DISTINCTIVE EXCELLENCE IN STUDENT SUCCESS
Dear Friend: Washington Adventist University is continuing the transformational journey of excellence to become one of the world’s premier universities. Through a dynamic, collaborative process of assessment and planning, the Strategic Planning Committee has developed strategic action plans to produce and celebrate distinctive excellence in student success under the six institutional Pillars of Excellence – Quality, People, Finance, Growth, Service, and Community – to improve student outcomes, raise its profile nationally and internationally, and its services to students and the learning community. The WAUPLAN is directly linked to the University’s Mission, Vision, and core values and reflects a participatory cyclical endeavor in which all constituents are represented, allowing for continuity, coherence, and cohesiveness. Vision 2030 - Distinctive Excellence in Student Success is the motto we adopted to reflect our transformative journey to excellence. The WAUPLAN will be our guide to grow and transform Washington Adventist University into a thriving and distinctive institution of higher education, defined by its excellence in student success. Distinctive Excellence in Student Success will require a visionary community that is synchronized and aligned behind a commitment to producing graduates who bring competence and moral leadership to their communities worldwide. Moving forward together will allow WAU to emerge as a premier private Christian university that engages minds and transform lives. Together we will continue to cultivate and implement best practices so that WAU will be recognized as the best place for students to learn and for employees to work. Vision 2030 is the most ambitious endeavor in WAU’s history. When the plans and actions are implemented, every student, employee, program, and infrastructure associated with the University will be transformed. To do this, we need you and all those who have walked WAU’s halls and experienced its impact to contribute. Together, fulfilling the vision for 2030 is an exciting and glorious possibility! I accept and embrace the responsibility of leading Washington Adventist University to bring its vision to reality because I am proud to exclaim: This is Washington Adventist University! Sincerely, Weymouth Spence
President
Mission
Washington Adventist University is a learning community committed to the Seventh-day Adventist Christian vision of excellence and service. This cosmopolitan institution challenges students to seize the opportunity for learning in the nation’s capital in order to become moral leaders in communities throughout the world
Vision
To produce graduates who bring competence and moral leadership to their communities
“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and In favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52
DISTINCTIVE EXCELLENCE IN STUDENT SUCCESS
Introduction The purpose of the WAUPLAN is to provide a directional map to develop and support a strategic mix of academic programs, academic support services, instructional delivery systems, expansion of marketing, and infrastructure improvement. It provides the framework for each academic program and administrative support unit to implement annual operational and long-term strategic action plans. This is a continuously rolling plan that is reviewed and updated annually. Input is encouraged and sought from a wide variety of individuals and groups across the internal and external learning communities. Following the Strategic Planning Committee’s review and approval, the WAUPLAN is presented to the Board of Trustees for further input, discussion, and approval by the president. At the heart of the WAUPLAN are the strategic action plans, objectives, and performance indicators for assessing progress toward the stated desired outcome. The university administration’s focus is to create, support, enhance, and evaluate the student-centered learning environment central to Washington Adventist University’s vision of growth, excellence, and leadership. The focus is on developing the whole person by inspiring faith in a loving Creator God and encouraging a passion for knowledge, truth, and service to humanity.
Engaging Minds, Transforming Lives
DISTINCTIVE EXCELLENCE IN STUDENT SUCCESS
“S
ervice” is not just a word at Washington Adventist University. It is a way of life. Service is built into the curriculum and the classroom and treaded throughout the fabric of the institution.
Our faculty plays a central role in our identity as a Gateway to Service. Incorporating opportunities to benefit from our location into their curriculum, they see the adventures of learning in the nation’s capital as an opportunity to shape the future while helping students find a future that is uniquely theirs.
Equally important to this identity is the distinctive spiritual atmosphere on campus. We see spirituality not just as an individual devotional experience (as crucial as that is) but also as the lens through which we interface with the world of ideas, and the desire to make a difference in the world through service and a ministry of hope. Ultimately, it is the graduates of Washington Adventist University who verify the reality of our commitment. Our graduates make a difference through their chosen careers and by making service a part of their adult lives, long after they have left our university. Many of our majors, like Business and Communications, include a service component as part of their core requirements. Many of our students connect with specific ministries while on campus and continue similar service activities after graduation. In this way, they are making the world a better place, one graduate at a time.
Our graduates from both the undergraduate and graduate schools will tell you that a Washington Adventist University education prepares students for a career in the real world and helps develop the skills, experiences, and perspectives that lead to success in whatever career they decide to pursue. Internships and job placement opportunities are a significant and essential part of the entire academic pro-
gram at Washington Adventist University. Our location near the nation’s capital affords our students opportunities for unique internships or job placement in government, media, healthcare, the arts, business and finance, law, and more.
DISTINCTIVE EXCELLENCE IN STUDENT SUCCESS
Statement of Core Values
A
t Washington Adventist University, learner success comes first. Excellence in teaching, learning, and service makes up the core of our mission.
