By Stephen Collins '74

In his State of the College address on September 11, President William D. Adams outlined the strategic planning initiative that is underway at Colby and that will help guide the College as it enters a new millennium and prepares to celebrate its 200th anniversary in 13 years. The planning process was begun after former president William R. Cotter announced his retirement and will continue under the guidance of Adams and a 17-member committee empanelled this fall.

In September, Adams announced that the planning initiative received a major boost with the receipt of a $2.8-million grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. The gift established an endowment to fund a faculty position–an endowed chair in physics–and provided $200,000 for the strategic planning process. It also included endowments to support student research and internships as well as an endowment for professional development opportunities for the faculty.

"The moment of leadership transition presents an unparalleled opportunity to engage in a strategic and comprehensive reassessment of the College's educational profile and fundamental institutional goals," Adams said. "This extraordinary gift provides unique opportunities for the new president of a college. More importantly, though, it creates exciting advantages for students and faculty that will enrich the already strong learning experience at Colby."

The strategic planning effort, whose goal is to create a vision of the College's future that will set priorities and guide activities, will proceed through the coming year. A comprehensive plan will be drafted for presentation to the Board of Trustees at its fall meeting in 2001.

In the State of the College address Adams also promised to have an institutional plan for diversity completed by the end of this school year. He said further increasing the diversity of the student body and the faculty is a personal goal as well as an institutional priority.