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Planning Salem's Future

To learn more about Phase II of Salem College's strategic planning, please visit https://ourfuturesalem.org/.

Additionally, a survey to provide input for the committees' consideration is available at https://ourfuturesalem.org/survey.

Book Chapter

Small is Beautiful - Chapter Six: The Greatest Resource is Education (p. 54) - A great book in general, this chapter anchors us back to purpose. Consider this: why do we engage in this whole endeavor in the first place?

Books

Surviving To Thriving: A Planning Framework for Leaders of Private Colleges & Universities
Through the tumult of socio-economic, political, and ideological shifts exerting pressure on higher education in the United States, leaders need effective, practical tools to guide their institutions toward relevance and sustainability. Surviving to Thriving has served as that guide for independent college and university presidents, cabinets, and boards of trustees around the country since its release in 2014. With an updated introduction, this second edition offers a framework to inform institutional planning and thinking with students always at the center. Authors Joanne Soliday and Rick Mann consider and apply the nine elements of Credo’s Thriving Framework® through which institutional health can be examined and improved.
Pivot: A Vision For The New University
The news sure looks bad: rapidly shifting student demographics, the ever-increasing speed of technological innovation, and extreme legislative and public pressure are squeezing colleges and universities into a lose-lose race toward irrelevancy. Detailed in countless articles and books, the challenges faced by institutions of higher learning in the U.S. are varied and weighty. But higher education is far from doomed. It is at this inflection point in which independent colleges and universities have the opportunity to revolutionize higher education. It is time to pivot towards a new university, one that radically refocuses structure and pedagogy on students and their learning; reimagines the foundational institutional structures of leadership, tenure, and the higher education business model; and produces national examples for access and inclusion.
Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Driverless cars are hitting the road, powered by artificial intelligence. Robots can climb stairs, open doors, win Jeopardy, analyze stocks, work in factories, find parking spaces, advise oncologists. In the past, automation was considered a threat to low-skilled labor. Now, many high-skilled functions, including interpreting medical images, doing legal research, and analyzing data, are within the skill sets of machines. How can higher education prepare students for their professional lives when professions themselves are disappearing? In Robot-Proof, Northeastern University president Joseph Aoun proposes a way to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover―to fill needs in society that even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence agent cannot.

Articles

The Future of the University: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education
The author presents multiple models for higher education. Consider what the strangest model you can think of would be like.
In an Unequal World, Women’s Liberal Arts Colleges Remain Relevant
Written by Rebecca Prinster and available at Insight into Diversity.
Lessons Learned From a $75 Million Failed Experiment
Money does not guarantee success in this brave, new space. Consider what went wrong at the University of Texas at Austin.
A Moonshot Approach to Change in Higher Education: Creativity, Innovation, and the Redesign of Academia
AACU’s compilation of what students need to succeed in the future. Consider why they titled this article a ‘moonshot’?

Reports

Bold Leadership, Real Reform 2.0
From the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, this resource also highlights case studies and successes outside of the small private school realm. Consider why our small schools are often left out of these conversations and off these lists.
Learning from High-Performing and Fast-Gaining Institutions
From Education Trust, this resource highlights case studies and successes outside of the small private school realm. It also spotlights key areas of student success that could be considered for innovation.
Strength in Numbers
The calls for education collaboration are increasing. Consider what role (doing what and with whom) collaboration will play in Salem’s future.
Thirty-Six Steps: The Path to Reforming American Education
A quick, exhaustive round-up of functional areas open for action and innovation throughout the academy. Consider the impossibility to touch all of these areas at once, the need to make choices on where your impact will be, and the reality that any big idea has to be anchored in these operational places.
What America Needs to Know About Higher Education Redesign
Lest we forget what real people want, in this read we are reminded what people think about higher education topics. The summary statement above each category is sufficient for review. Consider what clear needs will or can drive Salem’s innovation.

Essays & Websites

The Beauty of Shared Silence
Written by Andréana E. Lefton and available at the On Being Project.
Work and the Curriculum
A short essay by Gary Daynes on the shortcomings and opportunities for connecting vocation and higher education. While the Salem Team may be more aligned with a traditional liberal arts focus for any future model, the concept of beginning first with the final outcome and working the curriculum backwards from that success could be helpful in our thinking. Consider how you might take this (or any) concept and initiate full institutional change.
Quest University, Canada

Committee Members

Academy Committee for Phase II Strategic Planning

Julia Cardwell Archer A’84, Trustee, Chair of Committee
Betsy Boyd, Director of Studies
Duane Davis, Trustee
Sandra Doran, President
McDara P. Folan, III, Chair, Board of Trustees
Robin Howell A’79, Trustee
Carol Killebrew, Head of School
Martha Johnston Manning A’73, Trustee and Academy Alumnae Association President
Brandy Nelson C’97, Trustee
Lauren Rogers, Dean of Students
Anna Vance, Teacher of Mathematics

College Committee for Phase II Strategic Planning

Lucy Rose C’76, Trustee, Chair of Committee
Sarah Berga, Trustee
Patrice Black Davis C’89, Trustee
Sandra Doran, President
McDara P. Folan, III, Chair, Board of Trustees
Lossie Freeman C’97, Trustee
Susan Henking, Interim Vice President for Academic and Student affairs and Dean of the College
Katherine Holland-Ortiz C’00, Trustee
John Hutton, Professor of Art History
Stratford Newitt Kiger C’90, Trustee and College Alumnae Association President
Elizabeth Novicki, Director of Libraries
Katherine Knapp Watts C’80, Vice President for Strategic Planning
Laura Watts, Associate Professor of Biology