Strategic Direction IV:
Strengthen a culture of organizational integrity, accountability, and sustainability

Initiative A: Renew the College Mission Statement and develop a Vision Statement through a transparent and inclusive process that guides institutional progress and effectiveness.

  1. Create a cross-constituency group of faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni, and trustees to renew the College Mission Statement and develop a Vision Statement using the supporting materials developed within the strategic planning process.
  2. Update the College's Mission Statement by recognizing the multiple populations currently served, the range of pre-professional and liberal arts offerings, and institutional distinctiveness.
  3. Develop a process for assessing the College Mission Statement to ensure institutional effectiveness.

Initiative B: Examine and clarify the College's shared governance model to ensure inclusive voice and responsive decision-making.

  1. Advance a model of shared governance that is guided by the principles formulated by the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) and the American Association of Universities Professors (AAUP) which is accepted by the College and the AAUP and published in the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities.
  2. Study the composition of all institutional and faculty committees to ensure the appropriate composition, representation, and input of faculty, administrators, staff, and students into decision-making processes.
  3. Charge the faculty body with conducting a self-study of its by-laws and governance with the goal of improving institutional responsiveness and effectiveness.
  4. Develop and publish an institutional document that describes all college committees and clarifies their charge, scope of responsibility, reporting structure, membership, meeting schedule, and rotation.
  5. Provide professional development, training, and the resources necessary to strengthen faculty, staff, and student governance.
  6. Assess current institutional decision-making processes and make changes, where necessary, to improve institutional effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency. Strategic Direction IV: Strengthen a culture of organizational integrity, accountability, and sustainability.

Initiative C: Implement transparent and integrated planning structures and evaluative processes that advance the strategic plan, prudent risk-taking, and related College initiatives.

  1. Create multi-year integrated plans and goals for strategic initiatives that set priorities for multi-year institutional budgets.
  2. Create cross-constituency groups across departments to integrate planning toward common goals and to work together on issues related to streamlining processes, improving systems, and increasing institutional effectiveness.
  3. Develop outcome and assessment measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the undertakings implemented through the strategic planning process.
  4. Improve the infrastructure, management, and access to institutional research to strengthen and inform data-driven decision-making.

Initiative D: Develop a sustainable institutional growth model that projects the size and composition of the student body, College offerings, requisite full- and part-time faculty and staff, and the future economic resources and physical plant needs.

  1. Develop a strategic enrollment plan built on achievable goals for retention gains and recruitment that ensures institutional sustainability.
  2. Align enrollment planning with the strengths and distinctiveness of the College's academic offerings to increase retention and applicant yield.
  3. Plan and support enrollment growth through benchmarking for the appropriate levels of full- and part-time faculty and staff.
  4. Support enrollment growth through a sustainable financial aid strategy grounded in sound institutional financial planning.
  5. Create a Campus Development Plan for physical facilities and a technology infrastructure that supports enrollment planning, including academic and co-curricular programming, and promotes environmental considerations.

Initiative E: Facilitate interaction across College constituencies in both formal and informal settings.

  1. Develop a culture and strategies to increase cross-constituency communication to strengthen teamwork and collaboration across the college community.
  2. Create spaces within the college environment to promote informal gatherings and conversations.
  3. Assess the college community's use of electronic communications to improve its effectiveness.