Overview

The Gallaudet Strategic Plan 2010-2015 was approved by the Board of Trustees in May 2009. Preliminary implementation of the strategic plan began in the gall of 2009 with full implementation beginning in the Spring of 2010.

Message from the President

The Gallaudet Strategic Plan 2010-2015 (GSP) provides the university community a roadmap for the next five years. This strategic plan re-affirms our core values in its mission statement, sets forth a bold new vision with clearly articulated guiding principles, and sets forth five critical goals for ensuring a university of excellence for future generations of students.

The GSP is the product of more than 18 months of hard work by faculty, staff, students, alumni, and key stakeholders. The Gallaudet Board of Trustees has been actively engaged in guiding and reveiwing the process and the plan. This partnership between the Board of Trustees, the administration, and the inclusive Gallaudet community establishes a strong foundation for the next five years. As we enter the implementation of the new Strategic Plan, I am enthusiastically committed to ensuring the broadest possible participation and ownership by members of our diverse community. I am committed to providing hands on leadership, working with key university officers, to ensure that we achieve these vitally important goals and hold each accountable for their successful implementation. I am confident that working together, harnessing our intellectual capacity and enormous passion for Gallaudet, that we can realize the promise of this bold vision for a bright future.

T. Alan Hurwitz
President

Provost's Message

Greetings!

As chief academic officer of Gallaudet University, I am charged with planning and implementing Goals A and B of the Gallaudet Strategic Plan: Vision 2020: A Bold Vision for a Bright Future. Goal A is to “grow Gallaudet’s enrollment of full-time undergraduates, full- and part-time graduate students, and continuing education students to 3,000 by 2015.” Goal B is to “increase Gallaudet’s six-year undergraduate graduation rate to 50 percent by 2015.”

We also have a significant role in Goal D: “By 2015, refine a core set of undergraduate and graduate programs that are aligned with the institutional mission and vision, leverage Gallaudet’s many strengths, and best position students for career success”, and Goal E: “Establish Gallaudet as the epicenter of research, development and outreach leading to advancements in knowledge and practice for deaf & hard of hearing people and all humanity.”

These are ambitious goals, but they are also eminently achievable ones. Even before the development of the Gallaudet Strategic Plan, we were hard at work on many initiatives, with the singular goal of attracting the best and brightest students and retaining them at Gallaudet until graduation. Let me highlight just a few of these initiatives.

• We have raised our undergraduate admissions standards. We have created a new, outcomes-based undergraduate General Studies Program that, consistent with our mission statement, “prepares our students for career opportunities in a highly competitive, technological, and rapidly changing world.” Our master’s and doctoral programs continue to be among the most competitive and prestigious in their disciplines. Our continuing education program shows rapid growth, and now offers certificate and degree programs in collaboration with academic departments and schools.
• Our academic rigor has increased markedly. With this, we have made sure that we provide students with the support they need through supplemental instruction, tutoring, intentional and purposeful intervention with at-risk students, professional and paraprofessional advising, and much more.
• Our co-curricular and extracurricular programs, including athletics, are increasingly attractive and competitive.
• Working with our Division of Administration and Finance, we have on the drawing board plans to upgrade student housing, beginning with honors student housing on historic Faculty Row, overlooking Olmsted Green.
• Most recently, our faculty has approved a new adult degree program which will provide opportunities for working deaf and hard of hearing adults to obtain their degrees through a hybrid of course offerings and methods of delivery.

I have appointed several goal leaders to lead our work on the Gallaudet Strategic Plan. Chief among these are Dr. Catherine F. Andersen, Associate Provost for Enrollment; Dr. Ann Davidson Powell, Interim Associate Provost for Diversity; Dr. Isaac O. Agboola of the College of Liberal Arts, Sciences, and Technologies; Dr. Carol J. Erting of the Graduate School and Professional Programs; and Dr. Joseph J. Innes, Dean of the College of Professional Studies and Outreach.

Ultimately, everyone in the Division of Academic Affairs will be a part of what President Hurwitz calls “the promise of this bold vision for a bright future.” To this end, we will be forming cluster teams to provide faculty, staff, and students with opportunities to participate in the implementation of the strategies and action plans under each goal. Dr. Patricia L. Hulsebosch, Executive Director of the Office of Academic Quality and Planning, and her staff will provide support in defining goals and targets and assessing outcomes. Ms. Debra S. Lipkey, Finance Director for the Division of Academic Affairs, will provide support in financial and resource management.

Sincerely,

Stephen F. Weiner
Provost, Academic Affairs

Vice President's Message

The Division of administration and finance has a very important role in our successfully implementing the Gallaudet Strategic Plan (GSP). For this reason, President Hurwitz has asked me to be responsible for one of the five goal areas - Goal C - diversifying revenues and improving our cost efficiencies. Goal C is vital to the overall financial well-being of the university and directly supports the FY 2010 priorities in Goals A and B (recruitment, retention and graduation) as well as strategies in Goal D (academic programs) and Goal E (research and outreach).

Fred Weiner will be assisting me with coordination of the GSP Goal C and the coordination with the other Goal areas under Provost Weiner. During the coming weeks Fred and I will be setting up implementation teams for the strategies and action plans under Goal C. Some of these teams are already underway such as the 6th street development project. These teams will provide faculty and staff an opportunity to be involved with the implementation of the Goal C strategies and action plans.

If you have any ideas or questions about the strategies and action plans under Goal C, please feel free to contact Fred Weiner or me. On the Administration and Finance web pages you can review the implementation plan, including the teams that we will be setting up to involve people in the process. You can also view a complete description of Goal C and strategies and action plans that support this goal area.

I look forward to working with the Gallaudet community to achieve these important goals.

Paul Kelly
Vice President, Administration and Finance