October 3, 1997

To the University Community:

DePaul University, as it prepares to celebrate its centennial, has the opportunity to establish its position nationally and internationally as a university that is making a difference--a difference to each individual who is part of the university community and a difference to the people and institutions of the larger society, especially those of greater Chicago.

The vision for DePaul, as stated in the 1995 Strategic Plan, is to become a nationally and internationally recognized Aurban force@ by building on its strengths as a university and as one that is Vincentian. DePaul=s reputation is a result of the quality and visibility of its many and diverse academic programs, the scholarship of its faculty, and the programmatic manifestations that reflect DePaul=s Catholic, Vincentian and urban character. This character shapes its primary mission of teaching and learning; the integration of teaching, scholarship and service; the support for the professional and personal development of students, staff and faculty; and the service we provide one another and our external constituencies. DePaul=s urban character makes it an active participant in the life of the community of greater Chicago, both drawing on and contributing to its people and institutions.

During the past three years, we have set a strategic direction for the university and been responsive to many opportunities that have enhanced and manifested our mission. We, as a community, have worked aggressively to move from a position of being financially leveraged to a position of financial strength. We have controlled expenditures, reallocated resources, increased our assets, and invested our scarce dollars carefully. Although we have made progress in working more efficiently and more collaboratively, we still face future challenges.

Implementing the Centennial phase of the Strategic Plan gives DePaul an opportunity to achieve greatness. This can be truly an exciting time for us. The enhancement and expansion of our academic mission will complement the new facilities that are being constructed or planned. This will require the setting of priorities and establishing time lines and measurements.

We are pleased with the leadership of the deans and vice presidents in the selection of the ten Centennial Initiatives. In the coming months, the larger university community will be involved in developing and implementing the action plans to support the initiatives.

As we move forward, we need to keep in mind the words of St. Vincent dePaul: AIt is not enough to do good. It must be done well.@ The proposed plan will allow DePaul to do its work well.

Richard J. Meister Kenneth McHugh

Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Executive Vice President

Rev. John P. Minogue, C.M.

President

Two years ago, the Board of Trustees approved the 1995 Strategic Plan. The Plan provided a vision; described the current state of society, higher education, and DePaul; and identified a number of opportunities available to move DePaul toward its vision. It did not establish priorities among the potential initiatives, time-lines or measurements. Since that time, the university has had many successes as well as some failures, and the future of higher education in America is becoming clearer. Now is the opportunity to build on the successes and to identify specific goals and related strategies to insure our future role in higher education. Among the many recent successes, the ones that most impact the university as a whole are:

These successes and a clearer sense of trends affecting the larger society make it possible for us to Athink big@ as we envision this university in the year 2007.

A year ago, coming out of discussions of the ideas of the late Ernest Boyer at the summer planning retreat, especially his call for higher education to truly be a public good, Dick Meister wrote of DePaul becoming the ANew American University,@ that is a university where teaching is primary, research is broadly defined, and a synergy exists with the larger society of which it is a part. During this past year, the discussions with the executive team and the Joint Council resulted in the proposing of three academic goals and the restatement of the strategic financial goal as a fourth institutional goal:

The proposed goals formed the agenda for the three summer planning meetings: the June 19 meeting which focused on community-based learning; the July 17-18 academic planning retreat; and the president=s retreat in August. In many ways the three academic goals give coherence to much of what we are already doing or intending to do; however, they also represent a call for bold action and an acceleration of our strategic planning.

The first goal, providing a holistic education for the full-time undergraduate and graduate/law student, is based on the assumptions that for the next three to five years, DePaul will not seek to increase significantly the size of this student constituency and must be aggressive to maintain the present size. Key factors in this decision to support minimal growth are: a) the financial pressures caused by growth of full-time students on the operating budget; and b) lack of, science, recreation and student support facilities on the Lincoln Park campus.

Recently, we have implemented a number of exciting initiatives that support the first goal, including: a new Liberal Studies program (the Discover Chicago program and focal point seminars), the increase in international and multicultural experiences, the expansion of experiential/service learning opportunities, the enhancement and linking of academic and career advising; and the integration of technology into the learning environment. The major challenge we face in recruiting and retaining full-time students is to remain ahead of our competitors by providing an affordable, high quality education. Given the limited financial resources of many of our students, the limit to which we can allocate institutionally-funded aid and the growing concern in society about the affordability and cost of higher education, we need to look seriously at ways to integrate student work experiences into our degree programs, to expand Alearn and earn@ opportunities, and to provide an effective student and career development support system. At the June retreat, many of us at the luncheon were deeply moved by the reflections of the six alumni on their experiential and service learning experiences. For the six students, these experiences reinforced traditional learning and motivated them to acquire knowledge and skills. Their experiences helped them to clarify their personal and career goals.

The second goal is two fold--achieving national and international recognition as a provider of professional education for the part-time student and becoming the dominant provider of professional education in the greater Chicago area. To accomplish this goal will require bold action. The key assumptions are: a) increasing the size of this constituency is critical to our long-term financial strength; and b) future growth is not limited by the cost of new facilities or infrastructure. Our past success in serving this student constituency is due to responding quickly in developing new programs that meet social needs and to making these programs accessible.

This success in serving the part-time student is reflected in the national and international recognition of our Graduate School of Business, the School for New Learning, and the College of Law, as well as the growing strength of the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems. Thus, such recognition results from our success in the greater Chicago area and contributes to this success. The implementation of a suburban strategy and becoming an efficient provider of distance education are key strategies to achieving this second goal. A major challenge facing us is how to create a faculty culture that remains collegial and is able to deliver the courses and programs in a multi-campus environment.

