{"id":14681,"date":"2015-12-30T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=14681"},"modified":"2015-12-30T12:00:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T17:00:56","slug":"reflecting-back-and-looking-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/reflecting-back-and-looking-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nHappy New Year from campus. The start of a new year and a new semester is a good time to pause and reflect on the year just completed and look ahead to what comes next.
\n2015 was a year of many achievements and accomplishments \u2014 more than can be listed here. We continue to rank among the nation\u2019s top public universities, we set records in undergraduate applications and private fundraising, and we made progress on the largest construction initiative in Clemson\u2019s history.
\nWe advanced efforts to enhance diversity and build a culture of inclusive excellence through the re-creation of the Harvey and Lucinda Gantt Multicultural Center, launch of the President\u2019s Lecture Series on Leadership and Diversity, appointment of a \u2028new Diversity Advisory Council and work of a Board of Trustees task force on how to document and tell the full story of \u2028Clemson\u2019s history.
\nAs this magazine went to press, our men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer teams were heading into the NCAA tournaments, both seeded \u2028No. 2, and the football team was finishing up an incredible \u2028undefeated season and headed for post-season play.
\nBy any measure, it was an exceptional year. So as we look forward to 2016 and beyond, what\u2019s next?
\nMuch of what comes next at Clemson will be driven by a new strategic plan that will be presented to the Board of Trustees for approval next month. We call it ClemsonForward, because it\u2019s about constantly moving forward, striving to reach greater heights and preparing Clemson for the next 50 years.
\nClemsonForward is built on the success of the previous strategic plan \u2014 the 2020 Road Map \u2014 and remains true to our Top 20 vision. The planning process elicited hundreds of ideas and recommendations from faculty, staff and students through committees, town meetings and online discussions. Many common threads and themes emerged, which we have distilled into the following strategic priorities:
\n\u2022 R<\/strong>esearch \u2014 to drive innovation and economic growth, solve problems and build a strong national academic reputation.
\n\u2022 E<\/strong>ngagement \u2014 the cornerstone of the Road Map and essence of the land-grant mission.
\n\u2022 A<\/strong>cademic Core \u2014 the central teaching, learning and student support mission.
\n\u2022 L<\/strong>iving \u2014 that is, the quality of the campus as a beautiful, supportive and nurturing place to live, work and learn, which has always been a treasured part of the Clemson experience.
\nYou may have noticed that the acronym spells \u201cREAL\u201d \u2014 a word that came up frequently throughout the planning process, expressed in many ways:
\n\u2022 Real impact on the great challenges of our time.
\n\u2022 Real-world experiences that prepare students for success after graduation.
\n\u2022 Real family \u2014 supportive, inclusive and respectful.
\n\u2022 Real solutions to real problems facing our state and nation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not surprising, because we were founded in 1889 to solve real problems and find real solutions, and that remains the essence of the land-grant mission.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s not that Clemson was not \u201creal\u201d in the past. The University has been in the Top 25 for eight consecutive years, and it\u2019s time to cement our place in that company. We believe the ClemsonForward plan will help us do just that.
\nA critical component of the plan is a reorganization that creates seven new colleges, including a College of Science, a College of Business and a College of Education. All colleges will have departmental realignments, even if the names don\u2019t change, that are intended to sharpen their mission focus, support recruitment of outstanding academic talent and increase the opportunities for national prominence.
\nThroughout 2016, you will see tangible signs that the plan is being implemented. In January, we will open the Watt Family Innovation Center as a hub of engagement and entrepreneurship, and over the next few months we will erect new historical markers to document the role of Native Americans and African Americans in our early history, develop a capital improvement plan for research and academics, and launch major new research initiatives.
\nClemsonForward truly reflects the energy and attitude of Clemson\u2019s DNA, which is built on core attributes of vision, drive, determination, optimism, family \u2014 and, yes, competitiveness, as we look to make a positive difference for our students, state and nation.
\nYou can find more about ClemsonForward online at clemson.edu\/forward<\/a><\/em>.
\nGo Tigers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year from campus. The start of a new year and a new semester is a good time to pause and reflect on the year just completed and look ahead to what comes next. 2015 was a year of many achievements and accomplishments \u2014 more than can be listed here. We continue to rank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":14683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[2291,2371,3299],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-14681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-view-from-sikes","tag-president-clements","tag-reflecting-back-and-looking-ahead","tag-winter-2016"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/12\/President-Jim-Clements.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14681"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}