2018 Progress Updates

Inspire Students Through Transformative Learning

Shenandoah University will focus on rigorous, innovative programs and engaged student learning.

Develop a vibrant environment that fuses liberal and professional learning to produce a world-class education that is broad, inspiring, and relevant.

• Articulate and operationalize clear and compelling goals for general education
• Use high-impact practices to embed liberal learning in professional and pre-professional curricula
• Engage students in learning and service activities in partnership with communities and organizations external to the university
• Demonstrate practical applications and career opportunities for all degrees
• Invest in the College of Arts & Sciences as an academic foundation of the university
• Further develop the advising system to foster collaborative relationships that support students in setting and achieving educational and career goals

Build on existing strengths to create new interdisciplinary and interprofessional programs that will graduate students who are competitive, forward-thinking and prepared to meet societal needs.

• Increase avenues for faculty interactions between programs and schools
• Allocate administrative support to identifying and shepherding such programs
• Create IPE opportunities at the undergraduate level and intertwine IPE throughout graduate HP, nursing and pharmacy curricula
• Launch new programs that align with mission, build on strengths, are resource positive or neutral, and meet societal needs

Employ creative delivery models and emerging technologies to improve academic quality, access and affordability.

• Support development of online and hybrid courses and programs
• Continue to use of emerging technologies to support programs at multiple locations
• Collaborate with other institutions to expand offerings, such as the VFIC language consortium

Build and support a faculty and staff that educate and inspire students through innovative, rigorous, student-centered teaching and advising.

• Strengthen faculty development for teaching in disciplinary and general education courses
• Strengthen support for faculty scholarship
• Improve faculty salaries in areas where they are below national medians for similar institutions

Engage our students through experiences inside and outside the classroom that bring theory to practice, develop intellectual capacity and higher-order thinking, and engender transformative learning in career and life skills, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and cultural competency.

• Develop general education to broadly incorporate experiences outside the classroom
• Strengthen connections between Academic Affairs, Student Life, and Enrollment Management to support synergistic and mutually supportive programs
• Expand international experiences with specific goal of increasing the number of students studying abroad
• Expand opportunities and recognition for student research
• Connect with expanded Career Center to integrate career skills into academic programs as appropriate

Position ourselves to maximize student learning with leading-edge assessment.

• Create institutional structure to facilitate and integrate the planning and assessment process
• Improve monitoring of student retention
• Create dashboard for senior administrators and trustees

Prioritize Student Success

Complementing transformative learning is Shenandoah University’s unwavering commitment to student success.  Shenandoah University will dedicate its time, ideas and resources to provide the highest level of quality in career and graduate school preparation, life preparation and degree completion.

Identify barriers to students’ progression and develop university-wide systems that result in retention and graduation rates that are in the top one-third of our institutional type.

• Create innovative, flexible, and/or condensed pathways to and throughout a Shenandoah education
• Develop and deliver clear, consistent recruitment messaging about SU that allows recruited students to make good choices & that prepares students to embrace the unique Shenandoah University environment
• Use historic data to identify characteristics of successful SU graduates. Use this profile to help shape admissions strategies that set students up for success

Develop a comprehensive Career Center to increase the breadth and scope of career development services and tools used by students and alumni in all of Shenandoah University’s programs of study.

• Create a Student Success Center to facilitate accessibility to multiple collegiate support services for students and alumni similar to those of our aspirant institutions
• Implement protocol that involves Career Services working with academic departments to ensure that students maximize the career value from practicum/internship/clinical experiences that are imbedded in the curriculum.

Actively promote and prepare students to apply for graduate school, residencies, national-level scholarships and post-graduate service opportunities.

Identify At-Risk populations and individual students of concern at Shenandoah University and develop interventions that improve their chances of success.

• Develop comprehensive university-wide practices for responding to individual students of concern
• Provide more aggressive presence of support services for cohort-based students, specifically for counseling & learning resources
• Expand coaching program to work with targeted high-risk populations as identified in recent research.  Implement use of peer coaching program(s), as appropriate

Develop university-wide practices for identifying, recognizing and celebrating students’ achievements in academic, out-of-class, and career-related pursuits.

• Develop an interdepartmental, systematic approach to gathering, packaging and publishing ‘student stories’ through a variety of electronic & print media
• Increase use of alumni’ career success stories to assist with recruitment as well as retention initiatives
• Enhance visibility of high-achieving students through advising, increased programming, and involvement of honor societies such as ALD, ODK and support for
  discipline-related honors organizations
• Aggressively employ a variety of methods to increase community awareness of student and alumni achievements
• Establish a winning tradition in the ODAC, including competitive play at the tournament level along with high academic standards for Hornet athletics

Build/Create a World Class Learning Environment

Shenandoah university will aggressively seek to provide facilities, infrastructure and a supportive culture to facilitate and inspire transformative learning and student success.

Deepen and expand Shenandoah’s commitment to inclusion and diversity.

• Ensure that policies and structure promote and enhance diversity
• Identify, recruit and interview professionally qualified individuals from diverse backgrounds for open administrative, staff and faculty positions
• Engage in regular review of diversity, inclusion and equity
• Establish initiatives for achieving an inclusive and diverse student body and culture
• Increase university-wide cultural awareness and competency, and develop steps for ensuring cultural sensitivity in the implementation of our work

Strategically add and renovate facilities, infrastructure and outdoor spaces that inspire transformative learning and give Shenandoah a competitive advantage.

• Prioritize new building projects and building renovations to include:

• Update University Master Plan and University Landscaping Plan
• Acquire strategic properties
• More effectively connect all SU campuses with the main campus.

Make available technologies and data that will be most beneficial for Shenandoah in providing transformative learning and ensuring student success. (acquiring, supporting and training)

Ensure a campus culture, protected by university-wide policies and practices, that is intentionally designed to support a “culture of caring” and safety for students, faculty and staff.

• Conduct a biennial review and update of the human resources policies, salaries,and benefits to make SU competitive and attractive
• Establish faculty and staff salary benchmarks and goals
• Encourage mentorships that foster career development and exploration of new opportunities

Achieve an Adaptive and Sustainable Financial and Educational Model

Shenandoah University will improve the value equation to the student while increasing the University’s financial viability in a changing educational market (in a changing marketplace)..

Ensure that a Shenandoah education is accessible to lower income and middle class families.

• Increase resources for lower income and middle class families
• The university will establish definitions for both “lower income” and “middle class” families to begin to see how we can budget the necessary resources for these populations.
• Establish multiple “on ramps and off ramps” for all students who need flexibility to achieve degree

Create a higher education innovation lab to identify the educational and financial model of the future.

• Explore “design thinking”
• Set aside resources to reshape educational model and achieve “first mover” advantage

Increase the University’s financial viability.

• Generate new resources through targeted enrollment growth and through fundraising
• Increase endowment with gifts and prudent investment strategy
• Lower debt service as a percentage of operating budget
• Expand and deepen donor base

Use data to better serve our students’ educational and personal needs and to make the university more efficient and competitive.