The 2011 Strategic Plan

Our Mission

St. Olaf, a four-year college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, provides an education committed to the liberal arts, rooted in the Christian Gospel, and incorporating a global perspective. In the conviction that life is more than a livelihood, it focuses on what is ultimately worthwhile and fosters the development of the whole person in mind, body, and spirit.

Now in its second century, St. Olaf College remains dedicated to the high standards set by its Norwegian immigrant founders. In the spirit of free inquiry and free expression, it offers a distinctive environment that integrates teaching, scholarship, creative activity, and opportunities for encounter with the Christian Gospel and God's call to faith. The college intends that its graduates combine academic excellence and theological literacy with a commitment to lifelong learning.

St. Olaf College strives to be an inclusive community, respecting those of differing backgrounds and beliefs. Through its curriculum, campus life, and off-campus programs, it stimulates students' critical thinking and heightens their moral sensitivity; it encourages them to be seekers of truth, leading lives of unselfish service to others; and it challenges them to be responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world.

Our Values

St. Olaf College operates in a manner in which systematic measurement and evaluation of all its programs results in an institutional culture of continuous improvement. The College encourages and rewards innovation and is prepared to make choices and decisions that enable it:

  • to adapt to a changing world
  • to practice exemplary stewardship of its resources, and
  • to remain true to its mission

Our Vision

St. Olaf College:

  • embracing its identity as an intensely residential liberal arts college of the church in the Lutheran tradition
  • combines a rigorous academic environment for a community of engaged learners with
  • extraordinary opportunities for students to experience self-examination, values formation, and spiritual growth, preparing them for lives of worth and service.

Our Strategic Plan

Enhance student participation in and experience of high-impact educational practices

  • Increase the percentage of graduating seniors who report having had an internship from 50 percent to 70 percent.
  • Coordinate off-campus study, international student services, and services for visiting scholars in order to better integrate on and off-campus learning and to achieve greater efficiency in administering these programs.
  • Increase the percentage of students studying off-campus at least once during their St. Olaf years by 10 percent to 95 percent.
  • Increase funding to support an additional 25 summer students to 55 supported through the Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (CURI) program (another 30 student summer researchers are currently supported by external and existing endowed funds); to increase funding for student research and travel; and to begin compensating faculty effort in mentoring summer research.
  • Increase mentored research opportunities available to students during the academic year by expanding to twelve the number of academic year Directed Undergraduate Research offerings.
  • Create capacity to meet student demand for learning communities, such as St Olaf's signature conversation programs.
  • Ensure high quality academic and career advising of all students by providing faculty and staff development resources for advisors and attending to advising in reviews.

Increase the racial, ethnic, and geographic diversity of St. Olaf students, faculty, and staff and their participation in the full range of college activities

  • Increase by at least one per cent the percentage of domestic minority students enrolling each year.
  • Recruit faculty reflecting the diversity of recent graduates earning the terminal degree in their respective disciplines.
  • Recruit a staff that reflects the racial and ethnic makeup of the College's hiring markets.
  • Ensure that the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the student body is reflected in participation in academic and co-curricular activities by measuring participation and offering programming to increase participation where it lags.

Advance retention and graduation rates and promote healthy community life

  • Achieve consistent first to second-year retention above 95 percent.
  • Achieve a consistent four-year graduation rate above 85 percent and six-year rate above 90 percent.
  • Promote intercultural engagement among our students, so that 60 percent of first-years and seniors report on NSSE that they have often had serious conversations with students of a different race or ethnicity than their own, a result comparable to that reported by peer institutions.
  • Ensure that students in their first through senior years experience student-faculty interaction at least as rewarding as students at comparable institutions as measured by NSSE or another valid measure.
  • Provide a healthy and safe environment for students that encourages healthy choices so that St. Olaf rates well above national norms on the National Collegiate Health Assessment factors affecting individual academic performance, including:
    • Alcohol and drug use
    Depression/anxiety disorders
    Stress
    Sleep difficulties
    Alcohol and drug use and abuse
    High risk behaviors associated with alcohol and drug use

Advance the employment and post-graduate study outcomes of St. Olaf students

  • Establish the Center for Vocation and Career and hire its founding director.
  • Gather and report precise data on students' post-graduate results. Create programming that results in at least 98 percent of graduates within one year reporting employment or postgraduate study.

Renovate the residence halls to refresh them and build one new residence hall

  • Renew Ellingson, Hoyme, Kildahl, and Kittelsby — currently primarily first-year residence halls — so that they begin new life cycles.
  • Construct new student residence(s) with up to 200 beds if it/they can be funded through gifts.

Enhance resources for faculty and staff recruitment and development to encourage and reward high achievement

  • Improve programs designed to support professional development and continuing education to all employees of the College, enhancing their retention and level of engagement with the institution and likelihood of continued success in their career.
  • Review the College's performance evaluation system to ensure that it identifies levels of achievement.
  • Support and recognize high achievement by faculty and staff.
  • Study the advisability of implementing a merit component to the compensation system.
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Advance and enrich the means by which the College communicates with, and facilitates engagement among, prospective and current students, alumni, parents, and friends

  • Undertake a communication and marketing audit during 2012-13 and implement strategies to meet the needs of current and future constituents.
  • Develop a full social media program.

Manage costs through careful stewardship of existing resources

  • Constrain price increases to within 1 percent or less of the annual increase in the CPI.
  • Generate a minimum of 2.5 percent net operating revenue each year.

Seek new ways to reduce overall expenses

  • Reduce budgeted operating expenses by 2 percent (over $2 million).

Increase current, or establish new, revenue streams

  • Increase operating net revenues by 1 percent (over $1 million).

Substantially increase philanthropic support for the College’s programs

  • Develop a comprehensive engagement strategy for St. Olaf constituents, metrics to measure that engagement, and set goals for attainment.
  • Plan, prepare, and execute a campaign to begin in 2013 to support the College's strategic plan and ongoing critical needs. Use pre-campaign feasibility study and prospect pool assessment to set long-term goals for new commitments and donor participation

Systematically evaluate all operations and be willing to make difficult decisions about which programs to sustain or expand

  • Continue to refine dashboard measures linked to strategic plan.
  • Use these measures to evaluate how well we are executing the plan.
  • Share widely the measures and our progress towards our goals.

 

Approved by the Board of Regents May 5, 2011

 

Strategic Plan Resources

Report of the Academic Excellence Working Group
Report of the St. Olaf Experience Working Group
Report of the Value Proposition Working Group
Findings from the survey of alumni, students, faculty, and staff
Overview of the strategic planning process