The New Millennium Committee (NMC) consisted of faculty, students, staff and members of the senior administration. The president of the University Professionals of Illinois, Chicago State University chapter, the largest union representing CSU faculty and staff and the president of the student body were members of this committee as well. It was charged to conduct a thorough external environmental scan of the forces that are and will impact CSU in the next ten years. Forces in the international and national societies, in the state of Illinois and in the metropolitan area that influence students, financial resources, academic programs, faculty, staff and administrators are critical as the course of the university is determined in the next century. The NMC read the widely circulated articles currently available on the forces, challenges, and imperatives facing higher education as colleges and universities enter the new millennium. The committee discussed these environmental issues and the current literature on higher education throughout its deliberations.

As the task forces studied all aspects of the university, the NMC was simultaneously reviewing the CSU Mission Statement. After hours of discussion and deliberation, the NMC authored a new mission statement. To ensure the greatest possible participation, this draft mission statement was placed on the CSU web page with a request for community reaction and suggestions for revisions. The NMC received some 58 responses which served as the basis for revisions of that draft statement.

The task forces completed their studies and submitted their reports with recommendations to the NMC. Each task force chair also served as a member of the NMC and each made an oral presentation to that group. Many questions were asked, and all issues raised through the investigations and deliberations of these task forces were discussed. In some instances, it was discovered that rhetoric and practice diverged. Some areas required further study as data were difficult or impossible to access.

From the research that the NMC conducted on environmental issues, a review of the higher education literature, discussions within the committee, feedback from CSU community on the Mission Statement, suggestions and feedback from members of the NMC on an earlier draft and task force reports, the committee developed the first preliminary draft of the plan. The Strategic Goals and Strategies in each section resulted from all types of input listed, not just the task force reports. Also, recommendations from one task force if they were directly related to some other area were placed under the relevant heading for coherence. Therefore, no attribution of these goals and strategies should be made to particular task forces, instead all should be attributed to the NMC.

The NMC developed the first draft of the New Millennium Strategic Plan which was circulated to the CSU community. Public hearings were conducted to solicit input from all interested parties. The draft plan was revised based on that input. Dr. Daniel presented this draft to the Board of Trustees for review and input at a board retreat in June 1999. Based on their input and suggestions, the strategic goals were reduced and distilled into eleven with several subgoals for three of the goals.

Over the summer of 1999, priorities, responsibility, timelines and assessments were developed for all strategic goals. This final draft of the strategic plan was circulated to the CSU community and final public hearings were conducted in the early September. Final revisions were made reducing the strategic goals to eight and the final version of the plan was submitted to the Board of Trustees in October for approval. The Board gave its unanimous approval of this plan with a voice vote.