Strategic Plan Home

Introduction Goal 1 Goal 2 Goal 3Goal 4Goal 5 Goal 6

Conclusion Process and Methodology Goals and Objectives Summary

Exploring for the Global Good

A Strategic Plan for Lewis & Clark as the Next 150 Begins

VISION
Lewis & Clark will be a national leader in higher education that prepares students for meaningful careers, civic engagement, and lifelong discovery. Together we seek a just and sustainable society here in Portland, across our nation, and around the world.

PURPOSE
Three distinctive schools united by a core purpose: to empower our graduates to make a positive impact on the world.

Download a PDF of the full strategic plan

Our graduates are explorers. With the guidance of faculty and staff, Lewis & Clark students discover their interests, pursue their passions, and embark on paths that lead to expertise in their chosen fields.

Our graduates are critical and creative thinkers. Lewis & Clark students develop a mastery of inquiry through writing, analysis, and evaluation.

Our graduates are collaborators. Lewis & Clark students learn to understand themselves and the value each person brings. They are global citizens who engage differing points of view and work with others to solve challenges.

VALUES

• Collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking
• A caring and supportive community
• Sustainability
• Global perspectives
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Curiosity, adventure, innovation, and leadership

Introduction

We aspire for Lewis & Clark to fully realize its role and mission as a leading liberal arts college with a national and international reputation and two superb professional schools with reputations that enhance the whole.

We will attract highly qualified students whose rigorous education will take place in classrooms and labs; in practica, clinics, internships, and volunteer activities with professional, nonprofit, public, and business organizations in Portland and beyond; through campus intellectual, athletic, cultural, and social activities; on overseas and off-campus study programs; and through informed interactions with faculty, staff, and fellow students.

All graduates will achieve the skills needed to embark on thriving careers or further studies that enable them to support themselves and their communities. And they will have discovered what it means to be a global citizen.

Many of our values are drawn from our long history as a liberal arts college, especially our focus on exploration, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.

We pride ourselves on delivering strong programs in a rigorous and supportive academic community.

We have long embodied a spirit of curiosity and adventure no doubt linked to our location in the Pacific Northwest. Our study of and commitment to sustainability and the natural environment is intrinsically linked to our unique place in the world. Our commitment to providing students with international experiences prepares them to be active, responsible, and confident citizens of the world. Our pursuits of innovation and leadership are outgrowths of our desire to venture beyond the status quo. In preparing students to be global citizens, we help them develop the tools and habits necessary to engage others with civility and respect.

We believe that people learn best, and flourish the most, when they encounter perspectives, people, backgrounds, and experiences other than their own. Inclusion and equity speak to our highest ideals for a just society.

Goals and Objectives

This strategic plan reaffirms our commitment to be an ever stronger and more competitive liberal arts college that ranks as the best in the Northwest and among the top 50 in the nation, with a nationally-ranked law school and a very high quality and distinctive Graduate School of Education and Counseling.

Through our planning process, we have focused our priorities on a manageable list for which we will devise tactics that are significant, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. The broad objectives and priorities are listed below. Many are intertwined and overlapping in the sense that success in one will create success in others. For example, completing a comprehensive campaign will make it possible to fund many of the key priorities and accelerate our progress. More detailed actions for some of the priorities will be developed in strategic plans by each of the three individual schools.

GOAL 1.

STRENGTHEN, DIFFERENTIATE, AND PROMOTE THE KIND OF ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE WE OFFER STUDENTS: A CLOSE AND RIGOROUS ENGAGEMENT WITH EXCEPTIONAL FACULTY AND A DYNAMIC COMMUNITY.

A. Deepen and promote existing and emerging programmatic strengths.

Lewis & Clark prepares its students for lifelong success. Our undergraduate and graduate programs provide students the skills necessary for professional and personal achievement: critical thinking and problem solving, communication, persuasion, collaboration, leadership, global perspective, and civic engagement. Our students gain these skills through a myriad of programs, both undergraduate and graduate, with particular strengths in the environment, sustainability, international engagement, entrepreneurship and leadership, the sciences, and social justice.

