Photo L to R: Vice President Emerita JoEllen Wilson (RU1961), Trustee Trea Pipkin (RU2001), Trustee Randell Trammell (RU2003, 2009)
Planning a clear, strategic, and unified direction for the institution remains an important objective for Reinhardt University’s leadership. About 35 members of the Board of Trustees and the President’s Cabinet recently met for a three-day retreat and workshop.
President Mark A. Roberts, Ph.D. explained the main topics as enrollment, academic and extracurricular programming, master planning and campus infrastructure, and partnerships, affiliations, and networks. The administration presented the board various strategies and goals around those topics for clarification, investigation, and support.
“As a leadership team, the president’s administration and the board must collaborate, work together, and be on the same page about where we’re going. This includes what programs we want to start, what enrollment we need to sustain, stabilize, and grow the institution, how we want to use the land and the campus for our educational mission, and who we need to partner with to accomplish all this,” explained Dr. Roberts. “When an administration and the board are in concert together it makes for a clearer, more unified direction.”
The next steps include articulating in writing the strategic position of the institution. This will clarify the strategic plan and the administrative work that needs to occur and provide the ability to monitor progress.
With the Great Pandemic mostly behind us, this became the first opportunity for the group to work together in a concentrated manner. Dr. Roberts recognized this was the right time to meet and to build the bonds of relationships and trust with new and long-serving members of the Board and administration.
Board Vice-Chair Sharon Bartels reflected on the workshop’s benefits, “We developed a better understanding of all the committee work that occurs outside of the full Board meetings. We also discovered the strengths of each Board member and became a stronger and more cohesive unit.”
“I appreciate being able to work with a board that sees a prosperous future for Reinhardt,” said Dr. Roberts.
