UNM 2020 Future Picture: Visioning Our Future to Prioritize Our Strategy

Imag­ine you are in the year 2020. Look around you. What do you see? How do you envi­sion the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico in eight years?

That exer­cise is going on campus-wide right now as part of UNM 2020, a strate­gic approach to plan­ning for the future of this Uni­ver­sity. It is your oppor­tu­nity to have a voice and play a part in devel­op­ing that vision.

The project, ini­ti­ated by Pres­i­dent Robert Frank, is open to all com­mu­ni­ties on cam­pus: admin­is­tra­tors, fac­ulty, staff and stu­dents, even alumni and parents.

Orga­niz­ers have held a num­ber of live ses­sions, while on-line ses­sions are con­tin­u­ing. Par­tic­i­pants are asked to write com­ments or vote on pre­vi­ously iden­ti­fied attrib­utes. The idea is to bring col­lec­tive wis­dom, cre­ativ­ity and expe­ri­ence in to play in decid­ing how we will develop.

Your title, your rank, your tenure don’t mat­ter. That is all anony­mous. “It’s the qual­ity of your ideas, your con­tri­bu­tion to the process and whether other peo­ple agree with you that will ulti­mately result in a plan of action,” said Frank.

The sur­vey is cat­e­go­rized into 10 per­spec­tives designed to illicit thought­ful responses.

They are:

• Dis­cov­ery and Inno­va­tion
• Teach­ing and Learn­ing
• Strate­gic Part­ner­ships
• Fac­ulty and Staff
• Finan­cial Per­for­mance
• Insti­tu­tional Cul­ture
• Mar­ket Posi­tion and Brand
• Stu­dents: The Lobo Expe­ri­ence
• Health Sci­ences
• Lead­er­ship and Governance

To par­tic­i­pate on-line, visit: UNM 2020. The web­site will walk you through reg­is­tra­tion and how to take part. You’ll be able to browse pop­u­lar ideas, vote on them, com­ment on them or add new ones.

“Unlike any other “strate­gic plan­ning” process we have been involved in before, UNM 2020 is trans­par­ent and invites par­tic­i­pa­tion from every­one,” said Mary Clark, Staff Coun­cil Pres­i­dent. “It is very impor­tant that staff par­tic­i­pate in UNM 2020 because staff knows UNM’s strengths and weak­nesses and staff knows how great UNM can be if staff, fac­ulty, and the admin­is­tra­tion were aligned and focused on spe­cific goals.”

When the sur­vey is com­plete and the data orga­nized, the find­ings will be used to cre­ate a strate­gic plan. Basi­cally, the process will be to men­tally work back­ward from the year 2020 to cre­ate a roadmap to get to where the Uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity has iden­ti­fied UNM should be by then.

“Once we have cre­ated the 2020 vision, it becomes a bea­con on the mesa to guide us into the future,” said Frank. “If we share a desired out­come and have invested in the design, we have a far bet­ter oppor­tu­nity to make it a reality.”

Media Con­tact: Dianne Ander­son (505) 277‑1807; email: danderson@unm.edu