An Unprecedented University Commitment to Diversity and Global Engagement

  1. Continue robust efforts to make Elon a more diverse, inclusive, and culturally skilled community.
    1. Focus fund raising energies, enrollment efforts, and new program support to enhance student socio-economic diversity at Elon (first-generation and high-financial-need).
    2. Increase faculty and staff diversity, benchmarking against peer, aspirant, and national metrics – e.g., from 11.7% faculty of color in 2009 to 18.2% in 2017 and 18.4% to 22.6% in the same time period for staff.
    3. Increase student diversity, benchmarking against peer, aspirant, and national metrics – e.g., from 11.4% students of color in 2009 to 17.7% in 2017.
    4. Implement a system of programs to develop a national best practice model for promoting intercultural competence for all students.
    5. Implement key objectives from university-wide diversity and global engagement focused efforts (e.g., Hispanic/Latino working group, Black communities presidential task force, global education external review, and LGBTQIA advisory committee).
    6. Increase participation in global experience from 80% toward 85% of graduating undergraduate students as part of goal to achieve 100% access to a global engagement experience either domestically or abroad.
    7. Create a framework to guide faculty and staff professional development related to diversity and inclusion that supports intercultural knowledge, skills, behaviors, and humility, and that also supports global engagement.
    8. Identify paths and create more opportunities in the core curriculum for students to continue their growth related to diversity and global engagement (e.g. social justice, disparities, second language learning, equity).

Supporting a World Class Faculty and Staff

  1. Implement programs to support an integrated Teacher-Scholar development model that works across the span of a faculty career and responds to the distinct challenges and opportunities of different career stages.
    1. Implement year-2 of the new post-probationary faculty development support system, including the creation, recruitment, and hiring of four new full-time faculty lines by the fall of 2019.
    2. Execute the plan proposed by the Taskforce on Department Chairs including recommendations to improve writing effective evaluations of teaching faculty (Unit III).
    3. Complete study and implement tactics to assess and document effective, high quality teaching focused on the following faculty handbook definition: “Evidence of effective, high quality teaching may be seen through peer and student assessments related to a variety of possible indicators, as well as goal-driven, evidence-based critical self-assessment.”
    4. Evaluate and develop web resources for faculty growth and development across career stages, including revamping the existing new faculty website and developing new overarching resources that highlight resources and opportunities for professional development.
    5. Continue developing and implementing a plan to better orient and support part-time faculty in their work at Elon.
    6. Create a plan to sustain high-quality faculty scholarship and student undergraduate research support commensurate with institutional growth.
  2. Implement initiatives designed to promote civic engagement, political discourse, and active citizenship in preparation for the November 2018 mid-term elections.
  3. Enhance the coordination and co-promotion of various university dialogue initiatives (Community Connections, Deliberative Dialogue, Sustained Dialogue, Intergroup Dialogue, etc.) as a means to develop essential skills to support and sustain inclusive communities and robust civic engagement.

