| Washington and Lee University: Leading the Way |
| Education | |
| Written by Liz Jones | |
| Friday, 30 November 2007 | |
 Kenneth Ruscio describes the strategic plan that will take the ninth oldest university in the nation into the 21st century.  Kenneth Ruscio, President Founded in 1749 and named for two of the most influential characters in American history, George Washington and Robert E. Lee, Washington and Lee University (W&L) is the ninth oldest university in the country. According to Ruscio, its culture is well rooted in tradition, yet mindful of the future, and he kept this in mind as he began building the framework of the strategic plan. “I wanted to tap into our historic strengths and better understand how they position us for the future,” he said. He added that the theme of the strategic plan is providing a liberal arts education for the 21st century, keeping his own personal mission of promoting leadership and integrity at the core. The plan is organized into four parts: students, faculty and staff, programs, and capital improvements. W&L is embarking on an initiative to recruit a talented and diverse group of students while juggling the increasing cost of higher education. During commencement exercises on June 7, 2007, W&L announced that it had received a $100 million gift from an alumnus—its largest gift ever and one of the biggest ever bestowed on a liberal arts college. Eighty-five million dollars will be put toward the newly developed Johnson Scholarship Program, which will fully fund (tuition, room, and board) about 44 students per year. The other $15 million will be distributed in a variety of ways to help W&L shape the national conversation on leadership and integrity. With those funds, it is launching a speaker series; establishing two endowed chairs, one in history, the other in entrepreneurship; and creating a summer leadership program for rising seniors. To support the recruitment and retention of talented faculty, W&L has received a challenge grant of $33 million (meaning the university needs to raise an equal sum on its own) to fund salaries and professional development. As W&L seeks to recruit and retain faculty and staff for the long term, it does so with an acute awareness of individuals’ desire to balance work and family. “We are considering a lot of family-friendly policies, including childcare support for men and women in the workplace,” said Ruscio. The third prong of W&L’s strategic plan addresses academic programs, specifically how they connect students to world issues. Unlike other liberal arts colleges, W&L embraces the professions with the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics; the W&L School of Law; and a strong journalism and mass communications program. “The professional schools allow us to have a strong connection to societal issues, whether it is corporate governance, international human rights, or questioning of the first amendment,” said Ruscio, adding that W&L has a solid Wall Street internship program, and its law school is currently restructuring its third-year curriculum to build a bridge to the profession. The most poignant example of W&L’s dedication to connecting curriculums to current events is The Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability, which connects the disciplines of the liberal arts with law, journalism, and business to teach students about those society has left behind. “The program has genuinely influenced how people think about poverty on our campus and beyond,” said Ruscio. Moving into the future, Ruscio is adamant about keeping W&L’s traditional values of leadership and integrity intact. “We pay a lot of attention to those values in our curriculum and our extracurricular activities to give our students a sense of the obligations and responsibilities of leadership,” he said. For instance, since the mid-1800s, W&L has operated under a student-administered honor system in which undergraduates schedule their own final exams, all students take exams unsupervised, and most buildings are left open 24 hours a day. “Some might consider an honor system risky, but our students understand this is their system, and they have to take it seriously,” said Ruscio. The fourth area of W&L’s strategic plan once again addresses the theme of connecting the past to the present with the restoration of several historic buildings, the construction of a state-of- the-art academic building, and the renovation of the colonnade. W&L has taken the first steps on several projects, including the construction of a new stadium, which will be completed in 2008. With a long-term strategic plan in motion, W&L is tweaking its marketing campaign to attract the next generation of students. “Many colleges look alike from a distance, so the challenge is communicating to prospective students that W&L is different than the typical liberal arts college,” said Ruscio. “As students look at W&L, they can clearly see it is a place where they can make a difference.” |
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American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
