Virtually everyone believes that Taylor needs to grow the circle of learners it serves—both because it is essential for institutional vitality, and because we believe it is a missional imperative to share the transformative Taylor education with a wider segment of learners. This includes increasing the diversity of our student body as well as residential undergraduate student body growth, but it also involves launching and expanding academic programs to serve nontraditional students for Taylor—adult learners, those interested in graduate and professional programs, and pre-collegiate students. This will require significant investment, so our strategies need to represent wise stewardship of limited resources to leverage for maximum impact. This expansion of the students that Taylor serves must also align with and advance the University’s commitment to Christian higher education, not diminish it.

We think the best approach is to identify a portfolio of academic areas where strategic investments can be made. We have chosen these areas of focus to better serve our traditional students while also creating new academic offerings for pre-collegiate, graduate, and adult learners. This expansion will largely occur through digital or remote learning initiatives, but they will also involve investments in people, on-campus facilities, and programs. A dedicated administrative unit within the academic division will be required to serve these nontraditional learners most effectively. This will necessitate a restructuring of some other parts of the academic division, which could include re-constituting school-like units within the academic division while also creating opportunities for collaboration across academic departments. Unlike previous efforts at the University, none of these restructuring strategies are created to eliminate positions for budget-savings reasons. Instead, we seek to position Taylor’s academic leadership and structure to be more adaptable for the rising competitiveness of our market and to develop a cadre of academic leaders who have sufficient and equivalent “range” of responsibilities and are developed as institutional leaders with greater intentionality and authority. Finally, we seek to invest in academic initiatives that will serve the largest number of students and to diversify the University’s resource base for future growth and development.

As part of this priority, we have identified a set of initiatives that we believe, over time, will help our campus more closely reflect God’s Kingdom on earth. As our Multicultural Philosophy Statement makes clear, Taylor is committed to fostering healthy relationships in our community regardless of differences in race, ethnicity, or national heritage. We believe there is value in seeking diversity, not just out of a desire to serve a wider segment of students but also in seeking to emulate the diverse multitude from every language, ethnicity, and nation who praise the Lord in heaven for eternity. We believe this process not only honors God but also offers myriad opportunities to enrich the experience of everyone at Taylor. The following are the major components of Priority Pillar 1: Widening the Circle of Learners.

Primary Components of Priority Pillar 1: Widening the Circle of Learners

Make strategic investments to differentiate Taylor’s Biblically Anchored, Christ-Centered, Liberal Arts Grounded, Educational Mission from key competitors.

  1. Launch a set of internal grants (up to $7,500 each) whereby academic departments can apply for seed funding that would allow them to gauge market interest in and potentially launch new curricular or co-curricular offerings (such as dual enrollment courses or certificate programs). [Years 1-5]
  2. Over the course of FY2023, the Core Committee will comprehensively review and reframe the Foundational Core to make it distinctive and exemplary of our vision for Christ-centered higher education. [Year 1]
  3. Develop a plan to utilize existing core courses to offer a Scripture Engagement minor to all students, with a proposal shared with the relevant academic bodies before the conclusion of FY2023. [Year 1]
  4. Increase utilization of courses offered as a dual-enrollment option for high school students, tripling the size of dual enrollment and achieving a 33% conversion rate of dual enrollment students by year five of the strategic plan. [Years 1-5]
  5. Launch four opportunities (including the Bachelor of Fine Art, and a B.A. in Public History) for Taylor’s arts and humanities programs to offer new credentials or degrees that best prepare graduates to serve in their chosen fields. [Years 1-5]
  6. Utilize senior and/or retired faculty to offer a set of online courses, available free of charge, targeted particularly toward alumni and parents, with the first classes available within year one of the strategic plan, as a way of growing Taylor’s digital footprint. [Launch in Year 1]

We believe that intentional investments in five academic areas where Taylor is already succeeding will make a significant difference in helping Taylor grow market share. We are pursuing areas where we can advance Taylor’s work with multiple student populations at the same time—from pre-collegiate students to our core undergraduates, to adult learners in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs.

Area 1: Ministry, Scripture Engagement, and Human Flourishing

  1. Expand the Master of Arts in Ministry program to three unique markets by 2027, establishing partnerships with five institutions in each. [Years 1-5]
  2. Launch certificate offerings through the Center for Scripture Engagement. [Year 3]
  3. Make an investment to allow continued growth in the Orphans and Vulnerable Children program, creating a growth plan and identifying an appropriate goal by the end of year one of the strategic plan. [Year 1]
  4. Take advantage of the Sacred Roots network of scholars and ministry practitioners to provide research, relationships and resources to congregational leaders serving in communities of urban and rural poverty (exact expectations to be determined by the end of year one of the strategic plan). [Begin in Year 1]

Area 2: Education

  1. Develop two dual-enrollment courses targeted specifically towards Christian schools–locally, nationally, and globally—that are (or have the potential to be) feeder schools for Taylor. [Year 1]
  2. Conduct market research to identify and then launch graduate and/or certificate programs that Taylor’s Education Department is uniquely positioned to serve. [Market research conducted in Year 1]
  3. Identify at least two opportunities for Taylor’s Education Department to partner with local community or church partners by offering certificates or micro-credentials. [Year 2]

Area 3: Business, Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Leadership          

  1. Launch a summer entrepreneurship camp for high school students. [Year 2]
  2. Conduct market research to identify and then launch graduate and/or certificate programs that Taylor is uniquely positioned to serve. [Begin in Year 1]
  3. Endow and launch a School of Business. [Years 1-5]

