Lafayette College revealed the first version of its strategic plan at a community-wide town hall on Wednesday, showcasing developing plans to enhance campus life for students, faculty, staff and community members. The strategic plan will be presented at various events in the coming months and finalized by the semester’s end.
The plan was created by college President Nicole Hurd, Provost Laura McGrane, members of the senior leadership team and various committees.
The college last saw a strategic plan in 2007.
“It was time for us to have this kind of exercise,” Hurd said. “It’s also something that I think all of us are going to be able to point to and say, ‘This is where we’re going.’ This is what we believe and this is what the next chapter of the college is going to look like.”
The strategic plan includes goals and initiatives to improve campus life. The college hopes to use the strategic plan to better invest in the Lehigh Valley and expand “opportunities across scholarship, pedagogy and experiential learning,” according to the Wednesday town hall presentation.
The plan encourages “students to consider Lehigh Valley as a viable and attractive employment distribution,” per the presentation.
“We want to keep some of these amazingly talented students here at home,” Hurd said, citing local businesses like Crayola and small businesses growing in the area.
The presentation also called for building on “exceptional career services and advising through robust partnerships.” The call for improving career services aligns with the campus master plan, which is exploring moving Gateway Career Center to a modern professional development center near Skillman Library.
Hurd described the new center as “creating a neighborhood of support for our students so they can do one-stop shopping.”
The strategic plan will also explore artificial technology and other ethical issues.
“How do we make sure Lafayette is not just being responsive to it but actually participates in leading it?” Hurd asked the audience about artificial intelligence. She said that students “can’t be afraid of technology” after leaving Lafayette.
When discussing ethics and social discourse, Hurd said Lafayette College is “small enough to have these conversations,” about difficult subjects.
The strategic plan also calls for “more investments, an inclusive workplace environment and deepening institutional commitments, the recruitment, retention, development and diverse faculty and staff,” according to the presentation.
The plan will also expand student health and counseling services and wellness programming, something Hurd attributed to post-pandemic struggles. Hurd emphasized that “our students are all still recovering from the pandemic.”
Additionally, the plan includes refining compensation strategies for students, faculty and staff and investing in professional development for the latter. The college also plans to increase resources for the Faculty Excellence Fund launched last year.
The first task of the strategic plan consisted of passing a new mission and values statement, which was approved by the Board of Trustees in May after undergoing several revisions. The entirety of the plan is based on Lafayette’s new official mission and values.
“This is not something that goes into a file cabinet,” Hurd said, touting the new statement and values. “This is the way we’re going to show up and live every day.”
One Easton resident who did not introduce herself, a graduate of Lafayette from the 1970s, praised Hurd for the plan but also mentioned noise pollution issues at the college.
“They can hear everything at the college,” the resident said of her neighbors, “and it’s rough sometimes.”
Another Easton resident also applauded the plan but called out current college issues, including erosion on the escarpment trail on College Hill. A third resident called having Lafayette students on College Hill “a blessing.”
The strategic plan changes are part of five broad priorities: “Building into the ‘And,’” “Experience and Collaboration,” “Democracy and its Technologies,” “Creating Ecosystems of Connection” and “Strengthening our Infrastructure.”
More listening sessions will reveal the strategic plan to various campus audiences — it includes faculty sessions on Monday and Tuesday, on top of a Zoom session with the campus community on Wednesday.
A correction was made on October 2, 2024: A previous version of this article stated that the strategic plan was revealed to the campus last Friday. The communications department of Lafayette College delayed the plan’s release until after the listening sessions were completed.
