The Wabash community is going to find out about some of the proposed “big directions of the College” by the end of this week.
After months of planning, meetings, and discussion, the latest draft of Strategic Plan has been released. Students will receive a copy of the plan by the end of this week. The six-page draft entitled, “Wabash College in the 21st Century – The Wants of the Country,” covers issues ranging from student recruitment to updating facilities to greater participation in the life of Crawfordsville. The current draft of the plan has already been released to faculty and staff.
“Wabash College has long had a vision that looks far into the future and deep into the past. Over the last six months, we have asked ourselves again, ‘Where do we go from here?’ Our response is, as it has always been for Wabash, that we move forward with courage, wisdom, and determination,” the draft of the plan, dated March 24th, 2008, states.
The draft begins by restating the mission and core values of the College and analyzing “key strengths.” Among those mentioned, under the heading “Our Uniqueness as a College for Men that,” are Wabash’s liberal-arts focus, a “students-first philosophy,” and the Gentleman’s Rule. Other key strengths include “diverse cultural, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds” among students and faculty members who “have a passion for intense student engagement.”
The current draft of the plan, however, states five strategic goals, covering recruitment of students, faculty, and staff (nos. 1 and 2), improvements to athletic, academic, and student housing facilities (no. 3), advancing development in Crawfordsville (no. 4), and an increase in the endowment of annual contributions (no. 5). Parts of these goals have been released to the College community previously, such as the proposals for new athletic facilities, which were on display during Honor Scholarship Weekend.
One issue addressed in the draft was student recruitment. “Many of the characteristics we want in Wabash men are characteristics we are already getting,” President of the College Patrick White said. “How do we continue to get those guys?”
Part of this push is in response to increased competitiveness for male students. “The environment [i.e., of recruitment] is changing because the competition for young men is changing,” White said. He cited increased efforts by major state universities and other liberal-arts colleges for men. “Their populations are becoming closer to 60-40 women to men, and that’s a factor.”
Another prong of the recruitment project is to “Provide more resources for student financial aid,” which includes considerations of merit and need-based aid, and an increased focus on indebtedness. “That’s an increased issue as families worry [about their indebtedness] increasingly,” White said.
President White also noted the importance of keeping need-based aid in line with merit-based aid. “We need to continue to increase our needbased scholarships along with merit scholarships,” White said. He also addressed the balance between merit-based aid and need-based aid.
“[Some students] just happen to be needy and bright,” White said.
Another issue, relating to students, is an effort to address independent housing on campus.
Indeed, under the explanation of Strategic Goal 3, the “residential needs” of independent men are first on the list. President White, however, noted that other projects might be tackled before new dormitories and the like. He noted the College’s priorities on the matter as a difference between “a priority in time or a priority in importance.” He also said that College administrators would “take some time and think about how to do it.”
A major factor in any residence- hall work is what President White called a “cascade.” Also working under a cascade effect are planned renovations to academic buildings, including Baxter Hall in the near future. Any major renovation project is a “more complicated project that needs to be planned a little more,” White said.
The gears are also beginning to turn on a new capital campaign to help pay for the physical upgrades to the campus and other projects funded by the endowment.
“Out of the strategic planning work and master planning work will come a capital campaign,” White said.
The campus community should not, however, expect an immediate launch of the new campaign. “Any capital campaign has a quiet phase, in which some of the large donors and large gifts are lined up,” White said. He also noted that many major pledges are “committed before the capital campaign is announced.”
An issue of considerable interest on campus has been an increased involvement with Crawfordsville. “That’s something new in our strategic thinking, I understand,” White said.
White stressed the relationship between Wabash and Crawfordsville. “The quality of Crawfordsville, downtown and the whole community, is important to us,” White said. “Wabash has a role to play more as a catalyst.”
White also addressed reactions to the piece. “How can we best engage student response and ideas on the plan,” White asked. “I would welcome ideas on that.”
He noted that some issues of importance might not be included in the draft, or even the final plan. “There are many things that need to be done going forward that may or may not find exact expression in the strategic plan.” Part of that is the nature of the plan. “This strategic plan draft is closer to the economical model. The reason for that is we want to keep focused,” White said.
As students, faculty, and staff start to digest and consider the current draft, it is safe to say that the College is going to be focused, itself, on the strategic plan for some time. President White hopes that a final version will be submitted to the Trustees in Fall 2008.