by Maija Baldauf and Ben Kniola Staff writers Published October 30th, 2009

photos // David Miller and Ken Baughman

College President Jonathan Palmer met with students on the Academic Reading Day (W6) to share his strategic plan for the next ten years at Principia.

The plan, which proposes a master’s degree program, satellite campuses, and online course offerings in addition to other initiatives, will be presented to the Board of Trustees for approval in November.

While Palmer said these initiatives were “achievable,” he stressed that their implementation ultimately hinges upon the Trustees’ decision.

Last fall, the Trustees asked Palmer to put together a strategic planning committee in order to consider the future of Principia, both the college and the school. The committee, which is comprised of three Trustees and several faculty, staff, and shared services members, has been researching the feasibility of the initiatives over the past nine months.

According to Palmer, long lists of Principia’s perceived strengths and weaknesses were initially created through discussions with alumni, faculty, students, and parents. This feedback helped to inform the proposed plan.

The strategic plan involves improving Principia’s strengths as well as overcoming its weaknesses. It proposes modifications to the Principia community, including improved infrastructure and replacing certain residential houses on campus.

Commonly agreed-upon strengths included Principia’s emphasis on character education as well as a faculty and staff committed to Christian Science. Perceived weaknesses included the concern that Principia may be too small and academically weak.

Dean of Academics Scott Schneberger said, “At the moment we can’t ignore the fact that we’re smaller than universities in terms of faculty, and therefore we’re probably going to have fewer faculty specialized in certain areas.”

Schneberger added: “On the other hand, I still think we have an enormous strength in our foundation in Christian Science. … Our professors are keyed not to acknowledge any sense of limitation in students.”

The initiatives included in the plan are designed to advance and expand Principia’s academic and character education while continuing to serve the cause of Christian Science and ensure constant improvement. Palmer said, “I think it is important to make the best use of all of our resources. … Now is the right time to do it.”

Many of the proposed changes included in the strategic plan align with Policy 11, as outlined in Principia founder Mary Kimball Morgan’s writings in Education at the Principia. Part of the policy states, “In its educational methods and business practices, The Principia shall make constant efforts to lift its standards to the highest point that the wisdom and experience of the administration, faculty, and staff, and the financial resources of the institution will permit.”

As Schneberger said, “I have trouble imagining Mary Kimball Morgan thinking that, once we made the level of a four-year college, that would be it forever.”

With this in mind, the administration is looking into the possibility of offering a Principia master’s degree program in the future. Addressing the concern that a master’s program could take away from the educational opportunities of the college, Palmer said, “I don’t think they’re necessarily mutually exclusive. … It isn’t a zero-sum game in which we say, ‘Well, we have to take something away from the undergrads to be able to do the master’s program.’”

In his W6 presentation, Palmer said that a possible master’s degree could be limited to subjects that are “tailor-made for us,” including education, sustainability and religion.

In order to offer master’s programs on this campus, however, Principia would need to apply for official accreditation and hire more faculty to teach more courses. According to Schneberger, budgetary challenges indicate that the college is “not likely to hire extra faculty soon.”

“In the meantime,” Schneberger said, “I’m thinking of the cohort-type situation.” In this scenario, Principia and a partner school would come to an agreement under which students would take a variety of specified courses at Principia. After that, the students would be accepted into a one-year accelerated master’s program at the partner school. A similar academic partnership already exists for Prin’s engineering program.

The strategic plan also examines the possibility of building a satellite campus or partnering with an established school, most likely in Africa. If this initiative succeeds in this initial location, Principia would start a second satellite campus elsewhere in the world.

Schneberger said, “A satellite campus would allow us to bring Christian Science to the world, [rather] than requiring students to come to Elsah, [and] would expand global opportunities for students.”

An additional medium of expanding Principia’s reach and serving the cause of Christian Science would be to offer online courses, also known as distance learning. The beginning steps would be for faculty to identify ways for current courses to be offered online.

Palmer said, “[Online courses] could happen as early as next summer to make the online versions coordinated with the face-to-face versions.” He added that Computer Information Services (CIS) and Media Services would most likely be responsible for creating and maintaining the web infrastructure.

If the initiatives to establish a master’s program, satellite campuses, and online courses are approved by the Trustees, Principia could serve up to 5,649 students by 2020, based on current growth projections.

“We should be serving a wider audience of students than just North America or the United States,” said Schneberger.

Both Palmer and Schneberger stressed the importance of character education on campus. While Principia is proud of its spiritual take on character education, Schneberger said he is “trying to evaluate and come up with better ways to ensure that it is actually being taught in courses.”

Be Sociable, Share!

•