Our long-standing and comprehensive Environmental, Natural Resources, & Energy Law Program is regularly ranked first in the nation; our undergraduate Environmental Studies Program crosses disciplinary boundaries to improve academic outcomes and effective action; and Lewis & Clark as a whole is regularly recognized in a variety of “Green Colleges” rankings. We believe we can do even more to leverage our existing individual strengths into something greater. The institutional Sustainability Council will work with the three deans as well as faculty from each school in developing new programming and enhancing existing coursework to advance sustainability-related curriculum between and across the three schools. 

Although we originated as a regional institution, we have long looked beyond our borders, and our international focus is one of our hallmarks. In the College of Arts and Sciences, we’ve offered intensive Overseas and Off-Campus Study programs for nearly 60 years. Nearly two-thirds of our students take advantage of these academic programs, the majority of which take place in locations outside Western Europe. We seek to enhance the strong reputation of our Overseas and Off-Campus programs by expanding the geographic diversity and curricular richness of our offerings and by increasing the numbers of students who are able to participate. Additionally, our undergraduates come to us from more than 50 different countries, and our curriculum has long been rich with international perspectives that push learning beyond isolated approaches. This is true too in our professional schools.

We must continue to develop and strengthen our curriculum that makes us a distinctive magnet and provides the best learning and professional outcomes. Despite the challenges to international student recruitment due to national rhetoric and policies we will work to enroll more international students and integrate them even better into campus life. We seek to increase international students from the current three percent to ten percent of the undergraduate student body.

Our John E. and Susan S. Bates Center for Entrepreneurship and Leadership invites students, faculty, alumni, and professionals into meaningful and creative collaborations to define problems, create opportunities, and invent solutions. Our entrepreneurship program helps students take the essential liberal arts base of writing, analysis, and problem solving, and collaboration, and apply it to their career. We combine academic rigor with active exploration into trending topics in technology, health care, marketing, education, environment, and philanthropy. A fully endowed Center for Entrepreneurship could offer even more programming to more students across the three schools. A minor in entrepreneurship will enhance academic outcomes in the fast-growing field.

At Lewis & Clark a restless curiosity animates our pursuits in mathematics and the sciences. We push beyond the boundaries of what is known through collaborative inquiry and interdisciplinary research. Today’s science thrives at the intersections where many areas of knowledge and research come together—where, for example, biology, psychology, physics, and chemistry intersect to form neuroscience. We take pride in the nationally and internationally recognized and grant-funded work of our faculty, students, and alumni, work that demonstrates how we are advancing today’s science and transforming the common understanding of tomorrow’s world. As our work seeks to advance scientific integrity, affirm human rights, protect the environment, and raise standards of living across the globe, we must continue to strengthen science at Lewis & Clark. To do so, we will pursue new opportunities in areas such as the health sciences and, as outlined below, we will seek additional funding to ensure that all students who wish to may take part in collaborative research with faculty.

The three deans will further identify the specific strengths of each school, as well as the institution as a whole, and how these strengths can be built upon and expanded. Strengthening will include seeking more intentional and productive cross-school collaborations, as well as collaborations with the Portland community and beyond. It will also require faculty engagement and moving more nimbly than is sometimes customary in higher education. At the law school and graduate school especially, focusing on professional preparation in our areas of strength will provide for better outcomes for our students as well as enhance the local reputation of the whole institution.

Leadership responsibility: Deans and faculty of the three schools

B. Increase opportunities for students to engage in collaborative research and creative work with faculty.

One of the hallmarks of the student experience in each of our three schools is the close, personal attention students receive from faculty. Many students have long taken advantage of the opportunity to work with faculty on academic research, joint publications and presentations, and artistic endeavors. Our goal is to provide every interested student with the opportunity to participate in research or creative works.

We currently have a variety of programs in place to provide stipends and grants to students who wish to be involved in faculty collaborations. The Rogers Summer Science program is a key example in the College of Arts and Sciences. We wish to expand these funded opportunities for our students, which will require fundraising to increase the pool of money available for research, publications, and conference presentations. Every year, demand for student summer-research in our science labs significantly exceeds supply. Over the past 5 years, our summer science research programs have funded an average of 56 students a year. Our collaborative student-faculty research in the social sciences and humanities could only fund half of the requests last year. Grants for student travel to national conferences are currently limited to a handful. Institutional support for diversity programming in the sciences—such as our Explore Program—depends on term-limited foundation grants, and our challenge is to refine and expand such programs beyond the initial external funding. Our goal is to substantially increase the size and long-term stability of these funding streams so that every student who wishes to can take advantage.

