| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
 President's White
Paper: Discussion summaries: National Alumni Executive Board School of Communications Advisory Board Martha and Spencer Love School of Business Advisory Board The NewCentury@Elon Strategic Plan was created in 2000. Click on the link below to find out more about the central elements of the plan.
|  On Arriving, Deepening
and Sustaining: Arriving Several years ago I visited a philanthropic foundation in Florida, and was hosted by a senior officer who opened our conversation by saying, “Dr. Lambert, we make gifts only to institutions that have arrived.” It was quite apparent he was referring to institutions that had developed national reputations, admitted students on a very selective basis, and held the traditional hallmarks of excellence that are assumed of fine institutions of higher learning, including excellent libraries, nationally-accredited professional programs, prominent alumni, and significant contributions to scholarship by faculty members. His off-the-cuff assessment of Elon was that it was an institution “on the rise,” but that it had not yet arrived. In sharing the foundation officer’s statement with students, faculty, staff, trustees, volunteer boards, parents, and alumni since, one frequent reaction to it is that it is not in the character of Elon to say “we have arrived.” Elon’s culture is about striving to be better, innovating rather than imitating, and resisting complacency. We hope that success never diminishes those values. Nonetheless, the time has come for Elon to recognize and claim ownership of the distinctive place it has risen to on the landscape of American higher education. When Newsweek-Kaplan named Elon one of "America's 25 Hottest Colleges" this fall, it based its selection on feedback from guidance counselors and other college experts who have been observing the university's remarkable transformation over the past decade. The U.S. News & World Report America's Best Colleges guide, which listed Elon #39 among Southern master's-level universities 10 years ago, now ranks Elon #6. Similarly, the top-selling Princeton Review and Fiske college guides now list Elon among the nation's best and most selective universities. The National Survey of Student Engagement, the most comprehensive assessment of effective practices in higher education, consistently rates Elon among the top 10 percent of colleges and universities on key benchmarks of quality. Elon sends more undergraduate students to study abroad than any other master's-level school in the nation. Our strong volunteer and civic engagement programs placed the university among the nation's top 81 schools in Princeton Review's "Colleges with a Conscience" guidebook, a ranking produced with input from college presidents and other top administrators across the nation. Elon's success in the college ranking industry has been reinforced by students and parents, who have been quite effective in spreading the news about Elon's quality. They have shared the news about Elon's outstanding graduation and freshman retention rates, which now rank in the top ten percent of the nation's master's-level universities. The result has been a remarkable surge of interest by prospective students. Since 2002, the number of applications for admission has increased more than 38 percent. More than 9,000 students applied for the 1,250 positions in this fall's freshman class. With an acceptance rate of about 41 percent, Elon is now a highly selective private university. Elon faculty and academic programs are also receiving national attention. The Martha and Spencer Love School of Business was awarded AACSB-International accreditation, and the School of Communications will host an ACEJMC accreditation site visit team in fall 2005. Among the special academic initiatives that are bringing recognition are the Elon Center for Public Opinion Polling, the National Campaign for Student Political and Civic Engagement, Project Pericles, Campus Compact, the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Elon's "Imagining the Internet" partnership with the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Our graduate programs in physical therapy (D.P.T.), business (MBA), and education (M.Ed.) are increasingly selective and distinctive, and the new School of Law aspires to create a new model of legal education in the United States that emphasizes community engagement and civic leadership. Elon's Phoenix athletics program has successfully completed the transition to NCAA Division I and now competes as a member of the prestigious Southern Conference with institutions such as Davidson, Furman and Wofford, which share our ideals about the nature of the student-athlete experience. Finally, our beautiful campus and land resources are tremendous strategic assets. When Princeton Review cited it as the second most beautiful campus in the nation, we more fully realized what a tremendous resource the campus is in recruiting students, faculty and staff. Since that time, the campus has been formally designated as a botanical garden. Elon has indeed arrived at an envious position, ready to chart an important new course at a time of great challenge to higher education. While many colleges and universities are experiencing declining graduation rates, Elon's rates are among the best in the nation … and rising. While other schools are facing criticism that graduates are unable to perform in the real world, Elon has found ways to connect students with the hands-on experiences that give them a special edge in the marketplace. And while spiraling college costs are making headlines, Elon has used financial efficiency and good strategic planning to maintain a bargain position, with total costs nearly $4,900 below the average for other top-10 private Southern universities. Deepening In December 2004, just prior to the senior staff mid-year retreat, I convened a group of approximately 35 early to mid-career faculty and staff to discuss the changes that have taken place at Elon over the course of the past five years (and especially the ways students have changed), to ponder what lies ahead for Elon beyond the New