Stakeholder Questions & Responses

Team One

1. Demographic cliff
2. Monmouth brand/vision of who we want to be as a college is not well defined and needs to change going forward
3. Curriculum – should be shaped based on our brand/vision; caution to using previous methodology/vision of College or maintaining courses/degree programs around tenured professors
4. Sticker price
5. Perceived debt load that graduates will have to deal with
6. Negative social media, causing misperceptions of the College
7. Lack of outreach to parents, companies and employers about the value of the College and its recent graduates
8. Lack of promotion of value of ethics and morals learned via liberal arts at Monmouth
9. Need more support of first-time college students, their parents and their families
10. Societal views of the ROI of a liberal arts education

Team Two

1. American cultural issues (i.e. polarizing political climate)
2. Diversity demographics (inequalities for certain social groups, recognizing the need to embrace values and help students of color know they have a community at Monmouth)

2a. (tie) Cost of education (competitive market with junior colleges, online education, public institutions)

3. Student/parent expectation of value in a liberal arts education (return on investment, ROI)
4. Demographics in Illinois (movement of students/families out of Illinois, fewer Illinois high school students)
5. Town of Monmouth (local environment influences student choice to attend the College and their college experience)
6. Types and numbers of jobs available for our graduates
7. Global Pandemic (changes what defines “community”)
8. Technology (increased personal digital literacy changes expectations)
9. Individual health issues (mental, physical, financial)
10. Increase in popularity and ROI of two-year colleges

Team Three

1. Location
2. Sticker price – the possibility that the College’s price will scare students away before they even find out what they would actually pay
3. Lack of diversity – primarily among faculty and staff
4. Resources – the quality of faculty and staff needed are becoming more expensive and lack of resources does and will inhibit our ability to attract them
5. Lack of civil discourse – society in general is failing at this
6. Demographic cliff – where will we find students
7. Characteristics of incoming students – our students are not the same as they were even five years ago, much less 20 or 40 years ago, and they will be different five years from now
8. Fear of failure – many students are afraid to fail and don’t even try, so they miss the chance to learn from mistakes
9. Less demand for liberal arts education by society in general
10. Technology

Team Four

1. Adapting to demographic realities – 17-year-olds declining; Illinois outmigration; diversity (race, ability, LGBTQ+); faculty recruitment
2. Perceived Value – financing a college education; price of a Monmouth education; value of a liberal arts education in a four-year, residential setting; college debt; location of Monmouth
3. Recruitment – most students who attend College live within 50 miles of campus; competition from community colleges; transfer students; relying on sports for recruiting; lack of summer courses; growing demand for accelerated degree completion; decline in international students
4. Retention – resources for students; mental health; services for students; trauma-informed pedagogies; ADA/learning differences, etc.; financial aid packages adapting
5. Extraordinary circumstances/resiliency and adaptability – pandemic; economic difficulties; environmental crises/events; preparedness (online options, communication plans, etc.)
6. Oppositional political climate – civil engagement; empathy across difference; diversity, equity, inclusion
7. Changing expectations from education – languages/intercultural communication; technology; need for broadly trained people with adaptable skills; diversity of course offerings
8. Job market – do students need/want higher education? trades making a comeback; technical training; drop in demand for liberal arts degrees; how does the liberal arts teach skills for careers; careers shift/adaptability
9. Additional expenses – increased minimum wage; mental health services and other services
10. City of Monmouth – how do we improve communication? first impressions; transportation; community engagement

Team Five

1. Increasing societal concerns about the cost of education and the return on investment. College is expensive, tuition is rising, and parents and students want to be sure the investment will pay off with a job. Monmouth should consider how to provide students with real-life experiences during their college career, perhaps in the form of internships or similar opportunities. Should also be concerted efforts to cultivate pipelines for jobs after graduation. While several group members had this item at the top of their list, we actually did not discuss it in great detail compared to some other topics but mostly accepted that this is a critical factor.
2. One topic that the group kept returning to is technology. As one member phrased it, “Society is fast-paced, and we aren’t meeting that.” This has numerous ramifications on student learning, particularly with regards to familiarity with various technologies within majors and with regards to remote learning needs (see more on remote learning in No. 7 below). Societal expectations require competency with technology on multiple levels, and Monmouth needs to be able to provide students with those opportunities. We need to be globally minded, but no matter what job you have you will use technology in some form. One member suggested that one approach could be to consider collaborative projects, such as designing apps that would require input from multiple departments (computer science for coding, applicable department for content [i.e., history students involved in researching a “historical tour of Monmouth” app], MLLC to translate the content into multiple languages, art for design, marketing for promoting the finished product).
   
   

   Another suggestion was to look for more shared services between Monmouth and Western Illinois, Monmouth and Knox or Augustana, Monmouth and Western Illinois (library, grad degrees, career services, etc.). Another member suggested: “The ability to use technology to engage students could prove to be a far greater learning experience. For example, the ability to learn history, sociology, and geography by virtually taking students to the Smithsonian Institute, Rome, Gettysburg, you name it; is a very cool way to enhance retention of information as opposed to rote memorization. Finding ways to strengthen access to the world (once we create curriculum) might prove to be exceedingly valuable. It also bridges the gap of instant gratification that our society seems to crave.” The technology issue with remote learning was more pragmatic. On-campus WiFi is poor in spots, and parents have been asked to contribute to an internet “booster” fund to have students access the internet. This is on top of the already steep tuition prices and has resulted in some resentment that students’ basic learning needs (especially during the pandemic) are not being met. Particularly as remote learning will likely be a factor in higher education even post-pandemic, this needs to be addressed.

3. A need for diversity in both our student bodies and faculty and staff. This directly impacts recruitment and retention, as students want to feel that they are represented and supported at all levels of College activities. Students from minority populations and first-generation students are likely to feel more isolated when there are no faculty and staff from those same populations. If we consider who our future students are, we need to make sure that they feel welcome here. This can start from the recruitment process – we should encourage hiring more bilingual admission staff, for example. Again, while several group members had this item near the top of their list, we actually did not discuss it in great detail compared to some other topics but accepted that this is an important factor.
4. A related issue to diversity is Monmouth’s location. It can be harder to attract students from larger cities with more opportunities to a small college surrounded by cornfields. We cannot make that as an excuse, because we can still do amazing things here. We should consider providing more opportunities for students to take a semester off-campus in a larger city or out of state (if not abroad). Developing those types of programs would allow us to market the college as having the close-knit campus relationships available at a SLAC with the added value of having “big-city” opportunities as a component of the college experience

   There is also a need to cultivate local opportunities. Is the relationship with the surrounding community as robust as it could be? The new STEM programs were created with the idea that there would be more potential for jobs after graduation, but can we get involved with companies in the area to develop those pipelines to place students immediately into a career that equates to long term success and marketability? Have we explored majors/programs that would directly relate to our local community (e.g., agribusiness)?

5. Government/societal expectations and decisions and the impact on the liberal arts. Some things are out of our control, such as the proposals for free college education. But that idea is out there, and it will likely impact students’ decisions on how to spend tuition money (also relates to our No. 1 factor, above). But the value of the liberal arts in general is often questioned, and efforts to promote what exactly the liberal arts means need to be strengthened. There is also the idea that the term “liberal” is not understood in the same manner that it used to be. The idea of “liberal” as equating to “not conservative” is prevalent and students and their families could be wary of going to a “liberal arts school” for fear that it does not reflect their own values. We need to do a better job of letting potential students know what a “liberal arts” education actually means. That could be done by providing some brand experiences to high school students that go beyond on-campus visits; e.g., providing short term courses as a way to experience the value of a college education (summer enrichment courses both on campus and online is one example).
6. All of the aforementioned factors have an impact on student recruitment in a limited pool of potential students. We are competing with other colleges for the same students with a smaller pool to draw from, and need to focus on what makes Monmouth unique. Are we prepared for the upcoming population reduction? In the competition for student dollars we should broaden our idea of what a Monmouth student is – not just local Illinois high school seniors, but branching out even further. Are efforts being made to reach out to students who dropped out previously to re-enroll? Is there a place for nontraditional students at Monmouth? Are there “lifelong learning” or other non-degree educational programs that could provide a revenue source for the College? There was some discussion about competition with junior colleges for students. From a long-view Development perspective, junior college transfers may not have the emotional connection to Monmouth that four-year students had, so how can we entice them to our campus earlier? Would it be possible to charge less for core/requirement classes that students might take elsewhere in order to encourage them to do those classes at Monmouth instead?
   A related topic was the recruitment of students who are ready for and interested in college-level work. Not all students are prepared for college, and not all of them are interested in the “thinking about topics from multiple viewpoints” that is the hallmark of a liberal arts student. That limits our pools also: although such students may be recruited, retention is more challenging. Faculty can be important in recruitment, but different viewpoints were recounted here as well: faculty time is limited and they may not be able to devote much time to recruitment. Another noted that they had offered to accompany admission staff to events when the request was made earlier in the year, but that Admission never followed up. Some additional consideration should be given to the best ways Admission and faculty can work together.
7. COVID and the onset (and future) of remote learning are issues related to our potential student pool. Respondents saw both sides of the coin on this issue. One felt strongly the need to lean into remote learning. After COVID, students will expect those options to be open to them. This could also grow our potential student pool, as geographic barriers to attending classes are eliminated and especially if asynchronous classes are offered, more nontraditional students may be able to take classes. We could even look into the possibility of letting off-campus students just take one class at a time and charge tuition for single classes, which would raise revenue. One participant noted, however, that Monmouth does not currently have funds to compete with the established online degree programs. Those programs advertise heavily and have the mechanisms in place to provide the experience, and Monmouth does not. Another felt strongly that we need to prioritize in-class learning: THAT is what makes us unique and we to focus on that, leaving online learning as an accessory. Regardless, participants agreed that the pandemic has changed expectations of and perceptions about online learning, and that cannot be ignored. 

8. & 9. Fast-paced society demands the ability to pivot faster. Monmouth is smaller and therefore should be better able to adjust to changes than larger institutions. This could include coming up with innovative curricular programs that would meet student demand for return on investment and job possibilities. For example, do we need to be a four-year institution or can we consider a three-year curriculum/a yearlong calendar without the traditional long summer break? Are there additional certificate programs that we could offer in high demand fields, industry-recognized credentials, or leadership training opportunities for students?

   A focus on interdisciplinary could be part of that pivoting, and part of the response to a reaction against the term “liberal” arts. Many employers today claim to value interdisciplinary approaches to the job. Encouraging students to actively use other disciplines within their home discipline – not just taking a required class, but showing how statistical analysis can be necessary for sociological research, or the app development proposal mentioned above, or having business students work with the educational garden to market their produce – these kinds of real-life interdisciplinary projects being actively incorporated into the curriculum could help demonstrate the strengths inherent in a liberal arts education. Similarly, additional certifications or training available for undergraduates could also enhance their marketability upon graduation. One member commented that there also needs to be a strengthening of the curriculum that is already available. While the need to develop new programs may be there, there are current departments that are struggling. Recent cuts have disproportionately been to the humanities and social sciences programs. If they were provided the same support as the new programs were, they would have that flexibility to pivot more easily as well.

10. Supporting student wellness . Mental health issues are on the rise, and while more students are willing to talk about them and seek the help they need, support is limited. Students have certain expectations about what their life on campus should be like (from mental health support to “can I get someone to come repair my window, since it’s snowing outside and I can’t close it”) and in many ways those expectations are not being met. How can we best provide those services and meet or exceed student needs?

Team Six

1. General and local economy
   • On-going changes in the nature/type of work available to baccalaureate graduates – relevance of college program to initial and ongoing employment
   • Lingering high unemployment
   • Unstable economy/outlook for jobs
   • Impact of a downturn in stock market on endowment growth and earnings
   • Impact of the current downturn on our enrollment

2. Demographics
   • Falling high school enrollments: nationally, regionally, Illinois
   • Importance of foreign students
   • Demographics of Monmouth College
   • Community college as sources of transfer students

3. High cost of attending college
   • Overall cost impact on middle-class families
   • Cost to institutions of scholarship and discounts
   • Providing an excellent student experience at a cost the student and college can afford
   • Talk of student loan forgiveness
   • Talk of free public education

4. General trends in higher education
   • Competition from community colleges, on-line, three-year degree programs
   • Discussion of no tuition at public colleges and universities
   • Growth in remote learning
   • Impact of possible student debt forgiveness and changes in student loan environment
   • Pressures to match curriculum to job training

5. Liberal arts
   • Questioning the value of a liberal arts education
   • ROI of a liberal arts education
   • Emphasis on STEM and effect of understanding of the value of liberal art education
   • Lack of understanding of liberal arts

6. Racial justice/institutional and social inequities
   • Issues involved in gender equity
   • The challenges including enrollment costs, the ability to create a welcoming environment
   • The requirement to meet diversity goals

7. Social trends/political environment
   • Gender equity and gender identification
   • Lack of social security
   • Mental health challenges related to social and economic uncertainty
   • Racial justice
   • Religion and religious connection
   • Impact of political environment on addressing social trends and issues

8. Location
   • Job and internship opportunities (local/regional)
   • Illinois – economy
   • Monmouth as a community – range of issues, including activities for students – dining, shopping, transportation, high poverty rate, low wages, infrastructure
   • Monmouth – town/gown business and college nexus

9. Competition
   • Local competition – e.g., Illinois College, Knox College, Carl Sandburg College
   • Regional competition – members of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest
   • Setting Monmouth apart – How can that be done?

