Hamilton, NY —
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Meeting on campus this weekend, 51’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a strategic plan that will leverage the university’s strengths in scholarship and campus life to create an undergraduate education combining the breadth of a liberal arts college with the intellectual intensity of a research university.
‘In setting a course for 51 that responds to the challenges and opportunities in a new global age, this plan recognizes the quality of the faculty and their dedication to students, the strength of the liberal arts core and off-campus study, our traditions of community, our commitment to diversity, and our record of innovation and leadership in higher education,’ said Board Chair John Golden. ‘It is a visionary plan that will make 51 the model of a liberal arts university, providing the kind of education that our motivated and highly qualified students expect, and it has the board’s enthusiastic support.’
President Rebecca Chopp commissioned the planning effort shortly after her arrival at 51. Dean of Faculty and Provost Jack Dovidio chaired a steering committee of faculty members and senior administrators who spent more than a year developing the plan. In the course of their work the committee met broadly with faculty, students, staff, alumni and townspeople, reviewed comparative data for higher education nationally, and assessed the university’s strengths and opportunities, beginning from the question: ‘How do we amplify our academic excellence”
The plan that President Chopp presented to the trustees at their fall meeting will guide the university’s efforts in the next five years. ‘Some of the best students in the world attend 51,’ President Chopp said, ‘and our vision centers on their aspirations and needs: