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Strategic
Planning
OUR ENDURINGING SENSE OF PURPOSE
By Glenn Airgood
The Biography of a College tells us that “in the fall of the year of 1824,
the present president of the  Board of Trustees took a relative of his
on to Norwich in Vermont to place him under Captain Partridge
who had established a military and scientific institution at that place.
“He there saw in a small village, located far in the interior, on the Connecticut River, within gun shot of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, a literary and scientific institute, established by an individual, filled with upwards of 160 students, pursuing their studies advantageously, and giving support and employment to nearly if not all the inhabitants of the place. This evidence of success in individual enterprise, induced the question—Why cannot
such an Institution (sic) be established and sustained in the rich and flourishing Borough of Easton by the combined efforts of the citizens? In point of situation, salubrity (sic), cheapness
of living, vicinity to the large cities of New York and Philadelphia, Easton has decided advantages—Is not the object worthy of an attempt?”
More than 180 years later, the 2006 Fiske Guide to Colleges says “Lafayette College has done its homework and is earning higher and higher points among top students, as seen in the growing applicant pile. Gleaming new buildings, a crackdown on excessive student partying are just two of the visible reminders that the college is serious about continuing to rise higher and higher among the small elite liberal arts colleges. One of the few liberal arts schools of its size to offer engineering, Lafayette has also won respect for its technical and scientific programs.”
When  Daniel H. Weiss took the reins as Lafayette’s 16th president, he told those gathered at his inauguration “these events allow us to pause and reflect on the state of our College: on our history and traditions, our accomplishments and challenges, and most important,
on our aspirations and expectations for the future.
“In assessing the challenges and opportunities facing
us at this particular moment in our history, I believe
that we can best serve the interests of the College by dedicating ourselves to advancing three major objectives: 1. To reaffirm the central importance of liberal education as the best foundation for helping students build productive and rewarding lives; 2. To continue to enhance the quality of the academic core of the institution; and
3. To foster our identity at Lafayette as a vital and engaged community partner.”
Our enduring sense of purpose—it was the dream that provided the strategic vision for James Madison Porter in 1824; it endured and was built upon through the leadership of 15 presidents of Lafayette. Today, it is what Weiss calls “a legacy upon which to build” as he and Lafayette’s trustees engage the College community in the strategic planning process.
Over the next year, Weiss has put in place a system that will open channels of dialogue with all Lafayette constituencies—“the challenge is to make the process iterative enough and interactive so that everyone contributes and wants to contribute and becomes so involved that no one remembers his or her contribution. All who participate feel they have had a stake and say in the process. It’s a lot like making sausages—at the end,
no one tastes or remembers his or her contribution,
just the wonderful sausage.
“The more the better. The more conversation the better. What we’ll do, we’ll do together. We must recalibrate all the time. Not everyone is going to get what they want out of all of this. But everyone needs to feel the process was attentive to their input,” Weiss says.
To that end, Weiss has created a Strategic Planning
Steering Committee, which he will chair, to “lead a college-wide process of discussion, review, and assessment, ultimately leading to the preparation of a strategic plan to be presented to the board of Trustees by early fall of 2007.”
The Strategic Planning Steering Committee will facilitate plugging all areas of the campus community into the discussion and crafting process of the draft comprehensive strategic plan to be completed by mid-July 2007.
At the inception of the process, the Board and
the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, guided
by Weiss, have set a course focused “first and foremost”
on strengthening the quality of the academic experience of Lafayette students. In so doing they are, “reaffirming the central importance of a broad-based and individualized education as the best foundation for helping students
build productive a rewarding lives.”
Weiss points out that these key objectives of a liberal education, are what William G. Bowen (former president of both The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Princeton University) says “help us to develop those habits of thought which always ask why, which believe
in evidence, which welcome new ideas, which seek
to understand the perspective of others, which accept complexity and grapple with it, which admit error and pursue truth, wherever it may lead, however uncomfortable it may be.
“It should help us to be compassionate, and sensitive human beings, of service to others. It should help us to develop, and then demonstrate, a concern for ultimate values that are more than superficial signposts and that reflect more than the rote repetition of someone else’s formula for living a good life. Particularly important
is the desire—and the ability—to keep on learning,”
Bowen says.
Weiss envisions Lafayette emerging from the
strategic planning process with a plan “to become a premier small college that is academically distinctive
and international in reach and presence.”
To achieve this the strategic plan will explore:
- How best to educate students for a global world;
- How Lafayette faculty and students can be even
more meaningful and respected contributors
of knowledge and discovery to the world;
- How Lafayette can be a caring and engaged community.
The Strategic Planning Steering Committee will address these core values by engaging the Lafayette community in the exploration of several broad
planning topics, including: the faculty, the curriculum, the student experience, the City of Easton, and diversity and student access. Additional topics will include information technology, athletics, planning support,
and special curricular initiatives.
In addition the strategic planning effort will
include evaluation and formulation of recommendations involving the size of the College, market position objectives and plans, the master plan for buildings, campus, and facilities, and the role of technology.
While the challenge may seem daunting, Weiss is optimistic and encouraged. “We are uniquely well positioned to face these challenges,” he says. “It is
a difficult world that we send our young people into today. Lafayette needs to be at the center of that conversation. We can provide a value that is at the
center of society”—our enduring sense of purpose.
President Weiss encourages feedback from all members of the Lafayette community on the strategic planning process. Comments can be made to Presdient Weiss (weissd@lafayette.edu), or to Lafayette Alumni News (alumninews@lafayette.edu), or both.
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Planning Topics
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
Lafayette’s core mission is to
provide the finest possible
educational experience for its
students. This goal encompasses many aspects of the overall learning environment, but particular
attention should be focused on
attracting and retaining outstanding faculty and sustaining their
commitment to excellence both
in teaching and scholarship.
Commensurately, Lafayette must
seek to attract and challenge students of talent and ambition and the College must support these efforts with
an appropriate resource base
and state-of-the-art facilities.
DIVERSITY
One of the College’s major
objectives is to prepare students
for lives of significance as leaders
in an increasingly interconnected, globalized world. Achieving this goal requires students to have the attributes of tolerance, adaptability, open-mindedness, pluralism, acceptance, and inclusiveness, which can best be learned in an environment that demonstrates these attributes. Such a learning environment requires
diversity of thought, perspective, experience, ideas, belief systems,
values, passions, and interests.
These qualities are most readily achieved through a community that embodies diversity of race, religion, geography, socioeconomic status, gender, and sexual orientation.
COMMUNITY
The long-term health and vitality
of Lafayette is tied in essential ways
to that of Easton. The College serves its educational mission best when
the College fosters a relationship with the surrounding community and, in so doing, invests in strengthening the city. The College can bring much to
the partnership including volunteer involvement by students, faculty,
and staff; investment in community partnerships; professional advice,
support, and expertise; and access
to investment capital.
LIVING AND LEARNING
One of the distinguishing
characteristics of Lafayette and
other residential colleges is the essential connection between academics and residential life.
The learning environment extends beyond the classroom into all
aspects of the College experience.
The challenge is in continuing to make that experience relevant, stimulating, nurturing, and
competitively distinctive in a
rapidly changing environment.
RESPONSIBILITY AND SERVICE
In its essence, the Lafayette experience
is dedicated to enhancing the capacity
of mind that respects reasoned debate
and clear thinking, that is open to
alternative points of view and new ideas, and that believes in learning as a lifetime vocation. Lafayette students and alumni are expected to contribute to their
communities and to be thoughtful
and responsible citizens.
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