10. COVID
    • Current effects, ongoing effects, residual effects
    • Effects on key college programs, e.g., sports

Team Seven

1. Financial constraints
2. Enrollment challenges – increased competition and shift in mindset regarding education
3. Return on investment – value of a liberal arts degree
4. Technology
5. Mental Health
6. Racial climate – student expectation of a diverse and inclusive student and faculty population
7. COVID ramifications
8. Innovative or alternative curriculum
9. Career planning/advising to improve retention and graduation rates
10. Transfer friendly

Note: Items No. 1-4 quickly came to the top of our external conditions, items No. 5-7 were pretty interchangeable in their positions. It is important to note the student’s ranking of the top three:

1. Mental health
2. COVID ramifications
3. Financial constraints

Team One

Strengths

1. Smaller school that gives attention to each student in classroom and in athletics, even before they are enrolled; one-on-one relationship with professors
2. Curriculum offers a lot of options in curriculum and cocurricular
3. Athletic department – half of the students play on at least one sports team
4. Campus layout and beauty of College
5. Relationships
6. Because student-athletes are an integral part of the community, there’s collaboration between coaches and faculty and staff; it’s not silo approach, so students can be in multiple activities, clubs, etc.
7. Monmouth employees overall are very passionate and engaged
8. Many Monmouth employees who are alumni had a great professor or coach; they know how Monmouth shapes students

Limitations

1. Culture
   • Internal conflict among leaders and faculty and staff, and even among employees, that is causing internal conflict that is felt even among the students
   • Lack of communication among administration and faculty and staff that is fueling the fire; lack of resources within faculty and recognition
   • Know cuts need to occur but not necessarily being handled in the best way
   • Salary of professors below competitors’ salaries
   • Not going to cut our way to prosperity – tough strategic decisions will need to occur
   • Morale not positive

2. Don’t think we (Monmouth College) knows who we are and who we want to be (identity crisis; who our market is vs. just enrolling students); who are we going for?
   • Casting out a big net vs. targeting a market
   • Building upon that
   • Define clearly what our identity is

3. Financial crisis – reacting without a strategic plan; up to this point like cutting resources without knowing longer term where we want to be; not strategic vs. low hanging fruit
   • Could lose the legacy because in past couple of years and months the focus has not been on the students; committee notes very rarely concerned on what we are doing for our students – staff focused on what we are doing for ourselves; need to know who we are in order to help others

4. Are we staffed efficiently or does our tenure prevent ability to staff efficiently? Look at retirement plans; absorb, do we need to replace or a different type of employee (have to be cognizant of who we are hiring and what hiring for); every purchase order coming through leader to gain approval and review of every resource with reason we are buying it.
   • Probably more difficult to retain students when missing additional staffing

5. Does the department have enough students to fund the department or should we not have the department?
   • Should be cost-neutral. What should the costs be (labor vs. operating)? Some departments making money, some neutral, some losing. Discussion when five students per class (not a financially viable model – may not be able to justify the department)

6. Recruitment and retention of faculty
   • Some discussion around possibly getting rid of tenure; that might not be a great direction to go to because it will deeply impact faculty recruitment and retention
   • Do we know percent of tenure or tenure-track professors? (Two-thirds is generally normal in industry)

7. Are we too rigid and not changing with the times? Too slow to change. Discussion around curriculum and departments with minimal students as a part of them; question posed on what was the rational to bring engineering into a Midwest college that was known for education, communication studies, etc.; on-boarding money from endowment for program and faculty
   • Could potentially be a good recruitment tool – interdisciplinary studies; uncertain about neuroscience or data science and whether they are viable.

Team Two

Strengths

1. Relationships between students and faculty
2. Small class sizes
3. Strong sports program
4. Capable and energetic leadership and staff
5. Beauty of the campus
6. Strong endowment
7. Engaged and active alumni association and board of trustees
8. Long history and tradition
9. Rural setting
10. Attractiveness to first-generations college students

Limitations

1. Inadequate resources and funding for the College as a whole
2. Limited emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion on the campus or in the community
3. Limited curricular offerings/majors
4. Marketing scope
5. Lack of opportunities for interactions between campus and the town of Monmouth
6. Ability to attract and retain students and faculty of color
7. Inadequate Wi-Fi/broadband connectivity on campus
8. Lack of continuous personnel to coordinate meaningful initiatives between campus and community
9. Small size of the student body
10. Rural setting

Team Three

Strengths

1. People –dedicated faculty and staff
2. Close relationships with students
3. Extra- and cocurricular activities
4. Strong liberal arts focus
5. Addition of new majors
6. Programs to enhance student success
7. Culture of community
8. Scholarships
9. Ability to adjust quickly; prompt reactions to issues; adaptability, nimbleness
10. Personalized and accessible recruitment process and staff
11. Alumni and trustee support and engagement
12. Safe campus
13. Size
14. Food and housing security
15. Value for cost
16. Willingness to take on “diamonds in the rough” – help lesser-prepared students succeed
17. Location

Limitations

1. Size
2. Not responsive to changes (steeped in tradition to a fault)
3. Costs exceed revenues
4. Not making data-driven decisions
5. Cutting support systems
6. Lack of clear vision or strategy
7. Cost – sticker price and out-of-pocket cost
8. Location
9. Focus on domestic recruiting to the exclusion of international
10. Lack of infrastructure supporting people of color and international students
11. Treating all students alike – equal strategies are not equitable strategies

Team Four

Strengths

1. Commitment to student success
   • Faculty and staff
   • Recruitment and retention
   • New programs

2. Scholarship and financial aid opportunities
   • Stockdale Fellows

3. Strong student experience
   • Strong residential life experience and campus experience
   • Leadership opportunities
   • Off-campus study opportunities

4. Strong athletic programs
   • Coaches are great recruiters who recruit from diverse backgrounds

5. Engaged student body
   • Good people who are earnest and nice
   • Accomplished

6. Job and grad school placement
   • High rates

7. Supportive alumni base (financially)
   • Programming and events
   • Networking

8. Inviting, attractive and safe campus

9. Community partnerships
   • Buchannan Center for the Arts
   • Warren County History Museum

10. Committed and quality faculty and staff
    • Teaching and scholarship
    • Professional development

Limitations

1. Understaffed
   • Faculty and staff spread thin
   • Effects on the curriculum
   • Diversity of offerings
   • Mental health services
   • No campus health clinic

2. Diversity, equity and inclusion challenges
   • Lack of diversity among faculty and staff
   • Struggle with structures for underrepresented student success
   • ADA accommodations
   • Dietary accommodations

3. Communication
   • Clearer campus communication needed
   • Need for transparency
   • Communication with stakeholders

4. Current financial struggles

5. Location
   • Rural
   • Illinois demographics
   • State financial struggles

6. Need more resources in technology
   • Limits – SIS, LMS
   • Data gathering
   • Support for systems
   • Accounting, SIS
   • Lacking mobile/remote support

7. Retention
   • Faculty and staff
   • Students

8. Sticker Price

9. Competition
   • Community college and state institutions

10. Strained relationship between faculty and administration

Team Five

Strengths

1. The group almost universally agreed that one of the top strengths of Monmouth is the student-to-teacher ratio. Students learn from professors instead of teaching assistants, which gives students direct contact with leaders in their respective fields. The student-teacher ratio, the small classes, and immediate accessibility students have to professors allow for strong relationships between students and advisers to grow. In turn, this results in careful one-on-one advising, support for internships and in the job search, along with the overall nurturing that many of our students desire and need to thrive. The College provides a structure that online-only institutions cannot. Faculty are invested in student success, and it shows. It should be noted that there is a caveat: there is a fear that if faculty are cut, remaining faculty will be asked to take on more advising among other increased responsibilities, diminishing the amount of time one can give to a single student.
2. Monmouth’s small size gives it more flexibility, especially during an event like COVID. We were able to stay largely in-person thanks in part to our small population and strong community, doing things such as changing the academic calendar to eliminate spring break. One member pointed out that starting a new program such as engineering would likely have taken five or more years to plan and staff at a larger institution, while we were able to start recruiting students almost immediately after the major was approved. Larger institutions have trouble pivoting so quickly.
3. Our athletic programs are strong, particularly with recruiting. We have a higher percentage of student-athletes than many other schools our size, and those students are successful. Our coaches are some of our top recruiters.
4. Alumni engagement seems to be a strength (possibly at least in part because of an aspect of our student-teacher ratio and the relationships built; alumni look fondly back at the relationships they built while at Monmouth). There is the perception that multiple eras of alumni are being engaged, though it was acknowledged that the Alumni Office might have different information about that matter. There is also a consistent presence of legacy students that likely speaks to that alumni engagement as well.
5. Students have a voice at Monmouth and an opportunity to be part of changes on campus. If there is a concern, students can be heard through Scots Senate, through student surveys and more. Scots Senate can magnify student voices in any issues or issues that need to be addressed with the administration, and town halls have been held in response to student issues. The wide variety of student groups and organizations focus on different aspects of campus and the wider society. Even beyond campus, student voices tell the Monmouth story in our promotional materials, alumni stories, and even in planning sessions like this one.
6. We have a strong community There are good people at all levels – faculty, staff, trustees, students, parents – who are committed to the success of the College and to its students. That needs to be recognized.
7. While acknowledging that the parents in the group may disagree, students receive generous financial aid Many students do not pay the full costs, which allows us to compete with state schools more effectively.
8. In certain fields we seem to be doing well at job placement. Certain fields are recruiting actively at Monmouth, and the new engineering program is establishing contacts with industries in the area. We also make use of our alumni pipelines.
9. The quality of education at Monmouth is good. We truly practice the liberal arts here and value that mix. Linking the humanities and social sciences with STEM provides our students with strong foundational thinking skills. We offer a variety of majors, and even our smaller majors are still recruiting quality students.
10. The campus is picturesque. It’s a park-like atmosphere that alumni helped build. A building such as the Center for Science and Business is a big asset if its equipment and infrastructure is kept up to date.
11. For a small town we are a diverse community. While we’d like to see that reflected in our faculty and staff, we are trying to be more inclusive and are conscious that efforts need to be made in that area. The diversity, equity and inclusion group on campus is one such step in that direction.

