Strategic Plan: 2003-2006
Roberts Wesleyan College,
Strategic Plan
2003- 2006
Strategic Goal 1: Institutional Role and Identity
Roberts Wesleyan College will be known nationally in the Christian community and regionally as an undergraduate and graduate comprehensive institution that is committed to classical Christian faith and for innovative programs that prepare students to address the needs of the Church and
society.
Institutional Stature
Objective 1 - Achieve a significant leadership role in Christian faith-based higher education
Strategies:
1.1. Improve the quality, size, and stature of Roberts Wesleyan College.
1.2. Strengthen our potential for regional, national, and global impact both by producing and by attracting the involvement of prominent Christian scholars, leaders, and business people whose values are consistent with the values of the College.
1.3. Enhance student development and institutional service through creative collaboration with educational institutions at all levels and with appropriate for-profit and not-for profit organizations.
Spiritual Formation
Objective 2 - Make spiritual formation of our students a central, intentional, and distinguishing characteristic of the College and the Seminary.
Strategies:
2.1 Affirm the Christian personal and spiritual formation of students as a central concern in academic and student life planning.
2.2 Develop and encourage spiritual formation. Enhance our ability to see ourselves and others as individuals created by God and in need of continual growth and grace.
2.3 Increase emphases on Christian outreach and foundational Christian principles to current Students, including discipleship and mentoring to pursue Christian growth and excellence.
Human Diversity
Objective 3 - Foster the College's historic commitment to being a community that reflects its Christian traditions by affirming human diversity -- including race, culture, nationality, disabilities, gender, age, and socio-economic status --throughout all levels of the institution.
Strategies
3.1 Establish and maintain a noticeable minority faculty, staff, and student presence in all divisions or units of the college.
3.2 Increase the number of women in senior faculty, administrative, executive and management positions at the college.
Enrollment Management
Objective 4 - In pursuing enrollment growth in traditional students, degree-completion students, and graduate students, the College will develop recruitment and admission strategies that optimize program enrollment goals and the Mission of the College to serve the Church, and society.
Strategies:
4.1. The College will continue to grow to serve a residential and commuting student population of approximately 2,000 students by the year 2010. Growth will be divided between traditional, degree-completion, and graduate students. The College will carefully manage growth resulting from potential distance learning opportunities.
4.2 The College will monitor its financial aid award patterns, discounting rates, and enrollment patterns to produce the appropriate student body size and mix.
4.3 The College will move the current 5-year graduation rate toward the "selective" category as defined by the A.C.T. institutional data file.
4.4 The College will develop a vision of the role of athletics at RWC in relation to the mission of the College, our academic programs, and the public image we seek to establish.
4.5 As the College grows, we will become more diverse in our student composition in terms of ethnic groups and international representation.
External Relations
Objective 5 - We will nurture existing relations and build new external relations in ways that enhance the Mission of the College.
Strategies:
5.1 The College will increase its visibility and the strength of its image among its constituents.
5.2 Programming for alumni will be strengthened to encourage bonding with the College.
5.3 The College will cooperate with the Seminary to create a congenial partnership working to achieve the Mission of both institutions.
5.4 Improve and increase interactions with supporting churches.
5.5 Improve and increase interactions with the College's friends.
Strategic Goal #2: Continuous Improvement of Academic Programs and Student Life on Campus
The Roberts Wesleyan College faculty and administration will seek to define and pursue “quality” that is fully responsive to the intellectual, physical, social, psychological, and spiritual needs of those being served by our educational programs.
Academic Programs
Objective 6 - Continue to enhance the academic strength and reputation of the College Strategies:
6.1 Become a model for accredited professional preparation within a well-developed liberal arts context.
6.2 Achieve Seminary accreditation by Association of Theological Schools and expand its enrollment.
6.3 Achieve and maintain appropriate accreditations in other programs and expand their enrollments.
6.4 Pursue the development of additional mission-appropriate graduate programs at both the masters and doctoral level.
6.5 Maintain the quality and support of undergraduate programs and the liberal arts as foundational to the mission of the College.
6.6 Ensure professional preparedness on the part of faculty and current curricula in all professional programs.
6.7 Increase focus and support for broadening experiential opportunities available to students (i.e., transcultural experiences, athletics, leadership, ministry, study abroad, etc.).
6.8 Continue to foster and support professional growth and development of faculty.
6.9 Maintain the focus on student centered instruction, personal interactions with students outside of the classroom, and building community.
6.10 Recognize publication and research as an indication of professional growth.
Objective 7 - Develop a vital general education program by engaging all departments in ongoing design, implementation and assessment of general education goals and leaning outcomes for RWC students.
Strategies:
Objective 8 - Review and strengthen academic services appropriate to the needs of our students.
