Strategic Plan Implementation Update: April 2024
Dear Colleagues:
Thank you to those who could attend for joining us on March 21 for our last strategic plan implementation lunch of the academic year. Here’s a brief summary of what we covered.
- Tom Halverson, Dean of the Faculty, provided an overview of the recent Board of Trustees retreat that included a pair of plenary sessions. In the first, Dr. Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, presented to the board on the topic of “Headwinds Facing Higher Education and Small Liberal Arts Colleges” and in the second, Dr. Earl Lewis, president emeritus of the Mellon Foundation and founding director of the Center for Social Solutions and professor of history at the University of Michigan, led a discussion on “The Role of Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education.” In addition, the board received an update from Campbell & Company, consultants on our next fundraising campaign, and conducted a business meeting that included approval of funding for the Campus Center renovation that will happen this summer.
- Paul Overvoorde, Vice Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty, thanked members of the Strategic Plan Implementation Working Groups whose year-long commitment drew to a close just before spring break. The co-chairs of these groups will share written recommendations and discuss the academic year’s work with the senior leadership team.
A progress report on the implementation of the Imagine, Macalester strategic plan is available as a PDF file and included on the Strategic Plan website.
Over the summer, in addition to the physical improvements that we’ve described previously, work in support of the strategic plan will include:
- Workshops to prepare three pilot Introduction to the Liberal Arts first-year courses
- Participation of a Macalester team in the AAC&U Institute on High-impact Practices
- Onboarding of an Associate Dean for Advising
- The second Transformative Pedagogies: Summer Institute hosted by the Serie Center
- Pilot changes to Orientation dates and structure
- Fundraising campaign planning and preparation for a year-end launch
- Joan Ostrove, Director of the Serie Center, and Nancy Bostrom, Associate Director of Assessment, provided an update from the Student Learning Committee on the revisions to the statement of educational outcomes. Joan and Nancy asked participants to provide feedback on the revised version of the statement of educational outcomes. The Student Learning Committee will use that feedback to iterate and create an updated draft to be circulated to the community.
Thank you for all you’re doing to move this work forward.
With gratitude,
Paul Overvoorde, Bethany Miller, Sara Suelflow, Julie Hurbanis
Strategic Plan Implementation Committee