Toward Eminence
The Strategic Plan for Washington College 2007-2013
Adopted February 2006
Introduction: The Strategic Planning Committee—consisting of the College's planning committee enhanced by representatives from the Board of Visitors and Governors, the faculty division heads, students, alumni, and additional members of the administration—presents this plan to guide decision-making and resource allocation at Washington College over the next seven years. While unforeseen future circumstances inevitably will require modifications, this document represents the Committee's best effort, given present knowledge, to balance critical needs against available resources.
In all of its deliberations, the Committee has kept in view the overall purpose of Washington College: to provide the best possible education in the liberal arts and sciences; to recruit students with the ability and motivation to take full advantage of the opportunities the College offers; and to produce graduates who, as citizen leaders, will contribute to the well-being of their families, their communities, the nation, and the wider world.
From Stability to Eminence: In September of 2004 President Tipson announced to the Board of Visitors and Governors that Washington College faced the challenge of going from "Stability to Eminence," from a very good small liberal arts college to a great one. During the past decade, student enrollment has grown by 50%; the academic quality of the entering class has steadily improved; the average entering student now contributes nearly 70% of the cost of tuition, room, and board; the value of the endowment has nearly quadrupled. The College is successfully competing for prospective students among a stronger group of institutions. But, the President cautioned, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels; our future will depend on our ability to increase the College's stature. This Plan proposes a strategy for continued progress towards that end.
We must recognize that our major competitors are often better-known, attract a more national student body, and generally have greater resources at their disposal (although Washington College's endowment per student has now reached the level of some of its competitors). While the College has made significant investments in new faculty and staff appointments, academic buildings, residence halls, and information technology during the past decade, basic infrastructure needs have not entirely caught up with enrollment gains. To enhance its present competitive position, Washington College must consolidate its gains by bringing all of its programs and facilities to a level presently achieved only by some. A major portion of our near-term strategy must therefore consist of completing and maintaining a robust, competitive infrastructure. We must invest to bring major components of our core programs to a higher level: the performing arts, residence halls, a competitive salary structure for faculty and staff, our development office, and the appearance of our campus. Each of these areas will be addressed at the appropriate point in the plan below.
Yet the Committee recognizes that Washington College must be more than competitive; it must be superior to its competitors in a few important areas. To this end the College has identified three "centers of excellence:" The C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Center for Environment and Society, and the Rose O'Neill Literary House. The work of these centers typifies, in ways that capture the attention of those beyond the campus, the standard of excellence in liberal arts education for which the College strives in all that it does. Representing the social sciences, the natural sciences, and the humanities, these centers convene faculty and students from different academic departments to address themes of common interest, sponsor speakers and programming to bring outside expertise to campus, and bring Washington College to the attention of prospective students and friends. By connecting academic analysis to real-world topics such as pollution of the Chesapeake Bay or making a living as a writer, the centers create important conversations that demonstrate the application of a liberal arts education to the pressing issues of our world.
Although at various stages of development, none of these centers has yet reached its full potential. The College has committed itself to seek additional external resources—through external grants and fund-raising for endowment—so that these centers do not create a burden for the general operating budget. Recent successes such as the inauguration of the George Washington Book Prize epitomize the potential of the center concept.
Planning must continue for the library of the 21st century to meet the information needs of users who rely more and more on non-print media. An external review team has suggested that, even with necessary modifications, our present Miller Library structure will remain adequate for at most five to ten years. The desirability of integrating student information access with other student and campus life needs such as dining, snacking, and formal and informal gathering spaces, is being actively investigated, and an ambitious plan for creating exciting student spaces at the center of campus must be developed and put in place in anticipation of our next capital grant from the State of Maryland, for which we will be eligible in 2011.
Every effort must be made to increase and improve the College's position on the waterfront, including the purchase of additional land and renovation of existing facilities. A more exciting waterfront presence will greatly enhance the College's appeal to prospective students. The new Kirby Stadium emphasizes the College's intention to maintain its commitment to intercollegiate sports.
When successfully implemented, our Plan will both solidify our core academic and co-curricular programs to a competitive level and strengthen those programs we have chosen to emphasize.
I. Washington College will significantly enhance the resources supporting an intensely personalized education of active inquiry for all of its students.
From its founding nearly 225 years ago, the heart of the Washington College experience has remained intense personal contact between faculty and students, between students and staff, and between student and student. Its ongoing commitment to oblige each senior to complete an ambitious project under close faculty supervision typifies this contact. Surveys of alumni and graduating seniors consistently point to relationships made with faculty, staff, and other students as the most significant part of a Washington College education and the part that has led most clearly to future success. The dramatic increase in the College's use of information technology has been carefully planned so as not to compromise face-to-face contact among faculty and students.
