Taylor Thrives

Vision and Mission

In God’s providence, throughout church history, faithful individuals and institutions have been marked with special callings. Over the last nine months, the University community has worked together to identify the Lord’s calling in this season and to determine our unique strengths, in the context of a very competitive marketplace, that we can celebrate and accelerate in the years ahead. Based on that prayerful discernment and deep analysis, we have reached consensus on a vision for Taylor’s next five years. Simply stated, we pray that Taylor University would be the leading Christ-centered, student-focused university, committed to carrying the light and faith of Christ to a world in need. 

Christ-centered 

The history of American higher education relates the story of hundreds of institutions who have diminished their Christian commitments in pursuit of academic respectability. Historian James Burtchaell has aptly referred to this as the “dying of the light.” Despite this general trend, there is a segment of American higher education that has maintained its Christian commitments, and an even smaller group that asks every community member to testify to their faith. Taylor is one of the leading institutions within this small group, and we increasingly stand apart from others because of our shared Christian commitments. This is important because we believe faith grows the best in the context of wider faith within higher learning (Hebrews 10:24-25). There are only a handful of ranked institutions in the United States today that foster this kind of thriving Christian community, and we are proud to be among that select group. 

Student-focused 

For decades, Taylor has been at the vanguard of educational institutions where students are the top priority. While some may assume this is the norm in higher education, it is remarkably rare. Many institutions over the last fifty years have followed one of two general paths—either becoming intensely scholarship—and research-driven or, conversely, pursuing enrollment growth at the expense of academic rigor. Taylor has distinguished itself as an institution that continues to care deeply about the academic and spiritual formation of students and prioritizes resources and institutional energy accordingly. From student learning to student engagement to student development, Taylor has continued to ask, “What is best for our students?” As such, we are a bright star within the constellation of American higher education. 

Taylor’s commitment to either of these areas would be a distinctive. The fact that Taylor is a global leader in both makes the University unique, and it is this distinctiveness that animates our vision for the future. In essence, we will build on what differentiates Taylor from other institutions and craft a vision that allows us to live into that uniqueness even more fully over the next five years. 

Committed to carrying the light and faith of Christ to a world in need. 

We believe it is not only what students are taught, but also how, that reinforces the ultimate telos—that is, our ultimate aim—of what we pursue as an institution that claims the name of Jesus Christ. Through athletics and the arts, through experiential and classroom learning, members of the Taylor community help one another better understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the myriad ways the Gospel speaks to the full spectrum of human endeavor (Colossians 1:15-20). We teach our students that Christ’s death and resurrection reconcile not only the human relationship with God but with one another and with creation as well, and we take up the servant’s towel as a way of modeling a counter-cultural approach to leading well. In so doing, we reflect the example of Jesus, who came to serve, not be served. 

The Need

Taylor is a global leader in Christian higher education and is recognized as a place that prizes student learning, celebrates intentional community, and leads in the important work of faith-learning integration. Taylor’s alumni are generous, winsome, servant-leaders who bring a thoughtful Christian witness to society, serving Christ wherever they are called with integrity of heart and skillful hands. The world has perhaps never been more in need of Taylor’s graduates, but industry headwinds, significant changes in the political and religious milieu, and a global pandemic have created an inflection point in the University’s history that requires us to think comprehensively and creatively about how Taylor will thrive in the years ahead. This is the call to which the University, and thousands of faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and friends have responded over the past nine months. 

The Process

Starting in the fall of 2021, the University engaged in an expansive strategic-planning process that involved every area of campus and every University constituent group. A group of 14 faculty and staff leaders spearheaded a process that collected the insights of thousands of individuals including faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and friends of the University. Strategic-planning conversations with nearly every department, multiple sessions with the University Assembly (a group of 50 faculty and staff leaders), multiple campuswide forums, conversations with advisory councils, dozens of opportunities for small group discussion, a robust review of institutional data and survey results, and hundreds of pages of written feedback formed the basis of the extensive research in the strategic-planning process. 

During the spring, four iterative drafts of the strategic plan were prepared and shared sequentially with segments of the community for comment, conversation, and revision. Each revision brought additional opportunities for conversation as the University sought to make the process both comprehensive and transparent. Simultaneously, the University worked to identify the expense and revenue opportunities associated with each of the specific goals and metrics associated with the plan. Lastly, the University’s human resources leadership has begun guiding a set of conversations to leverage Taylor’s significant human capital and help managers ensure their departments support the work of the strategic plan and the wider University. Over the course of the summer months, each department will develop an implementation plan, identifying how they will support the strategic plan. These implementation plans will form the basis of goals for which individuals and departments will be accountable over the course of FY2023. This process will be repeated annually throughout the five years covered by the strategic plan.