Executive Summary

The unique place of Principia’s educational program in the world of education and within the Christian Science Movement is threatened by declining enrollment, demographic shifts in the Christian Science Movement, and decreasing financial sustainability. 

To address these threats and, at the same time, move us closer to fully expressing the Principia idea, we recommend a strategy of advancing and extending our programs.

This strategy has, at its core, Principia’s mission: “To serve the Cause of Christian Science through appropriate channels open to us as an educational institution.” (Policy 1) Every element of this strategy aligns with that defining characteristic while, at the same time, repositioning programs towards recognized excellence and extending Principia’s offerings to more readily serve the educational needs of all Christian Scientists, worldwide.

Stated another way, our strategy is to faithfully advance Principia’s educational core and extend our program offerings so that our candidate pool includes Christian Scientists of all ages everywhere in the world.

Achieving these results requires a transformation for Principia. The transformational elements of our strategy are:

• Advance Academic Quality
  • Create and implement outcome-based curricular themes and interdisciplinary connections
  • Strengthen our teaching skills/improve our ability to reach students at all levels of academic readiness
  • Recruit, retain, mentor, and evaluate highly effective faculty members
  • Advance student achievement assessment practices

Result: Improved educational experience and achievement, increased enrollment, improved net revenue, inspiration for donors

• Extend Academic Offerings
  • Offer Associate’s and Master’s Degrees
  • Offer online courses
  • Establish College satellite locations (e.g., Africa)
  • Add “signature” programs (such as History of the Christian Science Movement, Sustainability)

Result: Expanded service to the Cause, increased enrollment, improved net revenue, inspiration for donors

• Advance and Extend Character Education
  • Establish a “knowledge of character” curriculum (for instruction in the knowledge of morals/ethics, leadership, diversity, etc.) and “character expectations” (standards for behavior and quality of character)
  • Implement training for Principia’s character educators and augment that training for those teaching online courses
  • Offer online knowledge of character and expectations of character courses
  • Offer a program for socially underprepared students

Result: Greater growth in character for community members, increased enrollment and enrollment pool, inspiration for donors

• Advance Community and Organization
  • Become nimble and responsive to individual and institutional needs
  • Improve our dialog, decision-making, and spiritual fellowship as we become a “community of practice”

Result: Accelerated improvement, increased enrollment/enrollment pool

• Reinvigorate Fundraising
  • Implement a “moves management” system for high-potential donors
  • Conduct a capital campaign
  • Establish a Legacy Society
  • Broadcast Principia’s direction, connect leadership to the field
  • Optimize resources for building connections (e.g., online communities)

Result: Improved donor engagement, improved financial sustainability

• Asset Utilization
  • Develop and monetize, as appropriate, cultural and other assets

Result: Improved financial sustainability, improved net revenue

Our transformational strategies rely on successful enactment of these enabling strategies:

• Engage Constituents in our Plans and Progress
  • More effective marketing of existing programs and the need for support
  • Active engagement (e.g., online communities) with our internal and external communities on strategic initiatives
  • Active participation/presentation of our work at conferences

Result: Engaged, informed communities, improved standing amongst Principia’s educational peers, fully-informed decision making

• Sustain Student Body “Critical Mass”
  • Enhance existing enrollment and retention efforts

Result: Continue towards “full subscription” of existing programs

• Prepare a Technological Infrastructure
  • Provide bandwidth and technological capabilities

Result: Readiness for distance learning and satellite campuses

• Transition to Plan-Based Facilities Management
  • Conduct a building assessment for both campuses
  • Develop a master plan for both campuses

Result: Improved project effectiveness, improved operational efficiency

Attachments: 

StrategicPlanOverview.pptx