PC200 Strategic Plan – Goal 1 – A Distinctive Educational Experience

In the 800-year-old Dominican tradition of critical inquiry, we will provide our students with a life-changing experience that helps them to discover the harmony of faith and reason and that allows them to flourish intellectually, personally, and professionally.

Objectives:

1. We will provide a rigorous and distinctive interdisciplinary academic experience in an intimate and personalized setting. Primacy will be given to the nexus between teacher/mentor and student, in and out of the classroom, and to the deep and unique connections between the liberal arts and professional courses of study. As a result:
   1. Students will participate in a variety of high-impact educational practices and co-curricular activities, including writing- and speaking-intensive courses, foreign or domestic study/service, individual or mentored research, internships, leadership and team experiences, and capstone projects.
   2. Faculty advisers and campus mentors will encourage and provide students within each academic program the opportunity to develop a unique and integrative signature work project over the course of their undergraduate studies. Their signature work will: (1) address a complex contemporary issue that is of interest to the student; (2) lead to a fuller understanding of the demands of an increasingly global society; and (3) set the context for personal, professional, and educational success.
   3. Students will have the opportunity to engage with career coaches, including alumni mentors, to complete co-curricular learning tracks through the Center for Career Education and Professional Development and the Center for Engaged Learning. Students will acquire skills and enhance their professional development in areas such as leadership and teamwork, planning and organization, and analytics and technology.
2. We will deliver a student experience that integrates academic, personal, and spiritual development in and beyond the classroom to develop skills in our students that will benefit the campus and potentially impact local and global communities by:
   1. Encouraging and providing opportunities for civic engagement and student participation in immersion and service trips.
   2. Providing opportunities to enable students to discover and reflect on faith and personal values and to choose paths, both during and after their years at Providence College, that are best suited to them and that will lead to a virtue-centered, well-lived life.
   3. Assessing and continuing to improve resources, programs, and services that promote students’ academic success and overall well-being.
3. We will continue to recruit and retain superior faculty who are exceptional scholars and teachers, and will formally support and incentivize them in developing initiatives that lead to innovative and creative academic offerings and that increase interdisciplinary collaboration by:
   1. Creating and endowing the Providence College Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, building off initiatives that promote the liberal arts even more authentically (e.g., the Liberal Arts Task Force). The Center will be charged with creating a new climate and practice of interdisciplinarity across campus by:
      – Assessing and enhancing existing interdisciplinary programs of study;
      – Developing new programs that promote integrative thinking across disciplines and leverage the College’s strengths to prepare students to prosper and thrive during and after their years of matriculation at PC;
      – Facilitating the process for creating individualized student academic programs by better promoting their availability to prospective and current students, and by providing support and coordination for them.
   2. Invigorating the Development of Western Civilization Program, the centerpiece of PC’s liberal arts education, through efforts led by the faculty.
   3. Invigorating the Liberal Arts Honors Program through efforts led by the faculty to attract extremely high-achieving students and enhance the College’s academic reputation.
   4. Considering and assessing better ways to enable students to engage in concentrated study apart from their chosen major, especially students seeking to minor in a program considerably different from their primary area of study. Factors to consider will include the demands of the core curriculum, additional major requirements, and ongoing efforts to strengthen existing programs and ensure healthy enrollments across schools.
   5. Strengthening professional development programs for faculty and recognizing and rewarding outstanding accomplishments, including scholarly achievement and innovative teaching.