St. Edward's University - Completion of the 10 Year Strategic Plan

10 YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN

Last Month, the president of St. Edwards University held a meeting in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the school. The president focused the meeting on the completion of the 10 year strategic plan, completed this year, and the journey to success. In 2000 the university began to pursue their vision of making St. Edwards one of the best small universities in the country by 2010. Their goals in 2000 were to offer the St. Edward's experience to more students, increase faculty and staff to ensure academic excellence and a personalized educational experience, innovate in academics and campus life, and enhance the facilities and technology on campus.

By 2010 they have accomplished these goals and many more. The enrollment has increased from about 3,700 to nearly 5,300 students. Although the university wanted to increase the population on campus, they also wanted to preserve the personalized education by making sure the student to teacher ratio was appropriate for small classrooms. With the increase of students the faculty was increased with a student/faculty ration of 14:1. My favorite improvement of the school was the globalization of the campus, offering student the opportunity to study abroad. The university has created new partnerships in Mexico, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Edinburgh, Scotland, Seville, Spain, Angers, France, and Koblenz, Germany.

The most beneficial improvement made which is available to all students is the improvement of facilities and technology on campus. With an investment of $147 million dollars in facilities, the University has constructed a new set of dorms and has made a completely wireless campus. They have also added 88 'smart' classrooms, increased the number of public computers from 271 to 729 (WOW!!).

Along with those amazing accomplishments (in just 10 years), St. Edwards has also started to go green! They began a campus wide recycling program and build their new facilities using green principles. The university completed its mission by raising more than $81 million in only 10 years, exceeded annual giving of $1 million, created 79 scholarships.

These improvements to St. Edwards have only enhanced the excellence that was established 125 years ago. I am truly proud to be a student here and am excited to see what the future will bring.

This week my Social Media group created a video celebrating these improvements. check it out!!