Moving from Vision to Strategy

On May 21, 2010, I was formally inaugurated as the seventh President of Clinton Community College. The inauguration was an opportunity to propose a big idea that would serve as a rallying cry for stakeholders – a compelling goal that would help us to align our individual efforts to an important common cause and thereby maximize our collective impact.

Like John F. Kennedy’s “Man on the Moon” goal¹ -- which was a response to the shocking news that the Russians had launched Sputnik -- Clinton’s big idea was born in response to an impending crisis, i.e. the projection that by the year 2035, the number of Clinton County residents between the ages of 25-49 will be insufficient to support a thriving economy and to maintain the quality of life that we currently enjoy². This shocking projection is focusing our attention on the urgent need to transform this community into one that would attract and retain young professionals and entrepreneurs who would help to grow the economy and sustain the high quality of life that we have come to enjoy. In my inaugural address, I proclaimed that Clinton Community College would be a leader and a partner in creating a brighter future for Clinton County and the North Country, helping to transform the region into one that would attract and retain young professionals and entrepreneurs who would come here to raise their families and thereby start our economy on an upward spiral.

On inauguration day, I invited the community to imagine that by the end of this decade, the College would relocate its current off-campus residence halls to an on-campus site here on Bluff Point. In and of itself, this would have the likely effect of improving student retention, graduation and achievement. I also invited the stakeholders to imagine that we used the opportunity to create a global learning community here on Bluff Point – a community that would build upon the international history and character of this region and its rich geographic assets along the Quebec-New York Corridor. By doing this at Clinton Community College, we would align our efforts with other community organizations that are working to attract and retain international business to our region, and we would make this a more vibrant community for young professionals and entrepreneurs to locate and raise their families.

With that bold goal in mind, it is now our task to move from vision to strategy. If this were a cross-country journey, we might say that we have identified our desired destination, and now it is time to plan the trip. For example, we need to determine our mode of transportation, our route, our meals and lodging, our itinerary along the way and our budget.

If we propose to develop a global living/learning community on campus, complete with a modern residence hall and conference center, there are certain strategies that we must pursue over the course of the next nine years. We don’t need to do everything in the first year, but we do need to have a general outline of the types of things that must be accomplished. For example:

1. Re-commit ourselves to the development of programs and services that meet the needs of our community -- especially the need for a twenty-first-century workforce.
2. Build an infrastructure that supports the types of programs and services that the community expects us to deliver.
3. Embrace globalism, internationalism and diversity as essential elements for the future of this community and its economy.
4. Establish a development program that provides the resources necessary to achieve our goals in and for our community.

Within these four broad strategies, each constituent group and each individual in the college community can make a contribution. By using this framework to align our departmental and individual efforts over a sustained period, the collective results that we achieve will be greater than the results that would be achieved if our efforts were uncoordinated.

That's what I think. Please let me know what you think. I welcome your response via e-mail at presidentsblog@clinton.edu.
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¹ “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” – John F. Kennedy’s A Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs, May 25, 1961.

² “By 2035, the second largest population group in Clinton County will be in its fifties. If we exclude the college-age bulge, we see that there will be about as many people of retirement age or over fifty and preparing for retirement than there are those in the critical workforce years of 25 to 49.” – A Call to Plan by Colin Read.