We dedicate ourselves as a learning community to the continued pursuit of excellence and recognize our members’ dignity and worth. With these as fundamental principles, the following values guide our actions: Integration of the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ: We will model the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in all aspects of the learning community. Commitment to Quality: We take personal responsibility for continuous improvement and commitment to lifelong learning as we celebrate creativity, innovation, service, and the success of learners.
Respect: We insist on an environment of respect. Our actions reflect the respect we hold for our students, our colleagues, our community, and ourselves. We must trust each community member as an individual deserving of kindness, dignity, and fairness. All are gifted; all are valued. Trust: We honor the trust placed in us by our students, the learning community, and our colleagues. With trust, we act openly and ethically, motivated by a cooperative and collaborative spirit. Considerate, Open Communication: We take responsibility to share information, encouraging the exchange of ideas, listening without judgment, and speaking with honesty and openness. Accountability and Integrity: We hold ourselves and others accountable for our professional and personal actions, acting responsibly and conducting our business with integrity. Our Spirit of Community: Our learning community is built on a commitment to excellence, engagement in the learning process, mutual respect, and courtesy. This commitment is an integral part of everything we do and is observed when we: -Respect the rights and property of all . -Uphold personal and academic integrity. -Practice honesty in communication. -Listen to others’ viewpoints. -Support diversity. -Apply cost-effective measures of resources. -Work with others to uphold these standards. -Model the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
DISTINCTIVE EXCELLENCE IN STUDENT SUCCESS
PILLARS of EXCELLENCE Pillars of Excellence are identified to provide a focus towards the institutional vision, mission, and outcomes. Pillars provide a foundation for shaping the organizational structure, communication systems, decision-making process, and institutional effectiveness. Pillars are designed to assist faculty, staff, and administrators in integrating this shared focus into their individual annual work performance goals and decision-making strategies. A focus on the Pillars of Excellence provides the opportunity to earn the trust, confidence, loyalty of its students, the learning community, potential students, and other stakeholders, such as trustees and accreditation agencies. The Pillars of Excellence are:
Quality:
• Standard-setting and performance outcomes for higher education • A concern for surpassing a standard of excellence • Student learning and effective teaching • Maintains educational standards and expectations based on established standards • Maintains the buildings and grounds based on established codes • Fulfills the public responsibility and demonstrates responsible institutional citizenship • Accountability for student, faculty, and staff achievement • Continuously assess operational practices to make specific their effects and results actively contribute to the common good. • Develops and refines systems for gathering and assessing valuable feedback data • Commitment to accuracy, excellence, and continuous improvement
DISTINCTIVE EXCELLENCE IN STUDENT SUCCESS People:
• Systematic development of its faculty, staff, and administrators • Systematic assessment of its faculty, staff, and administrators • Systematic recognition and reward of its faculty, staff, and administrators • Treats people with equity, dignity, and respect, and models its values in words and deeds. • Encourage and praise others for work well done • Cleanliness is everyone’s responsibility
Service:
• Promises offered and kept • Service to others • Demonstrate a willingness to go beyond your assigned job description and seek out ways to help others • Demonstrate respect, kindness, and courtesy regardless of differences • Avoid rudeness and negativism; offer explanations, not excuses
Finance:
• The allocation of resources • Identify and recommend cost-saving measures that work productively and accept accountability
Growth:
• Tracking trends to better predict how conditions will change and anticipating how those changes may affect the institution’s students and other stakeholders, operations, and performance. • The ability to innovate, making meaningful changes to improve services and processes
Community:
• Organizational relationships and partnerships (internal & external)
QUALITY
Partner with students to achieve a 100% graduation rate, as defined by the Federal Department of Education. Re-engineer and develop academic programs of distinction and excellence that are aligned with mission, market, and margin. Ensure the implementation of a rigorous academic and non-academic assessment plan. Ensure the holistic development of all students by investing in niche academic programs enriched by a comprehensive array of co-curricular opportunities, experiences, and programming through student activities, residence life, leadership development, and other out-of-classroom initiatives. Establish academic connections for degree/career completion. Link internship with academic programs and provide internship for all students. Achieve 100% successful entry into the labor market and/or continuing education into professional or graduate school upon graduation. Continuous quality improvement for all operational units of the university.
PEOPLE
Provide market wages for all employees. Partner with employees to increase employee engagement to 100%. Intentionally embrace diversity and intercultural understanding. Actively promote a learning environment where students, faculty, and staff feel valued. Enhance faculty and staff development.
SERVICE
Partner with students to increase student satisfaction to 100%. Create a culture around customer satisfaction. Create a student-centered learning environment. Implement a marketing and communication plan that support the Pillars of Excellence. Create a culture of accountability that establishes priorities and desired outcomes.
