven Cornerstone areas.  The PCPG had overall responsibility for the planning process and was the group that set priorities, wrote the strategic plan, and formulated its implementation.  The administrators in the President’s Group are the officials on campus with the responsibility and authority for resource allocations and programs, and this planning structure brought them into the center of the systematic planning effort.

The Cornerstone Advisory Committees (CAC) developed a vision, goals, strategies, and recommendations for each of the seven Cornerstones.  The committees included faculty, administrators, and students with interest and expertise in the Cornerstone areas.  The CACs were given “charges,” questions that encouraged committee members to think broadly about the future of Trinity, the general directions for the College, and what it would take to provide Trinity with the means to compete advantageously with our best peers in higher education.  The CACs reviewed documents and data about Trinity and other colleges and received information and suggestions from all constituencies in the campus community.  During the fall, 2004 groups across the campus met and analyzed Trinity’s strengths and weakness and the threats and opportunities posed by its environment (SWOT analyses).  The SWOT analyses became one important source of information from the campus community for the CACs, while committee members also developed plans for other means of having dialog with the campus.

As the name implies, the Advisory Committee on the Planning Process (ACPP) focused on guiding and evaluating the planning process, rather than the emerging content.  The committee included members from the major constituencies on campus (faculty, administration, staff, and students) appointed or elected in ways appropriate for each constituency.  The ACPP was an ongoing committee charged with monitoring the planning process to assure its legitimacy and openness.  Initially ACPP developed a plan for the Cornerstone committees to communicate with the campus and to receive input from as many people as possible.  Based on their evaluation of the process during 2004, ACPP will recommend how to improve the process in future years.  The plan is that the ACPP will be an on-going “watch dog” and evaluation committee even though its membership will vary from year to year.

The Strategic Planning Committee of the Board (SPC) is the link between the President’s Cornerstone Planning Group and the Board of Trustees.  The SPC will review and approve the planning process from the perspective of the Board.  When the PCPG has prepared its strategic Cornerstone Plan for the year, it will send the plan to this committee of the Board for review and approval.  The SPC will then submit the plan to the entire Board for adoption.  During the implementation phase, the SPC will review progress and inform the full Board.  It is also the committee of the Board that will ensure that the plans are honored in board decision-making, especially with respect to resource allocations.

The Planning Facilitators for the entire process during 2004 were Sharon Herzberger, Vice President for Institutional Planning and Administration and Kent W. Smith, Director of Institutional Research and Planning.  They coordinated all aspects of the process, gathered information and documents that were relevant for the Cornerstones and for the planning process as a whole, maintained communication with the campus community, collected SWOT analyses and other input from the community, and assisted all of the committees in their work.

Cornerstone Advisory Committees

Capital Improvements CAC
   Committee Charge:

How can we develop a process and guidelines for establishing priorities for large-scale capital improvements related to the mission and other College priorities? How can we develop systematic guidelines for space allocation?
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Diversity CAC
  Committee Charge:

How can Trinity better serve the needs of our broadly diverse student body, faculty, and administration? What kind of community is needed to ensure that all faculty, students, and administrators feel supported intellectually, socially, and culturally and challenged to achieve their very best?
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Experiential Education CAC
  Committee Charge: