Tradition & Transformation: Allegheny College 2010
Strategic Plan
INTRODUCTION
VISION
1. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
2. THE RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE
3. A LIFETIME OF CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
4. EMBRACING DIVERSITY
5. THE ALLEGHENY ADVANTAGE
CONCLUSION
Academic excellence, achieved through undergraduate education in a residential setting, has been Allegheny's hallmark for nearly two centuries. Generations of alumni attest that their personal and career success began with an Allegheny education built on face to face interaction with their professors- true teacher-scholars-and with hands-on experience gained in classrooms, laboratories, residence halls, and a far-reaching network of Allegheny off-campus study opportunities. As we plan for the future, we build on this time-tested foundation even as we seize new opportunities that this new century brings.
The world beyond our campus is full of momentous and often unpredictable developments. Through innovative planning, we have sought to take advantage of new opportunities to prepare students for meaningful lives, meeting their needs-and those of society. New Century Connections, our previous strategic plan, has produced cutting-edge advances in the curriculum, experiential learning, and technology. We will now build upon those highly visible successes through a new strategic plan, Tradition and Transformation: Allegheny 2010.
Allegheny's traditions and values are strong and lasting. This pioneering college was founded on the principles of intellectual growth, moral courage, and responsibilities of citizenship. Allegheny continues on this solid foundation even as the College has transformed itself with the times again and again to meet changing student needs. Transformation also applies to our students, whose world becomes larger as a result of their Allegheny College education.
Organizations that become great do so through a relentless drive to know their mission, understand the external environment, and more than meet the needs and expectations of their constituents. Success and renown are achieved by providing sufficient resources to the right people in a never-ending quest to do things better. Doing the “ordinary” things extraordinarily well (such as teaching, scholarship, student support, alumni relations) is a good part of the formula for success. Combining this with a number of signature programs-and the resources to get the job done-is what will lead Allegheny to the next level of accomplishment and recognition. That is what Tradition & Transformation: Allegheny 2010 is all about.
The planning process that led to a reaffirmation of our mission and to this plan was deliberate, inclusive, and thorough. In calling for a concentrated renewal of planning, President Richard Cook consulted with the Faculty Council, staff advisory groups, Allegheny Student Government, the Alumni Council, and the Board of Trustees. With names that emerged from these consultations, he constituted a representative Planning Workshop.
Aided by a planning grant from the A.W. Mellon Foundation and an extensive strategic assessment by higher education planner Dr. Jack Freeman, the Planning Workshop set about its work during the summer of 2001. Chaired by Associate Professor Ben Slote, this 17-member group studied and discussed external and internal environments, student needs, pedagogical research, and other relevant topics. At the end of the summer, the Report of the Planning Workshop was made available to faculty, staff, students, and the Board of Trustees. Both the Freeman strategic assessment and the Planning Workshop report contain a wealth of information and ideas that inform this plan.
The Report of the Planning Workshop served as the point of departure for campus-wide discussions, both formal and informal, during the 2001-02 academic year. Selected themes from the planning process were chosen for faculty-mediated discussions at a Board retreat in February 2002. Emerging from this deliberative process, Tradition & Transformation: Allegheny 2010 will serve as the College's guide in setting priorities and judging success for the next several years. This plan will be the basis for Allegheny's ongoing six-year fund-raising campaign and for our expansive marketing agenda. The planning process and result will also serve the College well as we undertake our self-study in preparation for re-accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in 2003-04.
A Vision for Allegheny College
Allegheny's strategic initiatives have an overarching purpose: to enhance student learning within the framework of a residential college where teaching is paramount. They directly support our statement of mission:
Allegheny's undergraduate residential education prepares young adults for successful, meaningful lives by promoting students' intellectual, moral, and social development and encouraging personal and civic responsibility. Allegheny's faculty and staff combine high academic standards and a commitment to the exchange of knowledge with a supportive approach to learning. Graduates are equipped to think critically and creatively, write clearly, speak persuasively, and meet challenges in a diverse, interconnected world.
With this strategic plan, we renew our commitment to this mission. We also articulate a vision for Allegheny's continued growth over the next several years:
Allegheny College will be widely recognized as a peer among the nation's foremost liberal arts colleges because of our distinctive combination of faculty talent, program innovation and quality, on- and off-campus opportunities, and challenging yet supportive learning environment.
More specifically, to this end and well before 2010, we intend that as a result of our planning and continuing efforts:
1. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Rigorous hands-on teaching and learning, based on face to face student and faculty relationships, is Allegheny's hallmark. We will support and enhance this quality, with the knowledge that future generations of graduates will require the communication skills, creativity, and knowledge that can only result from working closely and directly with faculty experts. At the same time, we will create programs that enable faculty to remain at the cutting edge of emerging technological and social developments, generating new knowledge in the service of teaching and learning.
This facility will support our distinctive communications curriculum, in which all students are expected to demonstrate excellence in speaking and writing. Communicating effectively is essential to personal and professional success, and this new facility will offer students the opportunity to develop the communication skills the future will require, taking advantage of the latest technology and performance/production spaces. The theater component will embody Allegheny's historical and unique understanding of the relationship between communication and performance.
Many top quality students are attracted to Allegheny but choose to attend colleges or universities they perceive to be more affordable. In order to enroll students with the greatest abilities and potential, we must be able to offer scholarships that make us competitive and accessible. Enhancing scholarships will lower the single greatest barrier that stands between many outstanding students and an Allegheny education.
The global marketplace demands a range of knowledge and skills not found in many traditional business programs. The most important qualities found in successful business leaders are exactly what an Allegheny education provides: critical thinking, communication, planning, problem solving, creativity, and leadership skills. The Managerial Economics program will enable students to apply these capabilities to actual business environments through coursework, internships, and a variety of other opportunities for engaged learning.
We will recognize faculty achievement and foster teaching excellence by creating additional endowed professorships and faculty development opportunities. As a part of this initiative, we will endow the Teacher-Scholar Chair program, providing professors with the time and resources necessary to advance their scholarship and to continue innovation in teaching and learning.
Allegheny is one of a small number of select institutions that require every student-not just honors students-to complete an intensive, individualized research project. As a result, our students enter careers or pursue graduate study with creativity, confidence, self-discipline, and project management skills that are often far superior to their peers at other institutions. Undergraduate research is most successful at institutions with close student-faculty relationships, and it demands an extraordinary commitment in terms of face to face teaching and learning. We will more generously support students as they undertake ambitious research projects and encourage students and faculty to share their findings at conferences, in academic journals, and in the popular press.
When Allegheny's historically strong student-faculty relationships are combined with the latest technologies, dramatic new possibilities emerge. We will create additional electronic presentation and workstation classrooms for faculty and students in all disciplines to enhance teaching and learning effectiveness.
The library will be reconfigured to better accommodate both individual research and collaborative learning. This will be the practical and symbolic expression of a true campus learning culture. The Learning Commons will provide students with ready access to research, communication, tutorial, and technology assistance, as well as a social space where academic endeavors are advanced. In addition, the Learning Commons will provide assistance to students who enter Allegheny in need of academic support, common among students making the transition from secondary education to the rigors of college-level work.
2. THE RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE
Small residential colleges are unsurpassed in developing leaders. They offer abundant access to full-time teaching faculty and student life staff, active involvement in campus and civic activities, and opportunity for creative, hands-on problem solving in real-life situations. We fully recognize the importance of the time and experiences students have outside the classroom, and we intend to connect that part of the Allegheny experience more directly to our teaching and learning mission.
This building will bridge students' academic and residential lives, combining the advantages of apartment living with the academic and co-curricular benefits of living on campus. It will include features that foster out-of-class learning in selected areas, such as international studies and languages.
Our aging housing stock needs renewal to meet current expectations and standards, and to provide the high-quality spaces students need to meet their learning goals. Some improvements will be made incrementally and others through major projects as resources and housing capacity permit.