Leadership responsibility: Deans and faculty of the three school, with support of Institutional Advancement

C. Become more connected and visible in Portland, including through volunteer, clinical, internship, and civic engagement opportunities.

Our Law School and Graduate School of Education and Counseling, especially, are tightly integrated with the Portland metropolitan community. Through clinics, practical skill opportunities, practica, volunteering, and other engagement, students and faculty are out and about in the urban area, learning and providing valuable public services. The graduate school’s Community Counseling Center and the law school’s Small Business Legal Clinic and the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic are just a few great examples of avenues for positive engagement with increasing numbers of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits in the Portland metropolitan area, especially among traditionally underserved populations. We will seek and pursue opportunities to continue to increase our positive local impact.

The deans and faculty will work toward increasing curricular connections with the Portland area, including increased opportunities for our students to engage in volunteer work, internships, and jobs with regional businesses, nonprofits, governmental entities, and other institutions. We will also explore the development of courses with a local, place-based component, allowing our students to examine and consider how the theoretical or global issues they study in class play out here in Portland.

While the Student Leadership and Service office does an annual accounting of the number of hours of student community service and engagement, we lack a holistic cataloging or coordination of our community engagement. We will create a process to monitor our presence and impact in Portland and, more importantly, to visualize and promote opportunities for collaboration among Portland partners and the three schools.

We will also explore the feasibility of establishing a visible physical presence in downtown Portland, perhaps by consolidating activities already occurring downtown and/or establishing new activities in the central city. In addition, visibility in Portland will be increased through more regular and notable engagement by the President, Institutional Advancement, and other campus leaders with community and civic organizations in the area, as well as through partnership and sponsorship with entities like WorldOregon (formerly World Affairs Council), for example.

Leadership responsibility: Deans and faculty of the three schools, with support of the President, Chief of Staff, and Institutional Advancement 

GOAL 2.

ATTRACT, ENROLL, AND GRADUATE STUDENTS WHO WILL SUCCEED AT LEWIS & CLARK.

A. Stabilize enrollment in all three schools and improve retention in the College of Arts and Sciences to achieve four- and six-year graduation rates of 75 and 85 percent.

In the College of Arts and Sciences, the work of the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Committee, constituted in 2017, will ramp up and be fully integrated with guidance from external consultants. This effort will increase the success and predictability of our enrollment efforts. Our current facilities can accommodate up to 2,200 undergraduates, with some modifications, which allows for growth of about 10 percent from where we are now.

Of course, improving and stabilizing enrollment is not enough. We must also better maximize net tuition per student through the efficient use of financial aid resources. This is an ongoing focus of the SEM Committee and its consultants. Each year we will assess the effects of our financial aid strategy on the incoming class as well as the efficacy of our strategies for identifying a strong pool of prospective students. As noted in 1A above, we will also strive to increase international student recruitment efforts.

Additionally, the College of Arts and Sciences will strive for first-year retention and graduation rates similar to those institutions in the top-ranked (50) national liberal arts colleges. Those institutions have first-year retention rates in the mid-90 percentile and graduation rates in the mid-80 to low-90 percentile range. Given the current 3-year average for first-year retention (82.9%), 4-year graduation (68.8%), and 6-year graduation (78.3%) rates, we believe that short-term goals of 90 percent retention and 75 percent (4-year) and 85 percent (6-year) graduation rates are attainable.

Over the last decade, applications to the law school have declined, echoing a nationwide trend. In order to maintain student quality and to increase employment opportunities for law graduates, the law school strategically lowered its FTE enrollment from 661 in 2013 to 547 in 2018 and is aiming for a steady headcount of 550. While applications are once again on the rise, the law school needs to carefully balance the size and quality of its incoming class. At this point, it is unlikely that the law school could grow without sacrificing student quality and suffering adverse employment outcomes for its graduates.

From 2013 to 2017, despite ups and downs in individual programs, the graduate school enjoyed relatively stable total full-time enrollments. This is due to in part to its diversity of programs and the development of new programs—Student Affairs Administration, for example—to meet market demands. Credit hours are up 7.3 percent in 2018 with growth in Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy, School Psychology, and student affairs/education leadership, as well as the recent acquisition of Marylhurst University’s highly regarded Art Therapy program, with 38 students. Additional growth is expected in 2019. The graduate school has the potential for further growth by adding more programs.