Limitations

1. One of the most critical limitations facing Monmouth is financial. We would like to see a larger endowment and/or increased unrestricted giving. Investment is lacking where needed. Prospective students see “bells and whistles” that are offered in other programs (the example given was equipment in exercise science), and we are not investing in those types of commodities. There is a perceived bias toward investing in STEM programs (and indeed, recent faculty cuts, including faculty lines that have not been backfilled after departures, are disproportionately to the humanities and social sciences) and less inclination to support other programs in new ways.
2. Some of those limitations in investment have ripple effects beyond the immediate cuts. Due to the recent first-year faculty cuts, chemistry will lose a national accreditation; accounting will effectively end the VITA program, which has been excellent community outreach and sorely needed for town-gown relations; and history loses their top recruiting member (prospective students usually are interested in U.S. history, and the remaining two faculty members specialize in Latin America and Asia, resulting in limited U.S. offerings), which effectively also kills an educational studies teacher licensure program in social studies that relies heavily on U.S. history offerings. It is unclear whether the administration fully grasped the ramifications of these cuts when they were made.
3. The financial limitations are a large factor of the relational trust issues on campus currently. That rift is primarily between the administration and the faculty, but there is also friction between faculty. Some feel we are prioritizing STEM, particularly with the investment issue mentioned above, and others feel STEM is being marginalized, particularly within the general education requirements. While the group did not delve deeply into all of the fractures present, we agreed it is a real concern.
4. Our location and size can be a limitation. This manifests in various ways. Our size makes us less appealing to some students. We have limited public transportation and retail stores for shopping, and limited connections and resources for internships and jobs. On a different scale, location and size can be a drawback when trying to hire a diverse pool of faculty and staff. Monmouth can be isolating for people from minority groups, leading to long-term dissatisfaction and loneliness. On a pragmatic note, we also strain to pay potential faculty members as much as our competition can, and the low salary coupled with our rural location is a deterrent to many.
5. The lack of diversity in staff and administration is a distinct limitation. Monmouth is not always welcoming to certain cultures and groups. We need to bring people to campus who can represent the viewpoints of different groups. External conditions impact each student differently and not having that point of view of a student of color can effectively exclude them and prevent their ideas from being heard.
6. Related to the lack of investment generally is lack of institutional investment in programs and projects. Programs are dependent on one professor or on the idea of a professor. One member listed all of the programs that a recruited student found attractive but are no longer viable: Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research, Global Food Security triad, the Stockdale Fellows program (the last is still extant but in a much-reduced capacity after the departure of Jake Maclean). Personal programs are not institutional programs, and that affects recruiting and the subsequent disappointment when a program is unsustainable after the departure of a single faculty or staff member. The corollary here is that faculty and staff are overworked and stretched too thin. The same member noted that the Stockdale Fellows program is now administered by a staff member “who already has 800 other things to do.” As cuts are made and departures go unfilled, those who remain are given more to do in the same amount of time and for the same pay. This is the fear articulated in our No. 1 Strength – strong faculty-student relationships – which will inevitably be damaged when overtasked faculty who will no longer be able to give quality time to individual students. One member questioned if we have too many degrees that are not viable or too many limited practical degrees? The value of the degrees for some things is unclear, and perhaps accreditations or external certifications should be considered instead of a full degree.
7. Course scheduling is an issue that is actually known to potential students. We have no set times or days for classes – faculty are often allowed to deviate from standard class times to suit their own schedules (the example given was instead of teaching a Monday-Wednesday-Friday or a Tuesday-Thursday class, the professor decided to teach a Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday class, which potentially sets up many course conflicts with other classes). Students hear that they cannot always guarantee that required classes will be offered at times that do not conflict with other classes and shy away from those majors. Efforts to standardize class times should be made, without the more than 100 scheduling variants that currently exist. There was also a discussion about making courses more transfer-friendly – both if one is transferring into or away from Monmouth. It was suggested that the recently passed new general education requirements should alleviate that concern.
8. Technology is a limitation. We need better access to technology and better training on it. This includes professional development training for professors, too. While we did not discuss this in depth, it was a major topic of our last report, and many of the issues raised there can likely be applied here as well.
9. A limited mindset. We need to be more flexible in our thinking, in a myriad of ways. We must get away from the “we are too small/too rural to do XYZ” way of thinking and instead consider ways to leverage what we can What do incoming students expect of their education, and what are we doing to get ahead of the curve to attract students? We need to be more creative in our approaches and not get stuck in our preconceived notions of ourselves. What can we do about accreditations, internships, certifications, etc., that can help lead to student jobs? We must be thinking bigger than just Monmouth.
10. Outreach concerns. With regards to prospective students, it is unclear who we are recruiting, and where we are recruiting new students. With the decline in nationwide high school seniors, we may struggle to keep our numbers up. Are we recruiting students who are not ready for college yet, and if so, do we have the infrastructure to support them? Are we a cost-effective option for the students whom we are recruiting? With regards to alumni, there are large voids in whom we are contacting. We have an underutilized alumni base and we need to tap into that population more.
11. A limited global reputation and connections. The group did not discuss this extensively, but it was noted that additional efforts to expand awareness of Monmouth globally would be useful.
12. Limited campus amenities. Particularly since there is not much to do in town, there need to be more on-campus offerings. The student center needs to be updated and there are some “dumpy parts” of campus.

Team Six

Strengths

1. Caring faculty and staff who work hard to give students the best experience possible; personal attention; nurturing environment for student development
2. Excellent student-faculty ratio; small classes; individual attention; teaching faculty
3. Sports – good recruiting tool and helps with retention
4. Location – attractive campus with great curb appeal; family feel; safe, trusting space
5. Well-rounded students – academic focus with many options for cocurricular activities – sports, social organizations, Greek Life
6. Small town – welcoming, safe; also pointed out as a limitation, maybe not a welcome feel for students of color
7. Reputation – commitment to liberal arts
8. Partnerships – offerings through Associated Colleges of the Midwest; VITA program that supports campus and greater Monmouth community; also music, theater and sports events that bring local community to campus
9. Wackerle Center for Career, Leadership & Fellowships; career counseling; positive outcomes for graduates
10. Traditions – unique Scots identity, such as kilts, tartan, bagpipes; this is a commonality for current students and alumni; commitment to individuality, where everyone is welcome

Limitations

1. Lack of strategy plan and internal disagreement for future direction of the College
2. Unclear brand identity
3. Current budget constraints – cuts in faculty and staff, academic programs
4. Student retention
5. Lack of diversity of faculty and students
6. Faculty retention
7. Size – too small; people go where people are; we need to increase enrollment to be attractive to more students
8. Technology and data reporting
9. Physical plant – aging facilities, amenities, too many empty buildings on campus
10. High cost of tuition

Team Seven

Strengths

1. Quality of faculty and staff
2. Quality education
3. Adaptability, flexibility
4. Small size makes it easier to adapt and offer more personalized attention/support to students
5. Alumni support – time, talent and treasure; Monmouth alumni are very supportive to current students and the College
6. Caring and compassionate community
7. Beautiful, safe campus
8. Career planning – ability in some cases to “create your own major”
9. Exposure opportunities as undergrads; ability to work from an early stage with instruments in chemistry labs; Moot Court (not typically offered as an undergrad experience)
10. Ability to graduate in four years

Limitations

1. Financial constraints
2. Lack of diverse of revenue streams
3. Rural geographic location
4. Technology challenges
5. Lack of financial resources available to help deliver improved services (holistic advising example)
6. Lack of diversity and diverse opinions
7. Increased first-generation student population and more support needed to help these students navigate the college process
8. Preparation for life after Monmouth
9. Adaptability – while a definite strength can also be a limitation
10. Monmouth is a relatively poor community

Team No. 1

1. A valuable education – skills and capabilities to be successful in gainful employment or graduate school at a fair price to include: general competencies, such as problem-solving, values, work ethic, communication, relationship building, teamwork, leadership, critical thinking
2. Functional and technical skills that are employable in the market – if not employable, the College becomes irrelevant and not valuable for student or parent to invest in education; brand reputation of the College itself; total ROI
3. Positive student experience, which includes a focus on students: safety, physical environment, culture, athletics, cocurricular, technical
4. Small class sizes with ability to interact and get mentorship or assistance from faculty
5. For student-athletes, strong values-based coaches and staff to engage, lead and coach for success (on and off the field and court)
6. Support for guiding students to employable career paths and appropriate coursework that aligns; four-year mentoring
7. Support for those transitioning into college that may need additional support and guidance in order to be successful (will be more common with COVID and remote learning where students will have additional gaps in education and social/environmental skills)
8. Support for guiding student transition into workplace or graduate studies

Team No. 2

1. Good quality of life on campus (e.g., good, healthy food options, nice environment including air conditioning in dorms)
2. A network that allows students to communicate with the people and causes they care about when they want to (working Wi-Fi, student organizations they can be part of with like-minded peers)
3. A safe environment (the need to feel safe and welcome)
4. A strong education in relevant majors
5. Opportunities for internships and a job after college
6. Opportunities to have experiences that they wouldn’t have otherwise (study abroad)
7. Opportunities to excel in something they know they are good at (sport, fine arts)
8. College administration and staff that is transparent and listens to their voices
9. Mentors who can help them find and discern their vocational path
10. Opportunities to learn from faculty members of color

Team No. 3

1. Ability to communicate and present – written, oral, listening, physical
2. Reading – closely, critically
3. Ability to reason, with evidence
4. A strong alumni network and awareness of alumni outcomes where they can see themselves
5. Job skills and abilities, internships, resume support and career placement
6. A roadmap to the entire Monmouth experience, persistence to graduation and support systems
7. Reputation – generally and for particular programs
8. Institutional commitment to social awareness, civic engagement, equity and diversity
9. Communication of our value proposition, price and value for dollar
10. Customized experiences
11. A physically and psychologically safe, inclusive and comfortable environment to learn and explore
12. Close, personal relationships

Team No. 4

1. Opportunities
   1. Study abroad
   2. Internships
   3. Leadership (fraternities, sororities, clubs, etc.)
2. Updated facilities
   1. Clean, fresh spaces
   2. Student center
      1. Hang-out spaces
      2. Student club spaces
      3. Things to do

3. Close-knit community
   1. Interaction with current students
   2. Alive campus
   3. Engaged students
4. Outcomes and Value
   1. Career
   2. Living a better life
   3. Contributing to community
   4. Graduation Rates
   5. Career Placement
5. Financial aid opportunities
   1. Help understanding these opportunities
   2. Work study
6. Personal attention – face-to-face interaction
   1. Good communication
   2. Access to professors
7. Athletics
8. Support services
   1. Accommodations for learning differences
   2. Mental health support and awareness
9. Options in course offerings (majors)
   1. Disciplines
   2. Broad offerings within departments
   3. Help in seeing how majors and curriculum translate into careers
10. Safe place to explore
    1. Inclusive environment
    2. Students from diverse backgrounds

Needs

1. Robust liberal arts
   1. Becoming a learner
   2. Lifetime learner
2. Inclusive environment
   1. Exposure to diverse ideas, people
3. Personal attention – face-to-face interaction
   1. Good communication
   2. Professors
   3. Strong advising
   4. Communicating that it is okay if you don’t have everything figured out
4. Options in course offerings (majors)
   1. Disciplines
   2. Broad offerings within departments
   3. Help in seeing how majors and curriculum translate into careers
5. Support services
   1. Accommodations
   2. Mental health awareness
6. Financial aid opportunities
   1. Help understanding these opportunities
   2. Work study
7. Clean safe living facilities
8. Relevant programming
   1. Speakers
   2. How things are connected to the outside world
   3. Co-curricular
9. Close-knit community
   1. Interaction with current students
   2. Alive campus
   3. Engaged student
10. Food
    1. Quality
    2. Options, dietary needs
    3. Opt out

Team No. 5

1. Practical degrees/certificates. This has been a consistent theme throughout our meetings: students want to ensure that they will be able to use their education to succeed in their chosen fields after graduation, whether it is entering the workforce or graduate school. We need to be sure that we are offering relevant curriculum to what the students want, and perhaps evaluate whether we can sustain smaller degrees/programs that are attractive to students. Students also want to develop “soft skills” outside of their majors. Some mentioned were communication skills, time management and self-discipline.
2. Most agreed that students want some experiences that they can only get at Monmouth. These could be research or internship opportunities in their field that would help them get practical experience for the future, or ways to challenge them to get out of their comfort zone, or ways to “make them want to do more than just go to classes and back to their room.” Students do not always know what they want to do, and exposure to different experiences can help them find out. One suggestion included teaching practical skills, such as cooking classes that would teach students about good nutrition.
3. Athletics. Most members agreed that many of our students want to participate in sports. The degree of prioritization varied – some had it ranked as high as third on the list, and several had it as 10th out of 10. We did not discuss details about athletics beyond agreement that it’s important to our students.
4. Generous financial aid is important particularly in making Monmouth competitive. This may look different to different students. Some additional scholarships could be made available for academic success after matriculation at Monmouth. Perhaps accommodations for accelerated degree completion or making community college transfers easier should be considered. In the past we advertised that “you will pay as much here as you will for a state school,” and perhaps we should consider returning to that angle? We also must keep in mind that “free” is a darn good offer, and community college free programs are difficult to compete with – we must be competitive. International students, as well, are looking for the types of scholarships that they can get and if the school is “Ivy League.”
5. Mental health support is a great concern for students. These types of services are expected. This can also take other forms such as providing spaces for students to relax and de-stress, creating places where students can have fun, and make a distinction between education and leisure time. One idea included providing more physical opportunities for students (creating a rec center with yoga classes, meditation, martial arts, spinning, etc.).
6. Access to technology has been a consistent theme in these discussions. Particularly as more and more high schools have technological assets (3D printers easily available, Wi-Fi, wireless charging stations, etc.) if Monmouth does not keep up, it will seem as though we can’t even offer what students already experienced in high school. Monmouth should not be a step down for any incoming student. There could also be options for the classroom that combine traditional and digital approaches.
7. Prospective students want to know that they will find a supportive community. This does not just mean support from faculty and staff, but also from their peers – they want to know that they will find “their people” here. There was also the suggestion that students need to “interact more with the Monmouth community outside the campus. … Engaging the students with external programs or people from the overall Monmouth community can help them have that closer and personal connection with the town and school.” This discussion could also include diversity on campus. While this was not ranked in the top 10 concerns for prospective students by our group, it was a topic of discussion and it was noted that students look for diversity among faculty and staff as well as among their peers.
8. Students want to know that they will have good living space and amenities. Because sometimes it is not clear where tuition dollars are going, students may think, “We pay so much money and our living conditions are lousy!” They want to know that they will be in a good living space, eat appetizing food, and have spaces to socialize and study. (This also can be related to the discussions of technology and mental health support). There was a suggestion that the school needs more resources connecting with the outside as well, such as better transportation from Monmouth to Galesburg. A related concern was a safe campus. Though this was also not ranked in the top 10 concerns, it was noted by several group members that this is a constant question from prospective students: how safe is the campus?
9. Having up-to-date equipment and facilities also is relevant to several of the points discussed above. It was noted that the student center has not been renovated in decades. Amenities such as the bowling alley have not been restored. The planetarium, which could be a major draw for science students and would be unique to colleges in this area, sits unfinished. And in some cases such as kinesiology, we offer the degree but don’t have sufficient robust equipment to provide all of the students with the experiences they need.
10. Maintaining the current faculty-student ratio was important to several group members. Students like the small classes and one-on-one advising that that ratio provides, and are concerned when they hear about that ratio potentially changing.

