September 2, 2024 – Strategic Plan and Updates
Dear Colleagues,
With the fall semester off to a great start, I want to thank each of you for your contributions over the past two weeks. Together we welcomed 535 first-year and transfer students and their families to campus, ushering these new students into Davidson’s community of trust through multiple orientation events and the Honor Code Signing Ceremony.
Last Tuesday, we shared the Davidson College Strategic Plan with alumni, families, and friends. I am grateful to the 50 members of the faculty, staff, and student body who contributed diligently last year on the Working Groups and to each of you for collectively working to craft this plan. The updated webpage includes links to the document Davidson’s Enduring Purpose for a Dynamic World and to its executive summary.
The plan calls us to move on multiple fronts and initiatives that currently stand at various stages of progress. Some elements are well on their way with strong momentum. Others are in a phase of piloting and collective learning. Finally, various proposals call us to work on feasibility and to clarify direction. Importantly, a number of curricular ideas connected to the first-year experience are matters for Faculty exploration and will be topics for the Educational Policy Committee. Rather than holding up projects that are ready to go, or to rush ideas that need further focus, we will advance each initiative as it is ready.
The Office of Admission and Financial Aid is leading our efforts to identify and enroll students of all backgrounds who can thrive at Davidson, regardless of their circumstances. We will continue to build diverse networks of prospective students and families through strategic partnerships and to increase financial support through endowments and need-based, merit, and athletics scholarships that expand accessibility and allow us to recruit extraordinary students.
Our efforts to engage more fully with the greater Charlotte region are ongoing and we continue to find valuable opportunities for faculty, staff, and students (like taking the entire first year class to the Charlotte FC game during orientation!). I will continue to report on substantive explorations we are having for fuller partnerships with institutions of all kinds in Charlotte that can further our educational purpose. Toward our much-needed connectivity across metro Charlotte, I have expressed the college’s strong support for a commuter-rail “Red Line” from Davidson, via Cornelius, Huntersville, and other communities, to Uptown Charlotte.
We will be searching in the coming months for an executive director for the Betty and B. Frank Matthews II ’49 Center for Career Development, and conversations across divisions (e.g., academic affairs, student life, college relations, athletics, career development, Hurt Hub) will help us build out the “Learning for Life” concept, including realizing the commitment to a guaranteed high-impact experience for every student.
I’d like to highlight four active groups that are working in four areas of the plan, each at its own stage: the Library Advisory Group, the AI Innovation Initiative Project Team, the Commemoration Planning Group, and the Institute for Public Good Design Group.
The Library Advisory Group continues to work with the design team, MSR, to finalize plans for the George Lawrence Abernethy Library to begin construction next summer—with special attention to provide students and all users what they need during the two years when the library will be offline. Open faculty/staff and student feedback sessions will continue throughout the year and open town hall sessions will be scheduled for the campus community as the design development plans are finalized. I am grateful to Lisa Forrest for her vision and tireless efforts to plan for this library for the future, and to David Holthouser for bringing his facilities and engineering expertise to this largest capital project in the college’s history. Thank you to the following colleagues for their service:
Mark Barsoum, Suzanne Churchill, Kevin Davis, Lisa Forrest, Teera Gaines, Jacob Heil, David Holthouser, Brad Martin, Ashley Mills, Lia Newman, Shelley Rigger, Andrew Rippeon, Denise Sherrill, James Simon, Jayme Sponsel, Sara Swanson, and Stephen Walker ’26.
The AI Project Team has launched The AI Innovation Initiative, a one-year initiative at Davidson designed to give faculty, along with selected staff and students in specific courses, access to professional or enterprise AI tools, and the ability to use those tools with select Davidson data. As an institution, we need to understand this set of technologies and how to harness them ethically and productively. Sessions kicked-off in May and continue through the next year. Thank you to Kevin Davis, Mark Barsoum, and Laurie Heyer for their creative vision to launch this program, and thanks to the following colleagues for serving on the Project Team:
Sydney Adams, Mark Barsoum, Kevin Davis, Lisa Forrest, Amy Gascon, Jacob Heil, Laurie Heyer, Matt Jackson, Brooklyn Madding, John McCann, Evan Rozantes, Mark Sample, Jayme Sponsel, and Holly White.
The Commemoration Planning Group is focused on the preparation, installation, and community events for the With These Hands site. We aim to gather as a community in October 2025 to dedicate this memorial to the enslaved and exploited as a continued commitment of Davidson’s ongoing education and reconciliation efforts. In addition to the individuals listed below, a student and community member will be added in the near future. Thank you to the following colleagues for their service:
Jessica Cottle-Hart, Adrian Carpenter, Marty Gimson (co-Chair), Stephanie Glaser (co-Chair), Hilary Green, David Holthouser, Lia Newman, Chloe Poston, Jeff Prince, Shelley Rigger, Adrienne Vinson Waddey, and James Webb.
The Institute for Public Good Design Group will explore the opportunities to synergize and expand college-wide efforts and elevate initiatives that prepare students to become effective, ethical leaders and citizens through programming, research, and fellowships. Thank you to the following colleagues for their service:
Britta Crandall, Andrea Duhon, Shyam Gouri Suresh, Chris Marsicano (Chair), Bob McKillop, Steve Mirabello ’25, Sherry Nelson, Marcus Pyle, Natalie Russell ’25, Adrienne Vinson Waddey, and Terrance Wooten.
Finally, I’d like to share that the Campus Planning process is well underway in concert with this Strategic Planning process. David Holthouser is leading this effort for Davidson, with the collaboration of the nationally recognized firm Ayers Saint Gross. Please watch for events to give feedback and share your ideas about Davidson’s extraordinary campus and how we might best steward it toward our educational mission, now and far into the future.
All of this would not be possible without this dedicated community. Thank you for all that you do for Davidson.
Doug Hicks '90
President