The St. Thomas Board of Trustees unanimously approved a new strategic plan, “St. Thomas 2020: Living Our Mission, Expanding Our Horizon,” Nov. 20.

President Julie Sullivan announced the approval Dec. 2 via an email to the St. Thomas community. According to Sullivan, the new plan will enable St. Thomas to thrive in the rapidly changing environment of higher education.

The plan’s vision statement reads, “the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic comprehensive urban university, is known nationally for academic excellence that prepares students for the complexities of the contemporary world. Through disciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiry and deep intercultural understanding, we inspire students to lead, work and serve with the skill and empathy vital to creating a better world.”

Theology professor Corrine Carvalho, co-chair of the oversight and implementation committee, said the committee is currently forming plans for implementation.

“Certain key people have been contacted about some of the roles that they’ll have to play in the implementation,” Carvalho said.

The plan has five themes: excellence in learning and student engagement; education informed by Catholic mission; diversity and inclusive culture; globalization; and one university.

The eight priorities of the strategic plan are educating for the future; flexible pathways into UST, within UST and to the job market; enhanced visibility and profile; global connections; embracing our differences as one human family; Catholic-inspired community engagement; integrated and expanded health and wellness programs; and integrated planning.

Carvalho said the new plan will include a comprehensive review of the whole undergraduate curriculum.

“We’re going to be looking at the size of the majors, the core requirements,” Carvalho said. “We’re looking to create an undergraduate curriculum that’s more flexible for students, provides them with more opportunity to explore, and that can take shape in a variety of ways.”

According to Carvalho, St. Thomas may address these goals by looking at how credit hours and tuition are structured and the sizes of different programs. Carvalho said one consideration is adding a full-time tuition system.

“A lot of universities do this, you can take between X and Y number of credits if you’re full time, (and it costs the same),” Carvalho said. “That’s one of the main things that I think undergraduate students would be interested in.”

Other highlights from the eight priorities, according to Carvalho, are more opportunities to interact with the outside community and enhanced undergraduate student engagement with diversity.

“There is also the exploration of a college of health or increased majors related to health and wellness,” Carvalho said. “The first step in that is going to be really assessing what we already have, where we can build on that … and then whether we can do it with the structures that we have now or if we need to create a school of health in order to grow that properly.”

Additional goals of the new plan are better engagement with non-Catholic students, faculty and staff and drawing students from across the country.

The committee is creating eight task forces to address each of the strategic plan’s priorities. Carvalho said most of the chairs for the task forces have already been selected, and other members will be hired between now and mid-January.

Senior Mariann Kukielka, a student representative on the strategic plan steering committee, said it’s exciting to have the plan approved.

“It’s like the feeling when you finish a marathon,” Kukielka said. “I remember last January when we first brainstormed the major themes, and it took all day just to get down to our five. And now there are specific goals in place to take the next steps to advance our community, and it’s very exciting.”

Kukielka said it was daunting in the beginning to be the only undergraduate student on the committee.

“I wanted to make sure I was an accurate representation of the undergraduate student voice,” Kukielka said. “Other committee members would turn to me asking for the undergraduate student perspective on certain things, and I appreciated the opportunity to voice things I’ve heard my fellow students express.”

Kukielka said she’s optimistic about the task forces.

“I know that the right people will be working in the right areas and that our goals for the future will be addressed with enthusiasm and passion,” she said.

Jamie Bernard can be reached at bern2479@stthomas.edu.