VISION
FINANCE
Average student graduation debt at $20K. Move Composite Financial Index (CFI) score to five by: Producing budgets with margins for future stability. Developing prudent cost-cutting or cost-containment measures and seeking to diversify revenue growth. Establish working capital equivalent to nine months of operation. Significantly strengthen the external funding of the university. Align capital and operational budgets to the Vision 2030 WAUPLAN.
GROWTH
Increase while maintaining the diversity of the student population. Achieve the optimal balance of numbers and types of athletic teams that is in alignment with mission, budget, culture, and student population. Expand the summer academic course offerings. Offer industry certification within existing courses/programs. Acquire and develop the Washington Adventist Hospital site to be a revenue source for WAU.
COMMUNITY
Promote a culture of Christ-centered friendship, love, and wellness. Create a campus atmosphere in which service permeates life and learning. Connect with other like minded institutions of higher education to engage in activities of mutual benefit. Establish strong, enduring, multifaceted relationships with regional, national, and international businesses and industries. Fully integrate the resources of the nation’s capital into the WAU learning community. Identify and cultivate partnerships with Sligo Church, Columbia Union, North American Division, and the General Conference to enhance the Mission. Transform governance and the physical campus.
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR BOARD CHAIRMAN As I ponder the events of the last year, I am reminded of the opening lines of the oft-quoted 1859 Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us …” Indeed, we are living in unprecedented times that are challenging yet promising, bitter yet sweet. We have begun this new decade in a winter of despair, anticipating our spring of hope. At the time of this writing, 550 million people in the United States and more than 2.7 million have lost their lives to the coronavirus, and a reported 1,000 more die every day. But in the last few months, nearly 100 million people have received vaccines designed to help turn the tide in the fight against this global pandemic. All at once, people are in a race to obtain the antidote that will transform our quality of life that has been compromised to great extent for more than a year. In Philippians 3:13–14, the Apostle Paul likens our lives to a race toward fulfilling our calling: “I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (NKJV). Washington Adventist University is also in a race to fulfill its high calling to engage minds and transform lives. As each new generation of students enrolls, seeking direction and preparation for their future, our dedicated leaders, faculty and staff have the opportunity to provide distinctive excellence for student success. As a Seventh-day Adventist learning institution, our focus is on developing the whole person by inspiring faith in a loving Creator God and encouraging a passion for knowledge, truth and service to humanity. As we look to Vision 2030 and adapt to delivering education in a post-pandemic world, we recognize that strategies, options and delivery may change, but we will remain vigilant, ever pressing toward our goal and God-given vision to produce graduates who bring competence and moral leadership to our communities. Courage, Dave Weigley, Ph.D., MBA Chairman
Vol. 30, No. 24 June 15, 1904 Carroll House, Takoma Park, D.C.
The Signs of the Times
Dear Fellow Workers, With gratitude, I acknowledge the tender care of my Heavenly Father for the blessings that he has bestowed upon me since we left St. Helena. The journey across the continent, which I dreaded so much, was pleasant, and I rested all the way. And since I reached Washington, my health has been better than it was for many months before. We are pleasantly settled into Takoma Park. Within 15 minutes walk are the homes of brethren Daniels, Prescott, Washburn, Spicer, Curtis, Bristol, Rogers, Needham, Cady, and others connected with our work. The way is opening rapidly for the beginning of our work. For this, I’m very thankful. And as I look at the situation and the prospects here, I’m filled with hope and courage. We shall endeavor to respond to the favoring providences that attend us by pressing forward with the work as speedily as possible. The location that has been secured for our school and sanitarium is all that could be desired. The land resembles representations that have been shown to me by the Lord. It is well adapted for purposes for which it is to be used. There is on it ample room for a school and sanitarium without crowding either institution. The atmosphere is pure and the water is pure. A beautiful stream runs right through our land from north to south. This stream is a treasure more valuable than gold or silver. The building sites are upon fine elevations with excellent drainage. One day, we took a long drive through various parts of Takoma Park. A large part of the township is a natural forest. The houses are not small and crowded closely together but are roomy and comfortable. They are surrounded by thrifty, second-growth pines, oaks, maples, and other beautiful trees. The owners of these homes are mostly businessmen, many of them clerks in the government offices in Washington. They go to the city daily, returning in the evening to their quiet homes. A good location for the printing office has been chosen within easy distance of the post office, and a site for a meeting house, also, has been found. It seems as if Takoma Park has been specially prepared, just for us, and that it has been waiting to be occupied by our institutions and their workers.
My hopes for this place are high. The country for miles and miles around Washington is to
be worked from here. I am so thankful that our work is to be established in this place. Were Christ here upon the ground, he would say, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white and already to harvest.” We have work to do in leading precious souls onward, step by step. Many will have to be taught line upon line, precept upon precept. The truth of God will be applied, by the Spirit’s power, to the heart and conscience. We must present the truth in love and faith and hope and courage.