Our Strategic Plan

From the start, Wellesley College sought to empower students in service to a democratic vision of the greater good.

When the first Wellesley students arrived on campus in 1875, this entailed educating women to become teachers, with the goal of vastly expanding access to childhood education.

Now, on the cusp of our 150th anniversary, it is time to ask what it entails today—and what our path forward looks like.

这是为了解决这一背景，我们开始开发一个新的战略计划，这是一个将在未来五年及其超越的Wellesley课程中绘制的文件。这一过程开始于去年夏天，预计大约需要15个月，董事会在2020年10月批准最终计划 - 只在你可能正在阅读这一点的一年之下。

即使我们的使命仍然没有变化 - 为将对世界有所作为的女性提供优秀的自由艺术教育 - 我们面临的现实是我们面临的巨大变化。

Most broadly, the world itself has undergone massive transformation. Wellesley came into being in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, which saw the rise of factories and mass manufacturing. Since then, we have seen a series of seismic shifts, including globalization and the so-called Digital Revolution. Today, some argue that we’re in the midst of a Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by technological disruption in areas including artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality.

During this time, we have also expanded and enriched our student body, now diverse in ways that would have been unimaginable to Wellesley’s founders—diverse in nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, physical abilities, socioeconomic class, political views, and so many other realms. Today’s students face challenges very different from those of past generations, many stemming from events far beyond campus: a fast-changing employment landscape, ever-widening levels of wealth inequality, curtailment of women’s health-care rights, not to mention the existential threat of climate change. The list goes on.

随着我们与我们的战略计划向前迈进，这些现实将是前沿和中心。21世纪的学生需要蓬勃发展，都在课堂上和之外？我们如何最好地挖掘多样性的礼物，在世界上最大的挑战要求我们在跨境跨越差异的差异和跨越界限的划分和工作的时候我们如何灌输归属感，目的和机构？这些是我们将努力的大问题。

In keeping with its importance, the strategic planning process will be deliberate, and transparent, with community-wide engagement. At the helm is a steering committee, chaired by Provost Andy Shennan and me and including members of my senior leadership team, the board of trustees, faculty, and staff. As always, our alumnae will be a rich source of insight—especially as we reflect on how Wellesley can lead and advocate for women’s education and empowerment, both in the United States and globally.

To be clear, we were not starting from scratch—far from it. Last year, Wellesley completed an excellent self-study as part of our routine reaccreditation process, taking stock of both our strengths and our targets for change. As a community, we also worked together to clarify our fundamental values. (To read more about these re-articulated values, go towww.lzhylxs.com/about/missionandvalues.) These ideals and insights will point the way forward, even as they ground us in the best of our past.

In my 2018 commencement remarks, I urged our freshly minted graduates to engage in practical dreaming—to reach for the stars while also remaining grounded in reality. Now, we embark on this same path as an institution: to stay true to our aspirational mission even as we confront our very real financial limitations. Making choices is never easy, but it is essential if we are to meet both today’s needs and those of decades to come. For all our constraints, we also have amazing opportunities. I am so excited to discover what our future holds.