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Principal Patrick Deane's Working Groups for strategy implementation are intended to identify operational priorities to support each of the strategic goals articulated within the Strategic Framework. Since the overall aim is to maximize the impact of the university in society and in the world at large, the working groups’ focus should be on initiatives that hold the promise of increasing such impact. Coordination and collaboration between groups is highly desirable where appropriate and will be supported and facilitated. The university, as is stated in the opening of the new vision statement, is “a community.”

Discussion in the groups should occur at the conceptual level and avoid becoming bogged down in implementation detail. At the same time, however, this is not an entirely “blue sky” exercise, and aspirational thinking needs to be paired with pragmatism and practical good sense. In the next phase, the initiatives from the working groups will be subsumed in an operational plan that will allow the university to track its progress and measure its success.

There are six working groups to align with the six strategic goals articulated in the Strategic Framework. Besides conducting themselves in a spirit of collaboration, they will also act to advance institutional values as laid out in the Strategic Framework, ensuring that their deliberations and their recommendations express our commitment to truth, responsibility, respect, freedom and well-being.

It is expected that the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will to some degree inform discussion in most of the groups, so there is no separate working group devoted to that subject, despite its obvious importance. To ensure coordination, an SDG reference committee has been established that will be chaired by the Principal and will serve as a resource and a coordinating mechanism for the six groups in their engagement with the SDGs.^{See Footnote 1}

Because our intention is to make global engagement a fully integrated element in all our operations, it is likely that international is another subject on which the groups will want to collaborate. In that case, working group #4 will serve as the reference committee and point of coordination. Working group #4 will be drawn from the existing Internationalization planning group and will be chaired by Sandra den Otter.

Working groups have been established with a specific membership and a designated faculty chair, and include membership pulled from faculty, Senate, staff and students. While membership is limited, it is meant to reflect the community base, with participants chosen due to their experience and expertise. To ensure wide community engagement, public consultation will be a necessary component of the work of all groups and the Principal’s Office will help to administratively coordinate public postings and the collection of feedback and commentary to help inform the process of the working groups as they develop, draft and ultimately, finalize their proposed operational priorities.

A Steering Committee, chaired by the Principal, with membership comprised of working group Chairs, members of the Senior Leadership Team and the Deans, will oversee the whole process and ultimately create the new operational plan to support the implementation of the university’s strategy for the future

1. Other members are Sandra den Otter, Michael Fraser, Donna Janiec, Warren Mabee, and Heather Cole.