A new strategic plan entitled Envisioning 2020 for the University’s College at Wise will be presented to the Board of Visitors this weekend. Wise is a liberal arts college and branch of the University located in Southwest Virginia with a student body of 2,067.
The multiple strategies and approaches included in the plan have varying completion dates throughout the years leading up to 2020. Some aspects have completion dates as early as 2014.
“Our students, faculty, staff, alumni, boards, donors and friends believe, as I do, that U.Va. Wise is primed for its next evolution,” Wise Chancellor Donna Price Henry said. “We know that we have the will and capacity to enhance and expand our academic programs, outreach and service, while providing students greater access and the essential components for success.”
Envisioning 2020 is a “two-fold commitment: to build excellence upon its traditional liberal arts foundation and to keep the cost of attendance affordable for working families,” according to the plan. Wise has grown significantly in the past years and the implementation of the plan is intended to foster and encourage even greater development.
The plan focuses on several main goals including encouraging academic excellence in liberal arts, recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty, increasing the overall number of degrees and increasing the size of its endowment.
The plan also emphasizes the development of a diverse student body which can achieve timely graduation. By 2020, Wise aims to increase its headcount from 2,067 students to 2,600 and to increase the number of full-time students from 1,518 to 1,910. While growing the student body, the college also plans to raise its six-year graduation rate from 42 percent to 50 percent and slightly increase the minimum GPA and SAT scores required to gain admission.
Envisioning 2020 also aims to enhance and increase outreach and service to the outside community. Wise also aims to become a member of NCAA Division II by 2015.
Envisioning 2020 was developed by an 18-person committee made up of Wise faculty, students, alumni and Henry. The Vice Chancellors of academic affairs, development and college relations, enrollment management and finance and administration will divide the leadership responsibilities for enacting the plan.
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