DEPAUW BOLD & GOLD 2027 Five-Year Strategic Plan
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n October 2020, the DePauw community gathered for the first time to begin a process that would, 18 months later, launch a new strategic plan to create a renewed liberal arts university for the 21st century. We invited trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the university to share their ideas, hopes, and dreams for DePauw in an inclusive, in-depth process led by a Strategic Planning Steering Committee. More than 15 smaller working groups identified, explored, and prioritized the strategic questions, themes, and aspirations as they emerged. In shaping and reshaping ideas through discussion, debate, and critical inquiry, this process reflected the best of the liberal arts tradition that is always the foundation for DePauw. “DePauw will be a new model for a From those roots now arises, as we approach our bicentennial 21st Century Liberal Arts and Sciences year, a bold new vision, conceived in the spirit of our founders, who University – one steadfast in its belief in brought this university to life in a frontier village. The 21st century the power of the liberal arts and sciences calls for renewal – for DePauw to rise to further greatness, bringing to prepare students for lives of leadership, new energy and purpose to the liberal arts. Our first president, creativity and service. Matthew Simpson, charged us with using “the utmost exertion for the amelioration of the conditions of mankind;” as those conditions To cement our status as a world class have changed, so too must we. This new liberal arts education must liberal arts college, we will cultivate the extend not only to scholarship and the professions, but also to skills and competencies employers want from careers not previously imagined; it must embrace the full, marvelous our graduates with the intellectual rigor and varieties of leadership and creativity. Just as DePauw cultivates profound experiences families demand.” humanity among students who have different perspectives, identities and purposes, we must cultivate equity, inclusion, and – Lori S. White, President, DePauw University ethics throughout the fabric of the institution. Emerging from this collective work – aspirations, agreements, disputes, debates, and resolutions – is our strategic plan for 2022-2027. We have anchored it with four overarching goals: academic renewal, exemplary student experience, institutional equity and flourishing university. This plan reflects the collective wisdom of trustees, faculty, staff, students, and alumni; it demonstrates our community spirit. Writing it clarified our strategic direction and forged new connections among people across the campus. Its success rests on our commitment to find the human and fiscal resources needed to bring it to life, the agency of our leadership team, and the conviction of each member of our community to work together to realize our vision.
34 I DEPAUW MAGAZINE SUMMER 2022
