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January 30, 2007
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR
WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY
On November 20, 2006, the University Planning Council identified five strategic priorities that it believed should guide strategic planning at Wake Forest. These priorities emerged from an analysis of both quantitative data concerning the University and extensive input from a range of constituent groups both on our campus and beyond. Over the past two months the Council has held four open forums to discuss these proposed priorities, and has encouraged others to express their views on those priorities through our planning website. Based on this input the Council recently met to finalize its list of strategic priorities, which will now form the basis for strategic planning in all major units across our campus. What follows is the final list of strategic priorities, the rationale for the selection of each, and some sample questions units might consider in their efforts to address each priority within their own unit plans.
Strategic Priorities
- Build academic programs of nationally recognized excellence
- Enhance faculty distinction
- Attract a talented and diverse student body and develop exceptional young leaders
- Create a richer sense of community throughout the University
- Strengthen Wake Forest's connections to communities beyond our campus
Rationale and Questions Related to Each Priority
1. Build Academic Programs of Nationally Recognized Excellence
In response to the Planning Council's on-line survey, virtually all constituent groups agreed that the single most important attribute of the University is its overall academic reputation. At the same time, the academic reputation of the institution was identified by all constituent groups as an attribute that should be strengthened in the years ahead. Certainly the academic reputation of any university is critical, because the ability of an institution to attract outstanding faculty, talented students, and first-rate staff, as well as various forms of financial support, rests on that reputation.
Wake Forest's own reputation for academic excellence will always depend in part on the perceived quality and stature of our faculty. However, an important related component of our reputation is the recognized quality of the academic programs we offer. Thus, in order for Wake Forest to attract the very best people, as well as the support it needs, we must focus on building academic programs of nationally recognized excellence, programs that are highly regarded for providing exceptional educational experiences, and programs that are widely known for their research and scholarly contributions.
Our goal should be to create an academic environment that is widely regarded as innovative, challenging, and intellectually exciting, and to build academic departments and programs that have outstanding national reputations within their respective disciplinary areas. Wake Forest should aspire to nothing less than a level of academic quality and recognition that would place the University among the top rank of universities nationwide.
Sample questions to consider:
- What are the opportunities in our units to build genuine areas of strength? Analysis of peer performance and recent peer program improvements might be brought to bear on this topic.
- To what emerging fields should Wake Forest give attention?
- What fresh opportunities exist for synergy between the College and the professional schools?
- How can we be innovative in bringing resources, both people and financial, to bear on the identified opportunities?
- How do we translate academic strengths into exceptional learning environments for students?
- Should we give more emphasis to development of international opportunities as well as other experiential learning opportunities (i.e. service learning, entrepreneurial studies, research involvement and disciplinary honors education and internships) as a means of invigorating our academic environment?
2. Enhance Faculty Distinction
In a recent address to the University Senate, President Hatch stated that "the faculty of Wake Forest are its most valuable asset. It is by their creativity that richer learning environments can be created. It is only by their writing that knowledge will be reshaped. And, it is only by their example that students will fall in love with learning and be inspired to explore in the classroom and beyond." This theme of the critical importance of faculty excellence was expressed by virtually all constituents who provided their perceptions of Wake Forest to the Planning Council. Another recurring theme was Wake Forest's commitment to the teacher-scholar ideal, and the difficulties inherent in making that ideal a reality on our campus. One of our strategic priorities should be to enhance faculty quality and distinction by fostering an environment in which faculty can truly flourish as teachers, scholars and mentors. Obviously, providing more competitive salary and compensation packages for current faculty must be a component of our efforts in this area. However, to address this priority in a comprehensive way, we need to consider a variety of strategies and approaches.
Sample questions to consider:
- How can we be more creative in recruiting top faculty who fit our profile? What are the best practices? Are there things we should do differently in recruiting? Should we make greater use of mechanisms such as endowed chairs or distinguished visiting scholar programs? Should we selectively strengthen graduate programs that might attract superior faculty?
- How do we best align the criteria for hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions with our goals for realizing the teacher-scholar ideal?
- How do we best formalize our efforts to enhance faculty diversity?
- How can we better organize our people and resources to balance the demands of teaching and scholarship? (e.g., better management of course offerings and class sizes, more strategic use of non-tenure-track faculty, reassessment of research leave policies).
- What scholarly resources, infrastructure and support systems do we need to enhance in order to achieve success?
3. Attract a Talented and Diverse Student Body and Support the Development of Exceptional Young Leaders
The quality of the educational environment at Wake Forest depends on more than the quality of our faculty and our academic programs. It also depends on the nature of our student population and on our success in supporting the development of our students along a variety of personal dimensions.