Strategies:
Objective 9 - Develop a comprehensive approach to continuous program assessment that is useful for the improvement of instruction and academic program design within all divisions of the College.
Strategies:
Faculty Development
Objective 10 - The Faculty at Roberts Wesleyan College will demonstrate commitment to professional development as Christian scholars who aggressively pursue excellence in teaching, discovering, integrating, and applying knowledge.
Strategies:
10.1 Faculty development programming will meet the changing needs of students and the curriculum and enhance faculty scholarship.
10.2 The ability of the College to attract and retain the services of qualified faculty by offering competitive salaries will be reviewed and a plan for phased improvements will be developed.
Student Life
Objective 11 - We will provide an environment that meets student needs of being intellectually stimulating, spiritually enhancing, culturally enriching, and socially rewarding.
Strategies:
11.1
Community Life
Objective 12 - Roberts Wesleyan College seeks to be a community in which caring and collegial relationships among all segments of the community abound, spiritual formation and fellowship is intrinsic to all that we do, and the professional pursuit of knowledge, understanding, and cultural enrichment is pervasive.
Strategies:
12.1 The College will seek to create new ways to cultivate a sense of community among faculty, staff , administration, and students.
Strategic Goal #3: Continuous Improvement of Administrative and Academic Support Services
As an expression of the College’s commitment to the application of Christian principles in the context of organizational behavior, we will adopt, adapt and apply principles of continuous quality improvement throughout the College’s administrative and academic support systems as an expression of our Mission.
Objective 13 - Assess the administrative structure, planning processes, and support systems of the College given recent growth in programs, increasing diversification in the educational and service needs of our student body, and plans for institutional development.
Strategies:
13.1. Establish or modify organizational structures and processes as needed.
13.2. Establish new levels of services where needs are not being effectively addressed.
13.3. Establish an Office of Assessment and Institutional Research.
13.4. Continue to foster and support professional growth and development of staff.
Leadership
Objective 14 - The President and senior administration of the College will provide:
(1) personal leadership and involvement in sustaining a student focus,
(2) clear goals, and high expectations and
(3) a leadership system that promotes excellence in performance.
Strategies:
Information and Analysis
Objective 15 - The College will improve its capacity to effectively use data and information to support planning, managing, and evaluating decisions intended to improve institutional performance.
Strategies:
Human Resource Development and Management
Objective 16 - The changing needs of Roberts Wesleyan College will be met by providing a balanced, effectively trained work force, dedicated to continuously improving customer services
Strategies:
Student Focus and Institutional Stakeholder Satisfaction
Objective 17 - The College will systematically work to identify and be responsive to the needs and expectations of its various internal constituencies.
Strategies:
Strategic Goal #4: Physical Environment, Facilities and Expansion
As growth and changes occur, the College will improve, modify and add structures to support students in their living, learning, recreational, and working environments.
Objective 18 - Create the educational facilities needed to support the College's plans for improving in quality, growing in size, and increasing in stature.
Strategies:
18.1. Improve the quality and quantity of student housing, gathering spaces, and amenities
18.2. Expand the library facilities and programs into an integrated information resource center.
18.3. Assure the availability of classroom spaces for traditional students, adult and graduate learners, and informal academic meetings.
18.4. Enhance the aesthetics of buildings and grounds.
18.5. Identify long-term space for academic programs and administrative support services.
18.6. To accommodate growth and improve community the College will improve facilities.
18.7. The College will continue to improve the aesthetics of buildings and grounds.
Objective 19 - Continually improve the environmental safety of the campus.
Strategies:
Objective 20 - Develop short-term and long-term parking solutions
Strategies:
Strategic Goal #5: Fiscal Strength and Affordability
The College will continue to balance its annual operating budget and provide adequate financial resources to: support continued growth; provide financial flexibility through economic business cycles; and provide educational programs at affordable prices by:
Objective 21 - The College will gain increasing financial independence.
Strategies:
21.1. Build a larger endowment
21.2. Establish a stronger market position for recruiting students for the College.
21.3. Continue to explore entrepreneurial endeavors which will further the Mission of the College.
21.4. Tuition will be targeted with affordability as a major consideration.
21.5. Through royalty income and capital campaign funds, the College will remain free of all long-term debt that is not self-amortizing by the year 2000. (Accomplished)
21.6. The Self-Finance Fund will continue to grow to supplement fund-raising for new facilities and programs,
21.7. Building the endowment will be a priority that will, in part, fund institutional financial aid and faculty and staff development.
21.8. The endowment investments will continue to be managed for long term growth and monitored by the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees.
21.9. Entrepreneurial endeavors will continue to be explored which will further the Mission of the College through increased financial strength and service to the community.
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