Strategic Planning

Muhlenberg's educational mission is not essentially competitive but rather represents a commitment to social and personal betterment. Nonetheless, as the poet Hesiod famously observed (Works and Days), competition can be a constructive force to the extent that it inspires continual self-improvement. Competition plays a further role in strategic planning. Whether we like it or not, Muhlenberg is in competition for vital resources that are essential to its goal of achieving distinction in liberal arts education: bright students, excellent faculty, and charitable gifts and grants, for example. This plan takes it as given that the most effective way to prevail in the competition for these resources is to continually and maximally improve the quality of the College and the value of a Muhlenberg education in those ways that matter most to our stakeholders.

A. Benchmark Institutions
At the outset of the planning process, the President's Staff, PPG, and Board agreed on a roster of institutions with which Muhlenberg has significant admissions overlap (i.e. with which we compete for students) and to which Muhlenberg is essentially similar in mission and character. Each operational area of the College utilized this benchmark group in assessing its competitive strengths and weaknesses. Our benchmark group includes:

Bucknell University
Dickinson College
Drew University
Franklin and Marshall College
Gettysburg College
Ithaca College
Lafayette College
Lehigh University
Skidmore College
Susquehanna University
Ursinus College
Wheaton College

B. Demographics
Muhlenberg competes with its benchmark and other institutions for the best high school graduates in its efforts to increase selectivity and academic quality. The number of high school graduates, especially in the northeast United States from which we draw the preponderance of our students, is an essential factor in this competition. Fortunately, the number of high school graduates - both nationwide and in the northeast will increase through 2008, and even though the number declines over the next several years, it will remain at a higher level than at present.

Of greater concern than the raw number of high school graduates is the percentage of these students (and their families) willing to consider private four-year institutions for postsecondary education. This percentage has declined from 20% of high school seniors graduating in 2002 to 15.6% of those graduating in 2005 according to one survey.² Other statistics show the market share of private higher education slipping from 40% in 1959 to 33% in 1965 to approximately 21% in 1975 - a level at which it has remained with minor variations since that time. Although public universities' charges have recently risen at significantly higher rates than private institutions, their overall cost is still substantially lower. As public universities become more aggressive in establishing honors colleges and awarding merit-based financial aid packages to high academic achievers, the market position of private colleges like Muhlenberg will continue to be vulnerable.

In sum, competition will continue to be keen for the most academically gifted high school graduates who are willing to consider private liberal arts institutions and whose families are able to pay the premium cost of such an education.

This is a significant observation. To succeed in this competition, Muhlenberg must - both in public perception and in reality - offer an educational experience of very high value. To accomplish this, we must understand the market's perception of our strengths and weaknesses and we must capitalize on this knowledge to leverage our assets, minimize our vulnerabilities, correct misperceptions that undervalue our existing strengths, and respond to changing market conditions.

C. Major Competitive Strengths and Weaknesses
Muhlenberg's admissions staff currently bases much of its market research on the Admitted Student Questionnaire (ASQ), which offers comparative data on Muhlenberg matriculants and on students admitted to Muhlenberg who chose to attend competitor institutions.

These ASQ measures are reinforced by other assessment measures, including feedback received by admissions officers from potential applicants and high school guidance counselors, surveys of employees conducted as part of the College's recent self-assessment process, and the benchmarking studies conducted by the President's Staff at the outset of the planning process.

In sum, Muhlenberg's campus climate with its emphasis on a strong sense of community, a warm and friendly atmosphere, strong/close student-faculty relationships, and an ethos that extends itself on behalf of students and student success is what truly distinguishes us not only from the large and less expensive state-supported institutions, but even from many of our more prestigious and wealthier private college competitors. Muhlenberg also gets positive ratings (but ratings that are somewhat lower than many of our head-to-head competitor institutions) in categories such as quality of social life, campus surroundings, availability of majors, academic reputation, quality of on-campus housing, and quality of academic facilities. Our institutional strategy must, consequently:

The principles governing our strategic planning process recognize and derive from these market imperatives.

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

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