After the final graduate student forum conducted by Ohio University's Five-Year Academic Action Plan Committee last week, participants ' both faculty and students ' said they had more questions than answers.
While it is to be expected that all information might not yet be known, the questions, which mainly concern funding and the difference between the Vision Ohio plan and the implementation plan, need to be answered.
Whatever happens with the five-year plan, it is extremely important that the plan does not go the route of Vision Ohio itself and become merely a symbol of progress, a bunch of banners on Park Place and an oft-repeated but ultimately nebulous phrase with little meaning to students and faculty. This plan needs to have concrete, achievable goals ' so concrete that they can be explained to students and no speaker or writer has to resort to defining it as OU's comprehensive plan for the future
which means that no one actually has any idea what it means.
Unfortunately, time is running out. The Five-Year Academic Action Plan Committee has to submit its findings by Nov. 15 to Executive Vice President and Provost Kathy Krendl. By that time, it can be hoped that graduate students and faculty will have their questions answered and their contributions heard. Unfortunately, with OU's track record of intracollege relations, that seems entirely too optimistic.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the executive editors.
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Five-year plan should be more than words