Other topics brought up by the group but not ranked in the top 10 included availability of online classes, having an environmentally sustainable campus, providing a “true liberal arts education,” and ensuring that students have a voice in the campus community.

Team Six

1. Well-rounded liberal arts education with learned skills for critical thinking and problem-solving to use in one’s personal and professional life
2. Majors that are relevant, what students are looking for, and they lead to rewarding careers
3. Good teaching faculty who are student focused
4. Dedicated student center. Suggestion: downstairs of Stockdale Student Center – sports bar atmosphere with bar food, alcoholic drinks, big TVs, game day specials, etc. Area where pool tables sit looks like a church basement; how can we make that area look more like a place students want to congregate? Gaming room. Bowling lanes – we used to have this. A more robust student center will help to keep students on campus and promotes retention; offer good quality food choices and options

5. Activities/things to do on campus: must have things that promote students staying on campus, not going home on weekends; continue to offer student clubs, music, theatre, athletics, Greek life
6. Adequate housing, clean dorms, move toward AC in all dorms

7. Safe campus and community
8. Career planning, internship opportunities, study-abroad opportunities
9. Health-and-wellness center, including counseling9
10. Parking – enough parking lots or on-street parking; and location of parking lots; distance from residence halls

Team Seven

1. Value (four-year degree completion, transfer-friendly, financial stability)
2. Choices and customized experiences – prospective students demand choices
3. Experiential opportunities, more real-world connections
4. Strong academic reputation
5. Need to belong
6. Academic support (incoming students may be less prepared for college because of the circumstances of their COVID high school experience)
7. Job security
8. Internet and technology
9. Good facilities
10. Safe campus

Team No. 1

Limitations

1. Limited budgets – difficult to offer students the experience when cutting faculty and support staff
   1. Do we have the appropriate budgeting and pricing model? Start with pricing model and work backward to get to budget
   2. Career center to support transition into workforce (interns, employer partnerships, etc.) and students are in a generation of needing guidance through the process; center lacks the staffing
2. Cost to student to go to Monmouth College
3. Is it the value? Need a return on investment – get a high-paying job after graduation (i.e., is there a pipeline to tech companies?)
4. Technology – bandwidth and the PCs used by faculty and staff members
5. Student Center for students to congregate and build relationships; have meetings, study, etc.; everything is closed at 9 p.m. and there’s also no place for commuters (i.e., lounge) for in-between classes
6. Need facility maintenance plan to ensure maintenance upkeep occurs, especially within classrooms, residence halls, athletic facilities, fraternity complexes, etc.; about half of students are involved with athletics, so student-athletes so need to upkeep facilities; empty buildings (such as H-T) send a poor message
7. Ability to attract and retain diverse students
8. In terms of competing with other schools in bigger cities – ability to find internships, arts, etc.

Opportunities

1. Alumni engagement; intern and mentoring opportunities throughout college career
2. Quality and engagement of faculty
3. Student organizations (number and quality)
4. Monmouth real-world examples of critical thinking and how a Monmouth degree sets one apart
5. Monmouth has a beautiful campus but improvements are needed

Team No. 2

Limitations

1. Limited financial resources of the College
2. Lack of things that make student life comfortable (air conditioning in all residence halls, strong Wi-Fi across campus, access to transportation)
3. Small-town environment that is not vibrant or attractive
4. Limitations in campus services traditionally provided to students that are not available or stretched now
5. Perception that cost of education is greater at a private college vs. public school (value of education)
6. Communication (between students and administration, or adjusting to an asynchronous environment)
7. Marketing strategies—we could tell “our story” better than we do
8. Opportunities to take the courses students want/need when they want them (registration issues)
9. Traditional ideology with respect to the learning environment

Opportunities

1. Market the fact that our students known their professors, and their professors will work to help them be successful at college, and in life after college
2. The ability to participate in intercollegiate sports
3. Market the fact that our graduates get good jobs after graduation
4. To embrace diversity and help students become culturally competent
5. The new general education program
6. Marketing the safe small campus environment where a student can have experiences different from home
7. Abroad opportunities
8. Ability for all who work and live on campus to strive for student success.
9. Embracing the small community aspect for learning.
10. Ability for a student to be a “big fish in a small pond” on our campus

Team No. 3

Limitations

1. Cost to students
2. Attracting and keeping faculty
3. Location
4. Resources to hire adequate faculty and staff
5. Not having a strong mission and living that mission
6. Morale
7. Marketing: both (i) our own (balancing convincing students we provide what they want but the skills they need in order to succeed in life) and (ii) our competitors who are doing a better job
8. Lack of a culture of equity and diversity
9. Lack of leadership
10. Harmful communication

Opportunities

1. Engage in clear, effective communication
2. Build a cohort of people of color as faculty (possibly adjunct) using remote teaching, focus on alumni
3. Financial support of Monmouth from alumni, friends, etc.
4. Develop alternative sources of revenue
5. Offer certificate programs – for students and for community members and alumni (remote learning for some)
6. Expand summer course offerings
7. Leadership training to strengthen Monmouth leaders
8. Reinvigorate and strengthen a culture of community
9. Partnership with local and regional community colleges
10. Show trust and belief in our students and their ability to succeed

Team No. 4

Limitations

1. Finances
2. Limited support staff – mental health; academic success staff
3. Lack of diversity in faculty and staff
4. Location: demographics; City of Monmouth (entertainment, shopping, dining)
5. Declining pool of students
6. College is expensive; big-ticket price
7. Faculty and staff retention; faculty are stretched thin
8. Size: limited options in programs; low enrollments in courses and programs
9. Need more opportunities for experiential, such as internships
10. Continuity within programs – supporting new programs; sustaining programs; starting new programs that aren’t sustainable

Opportunities

1. Able to give students personal attention (strength)
2. Strong alumni base (strength)
   1. Interaction, mentorship, internships
   2. Financial support
   3. Remote opportunities emerging to connect students and alumni
3. Athletic programs (strength)
   1. Coaches are good recruiters
4. Current capital campaign (strength)
   1. Scholarship
   2. Faculty development
5. Continue to supply liberal arts (strength)
   1. Opportunities for interdisciplinary work
   2. Other liberal arts colleges are closing
   3. Other liberal arts programs are ending
6. Renew off-campus study (strength, aspiration)
7. Compress the college experience (aspiration)
   1. Summer classes
   2. Remote learning (Acadeum)
8. Professional and pre-professional programs (strength/aspiration)
   1. How the liberal arts support students’ goals in this regard
9. Sharing services with neighbor schools (aspiration)
   1. Courses, programs
   2. Staffing
10. Good placement rate (strength)
    1. Jobs and graduate school

Team No. 5

Limitations

1. Finances
2. Transparency and communication
3. Aging infrastructure and technology
4. Geography (rural location)
5. Physical size of the school. At 600-700 students it is too small, at 1,500 it is too big. There needs to be a “sweet spot” somewhere in the middle. Students need to find a place that they can consider a home, but they also need to be prepared for college. Recruiting too widely; too many students can potentially dilute the talent of the student pool.
6. Reductions (related to No. 1, finances): Scholarships are being reduced. As faculty and staff are cut, remaining personnel take on additional tasks, overworking them and leading to dissatisfaction and inability to do our jobs to the best of our capacities. This leads to insufficient student support in numerous ways.
7. This includes and overlaps with communication (our No. 2), particularly for town-gown relations. The business community supports the College, but there needs to be additional communication from the College promoting it to the community.
8. Lack of diversity within the College (particularly faculty and staff) and the surrounding community
9. Focus is too much on the revenue stream and not the quality of education potential students will receive
10. Concern about the future of in-person vs. remote learning

Opportunities

1. Dedicated faculty and staff
2. Local opportunities. We have the potential to contact alumni in local businesses for things like internship opportunities, making use of connections at the Knox County Partnership, etc. and make stronger connections via the Wackerle Center for Career, Leadership & Fellowships. There should be a dedicated liaison at Monmouth who reaches out to departments to see what students need and want in each program, and work to facilitate that with local connections.
3. Recruitment opportunities. How can we make Monmouth more attractive to transfer students? Carl Sandburg College is partnering with Western Illinois University to let students do their gen eds there and then transfer to WIU for specific programs; can we do something similar? Social media recruitment is good for students, but often it is the parents who make the recommendations and decisions; how are we reaching them? Can we create packaged PowerPoints to send to schools for easy distribution to non-tech-savvy audiences?
4. Strengthening and widening current programs. Environmental studies and agribusiness could be a good partnership, for example, making use of the Educational Farm & Garden and farmland. Our location should be viewed as an opportunity, not just a limitation.
5. COVID/economic restrictions are temporary. The economy is better now than it was in 2008, and the financial restrictions should ease off more quickly.
6. Athletics are a strong recruiting program, especially when COVID restrictions are limited.
7. We have a supportive, generous base.
8. Monmouth is flexible and willing to evolve.
9. We have a beautiful campus.
10. We are committed to the liberal arts.

Team No. 6

Limitations

1. Lack of consensus, internal disagreement on direction of the College; not focusing on our liberal arts mission
2. Lack of clarity about our identity – what type of student do we best serve; where should we focus recruiting efforts
3. Financial constraints, falling enrollment
4. Reduction in curriculum opportunities
5. Lack of a dedicated student center, a place where students would want to gather on evenings and weekends. Lack of activities on campus that might keep students on campus on weekends, help foster relationships, retention. Lack of air conditioning in all residence halls
6. Do we know the reasons why students choose another school over Monmouth? Do we know why students transfer out after one semester, one year, etc.?
7. Perceived price tag of attending Monmouth. Misconceptions about what a liberal arts college is and the benefits of a liberal arts degree
8. Not a clear focus on the importance of recruiting legacy students

Opportunities

1. Commitment to teaching critical-thinking and problem-solving skills and the liberal arts mission; students graduate ready to work
2. Success in bringing out the best in every student, in preparing them to lead lives enriched by rewarding work, service to their communities
3. Attractive campus in a safe community; one hour from larger cities with more options
4. Opportunities for building on programs to support the environment, social justice – these are attractive to current and future students
5. Robust athletics program; excellent coaching staff who significantly help with recruiting effort
6. Growing endowment
7. Availability of scholarships and financial aid
8. Opportunities to build on relationships with area employers (John Deere, Caterpillar) to increase internship and employment opportunities for students and graduates
9. Unique traditions – bagpipes, tartan, being Scots; this promotes a feeling of school pride
10. Welcoming feeling on campus – feeling of belonging

Team Seven

Limitations

1. Financial situation
2. Enrollment
3. Helping families understand costs
4. Effects of faculty/staff cuts (on ability to provide academic programs and resources and also building community)
5. Location – internship availability and challenges with limited transportation options
6. Transfer students – more work to be done to attract transfer students and make them feel welcome
7. Provide better parent support and make support inclusive to all parents (parent and family council not good representation of entire student body)
8. Not capitalizing on local youth programs such as Knox Co. CEO program
9. Movement in rural development – takes a lot of people to make it work and with cuts, that makes efforts more difficult
10. Opportunity to reposition Monmouth College

Opportunities

1. Jobs – include more information on career outcomes to prospective students
2. Personalized attention – pay closer attention to details
3. Showcase dedicated faculty and staff
4. Leverage undergraduate research opportunities – SOFIA, MJUR, research by discipline, etc.
5. Consider living-learning communities
6. Build better connections – make students feel at home
7. Better collaboration for a more cohesive approach to programming
8. Capitalize on internships
9. Consider whether our current student organizations match the interest of incoming students
10. Movement in rural development and entrepreneurship

 

Team One

The general consensus of the group was that all the examples would be considered competitors. However, the group said the college might want to take a hard look at who and where we recruit. Maybe explore some non-historical recruiting methods / geographies.

