By Emily Christensen

More than a nod to the college’s loyalty song, the newly approved Wartburg College strategic plan, Our Brightest Days: Realizing Purpose, Leading Change, is an affirmation of optimism as we emerge from the pandemic.

“This strategic plan was built through collective visioning and commitment of the entire campus community. It is an exciting next step in the history of Wartburg College,” said President Rebecca Neiduski, who has touted the new plan’s four themes during “Meet the President” events hosted by the Alumni & Parent Engagement Office. “The themes of Educating Mind, Body and Spirit; Inclusive Community; Student Success; and Competitive Advantage will allow us to realize our brightest days ahead.”

In late 2019, the college completed a community inventory assessing the campus and educational environment as well as that of our competitors. Led by strategic plan co-chairs Dr. Shawn Ellerbroek, the Ralph E. Otto Endowed Professor in Chemistry, and Dr. Dan Kittle, then vice president for student life, a group of faculty, staff, and Board of Regents members met in February 2020 for a daylong discussion centering on possible strategic plan elements. Their progress was halted, though not for long, when campus closed in March 2020 in response to the pandemic.

In May 2020, a task force submitted a strategic plan vision statement to the Board of Regents for its approval. Rooted in the college’s mission statement, this new vision statement will direct the short- and long-term strategic decisions and activities that surface through the plan.

“Wartburg College is called to be the leading institution in education of the whole person. Together, we create an inclusive community combining diverse curricular and co-curricular experiences to prepare students to be resilient leaders of positive change through service in a complex world.”

While juggling the additional work associated with serving and educating students during a pandemic, dozens of college faculty, staff, and board members spent countless hours working in small committees to develop the goals and strategies that would serve as the scaffold for the final plan.

And when opportunities for progress presented themselves, the college proceeded, always with eyes on the vision statement and how the investments would help Wartburg move closer to its goals.

The most visible of those efforts is the Centennial and Vollmer Hall Renovation Project, which successfully completed a $9 million fundraising campaign in June 2022 to undertake a complete overhaul of Centennial (now Slife) and Vollmer halls that will provide students with modern and accessible housing, building on a foundation of student success that extends beyond the classroom.

Other early successes include:

• The reorganization of divisions, which created a division focused on student recruitment.
• Creation of the Academic Resource Center and Student Success Center.
• Pursuit of a data warehouse that can facilitate data access needs of the campus as we strive to make more data-driven decisions.
• Creation of the assistant director for transfer admissions position in the Admissions Office.
• A complete review of the college’s Plan of Essential Education that will streamline the general education curriculum.
• The implementation of Canvas, a new learning management system to streamline the tracking, reporting, and delivery of coursework.

“Building on the implementation of a new learning management system and energy around student success, Wartburg faculty and staff have achieved the momentum to propel us into our next era of excellence,” said Dr. Debora Johnson-Ross, vice president for academic affairs. “The faculty also are in the process of developing a proposal to replace the 20-plus-year-old Plan of Essential Education. The proposal, while still solidly rooted in the liberal arts, is designed to help students solve complex 21st-century problems, like food insecurity and environmental challenges. Students will declare academic majors and minors within disciplinary areas but will have additional interdisciplinary and experiential opportunities that prepare them for the real world.”

Now, the college is looking to its outside stakeholders — alumni, community members, parents, and donors — to determine additional strategic moves that will help Wartburg become the college of our current and future students’ brightest days.

“It’s exciting to see this strategic planning process move to the next stage of engaging external stakeholders. The Board has established the vision, and the campus has developed overall goals; now it’s time to involve alumni and friends in a co-creative process to consider and prioritize opportunities to realize that vision,” said Scott Leisinger, vice president for advancement. “We look forward to engaging the broader Wartburg community in that dialog so that, together, we can ensure that the college’s brightest days continue to be in front of us.”

With a focus on the four themes — Educating Mind, Body, and Spirit; Inclusive Community; Student Success; and Competitive Advantage — Neiduski is excited to meet more Knights and hear how they see Wartburg growing and thriving through the rest of the ’20s.

“These themes will allow us to both execute priorities and continue to engage stakeholders in envisioning the future,” she said. “Our continued focus on the purpose of higher education and the opportunities for growth will ensure the prosperity of Wartburg College for many years to come.”