Long Range Planning Committee
About LRP
SURPAS is engaging in a long range planning process to build a shared collective vision of the future of postdocs at Stanford. During this collaborative process, we are seeking participation and feedback from all interested postdocs as we formalize the expectations, hopes, and goals regarding life as a postdoc. This will be a community-oriented, bottom-up process to assess the broad vision and strategic goals of the postdoc community and provide clear communication of these to all postdocs now and into the future, as well as to other stakeholders. After synthesizing the feedback from our community, the Long Range Planning Committee will produce a publically accessible report detailing the positive aspects of being a postdoc at Stanford as well as where we would like to see change. This report will serve as a vehicle to coordinate advocacy for postdocs through time. Many issues brought before SURPAS require sustained advocacy for a number of years to bring about change. The long range planning process is a means of detailing what work postdocs believe need to be done, providing recommendations for how to achieve change, and setting mile markers that future postdocs can use in their advocacy efforts.
Plan
During this process, we plan on following the leadership of the Black community at Stanford in their clear, explicit statement of goals and values published in the Stanford Daily on June 19, 2020. We want to use our platform to amplify and extend these demands beyond the end of 2021. The Long Range Planning Committee will center the voices of the most marginalized members of our community through a process of active outreach and engagement with postdoc affinity groups such as the Stanford Black Postdoc Association, LGBTQ+ Postdoc Group at Stanford, and the Stanford Latinx Postdoc Association. The intention is to create a living document, with each new generation of postdocs engaging in their own long range planning process to determine what a postdoc means to them. These documents will contain specific goals and timelines for achieving them. In making timelines, we intend to provide recommendations of action items for postdocs and other stakeholders within the university community. Recommended action items for other stakeholders within the university will clearly delineate postdoc goals and expectations of those in leadership positions. We also recognize that many postdocs will go onto leadership roles as their careers progress; our recommendations will provide a roadmap for our decisions into the future as well.
2023 Long Range Planning Report:
Our latest Long-Range Planning Report offers an in-depth exploration of the postdoctoral experience. The report is structured in four sections addressing:
- The broader occupational context of the postdoc population in the US.
- The historical context of postdoc representation and advocacy at Stanford.
- The current mindset of postdocs at Stanford, ascertained through focus groups.
- Contemporary advocacy efforts of postdocs at Stanford.
The Report concludes with an extensive list of recommendations broken down by specific issues faced by postdocs and action items for specific stakeholders.
Read the 2023 Long-Range Planning Report to understand the dynamics at play and join us in shaping a brighter future for our postdoctoral community.
Contact
Chair: Tim MacKenzie
