More than a month after Laurentian University’s board of governors approved the university’s 2024-2029 strategic plan, the university officially launched the plan March 27 during a town hall meeting.
Interim president Sheila Embleton, speaking on her second-last day on the job at Laurentian before LU’s new permanent president, Lynn Wells, begins her role, said this is due to the Feb. 18 cyber attack on Laurentian.
The university’s IT systems still have not fully recovered following the cyber attack, which occurred just two days after the strategic plan received final approval from the board.
“It feels a bit sort of after-the-fact in some ways, (but) it's actually not that much more than a month since all of this was passed,” she said.
“But the pace of things is such that it probably feels like ancient history, or does to me anyway. But I encourage you to look on the website. One of the issues around releasing the strat plan was, of course, we didn't have a website for a while, and it seemed difficult to release when you don't have a website to point to.”
Developing a new strategic plan was one of Laurentian University’s legal obligations following its 2021-22 insolvency, along with developing an operational transformation plan.
“I don't know of any other university which has undertaken two such huge plans at the same time, and really in record speed, working against mandated timelines,” she said. “So bravo to us all for getting it done.”
A press release issued by the university said the strategic plan is entitled “Laurentian’s Plan for Connection, Innovation, and Impact,” and identifies a vision, a mission, values, and four key priorities as the focus of the academic institution over the next five years.
“While developing the strategic plan, it was also clear that to a certain extent, the values we were to define would be somewhat aspirational, given the harm that the challenges of the last few years have done to our community culture,” said Embleton, presumably referring to LU’s 2021-22 insolvency.
The development of the strategic plan began in July 2023 and featured extensive participation from the Laurentian community, said the press release.
Workshops, consultations, town halls and surveys were conducted to gather and organize invaluable feedback from students, staff and faculty.
To help with the in-depth process, StrategyCorp was hired as the strategic plan consultant. Together with the university’s planning committee, the input and perspectives of more than 2,500 people within the Laurentian community were collected and analyzed.
The implementation of this plan is now underway, as success indicators are in development. In the coming months, the academic and research plans will have an important role in defining how key elements of the strategic plan will be implemented.
“I believe this plan reflects the diversity of the community while bringing together realistic goals that reflect the university's identity and potential,” said Embleton. “This plan sets out a positive path forward through a clear articulation of who we are, where we are going and the shared priorities that will focus our actions towards achievement.”
Laurentian 2024-2029 strategic plan highlights
Vision: Bring the power of Northern Ontario values, resilience, innovation, and Indigenous ways of knowing to the world.
Mission: Prepare the leaders of tomorrow through an inclusive, intellectually curious and connected bilingual and tricultural learning community.
Values: Community, Integrity, Student Success, Stewardship, Collaboration
Strategic Directions:
- Enhancing our Student Experience
- Energizing our Academic and Research Mission
- Building Up the Communities We Serve
- Valuing and Supporting our People
Identified goals in the strategic plan include:
- Becoming the northern university of choice through recruitment locally, provincially, nationally and internationally;
- Enhancing extracurriculars;
- Refreshing Laurentian’s campus master plan;
- Expanding academic and research excellence in areas of northern impact, such as mining and critical minerals;
- Re-imagining the Laurentian Voyageurs varsity brand;
- Transforming Laurentian’s operations following insolvency, and;
- Improving the university’s governance.
You can view the full strategic plan online here.
