Strategic Plan 2022-2025

Goals at a Glance

GOAL #1:
Enact college-wide diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to advance social and racial justice.

GOAL #2:
Realize a culture of student-centeredness that results in student success.

GOAL #3:
Develop, evaluate, and deliver a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that creatively interweaves both scholarship and life experience.

GOAL #4:
Expand revenue base to augment student-derived income and donations and ensure financial sustainability.

GOAL #5:
Develop and build capacity within the college infrastructure and operations by implementing more effective and sustainable processes, systems, and structures in the service of the College and our academic community.

GOAL #6:
Build Antioch College’s reputation in national higher education circles and among local, regional, and national college-going students and families by strengthening local, national, and global communication networks.

Mission

The mission of Antioch College is to provide a rigorous liberal arts education on the belief that scholarship and life experience are strengthened when linked, that diversity in all its manifestations is a fundamental component of excellence in education, and that authentic social and community engagement is vital for those who strive to win victories for humanity.

Vision

Antioch College will be the place where new and better ways of living are discovered as a result of meaningful engagement with the world through intentional linkages between classroom and experiential education.

Planning Process

In August 2021, President Jane Fernandes began her tenure at Antioch College and immediately set to work building a set of goals for her first year as President. Over the Fall 2021 term, President Fernandes was met with positive feedback when she shared first-year goals with students, staff, faculty, and trustees over a series of meetings. At this time, it also became clear that the College was in need of a strategic plan that would enable the College to take action swiftly, focus on implementation, and prioritize stability. President Fernandes, with support from the Board of Trustees, decided to use her first-year goals as a starting point for building a larger institutional plan in the Winter 2022 and Spring 2022 terms.

To guide this work, the Board of Trustees formed a subcommittee, consisting of faculty, staff, student, and trustee representatives. The goal of the subcommittee was to lead a community-wide process that would result in formal Board approval of the College’s new Strategic Plan by June 2022.

In February 2022, the College administered a Strategic Planning Survey to collect faculty, staff, and student perspectives and opinions regarding the College’s strengths, challenges, and future directions as they relate to the overall mission. 119 people participated in the survey, and the results from this survey were reviewed by the subcommittee.

In addition, the College hosted a series of Strategic Planning sessions to gather community input and to learn from the community on the following dates:

• Tuesday, February 15 – Faculty Session
• Wednesday, February 16 – Staff Session
• Thursday, February 17 – Student Session

The subcommittee carefully considered the faculty, staff, student, alumni, and community perspectives and opinions that came out of the focus groups and surveys and used the overall themes to construct the first draft of six goals on March 4, 2022. The subcommittee worked with campus stakeholders to edit and refine the goals and to add objectives throughout the months of March and April before sharing a draft of the goals and objectives with the community on April 26, 2022.

The subcommittee presented these draft goals across campus to the Board of Trustees, Staff Assembly, Community Council, College Council, and Student Affairs Team, Academic Affairs Administration Team and also hosted two open sessions for the entire community on April 29 and May 6. The draft goals were revised for a final time based on feedback from these meetings and sessions, while the College’s President Team members were tasked with identifying the resources needed and the timeline for each objective. The subcommittee is confident that the resulting plan prioritizes the College’s most pressing issues as expressed by the faculty, staff, and students who know the College the best.

Introduction

The College is entering into this Strategic Plan after a period of intense difficulty and change (e.g., COVID-19, financial pressures, presidential transition, staff and faculty layoffs, curriculum revision).

College leadership recognizes the need for healing for members of the College community, individually and with respect to how we relate to each other and accomplish our work.

During the strategic planning process, we identified the need to build a culture of deep listening, trust, and collaboration—a culture that holds care and justice at its center—in order to move forward in the necessary ways. This will require that we all assume responsibility for engaging in clear, direct, and honest communication with each other across boundaries and barriers of every kind and that we intentionally seek out and invite diverse voices into decision-making.

Rather than position this commitment as a separate goal, we position it as the means to the ends we seek. Antioch College is about educating students to go into the world and affect change, and justice must serve as the foundation of this work and all we do as a college. Our commitment to centering justice is essential to reaching the six goals listed in this action plan.

Our community governance structure already provides the procedures and processes we need. Our renewed commitment to animating that structure with our efforts to listen to, trust, and collaborate with each other will provide the unifying energy needed to realize the six goals outlined below.

Goals and Objectives

Goal #1
Enact college-wide diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to advance social and racial justice.

OBJECTIVE #1:
Revise and renew commitments to the institution-wide Strategic Plan for Diversity with a clear structure of accountability and funding to support its implementation.  

• Enhance diversity, inclusion, and leadership programs.
• Embed our commitment to diversity and inclusion in employee goals and review.
• Build partnerships with historically marginalized and oppressed communities as part of plan implementation.

OBJECTIVE #2:
Build and strengthen partnerships with Indigenous communities and deliver on existing commitments such as our land acknowledgement:

• Work to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.
• Acknowledge that Antioch was founded upon exclusions and erasures of Indigenous knowledge about how to care for our lands.
• Support and educate each other with accurate information about the true history of this land.

OBJECTIVE #3:
Recruit and retain employees and students of diverse backgrounds and identities.

• Review recruitment, interview, acceptance, hiring, and promotion policies and practices regularly. Measure their effectiveness in recruiting and retaining more diverse and inclusive students, faculty, and staff and revise, as needed.
• Implement an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to collect and analyze hiring data (currently in process)

Goal #2
Realize a culture of student-centeredness that results in student success.

OBJECTIVE #1:
Align recruitment, orientation, academic assessment, and support practices through the establishment of a revised institution-wide Strategic Enrollment Plan.

