Planning Council

In 1995 Dr. Carol Harter became the seventh president of UNLV. She instituted a yearlong, campus-wide planning process in which faculty, students, staff, alumni, and members of the community participated. In those discussions, the phrase "premier urban university" emerged as the cornerstone of the university's strategic plan. The planning process also defined how UNLV would be distinguished by its ongoing commitment to being student-centered while increasing its research emphasis, its excellence in both liberal studies and professional education, its emphasis on both traditional values and global citizenship, and its attention to both local needs and international concerns.

Each year since 1995, there has been an annual campus-wide retreat to evaluate the university's goals and to suggest changes and additions. In order to emphasize the importance of and need for continuous planning, the campus created the University Planning Council, chaired by a member of the President's staff, to coordinate the university's strategic planning effort.

That process led to the creation of a planning document that outlined the university's goals for the decade, 1996-2005. Because many of the goals have been achieved before the end of the decade, the Planning Council has undertaken a significant revision and updating of the document.