Two weeks ago, Vice Chancellor of Students James McLeod stood in front of a group of University student leaders to present a strategic plan for excellence in the undergraduate experience, an initiative that was first released in March of 2008.

The strategic plan, according to McLeod, emphasizes the importance of the University’s long-term and higher-budget aims in establishing academic excellence.

“Periodically, universities participate in a long-range planning process,” McLeod said. “We think about what we need to do in the future. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? What should be our priorities?”

The administration is currently seeking to begin with a strategic planning initiative within each unit of the University, some of which include Olin Library, all the undergraduate and graduate schools and the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The goal is to eventually combine all the unit initiatives into a University-wide strategic plan.

Project 21 is the title of the administration’s previous strategic planning initiative that began in the late 1990s and has already been completed.

Named for its mission to launch the University into the 21st century, Project 21 concentrated on improving areas such as the campus community, undergraduate life and study, cross-disciplinary activity, international involvement and student recruitment.

While the University is already successful in its transition into the next century, McLeod stressed that the goals in the new planning initiatives have altered very little.

“Fundamentally, our mission does not change,” he said. “Fundamentally, we are still about you, [the students], and we are still about creating new knowledge and solving problems for society.”

In addition to academic excellence, the new initiative also focuses on the issue of need-based financial aid, according to Assistant Dean of Arts & Sciences Shelley Milligan.

“The University as a whole is really concerned about financial aid. It is among, if not the top of, our priorities, both for undergraduates and graduates,” Milligan said.

McLeod said to this year’s residential advisor staff that the estimated gap between provided and requested need-based aid at the University was $17.7 million.

“I consider them a kind of a group that needed to see [the expenses],” McLeod said. “What I wanted to communicate was that a substantial amount of resources are needed to do this.”

McLeod said he has been reluctant to present the expenses for the initiative in a more public manner, since the expenses are only rough estimates.

“[The numbers] are so soft. The soil in which soft numbers grow is pretty tricky,” McLeod said. “No one knows how much something will cost in the future. Who thought I would be paying four dollars for a gallon of gas this year?”

McLeod calls the $17.7 million estimate a “moving target” in the University’s goal of meeting the financial needs of undergraduate and graduate students.

“We are well aware of what our peers are doing and [are] anxious to be in that group,” Milligan said. “Financially, we are not in the same spot as some of them, but we are in a better spot than others.”

Whether an estimated $17.7 million will be enough to address the financial concerns of University students has yet to be determined. However, McLeod and Milligan both agree that the University has taken new, competitive steps through its strategic planning initiatives to continually improve the student experience.

“For universities, doing new things is a new concept. It was important for our university to be doing the same things it was doing last year, or last century,” McLeod said. “But now, our concept has completely changed. The University is trying to put in something new. Let’s put it out there and work with it. Let’s improve it and then roll it out to everyone. And this year, we will be able to roll out a planned concept.”