The Strategic Plan for 2005-2010

The Vision

We are a distinguished university and proud family, nationally recognized for extraordinary effectiveness in linking liberal arts education with life’s work. DePauw intellectually challenges students and inspires them to lead and to serve in an increasingly diverse and rapidly changing world. The value of the DePauw experience is reflected in the remarkable loyalty and passion DePauw engenders and in the uncommon success of our graduates.

Developing the Strategic Plan

The DePauw University community engaged in a strategic planning process to set directions and identify priorities for the next five years. The strategic plan builds upon DePauw’s legacy as a leading national liberal arts college. DePauw has a rich tradition of intellectual excellence with a faculty dedicated to teaching and faculty members and students devoted to scholarship; of developing leaders; of internship opportunities and strong alumni involvement and support.

DePauw’s greatness derives from its ability to evolve as the world and its demands change – to educate and draw forth the energy of each successive generation in new and creative ways. The name for the strategic plan, Securing our Legacy, was chosen to link DePauw’s historic strengths with future initiatives. We pay homage to our past as we improve for the future. Securing Our Legacy will invigorate our academic programs as we engage even more effectively with the complex challenges facing society.

There are three objectives in the strategic plan:

1. To provide an outstanding learning and living environment that encourages academic excellence and the formation of intellectual communities.


DePauw’s commitment to academic engagement is fueled by the 40 percent growth in the faculty since 1999 that supports a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio and an average class size of 17. The Rector and Holton scholarships attract students with increasingly strong academic credentials. Our expanded faculty and improved student profile have added depth and rigor to the DePauw academic experience. We are committed to sustain excellent faculty compensation, faculty development programs and the merit scholarships that support intellectual excellence.




To enhance academic engagement at DePauw we encourage students to integrate the rich array of speakers, symposia, cultural and artistic opportunities available on campus with their coursework and scholarly interests. Increased participation in research collaborations with faculty members, independent projects and internship opportunities will further strengthen the intellectual community. Our goal is to help each student reach his or her full potential by taking full advantage of the rich academic offerings at DePauw.





DePauw is committed to the classic liberal arts ideal of developing student skills in critical thinking, analytical reasoning and clear and effective communication. Our innovative use of instructional technologies supports more effective teaching and learning and our liberal arts environment is enhanced by integrating new digital resources. DePauw University is recognized as a national model for using technology to develop the proficiencies and fluencies needed to learn, live and work in an increasingly technological world. We welcome technologies that improve inquiry and communication, and will seek additional resources and explore new avenues to sustain our leadership position in higher education.





Our educational legacy includes a vibrant arts community that has produced artists, writers, musicians and generations of graduates whose lives were enriched by arts study at DePauw. We celebrate the arts and the value that artistic expression and appreciation brings to our community. Expanded resources for creative writing, theater, visual art and the school of music have strengthened the creative and performing arts. The new Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts will transform the facilities and create new opportunities for artistic expression in music and theater. A new home for the school of music reinforces DePauw’s commitment to excellence in music education and performance.


Construction of the Richard E. Peeler Art Center (2002) created the first space at DePauw solely devoted to the creation of visual art. Enhanced teaching facilities and gallery space in Peeler and new galleries in the William Weston Clarke Emison Museum of Art (2005), have led to double the number of art majors. The creative and performing arts have a rich heritage at DePauw and our new facilities will strengthen the link to all students’ experiences.

2. To prepare students to make a positive difference in the diverse and interconnected world in which they will live and work.

DePauw’s commitment to a diverse learning community has increased the range of backgrounds and perspectives among our faculty members and students. Diversity, broadly defined to include people from a variety of geographic, socioeconomic, racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, leads to better education as we learn more from people who are not just like us. We benefit from a richly diverse living and learning community because our graduates will be better prepared to contribute to the world as broadly educated citizens and future leaders. Bright, eager-to-learn young people are found in every community and come from every background. Their emerging talents represent a significant pool of ability and leadership that will play a critical role in meeting the challenges and complexities that society faces. It is our moral responsibility to provide access to educational excellence because DePauw serves as a pipeline of talent and leadership to leading organizations in all sectors of society.




We will expand our global perspective by increasing opportunities to engage international issues. DePauw has a long history of welcoming international students to study on campus, and we are recognized as national leader for our percentage of students who study abroad. The campus community values international perspectives and the cultural diversity that students from other countries bring, as we value the opportunity to experience other cultures firsthand through Winter Term projects and off-campus study. To broaden cultural perspectives and better prepare our students for a complex and interrelated world, we will help more students study abroad and increase the number of international students who enroll at DePauw. Through enhanced coursework and greater interaction with students from other countries, we will expose our students to a range of ideas, perspectives and cultures – both for their own benefit and society’s.




DePauw’s emphasis on ethics and moral reflection has the potential to make a real difference and builds upon our intellectual legacy of engaging significant moral questions. Faculty members have long asked their students to consider larger societal issues in their studies, and fostered thoughtful examination of justice, character, duty and responsibility. Never has their role been more important as we prepare DePauw graduates to be persons of integrity in a world with complex ethical dilemmas. The new Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics will expand opportunities to engage students in thoughtful, inter-disciplinary discussions of the ethical challenges of life, work and citizenship. New and adapted courses, symposia, workshops and speakers will nurture a campus environment in which ethical questions are taken seriously and controversies are explored, analyzed and debated with energy and sophistication. We want our students to develop strength of character and moral courage as their foundation for living with meaning as well as making a living.

3. To cultivate alumni loyalty through lifelong engagement.


Without significant alumni engagement our expanded faculty, enhanced academic programs and dramatically improved facilities would not have been possible. DePauw graduates have been generous supporters of the University, sharing their resources as well as their time mentoring students. We are committed to providing a diverse array of meaningful opportunities for alumni to stay connected with the University, its students and faculty members, and each other. Special events such as DePauw Discourse, Alumni Reunion Weekend and Coming Together; professional networking events; regional programs featuring faculty members discussing contemporary issues; alumni travel programs; and web-based alumni fellowship will continue to link DePauw graduates and add further value to their lives.

2010 and Thereafter

DePauw University will not waver in its commitment to the highest quality education in the college of liberal arts and the school of music. It is the University’s mission to provide a diverse learning and living community which is distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and international and experiential learning opportunities. DePauw teaches its students intellectual skills and habits of mind that will serve them throughout their lives as they make a positive difference as active citizens of the world.

Our strategic agenda will:

• Improve academic engagement
• Sustain instructional technology leadership
• Expand opportunities in the creative and performing arts
• Increase campus diversity
• Expand our international agenda
• Pursue ethics and moral reflection across disciplines, and
• Celebrate alumni involvement

Each of these initiatives honors DePauw’s strengths and will contribute to an even greater future. As we bring our plan to fruition, DePauw will continue to place the needs of students at the center of our educational design.

We look ahead with confidence in the capacity of our students, faculty, staff and alumni to embrace a future full of possibility and opportunity. Whatever our affiliation with DePauw University we share a commitment to the progress of an institution whose goals are high, whose traditions are strong, and whose promise – as embodied in the thousands of men and women who form the DePauw community – is exceptional. To fulfill that promise we look forward in a spirit of common enterprise. This is an excellent time to ambitiously advance our innovative and exciting initiatives to support DePauw’s tradition of educational excellence.