Notre Dame College...Becoming the finest, small, Catholic,
liberal arts college in the Great Lakes region
Notre Dame College Self-Study Report
Chapter 3: Alignment
One of the Core Components of this criterion is that “All levels of planning align with Notre Dame College’s mission, thereby enhancing its capacity to fulfill that mission.” As noted above, “The College’s overarching goal, however, is not simply to survive, but to survive within a mission-focused context”. That is, the College does not simply seek to survive; it seeks to survive in order to fulfill its mission as a Catholic college rooted in the charism of the Sisters of Notre Dame that educates a diverse population in the liberal arts for personal, professional and global responsibility. Every planning activity remains focused on mission. When new programs are considered, they are evaluated from the vantage point of the metaphor of three lenses: how does the program contribute to mission effectiveness, how does the program contribute to financial health, and what are the facility and staffing requirements? Table 3.3, IPPC Program Lenses Analysis illustrates this process.
Table 3.3: IPPC Program Lenses Analysis
View Table 3.3: IPPC Program Lenses Analysis
(PDF File IPPCProgramLensesAnalysis.pdf, 208KB)
Goal #1:
To create a distinctive Notre
Dame College education
anchored in the liberal arts,
attuned to professional
preparation, cognizant of
students multiple learning
needs and styles, sensitive to
its Catholic heritage, and
focused on the need to not
only prepare students to earn
a living, but to learn how to
live a life.
Notre Dame College clearly identifies authority for decision-making about organizational goals.
By representing the entire campus community in the membership of IPPC, and by engaging in both formal and informal campus conversations with staff, students, administrators, faculty, the Faculty Senate and its committees, and the Board of Directors, the College demonstrates its commitment to hearing all voices as it plans for its future. A particularly exciting time for those conversations will be in Spring and Summer, 2007 and the 2007 – 2008 academic year as the College community grapples with the Strategic Thinking document in order to complete a strategic plan by Summer, 2008.