Seeking Input

M. Katherine Banks
President

October 25, 2021

Faculty, staff and students:

During my first weeks as president, I held listening sessions with the leadership of our colleges and schools, faculty, staff, students, former students and other key stakeholders, to hear their challenges, opportunities and ideas.

In addition to listening sessions, I also focused on learning. I reviewed many strategic plans that were developed throughout various units, university-wide.

Over the past four months, one of the premier consultancies in higher education has reviewed our administrative functions and structure.

The report of the findings and recommendations has been provided to Texas A&M. The next step in our process is critically important: receiving reaction and feedback by the entire university community regarding the recommendations in the report.

The report has been posted online at feedback.tamu.edu. I invite you to review the report and provide your thoughts on the website form.

Input will be accepted on this website over the next two weeks. We are utilizing an external firm to collect and analyze the input to ensure a thorough and unbiased evaluation. This will allow me and our leadership team to review all the information in an efficient manner.

I want to underscore the importance of sharing your feedback. All perspectives are important and will be considered. The survey asks for name, UIN and connection to the university. This information will not be provided to the university in the analysis; it is intended to provide the firm with a sense of respondent representation.

After thorough review of the input, I anticipate announcing in early December which recommendations will be accepted, rejected, modified or require further study.

Next steps will include the formation of an implementation oversight committee and working groups. Nominations will be requested to identify those to serve on these groups.

Forums will be held to discuss implementation. Again, your feedback at that time will be a crucial part of our process.

I look forward to your participation as we move forward.

M. Katherine Banks
President