Provide a vibrant, engaging campus environment and attract and retain a talented and diverse student body
We will create a campus environment that is comfortable and welcoming; engages our undergraduate, graduate, and non-traditional students in interesting and informative co-curricular activities; and will attract and retain a diverse student body that will thrive while on campus and remain committed alumni when they leave.
This will require a new focus on student life at Cabrini that includes changes to our programs, services, facilities, and recruiting strategies. We will review and enhance our approach to providing student activities, programs and events to increase student engagement on campus among undergraduate, graduate, and non-traditional students alike. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that our campus is attractive and comfortable for students, faculty and staff, providing an environment that has inviting social gathering areas.
We will build a Campus Center that will serve as the hub for student activities and events and develop rich a student life program to take full advantage of the new facility. We will engage all students in activities like on-campus service projects to benefit and beautify the campus and build community. And we will develop measures of our performance in student life and student services, and use those measures to determine which student programs to offer.
We will evaluate and improve our academic and student support services and centralize all student administrative functions at "one stop," using available technology as well to simplify student/administrative interactions.
To foster an environment for student success, we will set clear expectations for the successful student at Cabrini College prior to matriculation as part of an integrated marketing plan and Admissions process. We know that satisfaction with the college experience and retention begins with admitting the right students and recruiting them with the right financial aid packaging. We will provide faculty development workshops that provide training on the appropriate pedagogies to engage first-year students through the Teaching and Learning Center. We will enhance procedures for students, faculty, advisers, and staff to effectively plan for and respond to early-term student feedback.
We will broaden our approach to identifying the "right" students by using a new multi-dimensional merit award system. While continuing to recognize GPA and standardized test scores, our improved merit system will also take into account other important and desirable factors such as geographic region, diversity, which we will collaboratively define and communicate, and students with special backgrounds such as interest or experience in community service. We will continue to expand our recruitment efforts geographically beyond our current regional market, initially targeting states whose students do not have access to a large number of small private colleges. Additionally, we will target states such as Florida, Texas, and California which have large populations, are expected to continue to grow, and have significant Catholic populations.
We will continue to emphasize the athletics program in our marketing strategy. We have had great success with student-athlete retention rates and our successful athletics program contributes immensely to the campus culture. We will continue to pursue cost-effective strategies to make our athletics programs even stronger in the future.