True competition will come from:

• The actual perceived value of a four-year degree (also the value of a liberal arts education in general)
• Changing demographics / socioeconomics
• Lower-priced learning options Eg. Google, Apple, technical (STEM)
• Two-year colleges – Some states are making this option free which poses a threat to Monmouth. It was suggested that the college develop a robust transfer protocol or partner with a two-year college

Key competitive pressures

• Cost, cost, cost. A higher education ROI is becoming harder to justify.

Team Two

All members agreed that each of us is not entirely familiar with all of the other schools on the list provided, but most liked the list and were glad to see non-traditional programs (like community colleges) included. Many see Carl Sandburg College (and Sampson Promise) and other community colleges as our greatest competitors due to cost and the fact that we have a high percentage of 1st generation college students in our prospective student/freshman admit pool.

Discussion was held with each member contributing, and the following ideas were generated:

-Other schools we see as competitors: CARL SANDBURG, Knox, Illinois Wesleyan, Illinois Central (Peoria), Augustana, Dominican University

-All schools are our competitors. We need to define what we have that those students need.

-We should work to make MC the BEST college for students to come to so they can finish a 4-year degree program, especially if first two years have been somewhere else

-At Monmouth, we prepare the WHOLE STUDENT. In a way we are preserving democracy in our approach.

-We need to make sure that we have enough staff to provide services that our students need.

-Study abroad is an opportunity that all students, including MC students want as an experience to get out of college. All agreed that having the passport paid for (out of college tuition & fees) is a good thing to provide for our students, if they don’t have one already.

-We need to rethink our curriculum with faculty reductions. Students have certain curricula that they want to take, but that may be limited due to lack of faculty to teach those courses

How can these ideas fit into the MC Strategic Plan?

-We need to provide our students a seamless transition to admission

If our greatest threat is students going to cheap two year institutions, how can we provide them a seamless transition to address that threat?

-Beginning the curriculum of data sciences, neurosciences, engineering was a great direction to go. Cutting edge learning is possible, what new majors do we need to compete with other universities?

-We need to engage employers around the local community even more than we do already, to provide local internships for our students

-Providing online learning offers opportunities for traditional and certificate students, however many current students want to be back and learning IN PERSON.

-We need to be cognizant as we work with minority students on their academic programs

A low income white first gen background student is different than a person of color with a low income first gen background.

-There are too many barriers in place for our underserved minority students. There is a disparity in student preparedness to enter into English 110. Minority students face different challenges than non-minority students as they enter our Gen Ed curriculum.

Is there a course these students can take so that they can be academically ready? (Like the Summer Bridge Program). We don’t want any barriers to entry.

-Idea to have students on tours wear a lanyard to ID them as visitors, so that all on campus could be welcoming of them.

-We want to showcase MC as a fun place to be outside of the classroom—when asked what students want, many of them said “to do something fun” (this was said during the pandemic quarantine time)

Team Three

Our team determined that answering the questions as asked was made difficult given the various possible definitions of “competitor.” In particular, some competitors take students who otherwise might have attended Monmouth and its current programs while others provide experiences MC does not (either because it cannot or has chosen not to). The team considered the ACM and Midwest Conference together with Illinois State (and other state schools) to be direct or true competitors specifically highlighting Knox and adding Augustana as serious competition for our students who seek a residential liberal arts experience. The team also considered community colleges, with Carl Sandburg considered particularly problematic, as taking students we might otherwise have, only few of which will ultimately transfer to Monmouth.

While the team felt that the online-heavy institutions and institutions offering other non-traditional programs were not direct competitors they nevertheless are making it possible for students to prepare themselves for careers or enhance their lives in different ways which are becoming more popular and may provide examples of potential alternative sources of revenue for Monmouth.

Some of our direct competitors already offer masters degrees and adult learning opportunities (Coe was specifically mentioned). The concept of a “weekend college” came up where students can take classes on weekends and still achieve a bachelor’s degree. Other ways our direct competitors are competing differently include marketing particular majors specifically, offering more majors, niche programs and other activities relevant to today’s young people. Specific programs include film-making (which may be targeted to social media postings) and e-sports teams which have been very successful in attracting diverse students into computer science, data and related fields.

The team consensus has been that Monmouth cannot cut its way out of the current situation as a long term strategy and that while the residential liberal arts experience is important and should remain our core offering we must (i) find additional sources of revenue and (ii) think outside our current box in recruiting students. In addition to the programs and offerings mentioned above the team felt that adult offerings hold significant potential and discussed the possibility of creating our own certificate programs (short - e.g. 10 days, 2 weekends, etc.) which could be marketed to, and customized for, local businesses; other opportunities to students who are not on a bachelor’s degree track such as certificates, associates degrees and individual classes; multi-day intensive writing workshops; etc. There is significant potential for offering online-only or hybrid offerings but there are some students and faculty who have learned this past year that those methods are not as attractive as at first hoped. As a knock-on benefit to programs for local adults their children will be more likely to attend Monmouth if the parents have a good experience. There is a growing number of immigrant families in the local area who value and believe in education as the path to a better future for themselves and their children. The possibility of partnering with other institutions to offer programs we don’t currently have was discussed. Weekend and summer programs for high school age students could attract students we might not otherwise recruit. An agriculture program was mentioned as one that would be particularly attractive to local students who know we do not have one currently. With respect to recruiting, the point was made that while the demographic cliff is approaching domestically it is not internationally and there are still countries with large populations where people are inspired to study in the US and families are willing to sacrifice to pay for that study. Veterans were also mentioned as an untapped source of motivated students who, like the international students, would add to the educational experience of our student body.

Team Four

Who should answer the question, “Who are our competitors?”

• Admissions
• Athletics

Our thoughts about competitors

• Community colleges
• Local competitors like Augustana, Illinois College, Illinois State, Western Illinois, Bradley
• Schools with strong athletic programs – St. Norbert, Wartburg, Illinois Wesleyan

Who would you remove from the list?

Columbia, Park, Upper Iowa, Webster

What they are doing differently

Military

Non-traditional populations/ Adult learners

Online

Learning Centers/ Campus Centers/ Satellites

Internships for class credits

Smaller credit hour degrees

Community partnerships

Things we can do

Community College Partnerships

Course credit transfer issues

Fewer credit hours for graduation?

Revisit big majors?

International

Partnership with community colleges?

International recruitment

Athletics

Experiential Learning

Environmental Initiatives (could emphasize more)

Farm/Garden/Preserve

Programs in place

Capitalize on Athletics More

Expand Summer Programming

Capture students seeking course credit in the summer

Team Five

With the possible exception of some ACM colleges or community colleges, the group universally questioned whether the institutions on the list provided were truly considered our competitors. Most of the schools had a far more prominent online presence, and the group agreed that students looking for a college like Monmouth are not looking for an online-heavy experience.

Particular colleges that should be added to the list could be Augustana, St. Ambrose, and Wartburg (this was specifically noted for exercise science). It was noted that prospective engineering and chemistry students often decide to go to Bradley or Wesleyan, and Carthage College is also starting an engineering major.

Means of Competition

In looking at the websites for some of the suggested competitor schools, we observed the following:

• Several have extremely obvious portals for different types of potential incoming students. Transfer student, adult learners, and military/veterans’ pathways were clearly highlighted on the institution’s splash page, unlike MC’s website (“Transfer students” is buried within the “Admission and aid” page, and there is no obvious path for veterans or adult learners).
• Several highlight wider-scale incentives that are attractive to students. One college made clear that it participates in the Intercultural Allies in Higher Education program, showcasing its commitment to diversity (something that has been repeatedly noted that MC needs to work on). Augustana participates in the Illinois Articulation Initiative and that is featured on its website. Monmouth also is a “receiving” college in this initiative, but it is not noted anywhere on the transfer portion of our website.
• Many schools have a “hook” for students: some kind of program that gives added incentive to be there and is part of their marketing. Parkland College guarantees that students will graduate with less than $20,000 in student loans, which is an attractive offering. Augustana provides a $2000 grant to every student to be used for study abroad, research, internships (even down to buying professional clothing or paying for an apartment). MC had (has? We weren’t sure, and it is no longer visible on the website) the U=MC2 program, but that does not seem to be actively promoted anymore. Internships at MC are also somewhat haphazard. We do not deny the good work that the Wackerle Center does, but major-specific internships seem to usually be found (or not) within the individual major, and support, connections, etc. that facilitate those internships can vary widely. Study abroad is more centralized, but is understaffed.
  • Additional on-campus incentives could be considered as well. Augustana provides a scholarship of $750 to students simply for filling out the FAFSA. In contrast, a current MC student received a “Payday” candy bar for the same thing.
• While we did not notice this on any specific website, we wondered about a finish-your-degree program for returning/adult students. This could either be for local MC almost-alums or people who have moved here from other areas who just need a couple of classes to graduate. Would there be a way to compete with that type of market?
  • Miami University also offers an MBA certification specifically for alumni. It could be worth looking into creating similar certificate programs here.
• We also wondered about speed of recruitment for high school students who have taken the PSAT. Anecdotal evidence suggested that Monmouth is rather late in contacting potential students compared to how it had been done in the past. It was suggested that more personal connections could be forged even early on, perhaps in the form of video greetings from professors to students who show interest/aptitude in particular programs. Is the “Monmouth Story” being told from the alumni perspective as well – the “I met my spouse at MC” types of human-interest stories?
• Are we marketing to alumni effectively? That word-of-mouth can be tremendously important. The opportunity noted here was the annual alumni golf tournament. It was suggested that the Alumni House could coordinate with other campus departments to market MC during the tournament: a “meet a professor” at each hole on the course, for example. This would help update alumni on current campus activities and help them be able to spread the word about MC as an attractive destination to their families and friends.
• We agreed that marketing the new student health center will be a big benefit for MC, and suggested that if cafeteria food offerings could be improved that would be a good marketing tool as well.

Elements for MC’s Strategic Planning

• The first observation applies to both our competitor schools and what MC needs to consider going forward. Many of the schools had microcertificates or gateways into other degrees (such as MC’s former RUSH program for pre-nursing). The ScotsTerms could be a good fit for appropriate microcertificate programs, adding to the value of an MC degree without necessarily adding to the cost.
  • It was noted, however, that this could be a double-edged sword. Focusing on fewer programs in a more focused manner is another option. Monmouth has had a number of minors or activities that are dependent on one or two faculty members, which does help to create these “niche” programs but makes them precarious if that faculty member leaves. This becomes a bait-and-switch for the students who come to MC expecting to take part in particular endeavors and then are left without those opportunities. Other colleges have more continuity.
• MC must therefore seriously consider how to rebuild after the upcoming cuts and retain not just students, but faculty and staff. It is unclear how the College determines its priorities. Faculty are hired and create particular programs, but due to a lack of support, supporting faculty departures, and a failure to replace those positions, the programs crumble. MC needs to seriously consider what the priorities are going forward and consider how best to retain people to support those priorities. Continuity is key. What is the immediate 2-year plan after the upcoming cuts are implemented?
• Transparency will be critical going forward as well. In prior reports the group has noted concerns about transparency, and straightforward communication about College priorities is needed to rebuild effectively. There also needs to be communication within and across different areas of the College. One example given here was the aforementioned golf tournament. Alumni representatives on the team were well aware of it, but not all faculty even knew it existed. How can we better get to understand what other areas on campus are doing, and how can we collaborate across departments (not just academic departments, but all across the board).
• Can we leverage our location more effectively? Several group members wondered why we do not yet have an agribusiness degree, for example, as that would likely allow us to market this location particularly well. That could tie in with the extant environmental studies and sustainability track.
• Strategic planning should also consider expanding curricular offerings into the health and wellness Those fields are growing and could also be attractive to donors for support. Are there other shorter-term trends that could be capitalized on effectively?
• Is there potential for collaboration with other schools, either in person or online? What niches does Monmouth fill that would be attractive to other institutions that could help build programs on both sides?