The adoption and implementation of the third goal--to research, develop, deliver and transfer innovative, educationally related programs and services that have a significant social impact and give concrete expression to the university=s Vincentian mission--can be as strategic for us for the next ten years as enrollment growth has been for the last decade. The third goal is based on the assumptions that a) society believes that education and training are key agents of social change; b) our recent experience demonstrates that there is a market demand for such programs; and c) these programs must increase three to five fold in five years. These educationally related programs will manifest our Vincentian and urban character and will be integral in defining DePaul as a university. DePaul=s mission as a university will be built upon three equal, educational goals that would form a tripod, with each mutually supporting the other two. Taken together, these goals will redefine DePaul as a university for the 21st century.

The external programs that support Goal III must have significant potential to enhance the first two goals. Programs such as STEP, McPrep, the Alliance Minority Participation (AMP), the Science Preparatory Institute (SPI), and SAS (Student Achievement Structure), as well as the work of the Center for Urban Education and the Office of Applied Innovations, are creating educational pipelines to insure future pools of qualified students for admission to DePaul=s degree programs. DePaul=s commitment to the public schools of greater Chicago is resulting in increased enrollments in the School of Education, attracting high school graduates and Chicago teachers. These programs also receive significant support from major foundations and corporations, thus strengthening DePaul=s credibility and reputation. These and other programs are providing students with learning, earning and career opportunities and support faculty scholarship/research and teaching.

Some additional examples of programs that have benefitted the whole institution include, first, the West Humboldt Park/DePaul Community Partnership, funded through a Housing and Urban Development grant to the Egan Urban Center, involves faculty and students from the departments of Management and Psychology, the School of Education, and the Management of Public Services program, and also provides service and tutorial opportunities through the DePaul Community Service Association. Second, the faculty and departments of the College of Commerce have received a number of grants to provide business-related education and training to business and government representatives from Eastern and Central Europe and from Asia. Faculty who have participated in these programs have enhanced their own teaching and broadened their research agendas. And in some cases these programs have increased international learning opportunities for students. Finally, the International Human Rights Law Institute has received over the past four years grants from foundations and contracts from the federal government to deliver educationally related programs. Although these programs involved the training of international lawyers and judges, they also involved our faculty and students.

 In July, at the request of Fr. Minogue, Ken McHugh and Dick Meister, Charles Strain, professor of Religious Studies, agreed to facilitate the planning retreats and to direct the next phase of the strategic planning process. The discussions, recommendations, and critiques of the July academic planning retreat, which was open to all faculty and staff, created the agenda for the president=s retreat in August. This retreat resulted in an acceptance of the three goals and the identification of ten initiatives, hereafter called Centennial Initiatives, to support these goals. The Centennial Initiatives represent our first steps towards reshaping DePaul for its second century.

This autumn, task forces or committees composed of individuals from the academic and operational units most central to or most affected by each initiative will be established. The groups will be responsible for recommending action plans including measurements, time lines, and identifying individuals and offices responsible for their successful implementation. Faculty, staff and students will have the opportunity to participate in this process. Your role is critical; some will be involved in the developing of action plans; all will be involved in implementing them. We need your support. Vice presidents, deans and members of the Joint Council have committed themselves to this process. Some of these individuals are listed as Achampions@ under specific initiatives, indicating a special responsibility. The stakeholders for each initiative, though a tentative listing, represent offices which are critical to its successful implementation.

Whenever possible, we will use existing committees or institutional structures to develop and/or implement the action plans. This will reduce duplication and conserve our energies. Some of the Centennial Initiatives are already in process and will be enhanced through the development of action plans. Others will require a period of preparation to allow time to plan and to solicit as many views as possible. Time will be built into the process for institutional discussion of the action plans with the opportunity for revision as we move forward. The initiatives will have staggered deadlines. The specific charges attached to each initiative will, of course, expand and become clarified during the process.

As we move forward we will continue to exercise fiscal discipline and restraint. Each planning team will establish priorities in developing the action plans that support each initiative. The action plans will both support and be supported by the fourth goal, that is, to move the university from a financially leveraged position to one of financial strength. To implement the action plans will require resources. Through the planning process, we will identify ways to leverage more effectively existing resources and continue to reallocate human and fiscal resources. The enrollment growth called for in the second goal will generate discretionary dollars. These funds will be invested in the enhancement of quality and in supporting the University=s goals. The plan will allow the university to make these investments more strategically. To accomplish the third goal, we will require that the activities that flow from this goal become self-sustaining financially and provide learning/research opportunities for degree-seeking students and for faculty. More importantly, the third goal, based on current experience, will significantly contribute to DePaul=s visibility and reputation, resulting in increasing external support for the larger mission of the university.

 In 1996-1997 we had the opportunity to reflect on our progress over the past ten years. Through this, the second phase of the 1995 Strategic Plan, we can insure that the progress over the next ten years will be as great. Those who will be responsible for preparing for the 2007 accreditation visit will look back with pride that the university made the decision to continue its tradition of boldness in 1997-1998.

Statement of Goal: To research, develop, deliver and transfer innovative, educationally related programs and services that will have significant social impact and will give concrete expression to the university=s Vincentian mission.

Statement of Goal: To research, develop, deliver and transfer innovative, educationally related programs and services that will have significant social impact and will give concrete expression to the university=s Vincentian mission.

Statement of Goal: To research, develop, deliver and transfer innovative, educationally related programs and services that will have significant social impact and will give concrete expression to the university=s Vincentian mission.