Draft Mission and Strategic Priorities

Version of November, 2001
Draft Mission Statement

The New England Council of Presidents consortium is a voluntary association of the six public New England Land-Grant Universities. These six institutions have elected to work together and support each other in their educational, research, and outreach missions. Rather than subscribing to a specific long-range blueprint, the consortium's objectives are to be agile and opportunistic, to seize opportunities as they present themselves, and to be a catalyst to help people approach current challenges in new ways. Specific projects undertaken will change over time, but the strategic priorities of the consortium are expected to remain relatively stable. In all strategic areas, it is expected that increasingly powerful interactive communication technologies will facilitate coordination, and that opportunities for significant collaboration will increase.

Draft Strategic Priorities

Maintain collegial interaction:
Addressing challenging issues and seizing new opportunities together is more likely to be successful if our institutions' leaders know and have confidence in each other. Therefore, an important focus for the consortium will be to create and nurture opportunities for quality interaction with colleagues from other New England Land-Grant Universities. People having similar institutional responsibilities will be convened to discuss current challenges and solutions. Special task forces and committees may be formed to consider and make recommendations on specific issues.
Develop collaborative programs: Each of our universities possesses unique program strengths. Where complementary program components are present at more than one university, it may be possible to develop valuable new educational, research, and outreach programs together that cannot be offered individually.

Enrich existing programs:
Modern communication technologies make it possible to enrich existing courses and curriculums, conduct research, and serve the people and institutions of New England in new ways. Researchers from different institutions can collaborate more effectively. Guest lectures delivered from a distance can enrich a course, and advanced courses delivered from neighboring land-grant institutions can resolve difficult staffing requirements.

Address emerging regional needs:
As new economic, social, and environmental pressures affect New England, its public land-grant universities will respond. Rather than all six universities addressing every new issue, it may be possible to conserve resources and respond more effectively by agreeing that one or two of our institutions will respond in a particular instance and serve the entire region.

Support, supplant, or improve programs that are affected by retirements:
Half the current faculty at some of our institutions will retire within ten years, and new institutional opportunities may be created by these vacancies. Rather than terminate or diminish a program that is still valued, it may be possible to continue or even strengthen it through one of the strategies outlined in the prior sections of this document.