Team Six

Traditional

Columbia College – Not a competitor
Park University – Not a competitor
Upper Iowa University – Not a competitor
Webster University – Not a competitor

Other Colleges/Universities

Illinois College – Competitor
Coe – Competitor, particularly with student athletes
Illinois State University – Competitor
Western IL University – Competitor
Western IL University – Competitor
St. Ambrose – Maybe; some said Yes, others said No
Augustana – Maybe; some said Yes, others said No
Millikan – Maybe; some said Yes, others said No
Cornell – Not a competitor; although the one course per semester is attractive to some students
Bradley – Not a competitor
Knox College – Not a competitor

Non-traditional

Community College:

Carl Sandburg College – Yes
*difficult to compete with the Sandburg Promise and the Sampson Promise for scholarships for students in Knox and Warren Counties, but there is an opportunity to recruit more transfer students who want a 4-year degree and can finish at Monmouth

Black Hawk College - Not a competitor, BHC East campus has a good relationship with WIU

Illinois Central College (Peoria) – Competitor, if we are trying harder to recruit from the Peoria area
*their Peoria Promise Scholarships are hard to compete with

Certificate programs (short term formalized program) - Not a competitor
Employer education programs – Not a competitor
Central Methodist University Extension – Not a competitor

In what ways are they competing differently for students than Monmouth?

How are we competing/recruiting currently?

Recruiting good students that also play sports

Recruiting students interested in being Education majors

Recruiting students interested in being Business majors

Legacy recruiting – we need to do a better job at that; currently recruiting legacies but is it a passive process?

Too worried about the national rankings

Issues for us when recruiting and competing for students (positives/negatives)

Curb appeal – positive

Student Center – negative (cafeteria – negative)

Common application for admission – positive

Text Book Program – currently negative (Idea: pay for text books for incoming freshman)

Competing Differently:

• Others schools seem to know who they are; Monmouth does not
• Augustana College just created an agreement with Eastern IA Community College (April 6, 2021)

Augustana Next is the name of a new partnership between two Quad-Cities institutions: Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) and Augustana College

“This community partnership creates a seamless path for students between two exceptional Quad-Cities colleges,” said Augustana President Steve Bahls. “The Quad Cities needs to attract and keep bright students and their talents, and this opportunity aims to do just that.”

Through Augustana Next, students applying to EICC with the intention of completing an associate of arts (AA) degree may apply to Augustana at the same time. After completing the AA, they can continue at Augustana to complete their bachelor of arts (BA) degree.

• St. Ambrose University – heavy on Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy
• Illinois College – they pay a lot of attention to what students are asking for

Ideas:

We need to make the recruiting experience more unique and customized for each student – personal touch concept; make the students and parents feel wanted

More emphasis on legacy recruiting. Best gift an alum can give us is to send their son/daughter to Monmouth or even grandson/granddaughter

Past success with chartering buses to bring larger groups of students to campus

Offer high school field trips to campus

Students are so busy, have more options for visit days that meet their free time and works around their schedules

Offer eSports – good recruiting tool; others schools are offering it

We are known for business and education majors; bring back or enhance the entrepreneurial classes; make the senior capstone an incubator and utilize the Shark Tank concept, particularly for business majors. Any student can submit ideas and can come out of Monmouth as a graduate owning their own small business. Emphasis on science and business innovation, leverage the CSB.

Team Seven

Our team believes that Community Colleges are one of our biggest competitors currently and that we need to continue to make improvements to not only recruit transfer students, but to be prepared to welcome and support transfer student with a complete college experience.

Discussion about competition for recruitment of new students but also where students go when they leave Monmouth College (attrition).

• Many students that choose to leave Monmouth indicate they are going to go to community college
• Also, over the last couple of years, many students have left to pursue nursing degrees

Discussion occurred regarding geographic areas of recruitment. It was mentioned that Illinois is one of the largest exporters of students and that high school enrollment numbers in Illinois continue to decline. The group recognizes that admissions strategies have shifted to certain out of state markets such as Florida, Texas and Colorado. It was noted that Florida students are sometimes a challenge to retain.

It was mentioned that conversations with coaches might help determine to which colleges they most frequently lose athletic recruits. Also, does Monmouth College use the National Student Clearinghouse data to determine where students enroll that choose not to enroll at Monmouth?

In what ways are they competing differently?

Illinois College has seen significant growth in the last couple of years and is noted by a couple of our coaches as a big competitor.

In this article, it states some of the elements that contributed to their growth…

According to Chipman, several factors that have helped IC thrive in recent years include expanded academic programs like IC’s new nursing and agribusiness majors, investments in College facilities, increased donor and alumni engagement, launching online degrees and expanding opportunities for internships, hands-on learning, student-faculty research and Division III athletics.

Augustana also offers their Augie Choice program…

Augie Choice guarantees students the opportunity for the kinds of learning that will make them stand out when they start careers or go on to graduate school.

All students may apply for $2,000 to support a qualifying hands-on learning experience of their choice: internship, research or study abroad.

An average of 550 students a year use Augie Choice for international study, research with a professor, or to support a valuable but unpaid internship experience. Augustana has invested $9 million in these high-impact learning experiences in the past decade.

Another example was given of a school that had a laptop program where each student was given the exact same laptop with the needed software/programs upon entering their first-year.

It was mentioned that one of the things that attracted faculty member, Michael Prinsell, to Monmouth College was the internal funding for summer research. This is an element that should be more widely promoted as something that sets us and our chemistry program apart.

Our group also feels that the new Health Center will be a big element of attraction for incoming students.

What elements should we incorporate into the Monmouth Strategic Plan?

• Funding for experiential learning opportunities for students (internships, research, travel, etc.)
• Off-campus amenities – such as the new scooter program in Monmouth
• More focus and attention placed on personalized attention to students
• Re-evaluate our co-curricular activities to determine if we have the best variety
• Investment in our athletics as this is a huge draw for our incoming students (see recent email from Professor Connell)
• Recruiting efforts closer to campus - especially since we draw a great number of athletes and families enjoy having them close enough to see them participate.
• Alumni support of internships and off campus experiences.
• Support/programing for transfer students with respect to the on campus “experience”
• Highlight the assets of a small rural college - I saw that a lot in the narrative put out by Illinois College - “safe”, “healthy”, “trust” was used multiple times.
• Bridge programs for various needs of students - like SOfIA for academically inclined students, but also other programing for other types of students -

 

Team One

Monmouth College SWOT analysis

Strengths

• The history of the college itself
• The campus
• Sports programs
• The faculty
• Recruiting
• Endowment
• Alumni network

Weaknesses

• Monmouth (the town) / geographic location – difficult to travel to
• Declining enrollment
• Faculty / student morale
• Alumni recruiting / mentoring current students
• High-tax state (Illinois)

Opportunities

• Timing is good for new or clarified strategic direction
• People are generally receptive to trying new ideas
• Alumni recruiting / mentoring current students
• Monmouth’s rural appeal (think Covid distancing)
• Recruiting non-traditional candidates from non-traditional geographies
• Showcase liberal arts creating better, omniscient thinkers

Threats

• Declining college-aged kids
• Questionable value of a four-year degree / liberal arts / any degree
• STEM and two-year colleges
• The ever-ascending cost of a four-year degree
• The shear number of colleges in America

Team Two

Key Strategic Objectives/Areas of Focus:

• Data should drive decisions to provide cutting edge majors (ie. engineering, neuroscience, psychology, kinesiology/exercise science) and reduce/cut majors that do not help Monmouth College compete.
• Develop & provide a seamless experience for 2 year transfer students from community colleges. Make MC the best option for 2-year transfers in the region.
• Assign minority mentors to minority students to help ensure success.
• Assign mentors to first generation students - these mentors may be students.
• Market to small school students who want to continue the small town experience - they are our target market.
• Continue to invest in optimal internet broadband width/improve Wi-Fi experience on campus for all stakeholders.

-Develop/Enhance interdepartmental curricular collaborations that would attract students (ie. Sports Information)

-Programs that are developed need faculty that will stay and give programs traction (discussion of Triads: Global Health, Food Security)

-Proposed that “cutting edge learning” is different than, and preferred over “cutting edge majors.” Cutting Edge Learning demands that students engage in the learning process. We want MC to be a college of opportunities for students to learn in different ways. ie. study abroad, language immersion, service-learning projects, work with community partners

-Colleges, universities, are all like restaurants serving the same items on the menu

-Suggested an analogy that all colleges and universities are like restaurants that serve the same items on their menu, and we need to think about what makes a student choose MC over other options. Just like in a good restaurant, people will pay more for good service.

-He emphasized the importance of the campus visit and making a good first impression.

- Monmouth College is a diamond in the rough, if no one knows about us, that’s our problem. Made a suggestion to give lanyards as prospective students as they come and visit! If we are not excited about what we are selling, students will pick up on that. Reach out to past alums to have them recommend students to Monmouth.

-Collaboration between departments is sometimes a factor as faculty members want to retain students in their own fields of expertise.

-Observation that some majors have tighter curricula that don’t allow student flexibility of scheduling.

-Mentioned students seeking dual degrees (ie. engineering/language). Need to have all stakeholders informed and on board for these types of arrangements.

-We are a liberal arts college, we are not a stem or engineering college, so we want to make sure that we offer those other courses to help students be strong in the liberal arts.

Agreed with the tenets listed at the top of our minutes (first proposed by Sean M)

He comes at these issues from the perspective of a local business owner.

Data needs to drive the decisions about where the college has the best opportunity moving forward from a business perspective. It is important to the town of Monmouth that the College be a thriving vibrant community. He continued, “The development of a strategic plan right now is important because everyone has their voice heard, however once the plan comes out, all need to pull the same rope and put their ideas behind them to be part of the team going forward.” I love the ideas of mentorship at MC, the same premise works well for his business. Through this strategic planning process there has developed a better understanding of the issues that MC faces such as the biases of folks on campus. In his opinion, whatever the diversity exists on campus should be embraced with training to bring all people together. To be sustainable long term, you have to balance revenues and expenses. The endowment is not the answer, we need to increase the numbers of students on campus and increase their cost/student revenue and we need to be fiscal with expenses, making cuts where they are needed. The Monmouth business community wants to make the Downtown more appealing from the college’s perspective, to college students.

The way I see it is that we have two pools of prospective students: 1) 4 year students who seek an MC education because it affords them the opportunity to continue in a sport they enjoy competing in and 2) 2 year students coming to us after community college.

A suggestion was made to increase funds for an Agricultural Business program—with the possibility of drawing more rural students to our campus.

Team Three

No response yet

Team Four

• Emphasize athletics more
• Increase emphasis on campus visits

Chicago market

• Build and solidify community partnerships

Internships

• Sustainability projects and programs
• Attract community college transfer students
• Engage Alumni

Telling their Monmouth stories

• Athletic Teams Reunions
• Investing in the Faculty
• Faculty governance
  1. Sabbaticals
  2. Early sabbatical
  3. Cost of living raises

• Emphasize placement rates
• Rebrand and reemphasize the value of the liberal arts
  1. Skills

• Student support
  1. Health and mental health
  2. Academic support

• Learning differences
• Transportation in town
• Targeted support for groups that we struggle to retain, like African American males
• More programs for students like concerts, etc.
• More nontraditional students
  1. Both challenge and opportunity
  2. Alumni

• Continue work on diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Global learning and global experiences
• Marketing to students early in their program

Team Five

The team agreed that we have largely addressed these questions in our prior reports. That said, there were some points we felt should be reiterated or expanded upon as areas of particular focus, either as current strengths to be maintained or obstacles to overcome to increase success.

Our class size and faculty/student ratio is excellent and should be maintained. One recent article (possibly in the Chronicle of Higher Ed) noted that one key aspect of student retention is relationships: both peer-to-peer and with a professor. Students who felt a connection with even one professor are more likely to stay at a college, and our faculty/student ratio allows us to cultivate those relationships.

- Since sometimes it can be more difficult for transfer students to build those relationships, there could be an equivalent event to the Freshman Walk-Out specifically for transfer students.

We have repeatedly focused in our prior reports on technology, equipment, and infrastructure that needs to be updated and maintained. We are working with old equipment that hinders more than helps.

