Richard Florida writes that talented people tend to make their decisions about where to locate based on two considerations: professional opportunity and quality of life as defined by a combination of physical, cultural, and social assets. For regions hoping to strengthen their capacity to recruit, develop, and retain talent, a comprehensive and well thought out strategy is necessary but not sufficient. Strategy must be coupled with focus and execution.

In March 2005, Northern Kentucky launched Vision 2015, a regional planning process targeted at better positioning the region to compete for talent. Northern Kentucky is part of greater Cincinnati with a population of about 2.2 million.

Vision 2015 was organized to draw on leadership across generations and to focus on those dimensions of regional life that are essential considerations for any talent strategy. I co-chaired the process, along with A.J. Schaeffer, a talented young lawyer and prominent civic volunteer. We were supported by a Leadership Council of over one hundred citizens reflecting all dimensions of regional life.

The planning process focused on five strategic areas: economic competitiveness, educational excellence, urban renaissance, livable communities and effective governance. A task force was appointed for each area and their work produced goals, strategies, and metrics for assessing progress.

Northern Kentucky University played an indispensible role in this planning process. Faculty “experts” were assigned to each of the five focus areas. They shared best practice from other regions, collected and interpreted data, contributed technical assistance in the formulation of strategies, helped develop progress measures, and generally contributed to citizen driven deliberations.

The university contributed in other ways as well. We agreed to align academic programs and personnel with the outcomes that Vision 2015 hopes to produce, particularly related to the expansion of specific economic sectors and enhancement of P-12 education. For example, in education, we created a new faculty “extension” appointment with the faculty member spending half of their time engaged in traditional teaching and scholarship while the other half is devoted to applying their work in P-12 settings. In addition, the university served as a safe place for some difficult social and political conversations. Now in the third year of implementation, the university continues to be deeply involved in supporting Vision 2015 in ways that are compatible with our mission and our resource base.

There are potential potholes when universities become involved in regional planning efforts. If not careful, we can find ourselves “owning” the process in a way that is not healthy for the university or the community. With our heart in the right place, we can find ourselves promising more than we can deliver. If the university has not aligned itself internally to support faculty involvement in such efforts, the involvement can be lackluster, ill-informed, and unsatisfying for both the faculty member and the community. Regional planning inevitably involves controversial issues around which there are powerful opposing interests. If caution isn’t exercised, universities can find themselves aligned with one position or another and lose their important status as a non-aligned neutral party.

Universities can play an indispensable role in urban and metropolitan planning. However, my experience with Vision 2015 has underscored that how we define that role needs to be consistent with our fundamental mission as academic institutions. At our very best, we promote learning. We do so through our teaching, through our research and scholarship, and through our public engagement. Our university’s involvement with Vision 2015 was to take every opportunity to support learning on the part of citizens so that they would have all that they needed to chart an ambitious and informed future for our region.

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