Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning Committee
Minutes/Notes - Wednesday, January 23
Teague Library

Present: Monteze Snyder, Sara Penhale, Tamara Clark, Wes Miller, Rick Foreman , Newell Pledger-Shinn, Bob Southard, Paul Ogren, Doug Bennett, Margaret Hampton, Nancy Sinex

The minutes from the January 16, 2002 meeting were approved.

Staffing
Doug announced that due to personal and family health concerns, Nancy Sinex asked to be released from her responsibilities with the Strategic Planning Committee, effective as of this meeting. Doug indicated that he will be giving some thought to staffing the committee and encouraged SPC members to share any ideas they might have. Appreciation for Nancy's service on the committee was minuted. Sara agreed to work with Newell and Tamara on the draft of the white paper on community life.

Big Ideas/ Strategic Options
SPC members shared the following "big ideas" for discussion. Fuller text and explanations for each idea were provided and are available upon request.

· Residential Life (Wes) - Suggested a dorm design that would encourage small groups of students within the larger student community for first and second-year students. This idea would create an intentional living space for more than two people, with construction of "suites" with doubles, singles and shared living space. Upper class students would serve as mentors, and enhanced living arrangements would encourage upper class students to stay on campus (similar to other college-owned, non-dorm space). Students might take a class together, similar to the current living-learning first-year experience.

· Acknowledging/Expecting Academic Excellence (Bob) -- In response to student perception that Earlham is not a very academic demanding place of higher learning, this proposal suggests a major culture shift, with faculty expecting certain performance standards from students (adhering to deadlines, being fully prepared for class discussion, class attendance, etc.). Bob noted the importance of needing to do this all at once-meaning all faculty would agree to these expectations and hold to them. One SPC member suggested that we fold into this proposal something about the honor code. (It was mentioned that one study was done with students who participated in the Hughes Science program to determine how hard students work - disappointed to learn how little some students do.)

· Global Leadership (Sara) - an outline of the goals, leadership types and suggested activities for preparing students to serve in leadership roles globally.

· Learning Community (improving community engagement and morale -- Sara) - Encouragement to tie everything we do with teaching and learning-the core of the Earlham community. Celebrating scholarship, collaboration, supporting wellness for all, better orientation regarding governance and consensus and deliberately planned fun activities are among some of the suggestions for achieving this goal. It was noted that we would need to direct the financial resources to support this idea, including provision for a staff position to coordinate these efforts and programming funds.

· Reviving Community and Understanding Our Quaker Connection (Newell) - Importance of addressing Earlham's "Quakerness" and how it affects the unique teaching/learning community here. Suggestions included incorporating study of Quakerism in the humanities sequence and later studying how particular Quaker values and practice inform this particular learning place.

· Building Community (Rick)-Convert/refurbish/build-on to Tyler Hall, making it a community center/lounge for all members of the EC community. The building would contain the post office, a snack bar, game room meeting rooms and other venues to bring students, faculty and staff together, whether formally or informally. (Discussion included, stopping individual department mail delivery and having everyone pick up mail in one central place, designing a facility for use by faculty and staff only, and renovating Runyan to serve fully as a Fine Arts facility).

· Institutionalize "Smarts and Arts" (Monteze) - make this exhibition an annual affair (a "big deal" including a picnic on the Heart), scheduled at a time when both current and prospective students could discover Earlham's academic scholarship. Exhibits would include faculty publications and research as well as academic work of current. This would provide a productive intro into a major for current students and encourage all to celebrate the accomplishments of community members.

· Writing/Quantitative Skills/Technology (Monteze) - Acknowledgement that many students arrive here with poor writing skills, weak preparation in mathematics and little understanding of how to use technology. Design ways to address this early on in students' careers and use technology to address all three weaknesses.

· "Up Close and Personal" (Monteze) - Acknowledgement of enrolling fewer students who can fully afford our kind of college and the fact that many middle-need students are choosing publicly-funded/state institutions of higher learning-situations common at other similar liberal arts colleges. Design a campaign to interest more students in the liberal arts.

· Increased Staffing (Paul)- Raises the question of how we might use 4 more staff in admissions or offices allied with admissions to increase the size of our applicant pool. (Two of the four positions would be senior staff, at least one of who had some expertise in Banner).

· Creative Financing (Paul) - Offer same-tuition cost over a 4-year period (removing the anxiety of new costs each year).

· Conner Prairie and Advanced Degree Program (Doug) - Use of Conner Prairie as a site for offering a Masters in Liberal Studies program, with courses taught by Earlham faculty and by adjunct faculty from Indianapolis. Evening or Saturday classes or, as suggested by other SCP members, courses offered as an intensive May term or summer program.

· Increasing the Size of the Student Body (Margaret) - Includes ideas for residential life, central student union, staffing and facilities to support this increase.

· Foreign Study and Bilingual Graduates (Margaret) - Provide resources and encouragement so that all of our students study abroad before graduation. Allow students to participate in more than one-off-campus program and still receive financial aid. Provide resources so that most Earlham students and faculty become bilingual.

· Alumni as Resources (Margaret) - Design a program to regularly bring our alumni to campus (e.g., May Term). Establish a program to have current students "shadow" alumni in their career positions. (Doug mentioned that our alums feel "cast out of the garden." We need to renew their sense of connection by getting them to campus and having them in regular contact with current students.)

White Papers
We discussed and made editorial suggestions on the white paper drafts on financial aid and retention.

Meeting with Fine Arts
SPC members received a memorandum from members of the Fine Arts Division regarding concerns for strategic planning. They requested an opportunity to meet with members of the planning committee in the near future to discuss the memorandum. Some SPC members will attend the Fine Arts division meeting on February 4 at noon.

Next Meeting - Wednesday, January 30 - 3-6:00 p.m. (Teague Library)