We need to focus on opportunities for students – again a subject of many of our previous reports – particularly in the form of internships or experiences that will help in future careers. One member noted that students today will likely switch careers several times in the course of their lives. How are we preparing students not just for their first job out of college, but for the many future jobs they are likely to have? It was also noted that opportunities can be built into the on-campus experience in the form of unpaid/volunteer teaching or research assistant positions, as long as there is someone who can coordinate those positions (related to retention of faculty and staff, a challenge we have previously noted). We could also develop job fairs not just aimed at freshmen, but at current students, that specifically connect them with employers here in town. Those part-time jobs or local internships could potentially blossom into long-term opportunities.

Focusing on town and gown connections to foster that sense of community (and increase opportunities for student networking). The town is growing; several new businesses have opened recently and there is a major rehabilitation project being planned if a grant is awarded. We have a beautiful campus that should be shown off more. There could be events on the town square including a “meet and greet” for student athletes, or additional opportunities to invite alumni to town so they can see how Monmouth (town and campus) is growing. That’s not to disparage Golden Scots or the golf tournament, but other smaller events could bring people in at other times.

- Prairie Communications is available and eager to promote any events as well.

Our athletes are a huge asset. MC may have been a little overly cautious with COVID, and students who were eager to play may have left when we did not allow fall and winter sports. Another issue is teams with far too many “players” who get no actual playing time. They often leave because they are disappointed. Should we look into the possibility of a junior varsity team or a “mini-conference” with other nearby schools to give everyone actual opportunities to play their sport of choice?

Are we marketing the liberal arts idea as well as we should be? Faculty all teach skills that any employer wants: critical thinking, communications (written and verbal), analysis, and creative thinking are at the heart of most if not all of our majors, regardless of whether they are “packaged” as humanities, social science, fine arts, or STEM field. It is that flexibility and training that makes an MC student a desirable future employee, not that they are just an XYZ major. We will prepare you for whatever life throws at you. How is that message being conveyed, and can it be done better?

Team Six

We need to find a middle ground (general consensus) among stakeholders as to who MC is, the types of students we serve best, where to find those students, how to get them here and how to keep them.

The Bridge program used to be helpful for our students, consider bringing it back. Offer a three-week intensive program prior to the start of classes to help bring along students who may have a variety of struggles – lack of study skills, first gen students who may need more time to acclimate, etc.

If recruiting from Chicago city schools, we should focus on average to above average students from these schools and gets two or three from several of them, would make great strides in recruitment in that area. Parents of those students willing to pay to help student succeed. Going after the top students in the class is difficult and parents not as willing to pay because they think student should receive a lot of scholarship money to attend schools of their choice.

Follow the Peter Pitts approach to recruiting: he was actively “selling” the college; re-instate the bus trips from Chicago area down to campus and make it convenient for the students to have a campus visit and meet students and faculty

Need to find ways in the short term to play up one of our biggest strengths – our physical campus. Keep buildings clean, repairs done. Keep grounds well maintained.

One thing that does not cost a thing – keep building personal connections with recruits and current students (admission counselors, faculty, coaches). Students will want to attend and stay where they feel like they have made friendships and meaningful personal connections.

Find ways over time to add student services. The addition of an on-campus student clinic, summer course offerings, are great examples.

Pay special attention, document and evaluate data on what potential students ask for (majors, extra-curricular, etc.) and why students choose to transfer (where are we falling short).

Who are we right now? We seem to be a “generic” college but we need to be a relevant 21^st century college. Examples: offer what current students are interested in – sustainability; carbon neutral footprint. Devote more resources to our existing educational garden and farm. We used to be a college for preachers and teachers on the prairie. Our top two majors currently are business and exercise science – focus on those as well as education major

Continue to foster relationship with CSC and with CSC students – recruit those students who earn their AA to come here and finish their BA.

Team Seven

Key Strategic Objectives/Area of Focus

Focus on recruitment and the campus visit experience

Investing resources (staff and financial) in the DIII student athlete experience

Faculty/Staff – take more opportunity to showcase quality of faculty/staff, also focus on recruitment/retention of diverse faculty/staff population

Changing the narrative regarding rural communities – focusing on the assets of rural

Value relationships and experiential learning - help students find practicality in what they are doing early on in the educational process

Emphasis on transfer (not only how to attract transfer students, but how to make them feel welcome and integrate them to campus)

Position strengths to opportunities

Holistic advising – better advising for students provides more opportunities for not only academic success, but the ability to help student feel more connected and improve retention

Utilize the current strengths of our coaches in the recruitment process – coaches give so much personal attention and prospective students are often more responsive to coaches. How can we re-create a similar model for academic programs and/or fine arts, etc.

Limit weaknesses and threats

Location of campus challenging to attract faculty/staff – change the narrative and focus of telling the story of the assets of a rural community.

Transparency regarding finances – tuition comparison, financial calculator, do a better job of showing financial resources, typical aid amounts, etc.

Student advocates to navigate financial details – better communication between student affairs and business office so students can better understand processes.

Currently the Nelnet payment plan doesn’t talk to our self-service platform, so often times billing statements are inaccurate and confusing – this should be fixed.

 

Team One

“Nothing off limits”

While there’s not “one” thing the college needs to do, there are many areas of consideration to “remake” the new Monmouth College:

• Merge with another college (Knox topped the list)
• Create alliances with two-year colleges (feeder campuses)
• Take over office buildings in major metros and offer select classes – use as feeder / remote campuses shuttling between Monmouth and major cities
  • This was enthusiastically discussed
• Robust alumni job pipeline/ opportunities after graduation

Team Two

We had a smaller group for our final meeting but these ideas were brought forward to address our areas of strategic focus:

• Use data to drive decision making process regarding who our prospective student pool is, strategically target these students for admission
• Help our students gain basic life skills, communication skills
• Can we make MC cost effective for students by decreasing tuition? What about if we make the first two years free? (in that way we could compete with junior colleges that have free programs in our area and yet attract students who want to play 4 years of intercollegiate sports)
• Create a robust Bridge Program for incoming students to help them with determinants of college success so that they have the skills to be successful at MC
• Support a Tutoring Center for our students
• Meet the needs of minority students of color in better ways that we do currently (ie. by providing faculty and student mentors, pairing students with older peers for success in their experience and retention for 4 years)
• Create a “Center for Teaching Excellence” on campus that would have a full time staff member dedicated to providing and linking our faculty with quality professional development programs
• Provide students the opportunity to take 1-2 summer courses with us over the summer as part of their tuition (over the course of 4 years, not each summer)
• Provide students a full semester long internship experience in the area of their major as part of their degree (could be either in person, near campus or remote depending on the program)
• Investigate collaborative experiences with other institutions to provide more programs that we currently can support on campus
• Offer courses/ certifications in the trades
• Add agricultural business and agricultural sciences majors to meet the needs of students in the western central part of IL (grow the home base, compliment the strengths of the area)

All stakeholders in this series of conversations expressed their interest in seeing the college succeed, even despite recent bad press and the need to balance expenses with revenue through faculty/program reductions.

All involved in these conversations believe in the power of a liberal arts education and the ability of an education at MC to better the lives of young people in our state and from across the nation/globe.

All want there to be a collective sense of ownership in the College and a pulling together of disparate groups in order to provide the unity needed to help MC get through this moment of crisis. It’s time to put away differences and do the hard work of coming together.

Team Three

No response yet

Team Four

• Emphasize athletics more
  1. Reinvest
  2. Marketing
  3. Branding (like branded busses)

• More opportunities for local high school students
  1. Dual credit

• Certificates

• Delivery
  1. In person
  2. Online
  3. Strategic Partnerships

• Ideas
  1. Information technology
  2. Data Analysis
  3. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• Community College Partnerships
  1. Pathways and degree completion

• Online opportunities
  1. Offer Acadeum courses
  2. Market online and low-residence opportunities to region

• Student Center (as a retention strategy)

1. 1. Better dining, meeting spaces, and study spaces

• New Academic Programs

1. 1. Agricultural Business (with a sustainability and liberal arts slant)
   2. Ethnic Studies
   3. Sports Management (to further capitalize on athletics)
   4. Sports Data

Team Five

The group had previously submitted a number of specific ideas to address strategic objectives/areas of focus (see attached document, which compiles excerpts from those prior submissions). Here we focused on several topics which we had previously identified as areas of concern, but had not yet offered specific ideas that could address those areas.

Mental Health:

- At the national level, Kappa Kappa Gamma has secured a grant that will provide free access to “Talkspace” (an online mental health program that links with a counselor if one is not available locally) for all Kappa members, both current and alumni. Though MC does offer Teladoc, perhaps we could look into a similar grant (or use monies from the wellness fees) that would provide free access to students since our in-house counselors are often deluged with requests. One member noted that having remote, more anonymous counseling also can be better – there can be something embarrassing knowing there is the potential to randomly run into your counselor on campus.

- Could we expand the notion of wellness activities and days on campus, perhaps having formal mental health days on campus? Think about utilizing chill spaces in several dorms or buildings around campus for those who need/want to meditate, color, listen to music on headsets – whatever individual modes of relaxation a room could offer. Blood pressure is taken when you enter and when you leave for data purposes.

- Getting back to pre-pandemic social activities is critical – not just sports, but also the Friday/Saturday residence hall activities, movies, comedians, etc. Academic Affairs acknowledges this and is eager to provide these activities (though in the past concerts, which always seem to be a good idea, have not been very successful since we can rarely secure “big-name” acts). Certain things from the pandemic will likely stay: online bingo and disco parties were popular, and residence halls will be getting more outdoor games for students.

- On a related note, sophomores will likely need to have additional support this coming year since they did not have a normal freshman year.

- Scots Day used to have other things than just sports activities (or drinking!) – there used to be quiz games, etc., to exercise brains and brawn. Could something like that be revived or revisited?

- There should be more creativity with social spaces – money was given as gifts to build a labyrinth and an amphitheater, but are those projects going forward?

- Providing spaces for students to improve social interactions could help too, such as an on-campus bar where students could go with faculty to learn how to drink responsibly/in a professional setting.

Diversity:

- Much of this ties in with recruiting, and we are obviously not doing something right there. Recent articles show that Augustana has had a 35% increase in recruitment this year, with double the number of students of color. [1] What are they doing that we are not?

- We have almost no diversity in faculty/staff/administration, and students want to see people who look like them.

- If we are considering diversity as an important issue at MC, the director of diversity cannot be another administrator that is stretched too thin with other positions – it needs to be a dedicated VP-level position. Actions need to be promoted, not just talked about. Regina Johnson and John Salazar have been doing weekly Facebook Live talks, and the DEI group has been sponsoring more activities, but it is still limited and not always coordinated (for example, the Global Scots talks this past semester were at the same days/times as the “Great Decisions” lecture series that political science coordinates that focuses on global issues, which probably halved the audience at each of those events).

- Are we leveraging our alumni as best as we can? For example, are there recent graduates that are people of color who could come back as ambassadors/interns for recruitment? There is one bilingual recruitment officer — perhaps get admissions and student affairs doing bilingual PR as well? Include former students in the DEI group? Can we leverage alumni in these fields to help with recruitment? (but what if they say no?)

- MC has a reputation that it is not particularly diverse (though that may not reflect today’s reality), so overcoming that perception without tokenizing our students of color will require specific, direct targeting.

- Dedicated support staff that have similar backgrounds and experiences as our current students will help. Need more peer to peer support groups that are mandatory for freshmen.

- Foster the notion of the “Seven Questions” campus-wide so that it permeates the campus culture. The content of the seven questions posed can change each semester but they are never far away from the faculty staff and students reach. Example of questions:1) Can you name the last 7 books your read and their main characters? What color are they? 2) Look at the last 7 people you talked to, what color are they? 3) List 7 people you personally know who have a physical disability. What have they taught you? Etc. etc. Have a forum for discussion in smaller group settings like frats and Sororities, athletics, other clubs.

- Our own backyard is diverse! Roseville-Monmouth HS is excellent potential source of recruitment if we use those resources.

Additional ideas/concerns:

- Healthcare is a rapidly growing field. — if we can invest in those fields and have accelerated programs, they can fill a void that is present in the communities. Create a partnership/relationships with local hospitals to funnel graduates into those positions? Some of the students who have volunteered at the hospitals have not had good experiences there (sat around with nothing to do). But now there is a new OSF president for Galesburg/Monmouth (Lisa Dequisel) who wants to focus on public/private partnership groups. Cottage also has a brand-new CEO and company, and alumni-owned Cottage Rehab & Sports Medicine may have potential for new relationships.

- Can we leverage endowments better to support investments in other departments (just like Chemistry)?

