Spring break is the time for the campus community to nail down realistic goals for the upcoming weeks and years.

Specifically, members of the community should consider NIU President Doug Baker’s Bold Futures workshops and how these can help NIU move forward. Bold Futures, a series of workshops that focus on improving the campus community, met in the fall and will continue to meet this spring, according to a Tuesday Baker Report.

The idea behind the workshops is noble: They bring the community together to give advice and opinions on how to run things better; however, the Editorial Board is still waiting for tangible results. It’s nice to see Baker being open with ideas and letting communication flow freely, but it’s time to pin down goals and deadlines.

We’re not asking for specific dates on changes, but we deserve a ballpark deadline from Baker on his plans. Baker’s initiatives need to be cleared up so we can fully understand what his goals are.

Grand, vague projects like those laid out in the Master Plan Thesis are nice in theory, but they’re hard to imagine without anything anchoring them to reality. We don’t know how or when the Master Plan will be implemented, if at all.

We also need more definitive answers to the problems presented in the Bold Futures workshops, and the rest of the community should be aware of the discussions that happened there. Students should take spring break as a chance to reflect and think about what they’d suggest to Baker.

Students who are new to Bold Futures can participate March 28 through April 2. To register, visit niu.edu/president/bold_futures.

It’s important for community members to voice what they want out of their university and to hold Baker to those ideas. The Editorial Board wants to see ideas with deadlines emerge after spring break so the community can head in the right direction.

The campus community and Baker should stop asking what and start saying how and when.