• Better understand and define who our students are, so we can better serve them throughout the enrollment cycle

OBJECTIVE #2:
Clarify, evaluate, and make appropriate changes to the Antioch College Works program and ensure we deliver on all promises.

OBJECTIVE #3:
Review and strengthen student support systems to ensure consistent and responsive resources, mentoring, and programming throughout a student’s academic career.

• Map student needs and support systems and how they relate to each other.
• Assess and support current and emerging mental health needs of our students.

OBJECTIVE #4:
Effectively address student concerns regarding on-campus infrastructure and services (e.g., residence halls, dining, IT, facilities).

OBJECTIVE #5:
Strengthen, recognize, and evaluate advising as a valued category of faculty work.

• Build from advising memo produced by the working group in 2021 to make concrete improvements to advising, especially for first and second year students.

GOAL #3:
Develop, evaluate, and deliver a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that creatively interweaves both scholarship and life experience.

OBJECTIVE #1:
Create the workload conditions and professional development opportunities for faculty to teach responsively and pursue their innovative research.

OBJECTIVE #2:
Review existing supports and frameworks of the self-designed major to ensure successful student enrollment and progress toward degree.

OBJECTIVE #3:
Collaboratively envision our curricular identity in relation to our academic curriculum, the academic areas that are distinct at Antioch, and the academic expertise of our faculty and enact that curricular vision.

OBJECTIVE #4:
Review, support, and encourage curricular focuses that reflect the faculty’s cross-disciplinary strengths and make use of the College’s unique institutional resources (e.g., cooperative education), including the existing Spanish and French Language and Culture Focuses, the Global & Transnational Engagement Focus, the Social Enterprise and Innovation Focus, the Writing Focus, as well as other emerging possibilities in sustainability, ethical leadership, and civic engagement.

OBJECTIVE #5:
Meaningfully assess and strengthen student learning inside and outside of the classroom in view of our curricular vision and DEI commitments.

• Support faculty agency in developing and driving assessment metrics.

OBJECTIVE #6:
Implement faculty hiring plan to ensure a sufficient number of faculty to meet curricular needs.

GOAL #4:
Expand revenue base to augment student-derived income and donations and ensure financial sustainability.

OBJECTIVE #1:
Develop a culture of philanthropy throughout the Antioch College community.

• Develop annually an assertive and imaginative advancement plan. 
• Establish realistic, data-driven advancement goals and objectives (e.g., cash, gift-in-kind, new pledges, new bequests, grants), accounting for recent donor trends and peer comparisons beginning with FY23.

OBJECTIVE #2:
Create, maintain, and grow revenue-generating partnerships and programming (e.g., Wellness Center, C-Shop, Campus Dining, collaborations with Yellow Springs partners, grants, building rentals).

• Create incentives (e.g., stipends, course-release) for the execution of mission-central activities including the implementation of revenue-generating programs (e.g., block courses, certifications, workshops, and performances).
• Develop a financially sustainable business model that focuses on revenue-generation strategies.
• Identify and task staff with block programs management.

OBJECTIVE #3:
Mobilize alumni support for strategic goals and initiatives by building relationships among the Alumni Board, alumni chapters, and the Office of Advancement.

OBJECTIVE #4:
Promote an entrepreneurial vision among faculty, staff, students, and local community members.

GOAL #5:
Develop and build capacity within the college infrastructure and operations by implementing more effective and sustainable processes, systems, and structures in the service of the College and our academic community.

OBJECTIVE #1:
Develop an equitable, affordable and nationally competitive salary and compensation pay scale that includes an evaluation of additional labor, mission specific leadership, length of employment, cost of living, and inflation.

• Annually review and modify the benefits package, as needed.
• Create professional development opportunities for staff.

OBJECTIVE #2:
Comprehensively review and revise position descriptions to clarify roles and more accurately and equitably enact our institutional commitments.

OBJECTIVE #3:
Formalize processes of regular staff and administrator reviews for leadership development and train those responsible.

• Create opportunities to regularly celebrate and recognize the labor of staff and faculty.
• Examine staff and faculty evaluation software and programs.

OBJECTIVE #4:
Develop a campus master plan and identify possible funding sources.

• Prioritize campus ADA accessibility.
• Begin initial artist-in-residence model for restoring the historic art building.

OBJECTIVE #5:
Invest in documentation and student-information systems and technology (e.g., student affairs software, hardware upgrades, software migration).

• Successfully upgrade to a more functional student information system. 

OBJECTIVE #6:
Implement budgeting and financial management processes and systems that promote transparency and build trust.

• Implement a transparent budget management model. 
• Streamline and clarify processes for purchasing and budget tracking.  
• Build stronger relationships between Finance and Budget Managers.
• Formalize an endowment payback plan with a payback line noted in the College’s budget.

GOAL #6:
Build Antioch College’s reputation in national higher education circles and among local, regional, and national college-going students and families by strengthening local, national, and global communication networks.

OBJECTIVE #1:
Strategically and succinctly promote Antioch’s distinctive value proposition by proactively sharing programmatic successes (e.g., student, faculty, and staff work).

• Create campus-wide systems for continually updating and revising the website.
• Encourage a culture of intra-campus communication about events, programs and accomplishments.

OBJECTIVE #2:
Develop and implement a Strategic Communications Plan to promote Antioch College’s role as an innovative college in Yellow Springs, Ohio with a distinctive response to the challenges of our time.

OBJECTIVE #3:
Build a campus-wide culture of clear communication.

• Utilize current structures of the College Council, ComCil, Faculty Assembly and emerging Staff Assembly to establish habitual pathways for sharing important information other across areas, departments, and roles.

OBJECTIVE #4:
Develop communication pathways with the Village of Yellow Springs.

• Develop a more robust system to manage planning for campus restoration and stewarding collaborations.