Enrollment in each of the three schools is supported by success in 2C and 2D below: offering degrees and programs that are in demand and student life opportunities that help with persistence.

Leadership responsibility: Strategic Enrollment Management Committee and Law and Graduate School deans

B. Improve U.S. News rankings of the College of Arts and Sciences to the top 50 and the law school to the top 60.

Lewis & Clark College has had ranking fluctuations between 68 and 87 over the last 5 years for the College of Arts and Sciences.

There are a number of factors that can have dramatic impact on rankings. The college will concentrate on enhancing efforts related to graduation rates and retention, as these two factors account for 30 percent of the rankings score. These improvements are already part of our Strategic Enrollment Management plan. In addition, strategic efforts will be made to positively influence other elements of the rankings calculation: in particular, improving our CAS alumni participation rate, as discussed in 6B below, and increasing our peer assessment score through better promotion and sharing of news about Lewis & Clark would positively impact rankings. In the most recent rankings from this fall, both our peer and high school counselor rankings increased.

The law school has had ratings fluctuations between 58 and 100 over the last 5 years. For law school rankings, Selectivity (LSAT score, GPA, acceptance rate) and Job Placement account for 45 percent of the rankings. These are obvious areas where improvement can result in higher rankings.

Leadership responsibility: Strategic Enrollment Management Committee and deans of CAS and Law School

C. Develop new revenue-generating programs to meet prospective student and societal needs.

Each of our three schools is completing its own strategic plan in which this priority will be addressed explicitly. The Graduate School of Education and Counseling will complete its plan by December 2018; the Law School anticipates completing its plan by the end of academic year 2018–19; and the CAS strategic planning process will begin in academic year 2018–19. Deans will report on their efforts each year.

Focused on new revenue, we will seek growth opportunities in programs, certificates, and degrees that align or dovetail with our mission. Deans will engage faculty in the process and move wisely but more nimbly than is sometimes customary in higher education. The graduate school’s acquisition of Marylhurst University’s Art Therapy Program and the law school’s growth of online programs are good examples of this kind of opportunistic growth. In addition, the College of Arts and Sciences is investigating programmatic additions aligned with our mission, such as our recent additions of Arabic and the Middle East and North African studies (MENA) minor. Interdisciplinary areas such as data sciences have also been discussed and are exciting opportunities. In some cases, growth will require the realignment of existing programs and resources, and we’ll need to choose wisely what to shift or trim.

A particular focus will be increasing summer programming, which has grown through good efforts in recent years. A coordinated approach will be undertaken to increase programming and associated revenue in the summer, as well as support the long-term recruitment of undergraduates.

Leadership responsibility: Deans and faculty of the three schools, with the support of Conferences and Events

D. Enhance athletic, career counseling, recreational, residential, social, and wellness programs that maximize student success.

The overall college experience extends far beyond the classroom. Participation in extracurricular activities is often critical to student success and persistence.

Athletics and recreational sports are also integral. Approximately 20 percent of Lewis & Clark undergraduate students participate in a Division 3 athletics team and many more participate in recreational sports. For many students, this is an important aspect of the student experience, which builds community and shared identity. These programs should be strengthened and made more central to the college community. Work has begun on an Athletics strategic plan in order to move us forward.

Our College Outdoors program develops students’ skills through experiential education, cultivates lifelong leaders, and promotes a healthy Lewis & Clark community. It provides a series of outdoor trips during New Student Orientation, and throughout the year, to destinations all over the Pacific Northwest. The College Outdoors program encourages personal and social development through intensive involvement in wilderness trips where social barriers are minimized and cooperative responsibility emphasized. We recently added a College Outdoors Outdoor Leadership (COOL) certificate. We wish to expand opportunities for all students to take part in an NSO experience.

We must also pay close attention to the overall wellness of our students, including mental health wellness. Across the country and at Lewis & Clark, the need for greater mental health resources is steadily increasing. We must expand and stabilize the funding stream for these vital community services in order to best enable all Lewis and Clark students to succeed.

Each Student Life department completes an annual assessment report that can be used to gauge improvement over time. Baselines and goals, with a focus on high impact practices, will be established and shared with the Board of Trustees.

Leadership responsibility: Division of Student Life

GOAL 3.

DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN CAMPUS INFRASTRUCTURE AND FACILITIES APPROPRIATE FOR A SELECTIVE, NATIONALLY COMPETITIVE COLLEGE.

Lewis & Clark has retained Sasaki Associates to develop a campus facilities plan to guide our infrastructure improvements over the next 20 years. Given the difficulty in planning for such a long period, the facilities plan focuses on improvements over the next 10 years. The master plan will be completed and brought to the Board of Trustees for consideration and approval during the 2018–19 academic year. The highest overarching priorities in the master plan—and those most likely to be undertaken during the timeline of this strategic plan—are provided below, not in any ranked order and with the understanding that this section of the strategic plan is preliminary and subject to further discussion and revision by the board.

Leadership responsibility: Facilities Services, with the support of the deans of the three schools and Institutional Advancement

A. Maintain and extend the useful life of existing buildings and landscaping.

The average age of Lewis & Clark’s approximately 1.4 million square feet of buildings is 43 years. Seventy percent of our buildings are at the stage of their life cycle in which a majority of building components or major envelope and mechanical systems require renovation. As a result, we have a substantial deferred maintenance backlog, which will continue to grow significantly if not addressed. Progress has been made in recent years at the Law School as classrooms and other key spaces have been renovated.

We will address deferred maintenance in a continuous and systematic way. Candidates for major maintenance projects are the Watzek Library, Pamplin Sports Center, Evans Music Center, and accessibility improvements on the undergraduate campus; South Chapel on the graduate campus; and the Legal Research Center and Boley Library on the law campus (recent renovations significantly reduced deferred maintenance in McCarty and Gantenbein).

B. Build and renovate student housing.

Much of Lewis & Clark’s student housing is due for major renovation. These facilities have significant maintenance needs and could be made more attractive to current and prospective students. The recent renovation of Juniper and its popularity with students show how the older residence halls can be repurposed.

We will approach the upgrading and renovation of student housing in a systematic and phased manner. The campus facilities plan will outline a series of renovations where outmoded residence halls can be replaced or renewed with updated buildings. The goal is to create a new residential core in the area between the Templeton Campus Center and Palatine Hill Road. A new residence hall on the site of the Akin parking lot would house between 80–120 students and allow for the development of future housing construction or renovation without decreasing the number of available campus beds. Ideally, once a new building is built, other buildings, such as Akin, Stewart/Odell, and/or Hartzfeld, would be demolished and updated larger residence halls built to replace them and increase the number of available beds. The campus facilities plan was designed to be executed in phases so a number of types and configurations of housing options can be implemented as needed.

C. Renovate and expand science facilities, starting with the Olin Physics/Chemistry Building.

The increased national and institutional focus on STEM fields, together with our success in hiring extraordinary new science faculty and the corresponding growth in enrollment in science majors, require us to improve our science facilities. We need facilities that can better support our faculty’s research programs and the growing importance that undergraduate students play in those programs. A top priority is improving the Olin Physics/Chemistry Building through a combination of renovation, expansion, and maximization of existing space. The building has not undergone a major renovation since construction in 1979. Since construction of Olin, pedagogy has changed and labs and learning spaces are used in different ways; a major renovation would provide students with a modern science facility and better prepare them for their careers. Ideally, a major renovation of Olin would not only improve space and efficiency in the existing 55,000 square feet of space, but would also add 10,000–15,000 square feet of new space.

D. Renovate Templeton Campus Center.

The Templeton Campus Center, with its dining and many student support services, is the heart of the student experience at Lewis & Clark, particularly for undergraduate students. Construction of Templeton started in 1956 and continued in stages until it reached its current footprint of 85,000 square feet. Due to uncertainty regarding the future of Templeton, no major repair or building-wide renovation has taken place. A major renovation and upgrade of Templeton is a priority.

E. Renovate Corbett House.

The Corbett House was built in 1929 and served as a residence for the Corbett family and later as part of the Convent of Our Lady of Angels. Lewis & Clark acquired the property in 2000. Through the generosity of John and June Rogers, the nearby convent dormitory was transformed into Rogers Hall, with offices, seminar rooms and classrooms for the Graduate School. The chapel has been partially repurposed as meeting space. However, the 20,000 square foot mansion itself has remained unused for nearly 20 years. Although in reasonably good shape, the building requires seismic, life safety, accessibility, utility, and programmatic upgrades. Our goal is to identify philanthropic support for a full renovation of the mansion and to determine the best programming for this space. Likely potential uses include Graduate School offices and/or classes, other office space, residential, conference and event hosting, or some combination thereof.

