NEWS

Friends in the Davidson Community,

The work has started.

I mentioned in my message a few weeks ago that, over the course of this academic year, we will be creating a strategic plan to guide Davidson for years to come. Our community has stepped up, and that mission is underway.

We have zeroed in on four areas of focus and have assembled teams from across the college to concentrate on each.

The best part of my first year as president was getting to know the extraordinary people who make up our Davidson community. I met with students, faculty and staff across campus and with hundreds of alumni, families and friends of the college in a dozen cities. One of Davidson’s greatest strengths is our close community, and everyone’s voice matters. In all of these settings, I heard a wide range of experiences and perspectives on what makes Davidson special and how we sustain and build that distinctive experience for the future. I channeled what I learned into work with the senior leadership team and the board of trustees. Together, we developed themes that we believe can advance the college’s mission and a process that will draw collaboration from across the community.

Our strategic planning will complement the high priorities already advancing: an envisioned major renovation of the library, the “With These Hands” commemoration site, archaeological and educational work around the Beaver Dam plantation site, new Student Health & Well-Being facilities and a national search for an inaugural vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Our statement of purpose and our shared values drive our work. We are encouraged by the urgency of the needs and our confidence in our graduates’ ability to solve problems of any size.

We have formed strategic plan working groups around:

Learning for the future: The core mission of Davidson is to educate students for lives of leadership and service – today and tomorrow. This group will help our faculty explore and adopt effective and innovative teaching strategies and engage with new fields of knowledge. It will lay the foundation for Davidson to tackle the signal challenge facing educators today: understanding and harnessing generative AI for deep learning and ethical work.

Discovering passions, developing purpose: Davidson’s liberal arts approach to education has never been more valuable. Graduates must build the capacities to think critically and creatively, to express themselves in written, verbal, analog and digital ways, to collaborate in diverse groups, and to continue learning throughout their lives and careers. This group will focus on how Davidson can more fully integrate our world-class classroom learning with mentoring and advising, other educational, internship and work experiences, and engagement with alumni/ae—all to enable students to shape their personal and professional pathways.

Building public good: This group will help our students put into practice the humane instincts cultivated at Davidson to make the world more compassionate, sustainable, and just. Davidson’s foundational commitment to honoring the dignity and worth of every individual is reflected in how our recruitment of students from all backgrounds helps build a diverse, inclusive community. A Davidson difference across the globe will be the empathy and mutual respect that our graduates model in their lives. Building on its strengths in ethical leadership, honor and trust, and deliberative citizenship, Davidson College can become a “go-to place” where constructive conversations and innovative public solutions emerge to problems that are local, regional, national and international.

Engaging Davidson and Greater Charlotte: Davidson is among a very few top-ranked liberal arts colleges within, and benefiting from, a major metropolitan area. We want to embrace the educational and partnership opportunities in the region’s diverse population, finance and tech leadership, non-profit and civic strength, vibrant arts and culture, professional sports teams and hub airport. This working group will focus on how the college can more fully leverage its location and contribute educational resources to the Town of Davidson and the Greater Charlotte area.

A strategic plan steering committee of leaders from the four working groups and other colleagues will guide our overall planning. I’m delighted that Vice President of Academic Affairs & Dean of Faculty Shelley Rigger and Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Byron McCrae will co-lead the strategic planning. Each working group will author a report with possible initiatives that address initial questions and seize opportunities that arise along the way. This strategic work will mutually inform a campus master planning process, to begin a few months from now, as we seek to integrate our vision for programs and our stewardship of our magnificent campus.

Each working group will be seeking your ideas, along with input from students, faculty and staff in the coming weeks. We plan to keep you updated as we move forward and aim to have a clear and dynamic strategic plan finalized by Commencement. This plan will guide our priorities and galvanize Davidson as we create our shared future.

You can find the members of each working group by visiting this webpage on Davidson.edu.

I am grateful to our students, colleagues and friends who are joining in this critical effort and helping build the road ahead for Davidson College.

Go ’Cats!

Doug
Doug Hicks, President
Davidson College