Strategic Governance 87
While the content of strategy documents is not subject to the legislative
control of the faculty or of faculty or staff committees, the SPC will function in
the context of Flagship’s traditions of collaborative decision making and shared
governance. As a result, the SPC will present its major periodic strategy plans to
the faculty senate for consideration and endorsement. Although the SPC owns
its reports, the deliberations of the faculty senate, other faculty councils, and key
administrators provide a testing ground for the strategies as they move to the
governing board. Should the faculty senate vote for changes in the the SPC’s
recommendations and priorities, the SPC will deliberate on the issue and then
either alter its report or include any negative faculty action as a dissent to be
noted in the report.
When the SPC’s goals and priorities are ultimately adopted by the governing
board, then various faculty committees and administrative groups and officers
will be expected to consider the enactment of new academic or administrative
programs that have been featured in the plan. The SPC will analyze and present
the proposed changes in the context of integrated strategic priorities. As a result,
the process will not circumvent the normal academic system of decision making,
since legislative authority for academic programs will remain with the faculty.
Planning and Budgeting
The SPC can also play a vital role in the critical process of connecting strategy
with operating budgets on a continuous basis. The commission is aware that one
of the constant challenges in college and university decision making is relating
strategic goals to the tactical realities that often drive the annual budgeting pro-
cess. The SPC, in particular, will be in a position to assist in shaping the broad
parameters and priorities of each budget cycle and relating it to the goals of the
strategic plan and to the financial model that is included in the strategy pro-
cess. Thus, the SPC will review and deliberate annually on the key components
of the university’s revenues and expenses. It will be able to recommend to the
president the amount of funding available for new positions and programs, or the
way spending should be restrained or reduced to reflect strategic priorities.
The commission believes that the SPC would best carry out some aspects of these
financial responsibilities through a standing subcommittee of faculty and adminis-
trative officers. The subcommittee would entertain proposals or set broad criteria
for new expenditures for programs and personnel and do the same if reductions are
necessary, based on information received from the various academic and admin-
istrative units. After receiving recommendations from the subcommittee and the
SPC, the president will make the final decisions on the budget.
Leadership and Membership
The SPC’s leadership and membership will contribute critically to its effec-
tiveness, which will require it to be relatively small in size, as the literature sug-
gests. The university’s president and chief academic and business officers will be
continuing members, and two other executives will be chosen by the president