The 2020 Vision emerged through an open, participatory process. In early December 2013, members of the NJIT community were invited, in the spirit of shared governance, to participate in strategic planning. More than 200 faculty, administrators, students, alumni, and board members joined five committees and numerous sub-committees to design the objectives and strategies. Out of these committees emerged specific reports for five areas: students, learning, scholarly research, community, and investment.
These community-generated reports ran to over 150 pages of text which were edited for consistency, completeness, and then combined into a shorter Unified Committee Report, which was shared with the community at large and used as a basis for presentation to the Board of Trustees and senior staff. Using their responses, the plan was reduced, reorganized, and prioritized to form the concise 2020 Vision, maintaining the essential spirit and content of the Unified Committee Report.
Writing the final 2020 Vision was an extended process. Drafts of the priorities, objectives, strategies, and tactics faced detailed review by the deans, senior staff, and a dedicated committee of the Faculty Senate, in addition to a four-month period for open comment by the NJIT community. To the extent possible, all concerns and criticisms were addressed and reconciled in subsequent iterations. Only at the end, after all stakeholders had responded, was the community’s vision distilled into a concise document, the 2020 Vision.