Department of Geography Strategic Plan 2021-2026
A preliminary survey of the faculty was conducted in November 2019, “Geography Department Priorities and Mission.” There were 15 responses. In surveying which priorities we had for building an excellent department, the priorities receiving the most responses as “extremely important” were in order as follows (See Appendix for full list of departmental priorities and mean scores):
- Excellence in research
- Collegiality and mutual support
- Ethical behavior in teaching and research
- Excellence in graduate student mentoring
- Public-facing research and outreach
During Spring semester of 2020, a representative group of department citizens including faculty, staff, lecturers, and students identified large overall themes that the department of geography needed to address that touched all aspects of our community.
In the following 2020-2021 Academic Year, the whole faculty and graduate student body were surveyed several times to populate those themes with concrete action items that will catalyze latent, cross-disciplinary potential in our interactions with each other, allied departments and researchers across campus, and our own research agendas. To slowly integrate these initiatives and build capacity, we have identified a tiered approach that will space out the initiation of each tier and the responsibilities of the department citizens working on individual initiatives. This strategy will allow committees to learn as they go and follow new avenues of inspiration as each group progresses.
An additional departmental initiative identified through our surveys was Transportation and Mobility. We as a department have decided to table this initiative for now but will revisit in the future.