As to our student population, we must recognize that a significant part of each student's education depends on his or her interaction with other students. Students serve as role models for each other, they challenge each other intellectually, and they introduce each other to new ideas and new perspectives. Thus, it is critical for Wake Forest to attract students who are intellectually curious, who have strong academic qualifications and who have significant leadership potential. It is equally critical that we focus our efforts on attracting a more diverse student population to expand the range of ideas and perspectives represented on our campus.
In the area of student support programs, we have long been committed to the liberal education tradition, and to the belief that our purpose is to educate the whole person. This belief requires that we focus on more than the strength of our academic programs. It demands that we also provide our students with a range of well-coordinated opportunities for social, physical, moral, and spiritual growth. Wake Forest should strive to create a vital and distinctive educational environment that is founded on exceptional academic programs, a talented and diverse student population, and extensive opportunities for student personal growth.
Sample questions to consider:
- How do the College and the professional schools strengthen recruiting programs to enhance the quality and diversity of our student body?
- How do we best target competitive financial aid packages to ensure that we both enroll our very best applicants and reach out successfully to students of less privilege and opportunity?
- Where is it most critical to maintain the small class learning environment, and close faculty-student interactions that are hallmarks of a Wake Forest education?
- How can we best develop young leaders, by enhancing student life and co-curricular programs to support the social, moral, physical and spiritual development of our students?
- How can we enhance the commitment to professional responsibility among our graduate and professional students?
- How do we best enhance advisory and career services programs to support our students' preparation for their post-graduation goals?
4. Create a Richer Sense of Community Throughout the University
Wake Forest has always taken pride in the strong sense of community that has existed on its campus. The long-standing ideal that those of us on campus are bound together in a common purpose and are supportive of each others' growth and well-being is often singled out by faculty, staff, and students as one of Wake Forest's most attractive features. Certainly, the quality and strength of our community remains critical today as we seek out ways to work in concert to achieve our goals for the future.
Given the importance we place on these feelings of community, we must recognize that as our campus population has grown, as workloads have increased, and as the University has become more complex, maintaining a sense of community has become more difficult. Furthermore, as we become more diverse as a campus population, this sense will become even harder to preserve. We should aspire not only to preserving our sense of community, but to strengthening and enriching that sense through an array of very intentional efforts that are focused on the well-being of our staff, faculty and students.
Sample questions to consider:
- How, specifically, can we create a work environment and a system of support for our staff that will promote staff development, job satisfaction and greater recognition of staff contributions?
- What factors (including programs and facilities) are key to retaining and enhancing a vital community?
- How can we improve communication and governance structures on campus to ensure fair, equitable and transparent decision-making processes?
- How can we attract and retain outstanding people in all areas of the University?
- As we become more diverse how do we best foster community among staff, faculty and students?
- How can we create a positive and rewarding work and learning environment that values the shared and distinct contributions of staff, faculty and students?
- Should we create more opportunities for the entire community to come together to celebrate achievements, discuss issues of common interest and enjoy social interactions?
- How do we best assess the impact of size of the campus population on community, and ensure that community is maintained if population increases occur in the future?
- What contributions should intercollegiate athletics make to our community?
5. Strengthen Wake Forest's connections to communities beyond our campus
All universities have a public responsibility that goes beyond the preparation of society's next generation of citizens and leaders. For Wake Forest, this public responsibility is brought into focus by its motto of Pro Humanitate, and by its goal of educating leaders with a strong sense of service to the broader community. Therefore, we must create, through an intentional set of choices, a strong and vital set of connections to our external communities.
We should begin in our local community, where current connections are highly valued and a source of pride, where a greater Wake Forest presence is desired, and where potential educational benefits for our students are readily accessible. At the same time, Wake Forest is a national university with global interests, and there is enormous potential for establishing exciting new connections with both our national and international communities. Such connections would enable us to create educational opportunities that would advance global understanding, while providing us with expanded opportunities for service across the nation and the world.
Sample questions to consider:
- To preserve scarce resources, how can we use current resources and public engagement programs more effectively to amplify beneficial impacts on our students and the local community?
- Are there better ways to translate research discoveries into economic development opportunities?
- How might we facilitate stronger linkages with local government and businesses to make it easier for University faculty, staff and students to contribute ideas, energy, and personal resources for entertainment/recreation to the Winston-Salem economy (e.g. roundtable discussions, transit service downtown, etc.)?
- What kinds of conferences might we organize to enable us to bring our expertise to bear on significant national and international issues?
- Should we consider additional service learning courses that target local, national, or international communities and their needs, combined with student service trips to communities in the United States and abroad?
- How can our professional schools bring their expertise to bear upon major issues of concern locally, regionally, and nationally?
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