University Planning Advisory Council

Strategic planning at Southwest Baptist University is coordinated through the University Planning Advisory Council, or UPAC. Operating in an advisory capacity to the president, UPAC helps coordinate a year-long planning process every five years in which the mission, vision, core values are examined, and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is performed.

At the conclusion of this process, every five years, UPAC hosts a summer long-range planning retreat (2003 Long-range Planning Retreat). In addition to UPAC representatives, retreat participants include representatives from the faculty, staff, administration, student body and Board of Trustees. The participants develop the strategic initiatives that serve as a focal point for the University for the following five years (The 2003-2008 Strategic Initiatives are on page 4 of the 2003-2008 Strategic Plan).

Each year, UPAC's committees, which are structured around each of the strategic initiatives, meet and recommend annual objectives for the University to accomplish. After discussion in UPAC, the president and the Executive Cabinet discuss and adopt the final list of annual University objectives.

Documents and information on the the Strategic Planning/UPAC web pages include planning reports, the 2003-2008 Strategic Plan, UPAC membership and the six strategic initiatives for 2003-2008 (page 4 of the 2003-2008 Strategic Plan). The University's annual objectives also are available for viewing. In the minutes of the UPAC meetings, you can follow the progress made toward each objective and strategic initiative.

Meeting Frequency/Schedule
UPAC meets once each semester (usually in late September or early October during the fall semester and usually in April during the spring semester) and once in the summer. The summer 2006 meeting has not yet been scheduled.

Committees
UPAC members are assigned to one of the following six standing committees: Communication and Service, Continuous Improvement, Enrollment Management, Institutional Quality of Life, Integrated Marketing, and Spiritual Development. These committees make reports at each UPAC meeting and are responsible for working on annual objectives, which are assigned to each committee as deemed appropriate by UPAC, the Executive Cabinet, and the president.