Commission Gustavus 150

Creating the Strategic Framework

The Gustavus Adolphus College Board of Trustees has developed this report outlining a framework to implement the College's Strategic Plan. In October 2008, the Board established Commission Gustavus 150 to engage all of the College's constituent groups in developing recommendations for the future advancement of Gustavus. The work of the Commissions eight Task Forces resulted in a final report outlining 439 recommendations.

In May and June 2009, faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni, and other Commission participants provided input from a survey of constituents on the level of importance of each recommendation for the Board to review.

Substantive Categories

During the summer of 2009, similar recommendations from the Task Forces were merged resulting in 385 recommendations which were then regrouped into seven substantive categories. The substantive categories were designed to draw together common themes among the eight Task Forces.

  • Cultural Perspectives
  • Lifelong Engagement
  • Partnerships and Collaborations
  • Personal Growth and Development
  • Quality-Enhancing and Innovative Initiatives
  • Spiritual Growth and Development
  • Tangible Resources

Placement in Tiers

At a three-day workshop in August 2009, the Gustavus Board of Trustees reviewed the recommendations in substantive categories and placed each recommendation in a tier based upon its relative urgency to the Colleges future advancement.

Tier 1
Initiate as soon as possible with substantial progress demonstrated over the next three years.
Tier 2
Initiate as soon as possible with substantial progress demonstrated over the next six years.
Tier 3
Initiate when appropriate with substantial progress demonstrated over the next ten years.

The tiers do not represent the intrinsic value of the individual recommendations. The urgency is a judgment the Board ultimately made after reviewing the results of the survey of constituents regarding a particular recommendation and when it should be initiated.

Creating a Framework

Prioritization of the recommendations based upon the level of urgency provides a framework for initiating the goals established by Commission Gustavus 150.

The framework will provide a foundation for a major fundraising campaign and will indicate what Gustavus needs to accomplish as the College strategically aligns for its future advancement.

For the purposes of this report, similar recommendations within the same substantive category and tier were merged resulting in 263 recommendations. The original recommendations listed by Task Force (439) and by substantive category (385) will be listed in their entirety on this website.