We will rehabilitate College-owned houses for student, faculty, and staff residences, and expand the popular focused interest housing program. Students will have the opportunity to live in facilities that support their academic and co-curricular interests, situated in an attractive neighborhood that contributes to the beauty of the surrounding area and the well being of the Meadville community.
Situated in the center of several academic buildings, linked to the proposed theater and communication arts facility, and centered among the campus's most heavily-used pedestrian walkways, the Campus Center has the potential to become the heart of Allegheny's vibrant campus life. The building will be expanded and renovated to include the bookstore, post office, cultural center, attractive gathering spaces, and areas for student organizations and activities.
We will create a student-life curriculum that fosters learning outside the traditional classroom setting and identifies specific learning outcomes associated with student affairs programs and services. We will increase after-hours access to campus facilities, and expand social and educational programs to achieve learning goals related to values, leadership development, and personal and civic responsibility. Our approach will maximize the developmental opportunities presented by student-life institutions such as athletics, the Honor Code, community service, religious life, the greek system, and other student organizations and activities.
3. A LIFETIME OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Today's students are involved in community service and experiential learning in unprecedented numbers. Ironically, at the national level, volunteer service among young people has not translated into participation in electoral politics, policy making, or community development. Allegheny is at the forefront of reversing this trend, with unique programs like the Allegheny College Center for Experiential Learning (ACCEL), the Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED), and the interdisciplinary minor in Values, Ethics, and Social Action (VESA). We will build on this success with additional distinctive innovations that develop Allegheny students into our nation's future leaders.
This center will place special emphasis on preparing students for engaging in the civic life of a democracy through political participation and public service. The Center's programs will draw to Allegheny nationally recognized experts in a variety of fields related to government, politics, and community development.
We believe that this collaboration among prestigious and diverse national colleges and universities offers the blueprint for preparing college students for a life of productive citizenship and public service. Allegheny, selected as one of only ten founding institutions of Project Pericles by the Lang Foundation, will become a leader among leaders in this field, creating programs that are models for civic engagement and learning within American higher education.
ACCEL offers an impressive array of internships, as well as many opportunities for leadership development, off-campus study, and service-learning. We will create new activities, such as the Business Roundtable and the Allegheny in D.C. program, that utilize these established strengths in experiential learning to prepare students for civic leadership. New programs will emphasize off-campus study, integrating students' classroom activities with real-world experiences in a wide variety of settings.
Civic education, community partnerships, and leadership development programs are flourishing at Allegheny. Under the leadership of a distinguished executive director, the Institute for Civic Engagement (ICE) will serve as the scholarly arm of these varied activities, disseminating information about best practices, hosting conferences and symposia, and publishing works of traditional and engaged scholarship. The Institute will enhance our communication with the world outside the College and serve as an incubator for new ideas and individual initiatives.
4. EMBRACING DIVERSITY
The face of America is changing. Our leaders must not only be experienced and comfortable working with a wide variety of people, they must know how to draw upon this element of our nation's strength to take on projects and solve problems in new ways. We will define diversity broadly, including international aspects, ensuring that our campus represents and welcomes the wide range of opinions, ideas, abilities, and cultures that will characterize tomorrow's leaders, co-workers, and neighbors. We support the findings of the Business-Higher Education Forum (2002), demonstrating that shared experiences with people from a range of backgrounds improves critical thinking and enhances social and interpersonal development.
We will support students from the U.S. and abroad who desire an Allegheny education but who lack sufficient financial means to attend. Successful college graduates must have experience working with people from a variety of backgrounds, and as our region and the nation are projected to become more racially diverse, it is increasingly important for Allegheny to attract a more diverse student body.
We will provide students, faculty, and staff with a variety of opportunities to learn from others with diverse backgrounds, life experiences, and ideas. We will implement programs to increase the diversity of candidates for vacant positions, seeking to create an environment that more closely resembles the diversity found in America's workplaces and communities. We will integrate diversity education throughout the curriculum and student life activities, creating a climate that welcomes variety in people and ideas.
