When we embarked on our strategic planning process in late 2023, we knew that the world of higher education was changing fast. The old way of outlining a strategic plan for five or ten years of our institution’s future felt outmoded. We knew we’d need to plan to change, and then change again.  

The two academic years in which we have executed this strategic planning process have indeed seen an accelerated pace of change. Since we launched our agile strategic planning process, RMC experienced substantial enrollment growth, confronted the impending retirement of a transformational president, and began the process of welcoming a new leader. Recently, we have begun to synthesize significant changes at the federal level and their potential impact on our institution. Throughout this process, Randolph-Macon has continued to confront demographic changes, mental health and executive functioning needs for our students, and continued changes in trends for learning and careers.  

Early in the process, we invited our on-campus community to join us in identifying Randolph-Macon’s competitive advantage. You helped inform our Strategic Planning Leadership Committee (SPLC), which articulated a clear consensus about what makes Randolph-Macon strong: Randolph-Macon should be known for our focus on our graduates’ outcomes. We said explicitly and consequentially that a key objective of our work is the financial sustainability of this institution we love.  

Outcomes for Strategic Planning Purposes  

• Students discerning their post-college goals and a pathway to reach them 

• Students graduating ready to successfully embark on their chosen career, graduate school, or first step 

• Students graduating with the skills, habits, experiences, and dispositions that employers identify as preparing students for long-term professional success and that college graduates say prepared them well for life 

After we set our course with that North Star in early 2024, the Strategic Planning Leadership Committee asked the RMC community to share strategies to help RMC strengthen and maximize our focus on graduates’ outcomes. And the RMC community responded with a panoply of great ideas. The SPLC also utilized suggestions raised during the earlier Strategic Resource Allocation process to highlight opportunities for RMC. Many ideas were deeply related to each other, emphasizing the synergies in our shared vision for Randolph-Macon.  

Three working groups helped the SPLC to analyze and refine some of the best ideas.

• The Outcomes Focused Working Group focused on proposals related to our work in student support, career services, internships, major discernment, mentorship, and data collection to build on what we do already to get students ready for their futures. 

• The Athletics and Activities Planning Group developed information for a multi-year plan for potential new sports and activities designed to attract new students to RMC.  

• The Strategic Visioning Group was formed to help consider broad proposals like RMC certification programs and online courses.  

In sum, the SPLC endorsed a number of thoughtful initiatives, some of which began during the 2024-2025 academic year and others will begin a pilot phase in 2025-26. One important body of work—the multi-year plan for new sports and activities—has been reconceptualized as a roadmap for the future, due to RMC’s recent enrollment growth.  

A new page of rmc.edu details the projects currently in process.  

All of these initiatives are in a state of “continuous improvement,” in keeping with the original agile objectives of our strategic plan. The SPLC has ended the formal part of our process, and we have shared our work with the full Board of Trustees and President Hill. They, like us, feel enthusiastic about the opportunities to continue down this exciting path.  

We are also pleased to see how our work will intersect with the vision outlined by a refreshed Campus master plan.  

While much has changed since we began our process, it is rewarding to see some of our work already coming to fruition. It is still fundamentally true that our world is changing fast. We remain deeply committed to helping our students (and graduates) find even better outcomes for their future. With that objective, Randolph-Macon reaches new heights too.