Campus News

January 7, 2011

Strategic Plan Update

Marking progress

Progress of Emory’s 2005-2015 strategic plan is monitored on an annual basis using tools and metrics developed at the onset of the plan, which was updated in 2009 in response to Emory’s new economic reality.

It is clear that Emory has made many accomplishments as a result of strategic investments in faculty, students, community, scholarship, signature programs and infrastructure. 

At the mid-point of the 10-year plan, Emory is on track to achieve most of its goals. Emory faculty continue to excel in teaching and research, students are increasingly engaged in scholarship and community service, and programs and partnerships are positively impacting the world, garnering national and international recognition. 

Below is a status update of strategic plan progress by goal:

Goal 1

Emory has a world-class, diverse faculty that establishes and sustains preeminent learning, research, scholarship, health care and service programs.

Emory’s success depends heavily on faculty. Faculty across schools have continued to demonstrate distinction through collaborative work, national awards and increased membership in national academies. By implementing University-wide and school-based strategies related to faculty development and excellence, tenure and promotion, and recruitment and retention, faculty in all schools and colleges have been strengthened and Emory is on track to achieve 2015 targets.

• Compared to the baseline year for the strategic plan, the total number of members who have been elected to select national academies rose from 17 to 33, and the number of major external awards and honors awarded annually increased to 21, from a low of 16 in 2005.

• Relative to a benchmark group of 13 universities, Emory faculty continue to be highly diverse, ranking first for percentage of minorities (28 percent), seventh for female representation (38 percent), and seventh for international representation (7 percent).

• Sponsored research as well as the number of new invention disclosures, number of published articles and number of issued patents grew steadily over the past five years, reaching all-time highs in 2009–10. 

• Faculty in all schools have received major awards and fellowships from external organizations, including the Association of Theological Schools, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health and the Luce Foundation.

Goal 2

Emory enrolls the best and the brightest undergraduate, graduate, and professional students and provides exemplary support for them to achieve success.

Emory’s efforts to ensure highest student quality and enhance the student experience by implementing strategies related to recruitment and financial aid, engaged scholarship and curriculum and pedagogy are showing some progress; however, progress has not been as rapid as in the goal related to faculty.

• Emory Advantage for undergraduate students in Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Oxford College, Goizueta Business School, and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing is improving access to low- to middle-income, high- quality students. In 2010, there were 802 new and returning Emory Advantage students and the admissions yield for the program is 68.6 percent compared to 27.6 percent for all matriculates.

• The University met its goal to increase the representation by international undergraduate students to 12 percent from 8 percent in 2005, an all-time high for Emory.

• There has not been measureable progress in improving strategic enrollment metrics (including acceptance rate and yield) for Emory College against Emory’s benchmark group. A process led by the Provost is currently under way to develop an undergraduate strategic enrollment management plan to meet institutional goals.

• The Office of University-Community Partnerships was established to facilitate the Engaged Scholars Program (a signature student experience) and received the distinguished 2008 Presidential Award for General Community Service. 

• The University made dramatic changes to residential life programs and spaces, such as implementing themed “First Year at Emory” communities and increased capacity for housing undergraduates living on campus from 64 percent in fall of 2005 to 70 percent in fall of 2010.

• After nearly three years of planning involving hundreds of medical faculty and students, and key members of Emory’s schools of nursing, public health, and graduate programs in the arts and sciences, Emory School of Medicine implemented an innovative medical curriculum in August 2007.  Emory Law, Oxford College and other schools and programs have also developed innovative curricula.

• Emory continues to support technological advances and the connection between technology and learning through programs such as Emory’s Center for Interactive Teaching’s “Technology, Pedagogy, and Curriculum,” which trains graduate students on the uses of technology in the classroom.

Goal 3

Emory’s culture and physical environment enrich the lives and intellectual work of faculty, students and staff.

Emory has worked to achieve this goal by implementing initiatives designed to create community and engage society, including diversity programs, sustainability initiatives, professional and leadership development programs, and the Emory WorkLife Resource Center. The University is on track to meet this goal by 2015.

•  Programs to enhance creativity, including art and innovation, have enriched the lives and intellectual work of faculty, students and staff through a commitment to expand the presence and vitality of the arts on campus.

