New Baylor Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan Addresses Changes in Higher Education
The College of Arts & Sciences, Baylor University’s largest academic unit, has released its new five-year strategic plan, A&Spire in Deeds. The plan is designed as a response to Baylor’s latest strategic plan, Baylor in Deeds, and documents how the College will help the University meet the goals of its ambitious plan.
A&Spire in Deeds succeeds the previous five-year Arts & Sciences strategic plan, A&Spire to Illuminate, which was launched in 2020.
“Our previous strategic plan helped us increase retention and graduation rates in the College of Arts & Sciences, and it increased our investment in endowed chairs and professorships,” said Dr. Lee C. Nordt, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. “It also led us to create new majors and minors, increase our Ph.D. production and raise more than $160 million as part of Baylor’s Give Light philanthropic campaign. But we have much more to accomplish, and A&Spire in Deeds will be our roadmap in reaching our new goals.”
Nordt said A&Spire in Deeds addresses some of the evolving challenges facing higher education, including the growing presence of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the classroom, the need to balance traditional classroom learning with engaged learning opportunities outside the classroom, and responding to changing global cultures and identities.
“The world is shrinking at a rapid pace, and that requires us to take a more outward-looking view involving multifaceted experiences and viewpoints to navigate this new world,” Nordt said.
A&Spire in Deeds includes six foundational pillars which define elements at the core of almost everything within the College of Arts & Sciences. The pillars include: Transformational Education; Research Excellence; Global Engagement; Faculty Development; Faithful Stewardship; and Christian Commitment.
To help advance these foundational values, the new Arts & Sciences plan calls for achieving 18 separate goals, which include:
- improving retention and graduation rates
- giving students more practical work experience both on and off campus
- expanding lifelong learning opportunities for alumni and community partners
- increasing external funding for researchers by 50 percent
- developing new interdisciplinary graduate programs
- increasing global educational opportunities for students
- helping faculty remain on the cutting edge of research
- facilitating faculty access to new materials for teaching
- maintaining a commitment to the Christian tradition
- raising the funds needed to support the plan’s goals
In addition to its foundational pillars, A&Spire in Deeds outlines three ambitious strategic initiatives involving faculty, staff and students –– The Human Project, The Health Project and The Technology Project. According to the plan, “The Human Project draws from Baylor’s exceptional scholarship in the arts and humanities with its unique and historic commitment to the Christian tradition,” while The Health Project is built upon the College’s strong foundation of health-related research and teaching, and The Technology Project “builds on existing strengths in data and materials sciences.”
The Human Project strategic initiative “envisions a new and yet undetermined future for the humanities at Baylor” by seeking to cast “an ambitious, interdisciplinary, forward-looking approach to being human.” It does this by asking four timely questions about the humanities, and recommends almost a dozen projects in response, including:
- expanding research focusing on bioethics, disability studies, and food and ecology
- creating an AI/Data Ethics Collaborative
- building upon creative work in the arts, including the Christianity and the Arts Initiative
- engaging in digital and public humanities initiatives
- cultivating partnerships with national universities and institutions that extend the College’s commitment to diversity
- advancing and broadening the research focus on global Christianity
- cultivating projects that emphasize ethical global citizenship and leadership
The Health Project is designed to reaffirm the College of Arts & Sciences’ longstanding commitment to health-related research and education through five separate research projects:
- The Toxicology, Diseases and Infections Initiative
- The Baylor Interdisciplinary Cancer Initiative
- The Baylor Water Security Initiative
- The Baylor Clinical Research Initiative
- The Baylor Clinical Research Hub
The Technology Project seeks to address the challenges posed by advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies through initiatives in the areas of data science and materials science. The project calls for increased interdisciplinary research into both areas, working alongside faculty from the Baylor School of Engineering and Computer Science. It also proposes the creation of a Data Science Service Hub and a Materials Science Center for Characterization to support these efforts.
A&Spire in Deeds was created with input from department chairs, faculty and staff from the College of Arts & Sciences over the 2023-2024 academic year. In the spring of 2025, departments and programs within Arts & Sciences will be asked to respond to how they will contribute to the implementation of the new strategic plan.
ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 11 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website.