F. Consider other projects such as athletic facilities, and music and theatre performance spaces.

The campus facilities master plan will include other high priority projects, such as the development of improved athletic and recreation facilities and music and theatre performance space. Our ability to undertake these and similar projects will depend on fundraising success, future financial performance, and our ability to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Similarly, other projects, such as updated dining facilities and development of a childcare center, should be undertaken if partnerships can be developed to facilitate such projects in a cost-effective manner.

GOAL 4.

STRENGTHEN OUR DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION EFFORTS.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) is in the process of completing its own Strategic Plan, due by the end of 2018. That plan will include metrics for the objectives below. The overarching goal is to create an institutional culture of belonging, where all community members can fully participate such that they can teach, lead, grow, and critically engage in a dynamic global world.

A. Build pathways to recruit and retain a diverse community with specific focus on members from historically underrepresented groups.

We seek to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of our students, faculty, and staff, as well as the number of first generation college students. As of the 2010 Census, Portland’s population was 29 percent persons of color, while the nation was 39 percent. We aspire to be a college that better reflects the demographic makeup of the community in which we live and the diverse communities from which our students come.

We will continue our current trend of increasing the recruitment of students of color and students from underrepresented groups, including first-generation status and socioeconomic diversity. CAS has grown from 16 percent students of color in the fall of 2011 to 31 percent students of color in the fall of 2018. The total percentage of students of color for all of Lewis & Clark is 25. We will also seek to increase the retention of students from underrepresented backgrounds by a certain percentage each year.

We also seek to increase the diversity of the faculty and staff at all 3 schools each year, with a goal of having the faculty better reflect the demographics of our students. Currently 16 percent of our faculty and 14 percent of our staff are persons of color. We will review and implement diversity hiring best practices and report annually regarding our progress toward this goal. We will continue our current excellent retention rate for faculty from underrepresented groups and seek to improve retention of staff from underrepresented groups.

Leadership responsibility: Deans and faculty of the three schools, Human Resources, and Admissions, with support from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion

B. Recognize, celebrate, and support all facets of each individual’s identity.

We will seek equity by working toward a campus culture that recognizes, celebrates, and supports all facets of each individual’s identity. We wish to create a campus climate for underrepresented communities (writ large) that celebrates diverse identities while promoting the understanding that individual identities should not be a constraint on engagement with difference. Each dean will work with faculty to provide a curriculum and a classroom pedagogy that includes and recognizes diverse communities. Each school, as relevant to its particular needs and mission, will pursue some or all of the following: increased class offerings with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, increased course content with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, increased use of inclusive pedagogical practices, and revised course evaluation tools.

We will increase structures of support for those from underrepresented groups. The ODI is assessing what structures of support currently exist and what additions are needed. We will also implement a biannual campus climate assessment concerned with issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion by 2023.

Leadership responsibility: The deans and faculty of each school, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Student Life

C. Provide opportunities for all members of our community to engage in reflective inquiry and to grow in the areas of inclusivity, respect, cultural curiosity, and cultural humility.

We strive to create a community that facilitates the active participation and reflective inquiry of all members. We will increase the number of professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. We will offer an increasing number of community conversations and events for students, faculty, and staff centering on diversity and working with and learning from cultures different from one’s own.

Leadership responsibility: Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Student Life, and the deans and faculty of each school

D. Develop external partnerships that support diversity, equity and inclusion.

We will develop and enhance partnerships in order to cultivate active, reciprocal engagement between Lewis & Clark and the external community and alumni and to assist our community members in readily encountering opportunities to engage with difference, perform acts of service, and apply academic learning in a lifelong developmental journey. We will also work to ensure consistent collaboration between all campuses and with alumni in order to maximize success in this area.

Leadership responsibility: Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Student Life, and the deans and faculty of the three schools  

GOAL 5.

RECOGNIZE AND REWARD OUR FACULTY AND STAFF.

A. Provide competitive compensation.

The primary objective of Lewis & Clark’s total compensation and benefit program is to attract and retain highly qualified individuals who are dedicated to our mission. We are committed to maintaining fiscal responsibility while compensating staff and faculty in a manner that is fair, consistent, reflective of the external market, and provides individual recognition for specific job responsibilities, skills, effort, experience, and achievements. We will develop a compensation philosophy that aims to improve internal and external equity, with stated goals, while taking into account fiscal constraints.

