To the Marietta College Community:

Last week, I shared with you all an outline of the strategic planning process that has been under way for nearly a year. Along with the faculty, staff, administrators, students and trustees serving on the planning committee, I am convinced that the changed — and still changing — environment for higher education demands that we respond with a well-considered strategy.

The need for this response is urgent, and important decisions must be made as quickly as possible. But it also is important to ensure that our strategic plan reflects what Marietta stakeholders value most, and that is why we commissioned a survey of the campus community in February.

Although responses were not identical for all groups, we saw a broad consensus on what people see as the College’s top strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For the next couple of weeks, I would like to use this weekly message to revisit the planning committee’s three Priority Areas and outline how they align with what the survey told us that our campus community cares about.

Today, we’ll look at Priority 1: Support the Students of Today. (The others are Meet the Academic Challenges of Tomorrow and Create the Campus of the Future.)

Here are some of the strengths, weaknesses and threats on which the survey found broad agreement, along with strategic planning objectives that address them (some planning objectives support multiple survey findings):

Strengths

  • A personalized educational environment with strong relationships
    • Objective: Improve the college culture to be more welcoming, with a focus on diversity and inclusion and mental-health support for students and employees.
    • Objective: Launch in-person and virtual mentoring programs to increase retention and graduation.

Weaknesses 

  • Low retention and graduation rates
    • Objective: Complete “Student-Ready College” program focused on academic success
    • Objective: Launch in-person and virtual mentoring programs to increase retention and graduation.
  • Low enrollment and insufficient recruitment and marketing
    • Objective: Launch “Marietta First Choice” campaign with 50% student discount
    • Objective: Align website with strategic plan and signature program recruiting

Threats 

  • Traditional undergraduate education is increasingly unaffordable
    • Objective: Objective: Launch “Marietta First Choice” campaign with 50% student discount
  • Price competition from public colleges and universities as well as online and free-college programs
    • Objective: Create a focused program to make it easier to transfer from community colleges and other institutions
  • Lack of student persistence — dropouts
    • Objective: Improve the college culture to be more welcoming, with a focus on diversity and inclusion and mental-health support for students and employees.
    • Objective: Complete “Student-Ready College” program focused on academic success

You may note that I haven’t mentioned any of the survey’s top “opportunities” here; that’s because those are addressed by the planning committee’s other priorities, which I’ll discuss in the coming two weeks.

I hope this gives some insight into the planning process and the degree to which the committee is listening to the community. And there is still time, for the next week or so, for you to weigh in. Share your feedback anonymously through the Strategic Planning website at www.marietta.edu/mc-strategic-planning.

I appreciate every Pioneer who has stepped up to be a part of our journey into the future. Our work will continue through the coming summer, and I look forward to the start of a new chapter in the fall.

Bring Forth a Pioneer!

Bill Ruud
President and Professor of Management