Strategic Planning for the College of Liberal Arts, 2026

To strengthen our position as a leader in innovative liberal arts education in the higher education landscape of today and tomorrow, how should the RIT College of Liberal Arts focus its efforts?

This is “the big question” the COLA Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) invites students, faculty, staff, and alumni to help tackle this year as it endeavors to draft a five-year strategic plan for the College of Liberal Arts.

Because your input matters, a broad range of perspective-sharing opportunities aims to make it easy to share your thoughts all year through. Please bookmark and refer back to this page for progress updates and more and watch your email for special invitations for your participation.

This effort aims to build from the momentum created by the College of Liberal Arts 2024-25 Strategic Bridge Plan (pdf document), while also envisioning future goals and pathways toward them.

Timeline

January - March 2026, Perspective gathering and research: The Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) deploys efforts to capture a broad range of perspectives, research, and data points that can identify and prioritize strategic efforts.
April-May, Analysis of perspectives gathered, research, and other data: The SPSC reviews and synthesizes surveys, focus group findings, research data, and other resources.
June-August, Drafting the COLA strategic plan and steps for implementation: Informed by research and feedback, the SPSC drafts a strategic plan and charts out a recommended timeline and process for implementation.
September, College-wide review and feedback of strategic plan and implementation: The SPSC shares the plan with our COLA community and seeks and collects feedback.
October, Fine-tunings of plan based on feedback: The SPSC revises the plan to reflect feedback.
November, Final plan presented: The SPSC publishes and shares the final plan.
January 2027, New plan begins.

Share Your Perspectives

Check back here for opportunities throughout this process for you to share your perspectives, such as:

Strategic Priority Identification and Prioritization Surveys.
Open, Ongoing Suggestion Form: Any time inspiration hits you during this process, you can complete and submit this form to share a thought with the SPSC. You can choose to do so anonymously or not.
Strategic Plan and Implementation Process Feedback Surveys: Following review of the proposed plan and implementation process, you’ll have a chance to share your feedback through this survey.
Friendly Feedback Sessions: Scheduled feedback sessions in person and via Zoom during the spring semester will be conversations at which you can share your ideas and perspectives.