Fairfield students have only three days remaining to contribute to a document that will determine the philosophical and administrative direction of the University in years to come.
The official community review period for Fairfield’s strategic plan comes to an end this Sunday.
“Learning and Integrity: Fairfield University’s Strategic Plan” is this year’s draft of a document published every 10 years to outline the goals and aspirations of the school administration.
The draft was posted on Fairfield’s Web site along with a statement from President Jeffrey von Arx, S.J. asking the university community to comment on the draft of the plan. A method of submitting comments and criticism was provided via the same site. After having been posted online for nearly a month, the draft will be taken down on Sunday and comments will be integrated into the draft.
“It is a document that I am very pleased with and one that effectively captures our planning to realize the goals that I articulated last October,” said von Arx in a letter dated Oct. 2 addressed to University alumni and parents. “The process has been a very collaborative one involving much hard work by the faculty, administrators and students who made up the three Task Forces and Drafting Committee.”
The strategies outlined in the plan seek to achieve three goals: to develop “a strongly integrated core curriculum that encourages students to make connections across the core disciplines and into a more specifically focused major;” to cultivate “a systemic, campus-wide ethos that integrates living and learning in the academic, social, spiritual, athletic, and aesthetic aspects of life;” and also to reframe the “graduate and professional programs to more clearly reflect the value of their engagement with Fairfield’s distinctive Jesuit character.”
These goals were laid out for the first time publicly in von Arx’s inaugural address delivered in October of last year, when he outlined his plan for his administration.
Following his inaugural address, five “focus groups” were established to come up with proposals for the strategic plan.
Two groups were comprised only of faculty members, one was comprised only of the deans of the six schools of the University, one group represented the concerns of the Board of Trustees and one represented the administrators and students.
Of the group designated to represent administrators and students, the only student on the panel was former FUSA President Paul Duffy ’05.
“After I met with them once, they kind of broke it off. The focus groups served as a chance to get everyone together and on the same page,” said Duffy. “They really just wanted to find out what people thought and to encourage some communication between the various interests on campus.”
Three task forces, concentrating on each of the goals, were established following the initial meeting of the focus groups.
John Gallagher ’06, an Ignatian Residential College RA, served on the task force devoted to the goal of establishing a campus environment in which living and learning are integrated. Ignatian has been held up as a model of living and learning integration at Fairfield.
“The idea is to make students incorporate into their lives what they’re learning in the classrooms and for professors to integrate the living experience into the classroom,” said Gallagher. “They’re trying to get rid of the disconnect between the classroom and the residence hall.” Some of the ideas for the plan had been circulating in administrative circles prior to that.
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Timothy Law Snyder was on the nine-member Drafting Committee that wrote the document.
“To me, it really began with his inaugural address,” said Snyder. “And, because his address was consonant with goals and needs that so many here had articulated previously, there is a way in which the process, for our community, has been going for yet longer.”
The document can be accessed at www.fairfield.edu.
According to the consulting firm the Napa Group, Fairfield has a number of opportunities to take advantage of during the next 10 years. Focus groups determined that, in addition to leveraging the university’s strategic location, both academically and commercially, the following opportunities exist:
1. To develop a greater balance of ethnic and social economic diversity.
2. To expand the Fairfield presence and programming internationally.
3. To integrate across campus, both academically and administratively.
4. To review operationg and decision making practices to ensure additional nimbleness and flexibility.
The Fairfield community will also explore several areas of interest to Catholic education. These will include:
1. The future of Catholic education in the U.S.
2. Fairfield’s positionon financial aid
3. The future of the Catholic Church in the U.S.
4. The role of technology in education.
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