While the administration deserves praise for seeing the need to set Tech on the road to success, the path laid out with the new strategic plan is unclear. The document itself has good ideas within it, but many of the objectives are vague and seem to be goals that Tech has already laid out for itself and is striving to achieve. The year of work put into the plan was certainly not wasted, but the groundbreaking aspects that were expected with this drawn out process seem to have not yet materialized in this document.
The initiatives laid out by President Peterson at the unveiling of the strategic plan, however, do not provide a clear direction Tech has been steered in. More concrete ideas will be greatly welcomed in the future to better illustrate this somewhat obscure road map. It is understandable that tangibles may be difficult to obtain when dealing with a 25-year plan, but that might be an indication that the new plan attempts to look too far into the future and has shortcomings in dealing with the present. A potential short term strategic plan to accompany this long term plan may ease much of the lack of confusion within the verbose manifesto and clearly establish a direction to meet the long term goals.
But the strategic plans missed a bold opportunity to move the Institute forward in one key area in particular. In order to enhance the excellence in scholarship and research, Tech must look outside of its “targeted reputational areas” and work to enhance all aspects of the Institute, including every College and possibly further expand. Tech has achieved some of the highest accolades in engineering that most schools could hope to attain. There is still work to be done, but Tech must also push its own intellectual boundaries if it hopes to define not only the technological university of the 21st century, but a multifaceted one as well.