Introduction

President's Planning Group

Mission Statement

Strategic Planning Principles

Fundamental Institutional Values

Muhlenberg College Strategic Planning Goals

The Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan Update

Strategic Plan Review

THE TALENTS ENTRUSTED TO OUR CARE:
A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR MUHLENBERG

 Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In 2003, after ten years of swift and substantial progress, Muhlenberg College welcomed a new President and launched a broadly consultative strategic planning process to chart its course for the next decade. This plan represents the fruition of judicious thought and energetic work by faculty, students, staff, administration, and the Board of Trustees, informed by extensive and helpful advice provided by the campus community, alumni, parents, friends, and community leaders. It is mission-driven, rooted in our traditional institutional values, based on careful analysis of Muhlenberg's competitive strengths and strategic opportunities, linked to a budget model grounded in fiscal realities, and focused on increasing the value of a Muhlenberg education.

The plan deliberately sketches broad strategies and suggests institutional directions and financial priorities, rather than laying out specific operational details, many of which must be worked out within the existing governance structure of the College in consultation with the faculty and staff, student government, and the Board of Trustees. Regular reassessment of Muhlenberg's progress and of its competitive and fiscal environment will be essential to the success of the plan and, ultimately, to the continued success of the College. The plan acknowledges the difficulty of forecasting developments over the course of a decade by building flexibility into its proposals, especially for the second half of this period.

Demographics
Although the overall number of high school graduates will not decline significantly during the planning period, the number of families considering (and willing to pay for) private liberal arts education is limited. Competition will be keen for the most academically gifted of these high school graduates. To succeed in this competition, Muhlenberg must - both in reality and in public perception - offer an educational experience of very high value.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Market research and feedback from prospective students and their families confirm that Muhlenberg's strong sense of community, warm and friendly atmosphere, and close student-faculty relationships distinguish the College not only from the large and less expensive state-supported institutions, but even from many of our more prestigious and wealthier private college competitors. On the other hand, the market (incorrectly, we would argue) does not perceive Muhlenberg as having the academic reach and depth of many of our key competitors.

Consequently, we must focus our efforts on strengthening Muhlenberg's academic programs and facilities while preserving the College's ethos as a "caring community" and enhancing the beauty of the campus. Furthermore, we must communicate our strengths more effectively to potential students.

Strategic Initiatives

The Academic Program. The plan proposes initiatives to enhance the quality and distinctiveness of Muhlenberg's approach to liberal arts by emphasizing the intellectual links between theory and practice ("Praxis Pedagogies"), by building on our reputation in pre-medical science education and the arts, and by capitalizing on campus commitment to civic and personal values. This will require the addition of up to ten additional tenure-track faculty lines, and significant investments in science facilities, art and music facilities, curriculum development, and support for faculty and student research.

Academic Services. The College will build on its reputation as a caring intellectual community that supports students with different learning styles and strengths by combining staff and programs into an expanded and enhanced Academic Resource Center, including academic support services, disability services, tutoring, and the Writing Center. It will also strengthen its support for students' realization of their post-graduate ambitions through an enhanced Career and Pre-Professional Advising Center, aspects of the post-graduate awards program, and the development of additional articulation agreements with appropriate graduate and professional institutions.

Co-Curricular and Extra-Curricular Life. Muhlenberg will build on existing strengths to make our students' experience notable for the quality, variety, and educational value of its co-curricular and extra-curricular experiences, providing students with opportunities to integrate intellectual, spiritual, physical, civic, and social life in creative and powerful ways. This will entail: the development of stronger links between the residential experience and the intellectual life of the campus through more living-learning communities; strengthening the Greek system as a locus for character and leadership development; strengthening the College's athletics program to keep it both competitive and congruent with the College's academic and enrollment objectives; increased support for religious life and student leadership development; and substantial investment in the facilities that support extra-curricular and co-curricular life, including improved athletic facilities, student residences, and Seegers Union.

Finances, Facilities, Technology. The College must have the financial capacity, technological infrastructure, and facilities to achieve its strategic objectives while assuring the availability of adequate resources for our successors by maintaining the discipline of a balanced budget. It will also be important to maintain the campus as a beautiful and efficient venue for the pursuit of our mission. The plan increases technology support essential to the viability of the campus network, includes resources for the further extension of teaching technology, allocates increased resources to support a comprehensive capital improvement plan, and calls for campus facilities planning that will create an improved green campus core by moving parking and service functions to the campus periphery. The plan also provides resources to preserve and strengthen our campus tree legacy, and will, in the second half of the decade, provide incentives for faculty and staff to purchase homes on the campus periphery, striving for the creation of a "Muhlenberg Village."