Century@Elon strategic plan, and to help senior staff better understand challenges faced by faculty and staff in their daily work. One of the most useful metaphors that was invented by a participant in that meeting was prompted by the visual aid of a large campus map. On the map, property owned by the University was colored green, while adjacent land not owned by Elon was white. The comment offered by the participant was “Elon should focus more on making the green greener rather than focusing on filling in all the white space.” Obviously, this was not a statement about land acquisition. It was rather a statement about focusing future attention on deepening existing programs, making distinctive programs even more innovative, and making good programs excellent. This is not to say, of course, that Elon will never add another new program, department, or school. It was also not a statement advocating stagnation or maintaining the status quo. This astute comment did suggest that at this stage of our evolution, the institution’s progress and momentum could be sustained by making investments in existing, strategically-important programs. An Elon student can best explain why this university is enjoying unprecedented success. Junior Geoffrey Lynn, a chemistry major from Deland, Fla., is the first Elon student to receive the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, awarded to outstanding students in math, natural sciences and engineering. When Newsweek asked to interview a student for its "Hottest Colleges" issue, we asked Geoff to explain his Elon experience. Here are excerpts from his response: "It’s about working with your peers and professors to apply knowledge and theory outside of the classroom. When I talk to students at other universities, they tell me about their assignments and work, and it seems like school is something distant from their real-life objectives. It shouldn’t be that way, and it’s not at Elon. School is what you do at Elon, and you learn how to have fun with it … Whether it’s an assignment, research idea, or a volunteer activity, you can always find students discussing their work and ideas outside of the classroom with sincere enthusiasm … As for some examples: I conduct all phases of research with my faculty mentor; we plan the experiments, conduct the experiments, and analyze the results concomitantly. From there, we seek to publish our findings in peer-reviewed journals, or present our work at research conferences. In my two years at Elon, the undergraduate research program has provided me with two semesters worth of research grants, and they have provided the finances for me to attend five professional conferences. I was able to present my work at all but one of the conferences. And it’s not just isolated instances around campus that you find these opportunities. All types of opportunities exist across all of the disciplines, and they are all aimed at providing students with a working knowledge." Geoff has effectively outlined everything that is right about Elon's approach to teaching and learning. While many universities promote student engagement in marketing materials, all of our student surveys and independent program quality studies tell us that Elon is one of the best in actually "walking the talk," blending academics and co-curricular programs into a seamless learning experience. It is clear that our best strategy for the future is to concentrate on enhancing existing strengths, making sure that all Elon students, no matter what their majors or abilities, have the kind of experiences Geoff describes. If we are to be an effective national leader in engaged learning, we must enrich and deepen what we do best. We have a good idea about where to start:
Another challenge the University must face is to articulate to our many external publics the value of a liberal arts and sciences education and its relevancy to a 21st century democracy. The aims of a liberal arts education—critical thinking, persuasive communication, quantitative and scientific reasoning, understanding of world cultures and languages, the cultivation of the love of learning—are enduring values at Elon that we as a community must constantly express. Sustaining As a university that is fulfilling its destiny, Elon stands at a pivotal point in its history. The pieces are in place to lead the way to a new definition of quality in American higher education. We have a good idea about the next strategic steps that need to be taken – deepening our programs and fully delivering on the promise of quality that draws thousands of students to this university. The limiting factor is an inadequate resource stream. Elon is far too dependent on tuition revenue and enrollment growth, and we are fast approaching the day when substantial increases in those two areas will be impractical. Eighty percent of Elon's operating revenue comes from tuition, room and board, compared with 47 percent at other top private universities in the South. At the same time, our budget is inadequately supplemented by an endowment that is much smaller than levels at peer institutions. Investment income makes up about 7 percent of Elon's annual budget compared with 29 percent at other top Southern private universities. To understand our challenges, it is helpful to walk through a brief primer on Elon's finances. I liken it to a series of valves that control the budget. Think through this model and consider the benefits and consequences of adjusting each valve:
A few comments about the valves:
Moderating enrollment growth and building a stronger endowment revenue stream are the central challenges in providing for a secure future for Elon. We need new thinking and creative strategies to find ways to expand Elon's endowment over the next decade while slowing enrollment growth and keeping tuition affordable. Building a larger endowment is a daunting task and will require the contributions and creativity of the entire community. We must achieve the same high level of focus, discipline, planning, and commitment that Elon has applied to accomplishing other monumental goals.
Discussion Questions Please help us find answers to these important strategic questions:
|
