Vision Statement

To:        UTM Community

From:    Amrita Daniere, Vice Principal, Academic and Dean

              Ulli Krull, Interim Vice-President and Principal

              Bryan Stewart, Vice Principal, Research

Re:        UTM Vision Statement (Final)

Date:    January 19, 2017

Today we are pleased to post the UTM Vision Statement. This final version includes a great many of the suggestions generously provided to us over the past three months via feedback sessions, focus groups and the UTM Dean’s website as well as through individual submissions from our dedicated faculty and staff and inspiring alumni and students. The document includes a brief mission statement, a vision statement and a list of attributes that are encompassed within UTM’s identity. 

The need for a UTM Vision Statement that describes UTM’s identity was recognized by the campus-wide external review that took place during the 2015-16 academic year.  The review suggested that while UTM can boast of enthusiastic students, exceptional faculty, dedicated staff and a lovely campus, the rapid growth in enrolment and hiring that has occurred in the past decade has been somewhat haphazard and did not coalesce around a central vision.  Consequently, UTM needs to use our next Academic Plan (which must follow an external review) to create consensus around its future and to start using investments in programming to further specific goals and objectives consistent with a shared vision and purpose.

As such, we committed to crafting a Vision for UTM before creating an Academic Plan this academic (2016-17) year. Consensus around the Vision is the first step in a year-long academic and strategic planning initiative that will build upon UTM’s existing strengths in a creative and forward-thinking manner.

As many of you are aware, we have struck a Strategic Planning Task Force, composed of members of the UTM community, to help develop the content of the UTM Academic and Strategic Plan.  The Task Force is working with an external consultant, Karyn Dumble of The Monarch Park Group, who has extensive experience in advising organizations about strategic planning processes.  The consultant will help ensure that all of the estates of the UTM community are represented, facilitate discussion and help guide the consensus-driven process. The Task Force will also review all of the materials submitted by individuals and departments that speak to specific future directions and proposals, particularly in terms of how they advance UTM’s Vision.  We invite departments and individuals to submit additional materials for the Task Force to consider by March 17th, 2017 to Anuar Rodrigues (anuar.rodrigues@utoronto.ca) at the Dean’s Office.

The Task Force will use the Vision Statement to develop goals and objectives, set priorities and create a roadmap to implement the Vision via the Plan over the next five years.  The Task Force will also hold open sessions to solicit verbal feedback from members of the UTM community and will seek to work particularly closely with Chairs, Directors and others in leadership positions. We hope to create a draft Academic and Strategic Plan by the middle of May 2017, which we will distribute for feedback, and release a final Academic and Strategic Plan by the end of June 2017. The Plan will need to go through governance at UTM and at the St. George campus before we can actually begin to use the ideas in the plan to guide future investments and decision-making on the UTM campus.

We would like to thank you for all your enthusiastic participation so far.  We can sincerely state that we look forward to working with you in a transparent and inclusive manner on the next steps of this important process.

Download Vision Statement