- Admissions/alumni need to have targeted asking for help with recruitment activities - not just “we need help” but “Hey X, we need help with Y and Z.”

- Do we need to focus on “what is MC”? What makes us unique? What experiences can we point to that would let us showcase who we are?

- Sports is a big part of our identity now, but there is a concern that academic standards are not as high as they could be so that we can retain present students (and their tuition dollars). The focus used to be academic rigor and the low student/faculty ratio, but now the group provided a lot of anecdotal evidence about students passing when they were perhaps not fully trained — and suggestions that faculty and supervisors have been asked to lower standards so that students can pass/get credit.

- Are we prioritizing niche programs too much, or short-term over long-term investments? Is there a 10-year plan put in place for all new programs, listing redundancy and back up staff/administration if the initiators of the program leave? Maybe stop one-hit wonders and look for sustainable, creative and low cost options that fill a niche. Are we marketing these niche programs to the right audiences? Can we reassess what we have here at MC and “repackage” it in a more attractive way? For example, the archaeology lab is a unique resource that can easily be marketed as an interdisciplinary program, as archaeology draws on history, anthropology, the hard sciences, and more but MC has chosen to discontinue it altogether rather than to invest in it.

- Transparency/Communications: If you need to balance PR and process, inform the stakeholders to limit frustration and animosity. We should review and evaluate current modes and lines of communication and invite input and ideas from all groups of stakeholders. Who and What are we missing in our current practices?

- Student experiences: Do we have an opportunity right now to offer a freshman class experience unique just to them, and a Sophomore experience, Junior experience, and Senior Experience that could become a new tradition of Monmouth? Each experience would tap into the notion of where they are developmentally and not only to be a relationship building experience but an educational one as well within the scope of humanities (since it seems our country is crying for more critical thinking these days!)

Additional Suggestions from Team Five

Not (or barely) addressed: Transparency/communications concerns, diversity, limited support for niche programs, mental health support

Specific ideas/questions we have put forward already:

Collaborative Processes:

• look for more shared services between MC and Western, MC and Knox or Augie, MC and WUI (library, grad degrees, career services, etc.).
• What niches does Monmouth fill that would be attractive to other institutions that could help build programs on both sides?

Technology/Infrastructure:

• ability to use technology to engage students could prove to be a far greater learning experience. For example, the ability to learn history, sociology, and geography by virtually taking students to the Smithsonian, or Rome, Gettysburg, you name it; is a very cool way to enhance retention of information as opposed to rote memorization. Finding a way to strengthen the access to the world (once we create curriculum) might prove to be exceedingly valuable. It also bridges the gap of instant gratification that our society seems to crave.
• Particularly as more and more high schools have technological assets (3D printers easily available, WIFI wireless charging stations, etc.) if Monmouth does not keep up it will seem as though we can’t even offer what students already experienced in high school. MC should not be a step down for any incoming student.
• The planetarium, which could be a major draw for science students and would be unique to colleges in this area, sits unfinished. And in some cases such as Kinesiology, we offer the degree but don’t have sufficient robust equipment to provide all of the students with the experiences they need.

Student Opportunities:

• We should consider providing more opportunities for students to take a semester off-campus in a larger city or out of state (if not abroad). Developing those types of programs would allow us to market the college as having the close-knit campus relationships available at a SLAC with the added value of having “big-city” opportunities as a component of the college experience.
• better transportation from Monmouth to Galesburg.
• opportunities can be built into the on-campus experience in the form of unpaid/volunteer teaching or research assistant positions, as long as there is someone who can coordinate those positions (related to retention of faculty and staff, a challenge we have previously noted). We could also develop job fairs not just aimed at freshmen, but at current students, that specifically connect them with employers here in town. Those part-time jobs or local internships could potentially blossom into long-term opportunities

Town/Gown Connections:

• The new STEM programs were created with the idea that there would be more potential for jobs after graduation, but can we get involved with companies in the area to develop those pipelines to place students immediately into a career that equates to long term success and marketability? Have we explored majors/programs that would directly relate to our local community (e.g., agribusiness)?
• The business community supports the college, but there needs to be additional communication from the college promoting it to the community.
• We have the potential to contact alumni in local businesses for things like internship opportunities, making use of connections at the Knox County Partnership, etc. and make stronger connections via the Wackerle Center. There should be a dedicated liaison at MC who reaches out to departments to see what students need/want in each program, and work to facilitate that with local connections.
• There could be events on the town square including a “meet and greet” for student athletes, or additional opportunities to invite alumni to town so they can see how Monmouth (town and campus) is growing.
• Prairie Communications is available and eager to promote any events as well.

Marketing the “liberal arts”/Collaborative Processes

• One member suggested that one approach could be to consider collaborative projects such as designing apps that would require input from multiple departments (Computer science for coding, applicable department for content [i.e., history students involved in researching a “historical tour of Monmouth” app], MLLC to translate the content into multiple languages, art for design, marketing for promoting the finished product…).
• That could be done by providing some brand experiences to high school students that go beyond on-campus visits; e.g. providing short term courses as a way to experience the value of a college education (summer enrichment courses both on campus and on-line would be one example).
• Encouraging students to actively use other disciplines within their home discipline – not just taking a required class, but showing how statistical analysis can be necessary for sociological research, or the app development proposal mentioned above, or having business students work with the educational garden to market their produce… these kinds of “real life” interdisciplinary projects being actively incorporated into the curriculum could help demonstrate the strengths inherent in a liberal arts education.
• Faculty all teach skills that any employer wants: critical thinking, communications (written and verbal), analysis, and creative thinking are at the heart of most if not all of our majors, regardless of whether they are “packaged” as humanities, social science, fine arts, or STEM field. It is that flexibility and training that makes an MC student a desirable future employee, not that they are just an XYZ major. We will prepare you for whatever life throws at you. How is that message being conveyed, and can it be done better?

Recruitment/Retention/Alumni:

• Are efforts being made to reach out to students who dropped out previously to re-enroll? Is there a place for nontraditional students at MC? Are there “lifelong learning” or other non-degree educational programs that could provide a revenue source for the College?
• junior college transfers may not have the emotional connection to MC that 4-year students had, so how can we entice them to our campus earlier? Would it be possible to charge less for core/requirement classes that students might take elsewhere in order to encourage them to do those classes at MC instead?
• We could even look into the possibility of letting off-campus students just take one class at a time and charge tuition for single classes, which would raise revenue.
• Some additional scholarships could be made available for academic success after matriculation at MC. Perhaps accommodations for accelerated degree completion or making community college transfers easier should be considered. In the past we advertised that “you will pay as much here as you will for a state school,” and perhaps we should consider returning to that angle?
• Carl Sandburg is partnering with Western Illinois to let students do their gen eds there and then transfer to WIU for specific programs – can we do something similar? Social media recruitment is good for students, but often it is the parents who make the recommendations/decisions – how are we reaching them? Can we create packaged PowerPoints to send to schools for easy distribution to non-tech-savvy audiences?
• Several have extremely obvious portals for different types of potential incoming students. Transfer student, adult learners, and military/veterans’ pathways were clearly highlighted on the institution’s splash page, unlike MC’s website (“Transfer students” is buried within the “Admission and aid” page, and there is no obvious path for veterans or adult learners).
• Many schools have a “hook” for students: some kind of program that gives added incentive to be there and is part of their marketing. Parkland College guarantees that students will graduate with less than $20,000 in student loans, which is an attractive offering. Augustana provides a $2000 grant to every student to be used for study abroad, research, internships (even down to buying professional clothing or paying for an apartment). MC had (has? We weren’t sure, and it is no longer visible on the website) the U=MC2 program, but that does not seem to be actively promoted anymore.
  1. Additional on-campus incentives could be considered as well. Augustana provides a scholarship of $750 to students simply for filling out the FAFSA. In contrast, a current MC student received a “Payday” candy bar for the same thing.
• finish-your-degree program for returning/adult students. This could either be for local MC almost-alums or people who have moved here from other areas who just need a couple of classes to graduate. Would there be a way to compete with that type of market?
• It was suggested that more personal connections could be forged even early on, perhaps in the form of video greetings from professors to students who show interest/aptitude in particular programs. Is the “Monmouth Story” being told from the alumni perspective as well – the “I met my spouse at MC” types of human-interest stories?
• It was suggested that the Alumni House could coordinate with other campus departments to market MC during the tournament: a “meet a professor” at each hole on the course, for example. This would help update alumni on current campus activities and help them be able to spread the word about MC as an attractive destination to their families and friends.
• Another issue is teams with far too many “players” who get no actual playing time. They often leave because they are disappointed. Should we look into the possibility of a junior varsity team or a “mini-conference” with other nearby schools to give everyone actual opportunities to play their sport of choice?
• One recent article (possibly in the Chronicle of Higher Ed) noted that one key aspect of student retention is relationships: both peer-to-peer and with a professor. Students who felt a connection with even one professor are more likely to stay at a college, and our faculty/student ratio allows us to cultivate those relationships.

- Since sometimes it can be more difficult for transfer students to build those relationships, there could be an equivalent event to the Freshman Walk-Out specifically for transfer students.

Calendar/Curriculum:

• For example, do we need to be a 4-year institution or can we consider a 3-year curriculum/a yearlong calendar without the traditional long summer break? Are there additional certificate programs that we could offer in high demand fields, industry-recognized credentials, or leadership training opportunities for students?
• Environmental studies/agribusiness could be a good partnership, for example, making use of the educational garden and farmland. Our location should be viewed as an opportunity, not just a limitation.
• Strategic planning should also consider expanding curricular offerings into the health and wellness Those fields are growing and could also be attractive to donors for support. Are there other shorter-term trends that could be capitalized on effectively?
• Many of the schools had micro-certificates or gateways into other degrees (such as MC’s former RUSH program for pre-nursing). The Scots Terms could be a good fit for appropriate micro-certificate programs, adding to the value of an MC degree without necessarily adding to the cost.
• Students do not always know what they want to do, and exposure to different experiences can help them find out. One suggestion included teaching practical skills, such as cooking classes that would teach students about good nutrition.

Mental Health Support:

• This can also take other forms such as providing spaces for students to relax and de-stress, creating places where students can have fun, and make a distinction between education and leisure time. One idea included providing more physical opportunities for students (creating a rec center with yoga classes, meditation, martial arts, spinning, etc.).

Diversity:

• we should encourage hiring more bilingual admissions staff, for example

Team Six

• Find our unique niche as a college; stop being generic and stop listening to consultants. What are we well known for? Remember that the only constant is change; we have to adapt to change but we must figure out who we are and do it well.
• Consensus on the team is that we are good at taking unfinished students from high school and making them better people.
• Build up the town/gown relationship. Some colleges and universities don’t have a strong connection with their communities, we have been fortunate over the years to have supportive community relations.

• Classics Day – this is a strong event for the College, but are we tracking the participants and sharing general College materials.
• Can All-Sports camp come back? Seems like this is a missed recruiting tool. And our alumni really enjoyed having their kids participate, it was a soft-touch legacy recruiting effort.
• Do more for legacy students, small scholarships or swag, legacy families can be some of our best advocates.
• Continue to foster relationship with CSC and with CSC students – recruit those students who earn their AA to come here and finish their BA.

Team Seven

• Utilize HT as a space for students on campus – one idea was to use some portion of HT as a laser tag arena for students.
• Improve outdoor spaces on campus for students to gather – discussed Adirondack chairs, posts for hammocks, swings/playground equipment, etc. around campus, small fire pits, patio spaces that encourage students to gather
• Increased use of outdoor spaces can also promote student wellness on campus
• Launch a general student survey so that students can share ideas of what they would like to see on campus or what is missing
• Student, faculty and staff involvement in campus beautification projects could potentially increase connections and improve moral
• Consider living/learning communities or theme houses that allow students to live with students of similar academic or co-curricular interests
• To highlight the quality of faculty/staff and the personalize relationships, consider surveying alumni to request anecdotes regarding their personal experience with faculty/staff on campus and share that in marketing materials and/or encourage admission counselors and Scot Ambassadors to share these stories – enhance the narrative of the value of a residential liberal arts experience
• Highlight faculty that engage students in the lived experience, for example VITA. Also, VITA serves a void in the local community. What other gaps exist and how can our students engage in experiential learning opportunities that also serve the greater good of the community
• Increase opportunities to teach students life or “adulating” skills such as negotiating a contract, navigating a rental contract, balancing a check book, understanding 401K, etc.

[1] https://www.kwqc.com/2021/05/20/augustana-college-sees-increased-enrollment-for-fall/