Coordinated Action Planning

About Coordinated Action Planning

Through broadly inclusive discussions, both free-form and guided by specific questions, CDes stakeholders have articulated the desire to become "whole"—to generate a more coherent values-based culture, while coordinating our programs and services to achieve these aims:

• Situate all aspects of the College on one campus (ultimately the East Bank of UMN's Twin Cities campus).
• Develop first-year, interoperable, transfer-friendly, interdisciplinary, and online/distributed academic programs.
• Redefine the College’s organizational structures (including administrative staff functions)
• Increase the diversity of students, staff, and faculty.
• Ensure high-quality experiences for students, staff, and faculty.
• Expand and increase research and revenues.

The resounding sentiment expressed through the CAP process is that CDes members want to feel more like a community, maintaining our distinct strengths while sharing an identity and sense of purpose. Our overarching goal is to support students as they prepare to become creative leaders in an uncertain world, advancing the common good through work that is socially responsible and environmentally sustainable. We are enacting human-centered, community-engaged research while transforming curricula and supports for students’ learning.

CDes students are encouraged to confront the grand challenges of our time. Every graduate:

• applies design thinking to issues big and small, confronting local, regional, and global communities;
• anticipates the social, environmental, and economic ramifications of each problem they tackle and every decision they make; and
• demonstrates the capability to implement unique ideas through projects or actionable plans or strategies.

CDes Coordinated Action Planning is ongoing. It proceeds through open Forums, Blue-Sky Brown-Bag Lunch seminars, and ongoing discussions among collegiate committees and working groups. Your input is important as we continue to CONNECT! You can also access notes and recordings as well as an overview of CAP process and progress.