When Texas Wesleyan University leaders were planning the next five years for the school, one word surfaced a lot: impact.
The school can make a big impact on its students, many of whom come from low-income families or are the first in their families to attend college, said Lauren Findley, vice president of enrollment management.
With the aim of “igniting impact,” the private university in east Fort Worth is kicking off its new five-year strategic plan. Officials said the major priorities are purposeful growth, transformative learning and intentional connection.
Goals include growing enrollment by at least 25%, incorporating career-focused experiential learning into all undergraduate programs and creating a hallmark student experience.
The plan was the result of about a year and a half of engaging with faculty, staff and students to chart Texas Wesleyan’s next several years, university President Emily Messer said.
Community days — one for faculty and staff, and one for students — generated more than 1,400 ideas that were then reviewed by the 22-person strategic planning team made up of administration, faculty and staff.
Eventually, the common themes and responses to a campuswide survey led to the final eight initiatives laid out in the plan.
One such initiative is to grow strategically. The goal is to climb to 3,500 students over five years, up from this fall’s enrollment of about 2,800.
“It’s not just growth for growth,” Messer said. “It’s growth where we have capacity.”
To attract and retain students, the university wants to create a “signature Wesleyan” experience that connects students with each other to build a sense of belonging, officials said.
That means celebrating traditions, offering more religious programs and launching a program for first-years in the coming fall. A goal is to increase retention by 1% during the first year of the plan and 5%-10% by the fifth year.
Integrating experiences such as internships, job shadowing or industry certifications into every undergraduate program is another initiative.
“That kind of career-integrated learning is going to separate us from other schools,” said Sameer Vaidya, dean of the School of Business Administration and co-chair of the planning team with Findley.
Texas Wesleyan leaders will analyze academic offerings to determine which need more support or an overhaul, Vaidya said.
“For any good institution, you need to have the right mix of programs that you’re offering students, which means you have to figure out what programs are in demand in the market right now, what programs are going to create job opportunities for our students,” he said.
Offering new programs that students are interested in will in turn help the university grow, Findley added.
“Texas Wesleyan is a place that students want to be,” she said. “We have a great culture, that small, personalized campus feel, and so we want more students to have the opportunity to experience that.”
McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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