We will provide the additional resources necessary for the Director of Diversity Affairs to more fully participate in curricular and student life policy making and programming. The Office of Diversity Affairs will serve as an educational resource for all Alleghenians, helping us to fulfill our responsibility to learn to live and work in a diverse world.
We will seek outside assistance to increase awareness of other cultures and perspectives. A pilot project will be offered to a group of volunteers, beginning with Allegheny's senior staff, to evaluate the effectiveness of such an endeavor. This program will transcend narrow, polarizing definitions of diversity and will ensure that we are living by the same values we are teaching.
5. THE ALLEGHENY ADVANTAGE
In today's world, students are overwhelmed with a flood of claims and information about institutions of higher education. To make sound choices about the promise of an Allegheny education, students and parents need to know more about us. We will initiate creative efforts to connect Allegheny with the region and the country, basing our communication on honest descriptions of our signature programs and unique campus community. We will emphasize the lifelong benefits of an Allegheny education by expanding alumni programs and services and by forging strong relationships among students and alumni.
The World Wide Web has become a critically important feature in Allegheny's presentation to the world. We will reconstruct our site to improve flexibility and functionality, aiming to create one of the nation's foremost small college Web sites. We will emphasize promotional and educational features, so prospective students will be drawn to the Allegheny site, where they can apply to the College, handle financial and other administrative matters, and begin to participate in the life of the community. Furthermore, we will use the Web site to offer Allegheny lectures and programs to the outside world, including programs that will be attractive to high school students.
We will broaden Allegheny's name recognition in the region and nation by reorganizing administrative promotional activities and implementing a comprehensive marketing plan. We will use a variety of methods to draw attention to Allegheny's most distinctive features and programs, reinforcing the central message of academic excellence at Allegheny.
Allegheny's enhanced summer program comes to fruition in 2002 with the Summer Music Festival, the Alumni College, and numerous other educational activities. We will continue to expand this program, drawing students, parents, teachers, and counselors to Allegheny, where they will experience first-hand our commitment to teaching and learning, get to know our students and faculty, and enjoy the beauty of our campus.
The Alumni Council has become a highly respected partner in increasing the value of Allegheny to both alumni and students. The Board of Trustees, the administration, and the faculty will build upon the impressive growth in commitment, programs, and services the Council has developed in recent years. Our goal will be nothing short of creating a model of alumni engagement that will deserve and receive national acclaim.
Allegheny's alumni give testimony to the mission of the College through their accomplishments and character, and they are our most loyal advocates and generous supporters. We will tangibly recognize the value of our alumni and our desire to have them feel welcome on campus by restoring our most elegant space-Cochran Hall-and making it one of the finest alumni centers to be found on any small college campus.
Among Allegheny's most valued resources are the deep loyalty of our alumni and their sincere desire to be part of our students' ongoing education. Alumni currently provide students with many short-term internship employment opportunities and are often instrumental in helping students enter their careers by hiring Allegheny graduates or helping them make connections. Building on this foundation, we will create a program that provides students with direct access to alumni working in their chosen field to assist in career development and placement.
We will make it easier for students to connect with alumni and for alumni to maintain relationships with one another through creative use of the World Wide Web and other communication vehicles. We will develop mechanisms for alumni and others to share their talents and experience with our students and faculty. We will also explore ways in which prospective students and alumni can participate in selected courses and programs on campus as we expand our reach beyond campus.
There are no more appropriate closing words than those found in the concluding remarks of New Century Connections, here applied to our new plan:
Tradition and Transformation: Allegheny 2010 will help assure Allegheny's educational effectiveness and the interests of our constituents-students, alumni, graduate and professional schools, employers, benefactors, and others-by preserving the heart and soul of our College even as we continue the never-ending process of adapting a liberal arts education to a changing world.
This plan represents our best collective thinking in setting Allegheny's course. Its success will depend on our determination to find critically important resources and the will to combine those resources with the talent and energy needed to accomplish our goals. Given a clear vision and an ambitious agenda, the College's prospects are bright indeed.