Primary responsibility: Human Resources, Executive Council, and deans of the three schools

B. Provide greater professional development and advancement opportunities. 

While Lewis & Clark does provide faculty and staff professional development opportunities, we would benefit from an expanded, overarching institutional approach. A methodology and process will be developed to enhance opportunities for growth for all employees.

Current programs such as the CAS Teaching Excellence Program (TEP), first-year mentoring programs, and other similar programs provide strong support for faculty teaching. We aim to strengthen and expand these programs to strengthen teaching, as well as increase support for faculty scholarship, including additional funds for research trips and travel to academic conferences. Similarly, the law school and the graduate school provide faculty with rich opportunities for development that could be made stronger and more expansive with additional funding.

Opportunities for staff are less robust. A program of professional development aimed at all skill and ability levels and offering a broad variety of training will be developed.

Primary responsibility: Deans of the three schools and Human Resources

C. Increase the number of endowed professorships, chairs, and other positions.

Across the three schools, Lewis & Clark lags in the number of endowed professorships, chairs, and other positions relative to its peers. The CAS currently has nine endowed professorships; the law school has three chairs, four professorships, and five faculty scholars; and the graduate school has one endowed professorship. Through fundraising, we aim to double the number of endowed positions.

Primary responsibility: Institutional Advancement and the deans of the three schools

D. Promote faculty and staff accomplishments and expertise.

Across our three schools, faculty and staff are doing notable and remarkable things each day. The Department of Public Affairs and Communications (PubCom), working with other departments, regularly showcases significant achievements with a variety of internal and external audiences in a suite of integrated communications vehicles. These include the website, social media, The Chronicle Magazine, the Source, and a variety of e-newsletters. We also engage in pitching stories to local and national media, as well as responding to media calls for faculty and staff experts.

In addition to continuing to sharpen this work, PubCom will work with the deans to identify and develop more faculty who are willing to respond to issues of the day in print or broadcast media. PubCom will also continue to refine its lead collection and sharing processes so that fewer great stories go untold or underutilized. Admissions marketing materials in each of the three schools play a strong role in getting the word out about the great things our faculty and staff are doing.

Primary responsibility: Public Affairs and Communications and Institutional Advancement

GOAL 6.

COMPLETE A COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGN FOR CAPITAL PROJECTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND OTHER NEEDS.

A. Raise at least $155 million by 2024.

We are embarking on our first comprehensive campaign in a generation. By raising $155 million or more by 2024, we will better attract, enroll, and graduate students who will thrive at Lewis & Clark and beyond.

We are currently in the leadership phase of the campaign, which began in June 2017, has already raised more than $34 million, and will run until approximately August 2020. During this time, we will hone our campaign goals, solicit lead gifts, and develop campaign branding and materials. The public phase of the campaign will commence once we have secured gift commitments for approximately 50 percent of the campaign goal. Based on industry standards, we anticipate that the public phase will begin on September 1, 2020. The campaign’s scheduled completion date is May 31, 2024.

The overarching campaign goals and categories have been informed by the college’s mission and core themes. They will include funding for a combination of scholarships (~$50 million), facilities (~$60 million), programmatic initiatives (~$10 million), faculty support (~$15 million), and current use annual fund (~$20 million). Conversations with potential donors may lead to new fundraising opportunities.

In addition to providing us with much needed funds, success in this priority will create a new culture of philanthropy at Lewis & Clark, which will result in a sustained increase in donations, engagement, and other support from alumni, parents, prominent members of the greater Portland community, and others in the years and decades to come. This culture change will provide momentum and a baseline for future campaigns.

Leadership responsibility: Institutional Advancement, with the support of the Board of Trustees, President, and deans

B. Increase alumni engagement, including in student mentoring and philanthropy, raising College of Arts and Sciences alumni giving from 17 to 25 percent over the course of the campaign.

Over the course of the campaign, we will proactively connect students with a supportive network of alumni and other constituents, emphasizing their future career success. We will develop and expand mentoring programs between alumni and students, and we will expand alumni and student participation in the current Pioneer Career Corps.

