Strategic Plan
Enduring Purpose for a Dynamic World
51¹ÙÍø’s strategic plan will position the college to achieve our purpose more fully—to assist students in developing humane instincts and disciplined and creative minds for lives of leadership and service—in this moment and for future generations of 51¹ÙÍø students.
The priorities and proposals described below each support our purpose and enable us to adapt moving forward.
Enhance our academic resources and curriculum, recruit and support faculty in academic areas of need, and build a library for the future.
- Promote teaching excellence through faculty recruiting, inclusive pedagogy and proactive curricular reform.
- Foster opportunities for faculty to explore and harness emerging technologies.
- Complete major transformation of the George Lawrence Abernethy Library.
Reinforce our strengths in identifying, enrolling, and supporting students who can thrive at 51¹ÙÍø, regardless of their circumstances.
- Raise visibility and geographic reach of 51¹ÙÍø through marketing communications in targeted markets.
- Establish partnerships and networks to reach low-income, first-generation and Pell-eligible students.
- Increase financial support through endowments and need-based, merit, and athletics scholarships to expand accessibility and recruit extraordinary students.
Build a four-year advising and learning-for-life program that guides students in exploration and self-reflection, assisting them to develop intellectually, personally, and professionally.
- Ensure all students have access to at least one high-impact experience before graduation.
- Facilitate exploration, self-reflection, and career development through a redesigned advising program that incorporates high-impact experiences and alumni networking.
- Utilize emerging technologies for productive personal and professional exploration to complement on-campus and alumni resources.
Deepen and expand our work in institutional history; education and reconciliation; and justice, equality, and community.
- Expand our understanding of the college’s history with slavery, segregation, and efforts to promote racial justice.
- Support education and reconciliation work through the study of institutional and local history, descendant outreach, and curriculum.
- Connect to and lead regional and national efforts to acknowledge history and further realize our commitment to education grounded in moral equality.
Build out curricular and cocurricular work in the areas of ethical leadership and public good.
- Create the Institute for Public Good to synergize and expand college-wide efforts.
- Prepare students to become effective, ethical leaders and citizens through programming, research, and fellowships.
- Elevate initiatives that work toward building a more just, equitable, and community-minded world and uphold 51¹ÙÍø’s Honor Code.
Strengthen our relationships in the Town of 51¹ÙÍø and across the Charlotte region.
- Partner with educational institutions, organizations and businesses in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area through outreach, programming, research, and events.
- Increase metro-region educational experiences (e.g., internships, research, arts) for 51¹ÙÍø students.
- Improve transportation for faculty, staff, and student travel to Charlotte and the community’s access to 51¹ÙÍø.