To set aside all the skepticism of a universtiy strategic plan, I would say that one thing that it absolutely needs is a comprehensive plan for meeting the challenges of entering a digital age.

In teaching,

• we need to figure out how to teach well online,
• build physical spaces that facilitate in-class learning with digital media,
• figure out how to teach in those spaces too,
• help our students develop digital literacies, and
• construct a network that will support all that.

In research

• we similarly need to support faculty in transitioning to digital publication,
• determine how to evaluate new scholarly practices, and
• create digital infrastructure to support these activites.

Perhaps more importantly we need to develop smart administrative practices that can make good decisions out of student data. This last one seems to me to be the real black swan for higher education. We think we know what student information systems should look like because we've been using them for years, but I really don't think we are prepared for the level of data that will become available.

The above was formatted by me from Alex Reid