We will also raise the CAS alumni participation rate from 17 to 25 percent over the course of the campaign. We will focus on increasing both the use of alumni fundraising volunteers and also the number of alumni that give through annual and monthly recurring gifts. We will grow the Philanthropy Council in order to broaden its reach and increase alumni and parent giving participation. To grow donor loyalty, we will also continue to develop our monthly giving program and deploy the Cornerstone Challenge to secure annual recurring gifts. By increasing the number of alumni who give annually and monthly via credit card, we will reduce the churn of donors, redeploy resources, stabilize our renewal rate and increase the number of alumni donors overall. Combined, these strategies will allow us to achieve a renewal rate of 75 percent among CAS alumni and raise the overall CAS alumni participation rate to 25 percent.

Leadership responsibility: Institutional Advancement, with the support of Student Life

Conclusion  

The creation of this strategic plan has been a broad-based community effort incorporating the input of hundreds of individuals. Our collective work has drawn on our history and taken into account our present situation. Implementation of the plan over the next six years, simultaneous with a fundraising campaign, will help us secure our long-term future.

No doubt some of the details of this overarching plan will evolve as strategic plans for the three schools and more are developed. But this plan provides the high-level guide for our success as a leading liberal arts college with outstanding professional schools. Having taken stock of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, I am optimistic. We will meet challenging times head on, and our second 150 years will be forward-looking and filled with achievement.

Having had the opportunity to engage deeply with the Lewis & Clark community over the past year, I know we are capable of even more great things, and I am excited to lead the way.

Wim Wiewel
President

Process and Methodology

Fall 2017
After surveying the work around identity and planning that has been done over the past decade, President Wiewel consulted with Board Chair Stephanie Fowler and Executive Council to develop an accelerated strategic planning process that started with the best from existing research and documents. Those documents include the following:

• Harvard Business Review vision exercise, drafted for and shared with the Board by David Ellis, May 2017
• Lewis & Clark Identity Statement and Goals drafted by the CAS faculty Subcommittee on General Education, 2017
• White Paper, “We Are Pioneers: The Case for Lewis & Clark,” drafted for and shared with the Board in 2014
• The Journey Forward Strategic Plan, 2013
• Accreditation Core Themes, 2010
• Planning Task Force documents, 2006
• Lipman Hearne brand research, 2006 

December 2017
At a retreat, Executive Council completed an institutional Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) exercise facilitated by Coraggio Group.

January 2018
A survey was created and deployed in January 2018 for the Board of Trustees to give feedback on what had been identified in Executive Council’s SWOT, as well as to a Vision, Purpose, and Values (VPV) statement drafted by President Wiewel and Executive Council. 

February 2018
At the board meeting, the trustees gave additional feedback on the VPV and reacted to and ranked a list of Objectives and Priorities that had been drafted by Executive Council. Faculty, staff, and student leaders also took part in the SWOT and VPV survey. In addition to the quantitative data, these SWOT and VPV surveys yielded 38 pages of single-spaced, qualitative comments. Following the board meeting, a subcommittee of Trustee Romayne Levee and Executive Director of Public Affairs and Communications Joe Becker began to revise the VPV based on community feedback. Additionally, the draft objectives and priorities were sent to faculty and staff and student leadership groups in a ranking survey. 

April 2018
After revisions, the VPV was approved by President Wiewel and Board Chair Stephanie Fowler. The 16 top-ranked priorities from the objectives and priorities survey were shared with the on-campus community in 3 in-person forums—1 on each campus—where participants weighed in with feedback on color-coded sticky notes. Nearly 150 community members participated and generated nearly 1,000 comments. 

May 2018
Board of Trustees gives preliminary approval of the Vision, Purpose, Values and Objectives and Priorities.

June through August 2018
Executive Council works on building out the Priorities, with the goal of sharing the draft with the LC community in early September. 

September 2018
A full draft is shared with the campus community. Well over 100 comments were provided online and over 225 community members (faculty, staff and students) participated in forums held on each campus. Student feedback was solicited by tabling in front of Howard Hall and a session with Associated Students of Lewis & Clark leadership. Over 1,000 “votes” were cast regarding which elements of the draft plan resonate most with the community. 

A special meeting of the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee provided feedback on the plan.

At a retreat, the Executive Council reviewed and revised the draft.

October 2018
A final plan was shared with and approved by the Board of Trustees.