To ensure that this experience is not compromised, the Strategic Planning Committee determined that the College should not grow substantially over the next seven years. It is on this basis that the Committee presents the following supporting objectives and strategies:
Objective 1: The College will strengthen its culture of active and experiential learning in all areas of its academic program and thus more effectively prepare students for success in College and careers beyond.
Objective 2: The College will enhance opportunities for the exploration, organization, and creative expression of knowledge, ideas, and experiences and in this context give the performing arts a more prominent place in its academic life.
Objective 3: Washington College's most important resource remains its faculty and staff. To replace those who retire, to retain those who find themselves tempted by attractive possibilities elsewhere, and above all to recognize the remarkable service they provide, the College must offer competitive salaries and benefits, a manageable workload, excellent office and classroom space, and up-to-date information technology support. Washington College will restructure faculty time and enhance faculty resources to increase the faculty's engagement with individualized teaching and learning opportunities and its own research.
II. Washington College will strengthen its students' ability to write and speak with clarity, eloquence, and persuasion and to use evolving information technologies effectively.
The College's founder wanted to create a learning environment in which students would develop the arts of writing and speaking well. This plan recognizes that each generation and each age need to devote themselves anew to this venerable goal. Our age, in which the means of communication have vastly increased, lends new urgency to the College's long-standing commitment of preparing its students for a productive life a world in which excellence in all presentation skills remains a prerequisite for personal and professional success.
Objective 1: The College will strengthen its efforts to enhance its students' communications skills.
Objective 2: The College commits itself to keeping library resources and information technologies and services in alignment with current and emerging trends.
III. The College will provide an environment in which the ethnic, economic, religious, and geographical diversity of its students, faculty, and staff will enhance learning and social interactions to create a vibrant community.
The College's recent accreditation team from the Middle States Association pointed to a lack of campus diversity as one of the College's few glaring weaknesses. While the Committee was somewhat surprised to discover that Washington College's lack of diversity is mirrored by many of its competitors, it insists that the College take immediate steps to address this issue.
Objective 1: The College's recruitment and retention of ethnic minority students should match peer norms.
Objective 2: The College's recruitment and retention of international students will continue to lead peer institutions.
Objective 3: The College will ensure that the number of ethnic minority members among its faculty and staff match peer norms.
Objective 4: The College will strengthen its curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular offerings to ensure that students, regardless of their major fields of study, gain an understanding of the rich diversity of the American culture.
IV. Washington College will strengthen the range of experiences and social interactions necessary for a lively residential learning community.
Like other fine liberal arts colleges, Washington College recognizes that students learn and develop outside as well as inside the classroom. Social interactions in the residence halls and at campus events, athletic competitions, student organizations, including fraternities and sororities, and opportunities for service to campus and community all contribute to the quality of the Washington College experience.
Objective 1: The College will enhance student living and community spaces to ensure the existence of an effective living/learning environment. The improvement of College facilities for residence life and for student meeting and social spaces on campus is particularly urgent. Given limited resources, this plan concentrates on creating new residence hall beds, but there is no doubt that we must also develop plans to renovate or rebuild existing residence halls. On average, our present accommodations do not compare favorably with those of our competitors.
Objective 2: The College will develop a comprehensive wellness program to increase health education programming, integrating elements of physical, emotional and mental wellness into academic, co-curricular, residential, and other community settings.
Objective 3: The College will maintain its commitment to the quality of its varsity athletic program and facilities, to gender balance among its sports programs, and to the present level of student participation.
V. Washington College will provide to all its students an education that is linked to its distinguished patron, George Washington, its setting in historic Chestertown, the Chester River and the Chesapeake Bay.
Washington College's history and location set it apart from competitor schools, but the College has taken relatively little advantage of this asset. That situation must change.
Objective 1: Washington College will make George Washington's unique connection to this institution meaningful to the educational experience of its students and to the affinity of alumni and friends.
Objective 2: The College will foster efforts to enhance the "College Town" atmosphere of Chestertown and develop formal programs to encourage, recognize, and reward community service by members of the faculty, staff, students, and alums.
Objective 3: The College will continue its efforts to develop the Center for the Environment and Society into an educational resource for our students, the community, and the region.
Objective 4: The College will enhance and expand its water-based facilities for students, faculty, staff, and community members and will provide recreational and conference opportunities that will take advantage of the College's unique location and available natural resources.