Attaining the Highest Levels of Achievement across our Academic Programs

  1. Create innovative opportunities for students to engage in high impact practices that enrich the Elon educational experience for all students.
    1. Develop and implement plans to assess the five Elon Experiences and use assessment evidence to propose and plan for strategic improvements.
    2. Assess the programming to enhance high-impact learning experiences of student-athletes to serves as a national model for Division I Athletics.
    3. Cultivate opportunities for all units across Elon to contribute to the enhancement of student engagement through the integration of the high impact practices framework and cross-unit collaboration.
    4. Create the next five-year plan for writing excellence at Elon.
  2. Implement new programmatic and curricular enhancements.
    1. Strengthen academic engagement during Winter Term.
    2. Provide new opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to learn and apply design thinking.
    3. Complete alignment of teacher licensure programs with CAEP (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation) at the undergraduate level and begin alignment at the graduate level.
    4. Develop a vision and strategic plan for an innovation quad that advances interdisciplinary collaborations, cross-programmatic engagement, and student learning and development.
    5. Establish a workgroup to evaluate current higher education trends related to  credentials and develop recommendations regarding future possibilities for Elon students.
    6. Support collaborations between departments in Elon College and the Love School of Business to create avenues for students majoring in the schools to take more advanced coursework outside the school housing their major(s).
    7. Collaborate with campus partners, including the department of world languages and cultures, Global Education Center, and Core Curriculum, to enhance second language study and application of second language skills following recommendations from the taskforce on second language learning at Elon.
    8. Continue to enhance the first year experience and assess the impact of changes on student satisfaction and retention.
      1. Implement curricular and training enhancements to the Elon 101 program and, in light of current information, review Elon 101 learning outcomes, create new ones, redesign the course with a new number, and incentivize teaching/advising for the new course.
      2. Implement and refine the new communications plan for incoming students, “Elon Bound,” to ensure consistent messaging and a seamless transition from admissions to matriculation.
      3. Identify and highlight themes and goals that apply across on-boarding, orientation, and the first year, including developing effective ways to encourage and support shared experiences such as the common reading.
    9. Implement the following curricular programs:
      1. M.S. in Accounting
      2. M.A. in Higher Education
      3. Revised B.A. in Physical Education and Health including Adventure Based Learning as a major
    10. Enroll student into new 4-year B.S. in Engineering major and begin accreditation process with Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).
  3. Enhance and assess integrative learning in the Elon Core Curriculum by completing the development of shared Core Curriculum student learning outcomes that align with Core Curriculum goals and implementing a revised assessment plan that provides actionable information on educational quality and communicates to students the integrative nature of the curriculum.
  4. Continue redefining Elon’s learning assistance built upon deep collaboration among partners in Belk Library and the Koenigsberger Learning Center and conduct an external review of Disabilities Resource to inform effective and efficient approaches to leverage the new KLC location, additional staff, new facilities, and Accommodate management software.
  5. Continue Elon’s commitment to enhancing intellectual climate, attending to the Intellectual Climate Strategic Plan’s four pillars of challenge, mentored experiences, student leadership opportunities, and community, and taking action on the 20+ items for years three and four, including:
    1. Develop a reporting structure/mechanism to collect information about intellectual climate enhancement activities and initiatives.
    2. Complete and distribute guidelines that support full-time faculty and residential campus staff to engage with students in high-quality intellectual activities, deep learning, and high impact practices throughout the college experience.
    3. Explore activities that enhance “Living and Learning at Elon” that also deepens Elon’s intellectual climate.
  6. Continue to implement the academic/residential integration necessary to enhance mentoring, relationships, cohorts, and facilities in support of the Living and Learning at Elon initiative.
    1. Develop a specific and actionable plan to strengthen existing Living Learning Communities by addressing faculty connections, syllabi, departmental support, programming efforts, assessment, the process to establish new communities, etc..
    2. Assess residentially linked courses, including arts and sciences first year courses for the Historic neighborhood, to identify ways to support and strengthen them and related programming.
  7. Leverage technology and space to enhance teaching and learning and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
    1. Implement the following new platforms:
      1. Career Services Management platform (Symplicity)
      2. Disabilities Resources online management system (Accommodate)
    2. Collaborate with all academic departments and programs, applications technology, and other units as appropriate to complete planning for the conversion to 4-digit course numbering.
    3. Pilot and evaluate the use of a new technology (Stellic) for student planning, degree audit, advisor-student communication, and student reflection on components of their Elon experience.
    4. Continue exploration, assess campus interest, and cultivate a campus climate supportive of the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) as possible alternatives to traditional, high-cost textbooks.
    5. Implement a facilities renovation plan to address ongoing needs in teaching and learning spaces.
    6. Enhance the use of current platforms including implementing the R25 classroom optimizer, refining Smart Catalog Curriculum Management, linking the academic catalog and Ellucian Colleague, and implementing enhancements to the Graduate Catalog.
  8. Develop School of Law as the nation’s premiere school for experiential legal education.
    1. Undertake strategic planning process for 2019-2024.
    2. Complete year 3 of the longitudinal assessment of the new curriculum with funding from Access Group, and share results
    3. Enroll 150 students in fall 2019 [with average and median LSAT scores at least one point above those of the class entering in fall 2018]
    4. Meet Academic and Bar Support (ABS) goals for improvement in bar exam support and bar pass rate (year over year improvement in bar pass rate and moving toward at least 80% bar passage rate).
    5. Enhance inclusive community
    6. Develop integrated approach to Elon presence in Greensboro through connections with existing and developing undergrad and grad academic programs
  9. Prepare for successful re-accreditations.
    1. Prepare and submit the fifth-year report for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) by March 15, 2019.  Identify needed improvements in institutional processes and implement appropriate changes.
    2. Submit AACSB self-study report by Thanksgiving and plan for successful AACSB Peer Review team visit in February 2019.
  10. Develop a plan to recruit and support outstanding students who will earn the most prestigious fellowships (e.g., Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, Schwarzman, Knight-Hennessy, Goldwater, Marshall).
  11. Develop a strategic plan in the College of Arts & Sciences that bridges departmental five year planning and the insitutional strategic plan.
  12. Study alternative staffing models for the Core Curriculum building on collaborations with schools/colleges/departments that will facilitate programmatic enhancements, be responsive to department challenges, and facilitate expanded faculty engagement and enhanced faculty development.

Launching Strategic and Innovative Pathways in Undergraduate and Graduate Education

  1. Implement and assess new cohort programs for incoming students with interests in the following academic and co-curricular areas.
    1. Maroon Sports – 15 students
    2. Health Professions/Pre-health – 15 students
    3. Pre-law – 15 students
    4. Global Pathfinders (Dublin) – 20 students
    5. Change Makers – Civic Engagement – 15 students
  2. Study and plan for new pathways that diversify curricular offerings, improve student preparation for postgraduate work, and provide new opportunities for students to pursue professional interests.
    1. Plan for and implement approved recommendations from the working group on 3+3 programs for physical therapy education and physician assistant studies.
    2. Explore post-baccalaureate programs in business targeted to liberal arts graduates who seek careers in business, including a post-baccalaureate certificate program in analytics.
    3. Continue to integrate professional development programming more intentionally within Elon College programs.
    4. Expand competency based learning in M.Ed. (AIG program).
    5. Continue the Student Professional Development Center’s transition to a Career Community model.

Significantly Enhance Elon’s Campus with Premier New Academic and Residential Facilities and a Commitment to Protecting our Environment

  1. Complete design and planning for following projects:
    1. Assessment of learning spaces
    2. Koury Center renovation
    3. Engineering and Physics Building.
  2. Complete construction for following projects:
    1. Richard W. Sankey Hall
    2. Koenigsberger Learning Center and Belk Library renovation
    3. Robotics Lab in Duke.

Additional

Execute new university commencement ceremonies to include an opening ceremony for all students on Scott Plaza/Young Commons and then individual school and college ceremonies in venues across campus AND consider additional revisions/options for spring 2020.