Area 4: Computing, Data Science, and Engineering

  1. Launch a data science academic program that can complement any academic major on campus. [Year 1]
  2. Conduct market research to identify and then launch pre-collegiate and/or professional certificate offerings in this area. [Year 3]
  3. Launch a mechanical engineering program for undergraduates. [Year 3]

Area 5: Health Professions

  1. Identify funding sources to build on faculty passions for community health programs and experiential student learning. [Year 1]
  2. Develop and launch 2-4 new programs in health profession fields, with a first report on possibilities presented to the Board in May of 2023. [Years 1-5]
  3. Launch a summer academic camp focused on health sciences. [Years 2-3]
  4. Secure institutional partnerships with new medical facilities in the local community. [Years 1-2]

Surveys of prospective students tell us that Taylor is losing a perceptual battle against key competitors related to the strength of our academic offerings. There are concrete, proven, and achievable steps we can take to help recognize the excellence of our faculty and bolster our academic reputation and, likely, help Taylor’s standing in recognized rankings rise.

  1. Review, and where appropriate, revise every academic major page to highlight the contributions of our faculty and ensure timely, relevant, and compelling presentation. Continue the regular refresh cycle. [Years 1-5]
  2. Develop a set of video assets for the various outreach efforts within academic departments that feature Taylor faculty, students, and alumni. [Years 1-5]
  3. Enable departments to share stories of successful graduates more easily in their programming, working to better leverage positive results. [Years 1-5]
  4. Develop regular alumni and parent outreach mechanisms (e.g., digital newsletters, events) to grow resources for academic programs and raise the visibility of Taylor's academic strengths and dynamic faculty by the end of year one of the strategic plan. [Years 1-5]
  5. Launch a digital undergraduate research journal. [Year 1]

While a number of traditional recruiting markets are shrinking, there are several areas that are seeing significant growth, ones that also represent a strong missional fit for Taylor. We believe we can do much more to help reach and recruit these students through strategic partnerships and offerings.

  1. Launch a set of online courses that are difficult to teach in a home environment and offer these to homeschool students at a competitive tuition rate. [Years 2-3]
  2. Provide continuing education programs for homeschool educators, especially during breaks and over the summer when classrooms and labs are more available. [Years 2-3]
  3. Seek to engage with and capitalize on the growing classical Christian movement. Launch a program for classical education leadership and identify recruiting pathways (perhaps in the form of a first-year fellows program) for classical students at the undergraduate level. [Years 2-3]

Taylor’s faculty are incredibly committed to their students, but time spent in committees, an academic structure that is not intuitive, a lack of support for grant-writing, and other features of our current situation take too much valuable time and energy from our faculty. We believe there are pragmatic steps we can take that will maintain the important shared-governance work done by faculty while also freeing more of faculty time to do the things they are uniquely able to do well.

  1. Create a faculty taskforce to complete a careful examination of committee assignments, regular reports, and annual department reviews, considering possible reductions and other ways to reduce faculty time commitments outside the classroom with a report due to the Provost by spring of 2023. [Year 1]
  2. Develop a new structure, including the creation of a College of Graduate and Online programs (name not final), to be presented to the Board of Trustees, for Taylor's academic division that includes Colleges, Schools, Divisions, and a refined set of Departments. [Year 1]
  3. Conduct market research to identify appropriate additional delivery methods or degree offerings connected to the MAHE program (including hybrid and fully virtual master’s offerings and/or a doctorate). In addition to the launch and creation of a new track or degree program, seek 20% enrollment growth to the existing on-campus MAHE program. [Years 1-5]
  4. Significantly increase sponsored research, grants, and foundation dollars secured, with an expectation that the University would receive $1.25 million in grant funding annually beginning in year two of the strategic plan. [Years 2-5]
  5. Develop a plan for strategic direction and allocation of space along with possible renovation for the Zondervan Library as a part of the strategy to best balance needs for scholarship, studying, and collaboration among our students and faculty. [Years 1-5]

We believe in increasing the diversity of Taylor’s student body because our theological convictions compel us to emulate the diverse multitude from every language, ethnicity, and nation who will praise the Lord in heaven for eternity.

  1. Expand the University's intercultural and historical educational engagement with civil rights trips, and other experiential learning so that every student is given the opportunity to interact with this kind of experience before graduating. [Year 2]
  2. Identify opportunities to meet transportation and housing needs for international students. [Year 1]
  3. Create a diversity-focused admissions officer position to enhance Taylor’s recruiting efforts among underrepresented groups as well as with international students. [Years 1-2]
  4. Increase the percentage of diverse and global students to 25% of the undergraduate student body on campus. [Years 1-5]

Strengthen a marquee specialty program (film & media) on campus with dedicated space while also expanding facilities that can benefit the entire campus.

  1. Finance and construct a facility that showcases the Film and Media program and enables program growth while also providing space for entrepreneurial ventures and a marquee meeting space. [Years 1-2]
  2. Conduct market research to identify and then launch graduate and/or certificate programs that Taylor’s Film and Media program is uniquely positioned to serve. [Year 2]
  3. Reach 110 high school students through the summer Film and Media camp. ​ [Years 1-5]
  4. Secure 250 external awards or recognitions for the Film and Media program over the course of the strategic plan. ​[Years 1-5]