Our Community, Our Vision: A Day Long Conversation About Our Collective Future
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Please save the date: Thursday, March 9 from 9 am - 5 pm
Our Community, Our Vision: A Day Long Conversation About Our Collective Future
After a year of intense work and involvement from many members of the community, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee is ready to share its work for your feedback and comment.
A full day of participatory and collective imagining sessions will be held based on the progress to date of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. Attendees will be engaged in critical conversations in response to the committee's draft values and draft goals, as well as consider together what shared strategies and priorities will accelerate our progress towards a thriving tomorrow.
We have selected a day with no scheduled classes to facilitate broad participation.
Exact schedule is below, but the event will begin at 9 am in Greenwall Auditorium, and sessions will continue through the day. Events will be in-person, and all who are able to attend in-person are encouraged to do so. A live stream option will be made available to fully remote employees at most sessions, with exact details confirmed on the schedule. We also recognize some employees may not be able to attend all sessions, and are designing the day to allow for joining some but not all sessions.
Schedule:
Opening Session
9:00-9:15AM | Greenwall Auditorium
Opening Performance,Joe Alpar, Music Faculty
Land Acknowledgment, Muhammad Ammar ‘24
Welcome, Laura Walker, President
Overview of the Day. Maurice Hall, Provost
Valuing Our Voices Together
9:15-9:20AM | Greenwall Auditorium
Facilitated by:
Xiomara Giordano, Associate Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
The Community We Value
9:20-9:30AM | Greenwall Auditorium
A participatory activity that will center the remarkable individuals that make up Bennington, and their attributes and qualities we admire.
Facilitated by:
Annika Owenmark '25
Alfredo Medina, Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
The Values of Our Community
9:30-10:45AM | Greenwall Auditorium
Join us for an in depth conversation as we work together to identify and refine the shared values we aspire to live as a community.
Facilitated Conversation by:
Sawyer London '24
Oceana Wilson, Dean of the Library
Our Goals for Our Collective Future
11:00-12:15PM | Greenwall Auditorium
What challenges must we confront today, and what goals must we set and hit tomorrow to assure Bennington's thriving future? Join members of the work groups for participatory conversations across a broad range of topics from Field Work Term, advising and The Plan, to the first year experience, wellness, critical partnerships and wild innovations. Help us refine the strategies, discover our shared priorities, and name our shared and motivating inquiries.
Introduction of Session by:
Maurice Hall, Provost & Chair of Strategic Planning
Facilitation by:
Students, Staff, and Faculty members of work groups
Lunch
12:15-1:30PM | Commons for students & staff | CAPA Symposium for Faculty
Note: Faculty are invited for CAPA Symposium for for a faculty only convening from 12:15 - 3:30pm
Adaptive Framework Plan
1:30-2:30PM | Commons Atrium
Note: Open to students & staff; faculty invited to CAPA Symposium for faculty only convening
From the moment the Barn was converted in 1931 from a building for livestock to a building for faculty, staff and students at a progressive new college, Bennington's campus has been defined by a continual process of adaptation. As we look towards the college's 100th anniversary, how will we adapt to the evolving needs of our community while minimizing our impact on the planet? Join us for a presentation and discussion of Bennington's Adaptive Framework Plan project, which is organizing a collection of ideas with the potential to answer this question.
With presentation by:
Andy Schlatter, VP of Facilities Management & Planning
Members of the Adaptive Framework Working Group
Telling the Bennington Story
2:30-3:15PM| Commons Atrium
Note: Open to students & staff; faculty invited to CAPA Symposium for faculty only convening
One of our current challenges is to tell the Bennington story in ways that reflect its educational excellence and excite others to join us. We are partnering with Paula Scher and Pentagram, the world’s largest independently owned design consultancy, to develop key messages for prospective students and a new viewbook. We will also evaluate and refresh the look and feel of the College’s visual style. While the principal audience is prospective students and their families, it will also support fundraising. This session will reflect back what the team heard during the initial interview and research phase and a conversation will follow to help hone the findings into core messages that reflect our community.
With presentation by:
Jeffrey Perkins, VP for Communications & Marketing
Paula Scher, Principal of Pentagram
3:15-3:30PM Break
Where To From Here?
3:30-5:00PM | Greenwall Auditorium
Wrap Up by:
Laura Walker, President
Maurice Hall, Provost & Chair of Strategic Planning
and Special Performance
About Strategic Planning at Bennington:
The Strategic Planning Steering Committee was convened in February, and held its first meeting on February 24, 2022, receiving its charge from president Laura Walker. The committee is an 18 person group nominated, appointed, and charged by the president, comprising college leadership, staff, faculty, student, alumni, and a trustee representative. The Committee is chaired by Provost Maurice Hall. The original charge of the Steering Committee was to “unify and synthesize the strategic proceedings and conversations that have already begun and to develop a framework and priorities that will be the foundation of a strategic plan and financial model to be crafted with senior leadership and the board,” and specifically deliver a strategic plan complete with (a) a unifying and shared vision for the College’s future (b) a mission statement (c) a set of shared values.
The mission statement development occurred over the spring and summer of 2022, engaging more than 230 community members in live feedback sessions, and an additional 150 respondents via electronic survey. The board unanimously approved the mission in September of 2022. During the summer and fall of 2022, four additional work groups comprised of faculty, staff and students were appointed and began efforts to transform the “four building blocks” president Walker had identified into concrete goals and supporting objectives.
The steering committee aims to deliver a strategic plan complete with the following component parts: (a) finalized mission statement; (b) shared values; (c) aspirational goals; (d) concrete and actionable strategies; and a dynamic decisioning framework & tool that will assist the College in model of continuous improvement and “living” the implementation of the strategic plan.
Learn more here.