April 2022
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
Grove City College is moving forward with a five-year strategic plan that aims to leverage the College’s strengths to sustain and advance its distinctive and vital mission. By Nick Hildebrand
The key to understanding where Grove City College is going is in the title of a new five-year strategic plan approved late last year by the Board of Trustees: From Strength to Strength: Timeless Values and Historic Opportunities. “They go from strength to strength,” the psalmist writes of pilgrims, “till each appears before God in Zion.” Their strength is recognizing God’s gracious provision and having faith in the abundancy of his goodness. Grove City College’s leaders share that faith and relied on it as they worked on the roadmap that will guide the College as it approaches its 150th anniversary in 2026. “That’s where we get this idea from – ‘strength to strength’ – and we tie ourselves to the values that we’ve always cherished and to the exciting opportunities that lie ahead now,” College President Paul J. McNulty ’80 said, referencing the mission, vision, and values statements that accompany the new plan. (See page 30) “We’ve been greatly blessed, and we want to go to a higher level – to a better spot even than where we are – in our mission and in serving our students. Strategic planning is relatively new to Grove City College – this is only the fourth plan approved by Trustees – but it is now seen as essential as both an aspirational and operational document, McNulty said. “There’s an expression that if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. The importance of a strategic plan is to stop and think: Where do you want to go as a school? Who do we want to be?” To answer those questions, Grove City College assembled a committee of Trustees, administrators, faculty, staff, and alumni to examine current trends in higher education and the College’s baseline educational, spiritual, operational, residential, and financial positions. Most colleges and universities are facing a common demographic and social reality right now. There are fewer traditional college-age students, and they want greater value and more flexibility, often through technology, when it comes to higher education. The College has succeeded in this environment by providing conviction, consistency, and a highly personalized education in the pursuit of truth. But, as Board Chair Edward D. Breen ’78 noted, “past success does not necessarily guarantee future success.”
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