Admissions and Financial Aid. Muhlenberg intends to increase its academic selectivity and cultural diversity through effective marketing, strategic utilization and targeted augmentation of financial aid resources, and more extensive engagement of faculty in recruiting for targeted academic programs. The College will, by 2009: increase the number of applications from 4,100 to 4,500, and the average SAT scores of matriculants from 1212 (Class of 2007) to 1250; maintain an acceptance rate under 50%; and increase multicultural enrollments from 7.9% to 10%.

Development and Alumni Relations. Muhlenberg will develop the financial resources necessary to implement the strategic plan and to build a robust philanthropic culture among Muhlenberg's alumni and other stakeholders by strengthening relationships, communicating institutional priorities, expanding the volunteer network, and securing charitable gifts and grants. The College has recently made a substantial investment in additional development staffing in support of this goal, and also envisions the creation of an alumni center on or adjacent to the campus to nurture alumni engagement and loyalty.

Muhlenberg and the Community.
The College will develop and nurture mutually beneficial partnerships with other cultural and educational institutions, with local government, with other local organizations, and with neighboring businesses and individuals to improve the quality of life for our students, faculty, and staff and the broader community. Examples include: collaborations with the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) consortium, with the Allentown Art Museum, and with local law enforcement; the extension of volunteer engagement with the community and service learning; and participation in economic development of the 19 th Street area.

The Financial Plan

The Budget Model. Muhlenberg is resolved to maintain its long history of balanced budgets and will not undertake strategic initiatives without knowing how we are going to pay for them. A ten-year budget model incorporating reasonable assumptions about costs (compensation, health benefits, financial aid, operating budgets, etc.) and revenue (student charges, Wescoe School net income, endowment income, charitable giving, etc.) is an integral part of the plan. Because Muhlenberg is significantly underendowed compared to its competitors, the financial plan will emphasize endowment growth through investment and philanthropic support. Because this is a long-term strategy, a balanced budget will continue to be heavily dependent on student charges (closely linked to the achievement of enrollment targets) and on successful and aggressive fund raising. Urgent capital projects can be funded most expeditiously by undertaking an appropriate level of debt.

Enrollment Targets. After assessing the costs and benefits of enrollment growth or reduction, the plan calls for maintaining current enrollment levels, while making strategic investments that increase quality and add value to the Muhlenberg experience. To do otherwise would result either in crippling financial effects (in the case of enrollment reductions), or negative impact on quality, community, and relationships with our neighbors (in the case of enrollment increases).

Student Charges. Muhlenberg has consistently remained a "value leader" among our benchmark institutions, with total student charges averaging approximately 10% below the total student charges of our benchmark institutions. Muhlenberg must strive to remain a value leader during the next decade, though perhaps not by so wide a margin. The plan anticipates continued increases in student charges at or slightly above the percentage increases of our benchmark institutions. This will allow reasonable annual increases in the operating budget (including the salary pool) to sustain the quality of existing programs.

Debt. The plan calls for a bond issue of $25 million in the first year of the plan, with the possibility of a second bond issue of $15 million during the second five years of the planning period, if these obligations can be undertaken without negatively affecting the College's bond rating. Estimated debt service for these bonds is built into the plan's budget model. The College anticipates funding most or all of the plan's capital projects (science facilities, student union renovation and expansion, residence halls, etc.) through bond issues.

Fund Raising. The success of this plan will require Muhlenberg to be even more successful in securing philanthropic support than in the recent past. The strategic plan calls for more than $4.7 million in capital gifts to be secured for the completion of the Life Sports Center addition within the next twelve months, for aggressive increases in unrestricted annual giving (at least $10.5 million over the next 5 years), and for a strong focus on endowment fund raising during the same five-year period (at least $16.9 million for endowed faculty chairs, scholarships, research funds, library funds, unrestricted, and other types of endowment) to address the College's chronic strategic disadvantage in this regard. The financial plan currently requires fund raising to cover such costs as additional faculty lines, augmented financial aid for multicultural and other students, increased resources for faculty and student research, enhanced support for student services, and the significant operating costs associated with new facilities.  

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