Knox 2018 Strategic Plan

Dear Members of the Knox Community,

In the fall of 2013, the Knox community embarked on a year-long strategic planning exercise, Knox 2018, which imagined and engaged the future of teaching and learning at our prairie college over the next five years and beyond. More than 120 faculty, staff, students, and alumni worked together to create a strategic plan that identified goals and initiatives that are central to the future success of Knox College while advancing the College's mission and core values. Through online surveys and open forums, we also had the opportunity to hear from alumni, faculty, and staff not directly engaged in the process, but whose valuable insights and opinions informed the planning process.

The results of this comprehensive process were presented at the October 2014 Board of Trustees meeting, and the Knox 2018 Strategic Plan was unanimously endorsed. Knox 2018 challenges the college to accomplish three goals over the next five years:

1. 1. Advance Knox's Distinct Approach to Liberal Learning;
   2. Engage Our Diverse, Vibrant Campus Community;
   3. Ensure a Knox Education for Generations to Come.

These goals not only secure the future of our College, but they also ensure that Knox will remain a vibrant and vital educational institution for years to come. I truly believe that there is no better education than a residential liberal arts education—one that prepares its students to lead lives of meaning and purpose in the global, technologically enhanced, and ever-evolving 21st-century. Knox 2018 is based in this belief, and the goals outlined on the following pages showcase the College's plans to enhance its educational program, train its faculty and staff, secure its financial standing for a new generation of students.

The College has already made great progress toward these three goals:

• The Task Force on the Knox Educational Experience completed its work to renew Knox's curriculum for the 21st century;
• Five new minors have been added in the last two years, along with two immersive terms;
• Alumni Hall was renovated, the Whitcomb Art Center was completed, and Phase I of the renovation of the Umbeck Science-Mathematics Center began this fall;
• The College engaged with a national leader in campus diversity and inclusion, Dr. Alma Clayton-Pederson, senior scholar at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), to partner with us to bring diversity into the core of all we do at Knox;
• Student engagement with alumni has been bolstered under the KNect: Knox Networking program;
• And Above & Beyond: Initiatives for Knox has raised more than $68 million to date.

I am invigorated and emboldened by the Knox 2018 strategic plan and the progress we have made so far. I hope that you, members of the Knox community, continue to follow our progress  and share your thoughts with us as well. This is a transformative moment for Knox College, and I hope that you join us on this enlightening journey. Together, we will move Knox College into the future as a national educational leader for the 21st century. 

Sincerely,

—Teresa L. Amott, President

The Whitcomb Art Center officially opened in January 2017, providing a new home for the Department of Art and Art History, along with new educational spaces and resources for our students. For a full sense of the scope of the $8 million project, watch this timelapse video: