Planning Process

Process Overview

Elon University’s culture of inclusive strategic planning has led to decades of success. In early 2019, as Elon entered the final year of the Elon Commitment strategic plan, President Connie Ledoux Book and the Board of Trustees began the process of creating the university’s next strategic plan. The process was led by a Strategic Planning Committee chaired by trustee Kerrii Anderson ’79 and Jeff Stein, vice president for strategic initiatives. The committee included students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni and trustees, and the goal was to involve all members of the Elon community in the planning process.

Additional Planning Process Resources

Strategic Plan Timeline

  • Spring 2018

    President Connie Book became Elon’s 9th president on March 1, 2018. Her strategic listening tour with students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and boards and councils – and their feedback on Elon’s strengths and areas for improvement – served as the foundation for the strategic planning process.

  • Fall 2018

    In August 2018 President Book announced the strategic planning process and appointed the Strategic Planning Committee. The committee was charged with “consulting widely and forming partnerships with students, faculty, staff, the Board of Trustees, alumni, parents, community partners and other stakeholders to develop the vision and direction of the next strategic plan for Elon University” and “consider and address the challenges and opportunities facing Elon and higher education.” During the fall, strategic planning conversations began at the department, unit, division, and school-wide levels utilizing a Strategic Plan Guidebook, campus-wide listening sessions, and the appointment of six Community Working Groups. The strategic plan survey was sent to more than 55,000 constituents.

  • Spring 2019

    The Strategic Planning Committee met for an off-site retreat in January to begin distilling information from campus listening sessions and data from the 5500 survey respondents and 10,000 open ended responses into strategic objectives. Campus-wide conversations continued into the spring, with committee members bringing survey data to the campus for continued feedback and to begin developing themes for the plan. More than 300 faculty, staff, students, Trustees, and council members gathered for a culminating spring feedback session that led into the committee’s June strategic planning retreat.

  • Summer 2019

    The June retreat included committee members, community working group leaders, and senior staff, and focused on developing plan themes. Following the retreat 7 committee members, led by the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, drafted the first version of the plan. The rest of the summer was spent revising those drafts in preparation for the fall.

  • Fall 2019

    President Book announced the plan themes and introduced the draft version of the plan at the opening of school address in August. Throughout the fall, campus constituents were invited to give feedback on the draft through campus-wide feedback sessions. The Board of Trustees met in October to review and comment on the draft. After revisions from the committee, the Board approved the plan on December 5, 2019.

  • Spring 2020

    The Boldly Elon plan was officially launched on campus in February 2020. The spring semester will include developing implementation and assessment protocols, building working groups to tackle key initiatives, and continuing conversations to link the plan to department and unit-level goals