•  Emory is securing, conserving, and promoting public art exhibits and collections, such as the Balser and Swanson collections in Goizueta Business School and Candler School of Theology, respectively, and temporary exhibits at the schools of medicine and public health. 

•  Emory is also maintaining and expanding the University’s archives and renowned special collections housed in Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library and the Carlos Museum has developed significant exhibition projects that have enriched teaching at Emory and provided unprecedented cultural opportunities for the city and the region.

•  Ethical engagement is also on the rise as a result of new programs, such as the Center for Ethics’ Ethics & the Arts Initiative.

•  Seventy-nine percent of academic departments in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences offer sustainability-related courses and a new sustainability minor was launched in 2010.

•  Professional and leadership development programs initiated as a result of the strategic plan have been successful. Nearly 400 employees have participated in these programs since they were implemented.

•  Significant additions and upgrades to residential space, academic facilities and open spaces have enhanced the living, learning and research experience for faculty, students and staff.

•  Emory was named to the honor roll in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “2009 Great Colleges to Work For,” and in the same year The Scientist magazine ranked Emory as the fifth-best place to work in academia in the United States out of 94 U.S. institutions.

Goal 4

Emory is recognized as a place where scholars work collaboratively as a strong and vital community to confront the hu­man condition and experience and explore twenty-first century frontiers in science and technology.

As a result of strong leadership from faculty and the academic deans, collaboration has flourished, producing new courses, new degree programs, new knowledge, and more than $100 million in research grants generated by leveraging strategic plan funds.

•  Emory has successfully established two new doctoral tracks in religion, conflict and peacebuilding and religion and health, introduced an interdisciplinary PhD pathway in predictive health, and recently announced a new PhD track in biomedical informatics.

•  Emory developed a master’s degree program in computation and statistics and is partnering with Agnes Scott College on a new joint undergraduate degree program in computer science, launched new master’s programs in bioethics and development practice, an accelerated bachelor/masters of science in nursing program, and established an undergraduate minor in global health, culture and society.

•  The Yerkes National Primate Research Center has emerged as the number one- ranked of eight national primate centers in the United States as a result of its significant contributions to knowledge and research. 

•  The Emory-Georgia Tech Evolution Revolution symposium helped position Emory and Georgia Tech to win a $20 million Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation to create the Center for Chemical Evolution.

Emory has garnered international attention by acquiring and exhibiting the papers of British author Salman Rushdie and the archives of Pulitzer Prize-winner Alice Walker.

•  The Life of the Mind lecture series was implemented to celebrate Emory’s dynamic faculty.

•  Emory Global Health Institute expanded global health programming to more than 77 countries in the world.

•  The Race and Difference Initiative developed the “Motherhood at the Intersection of Race and Class” program.

•  The Emory-Tibet Partnership developed a science curriculum for Tibetan monks.

•  The Center for Ethics’  interdisciplinary Ethics and Servant Leadership Program has been successfully expanded due to increased student demand.

Goal 5

Emory stewards its financial and other resources to drive activities that are essential and those through which Emory can demonstrate excellence and provide leadership.

Emory is making strides in maintaining financial strength and being an ever-better steward of scarce resources, ensuring that resources are wisely and effectively spent to support Emory’s distinctive education and programming.

The University responded and adjusted to the global economic events and effects of 2008, and is now focused on the continuous adjustments required—and opportunities presented—by the new environment going forward.

In 2008, Campaign Emory was publicly launched. To date the Campaign has raised $1.1 billion, approximately 70 percent of the $1.6 billion goal.

• In addition to fundraising, in order to continue to have the ability to invest in essential and excellent programs, all schools have been charged to identify and develop creative net revenue growth opportunities; continue to develop cost saving strategies such as increased productivity, elimination of unnecessary activity and restructuring or reorganizations; and establish synergies and strategies to make current programs more effective and efficient.

Emory has done well on cost-saving, but has more to do on revenue generation. New revenue generation is a focus for all of the schools and colleges in the coming years.

• The University has implemented Enterprise Risk Management which has been recognized as best practice in higher education.

• A focus in the next year will be to enhance alumni engagement and the culture 
of philanthropy. 

• Also under way is an effort to develop enterprise-wide best business practices that will better serve Emory and provide standards for others in higher education.

File Options

  • Print Icon Print