Bradley Briefing

President Stephen Standifird provides a "Bradley Briefing" to give the Bradley community a high level overview of some of the projects, happenings and operational changes at the university.

Strategic Planning Update

We are now four months into the strategic planning process and have made significant headway toward the creation of a new strategic plan. The bulk of our efforts to date have been associated with collecting detailed data to use as input for the process. We have had a multitude of individuals engaged in this process:

• Focus Group Conveners
• Strategic Profile Faculty-Staff Team
• Environmental and Industry Analysis Faculty-Staff Team
• Competitive Assessment Faculty-Staff Team
• University Strategic Planning Committee
• Strategic Leadership Group

The next stage in this process is for the Strategic Planning Group to use this input to begin mapping out a vision and positioning statement for the university. The Strategic Planning Group will then work with the University Strategic Planning Committee to create a series of strategic activities. The intent is to have a plan ready for approval by the Board of Trustees at their July 2021 meeting.

The process does not end in July. Our strategy will continue to develop and evolve as we shift into execution and continue to adapt to our changing environment. We hosted a number of open forums earlier in the semester and will do so in the fall as we work collectively to bring the strategy to life.

HLC Accreditation Visit and the Importance of Relationships

Our HLC Visit Team was on campus early this week. In their final meeting with me, the team was incredibly complimentary regarding the collaborative spirit on campus. In particular, they commended the way you supported each other through this last year. It was a great reminder of the depth and power of the relationships that define who we are as an institution.

I look forward to the day when we can engage in face-to-face conversations, but am comforted in knowing this strength of community perseveres at Bradley University, even in the most complicated of environments. More information about our HLC accreditation visit can be found here. Thank you to the many individuals involved in making this visit a success. A special shout out goes to Jenny Gruening Burge and Molly Cluskey for leading this effort.

In-Person Commencement Plans

We currently plan to hold in-person Commencement ceremonies May 14, 15 and 16. We’ll conduct a total of seven different ceremonies with separate ceremonies for our 2020 graduates, the Graduate School and each of the university’s colleges. More information about Commencement ceremony plans can be found here.

We are hosting Commencement over three days to be able to observe appropriate COVID-19 protocol. We are also limiting the number of individuals involved in each of the ceremonies. The platform party has been reduced significantly. Each graduate is allowed four guests only, and tickets will be required for entry into the Commencement venue. Seating will be assigned to comply with contact tracing and social distancing guidelines set forth by the State of Illinois. The ceremony will be live-streamed for guests who are unable to attend.

Any and all commencement ceremonies may be canceled due to changing State of Illinois COVID-19 regulations. While the conditions are less than ideal, I am delighted we are able to engage in an in-person Commencement ceremony to celebrate the achievements of our students. A most sincere thank you to Kathy Peters and her colleagues in Advancement for pulling together all the details to make this possible.