Gustavus Adolphus College

On April 25, the Gustavus Adolphus College Board of Trustees unanimously approved a strategic plan for the College. The plan is a “touchstone document” that lays out the college’s higher-level values and goals, while affirming its identity as an undergraduate, liberal arts, residential, Swedish Lutheran college.

The plan also declares the college’s commitments to academic excellence, transformational education, cultural competence, maturation of faith and understanding of religion, and responsible stewardship. The plan was drafted after significant input from faculty, students, staff, trustees, alumni, and other friends of the College and will serve as a visionary document for the next decade.

“Over the next year, and into the next decade, we will use this vision to focus our work of continued planning,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mary E. Morton. “Our next task will be to call upon the full range of experiences and perspectives in our community to develop the tactics by which we will meet our goals.”

Included in the plan is the mission statement, explanation of Gustavus’s five core values (excellence, community, justice, service, and faith), a vision statement, five strategic goals accompanied by strategic initiatives (listed below), a statement concerning the college’s liberal arts tradition, and a statement concerning the college’s church relatedness.

The five strategic goals within the strategic plan are as follows:

• Educate for Leadership and Service
• Engage Education at the Intersections
• Engage With the World to Make a Difference
• Engage Faith to Inspire Understanding and Lives of Leadership and Service
• Engage in Responsible and Ethical Stewardship

You can read the new strategic plan in its entirety by going online to gustavus.edu/strategicdirections.