Strategic Plan

Approved October 2011
Updated 2012, 2018 and 2024

Preamble: Our strategic plan provides us a vision as well as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals for the way the department exists within the university and the way it carries out its mission. The university strategic plan is to be an institution where "graduates will be prepared for lifelong learning, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society." In alignment with the university strategic plan, the department declares the following goals.

Goal 1: Reinforce our student-centric approach to teaching.

By combining academic and professional-level rigor, we will continue to play to our strengths as a small, highly-selective liberal arts university by delivering intensive, hands-on, individualized experiences for students, and ensure that we continue to create conditions that allow everyone to thrive.

1. The department will continue to build the Strategic Communication program with new courses, such as a public relations campaign class.

2. We will continue our tradition of engaging with the Journalism and Strategic Communication professions to ensure our course content stays current with industry practices, technology and needs.

a. We will continue to bring to campus speakers who reflect not only traditional news practices and values but also experts in emerging media and strategic communication.
b. We will add new or freshen existing courses to focus on emerging communications issues and essential skills, such as artificial intelligence, entrepreneurism and branding.

3. While respecting the tradition of independent student media at Washington and Lee, we will look for opportunities to help improve their quality.

a. We will encourage the department's alumni Advisory Board to establish relationships with editors of The Ring-tum Phi to offer informal advice, critiques and other forms of assistance.
b. We will continue our practice of responding to requests for workshops for student media, as well as offer critiques and guidance when asked.
c. We will build on the successful revamping of WLUR radio station programming with courses in podcasting and other audio tools

4. We will encourage faculty to take a hands-on, holistic approach to supporting students' academic success and personal growth in advising.

a. Each faculty member will meet in person with every one of their on-campus advisees before each registration period.
b. The department will maintain up-to-date information about the requirements for our majors and our minor in accessible formats for all students, including paper handouts and on our website.

Goal 2: Work with the university to strengthen the department's practice of inclusive excellence and belonging - particularly in the areas of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic background - of our community.

1. Faculty will practice inclusive teaching by ensuring that readings and assignments in our courses address diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to economic, racial, gender, sexual preferences, and global issues

2. Each academic year, at least one-third of the department's speakers will be diverse in terms of race and gender identification, including guests we invite to campus and others we host in our classrooms via Zoom

3. We will continue to seek opportunities to work with the university's Admissions Office to identify and recruit qualified minority applicants who are interested in journalism and mass communications.

4. We will build relationships with area high schools to recruit students to our program and to W&L. This will include regular guest lectures by faculty at Rockbridge County High School.

5. We will work with the university's Admissions Office to participate in the Advanced Immersion and Mentoring (AIM) program, which W&L holds each summer to host incoming first-year students of color. Specifically, we will host Journalism and Strategic Communication workshops where incoming first-years can work with faculty and current students.

7. In upcoming searches for full-time tenure-track faculty members, visiting professors, adjuncts, and staff we will value a candidate's ability to contribute to our efforts at diversifying our faculty and expand our students' understanding of the world around them and its myriad constituencies.

a. The University already requires each search committee member to have a training every three years on implicit bias. We will continue to participate in this effort.
b. We will continue our participation in the AEJMC job hubs to recruit a diverse pool of candidates to apply for our openings. We will advertise with appropriate groups that serve underrepresented minorities in our field, such as the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

8. We will continue to work with the university's Development Office to identify ways to increase our available funding to support internships for students who need financial assistance.

9. We will require the department's Diversity Committee to give semi-annual progress reports on our diversity goals.

10. Faculty will participate in interviews of students who are seeking the Johnson, Bonner and Questbridge scholarships as key pathways for the university to attract a diverse student body.

Goal 3: Encourage and support faculty in their scholarship pursuits and in service to the communications professions, the academy, the university and the community.

1. We encourage faculty not only to maintain their connections to the profession, but also to raise their profiles in the academy by attending and playing key roles in their areas of expertise at academic and industry conferences. Each faculty member will strive to attend at least one professional, industry, or academic conference each year.

a. By doing so, we also will instill in students the value of the academic side of communications and encourage them to attend and participate in conferences, such as Society of Professional Journalists, the Public Relations Student Society of America, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, the Online News Association and others.

2. We will encourage tenured faculty to serve on university committees.

3. We will mentor both tenure-track and tenured faculty to encourage their development as superior teachers and scholars.

a. We will monitor our individual course evaluations and respond promptly to valid criticisms to ensure that our teaching is of the highest caliber.
b. We will participate in the university's Fall Academy workshops to share and learn about new pedagogy.
c. We will encourage all faculty to invite colleagues a minimum of twice a year to attend classes and offer suggestions for improvement.

4. We will promote research and scholarship that inform teaching, our fundamental mission.

a. We will continue to encourage our faculty to apply for support for summer research and scholarship projects that support faculty-undergraduate collaboration, including the Lenfest grants.
b. We will continue to support and encourage faculty to apply for university financial support to attend and present papers and act as respondents and panel participants at academic conferences.
c. We will exchange ideas about our research in progress at informal coffees or brown-bag lunches that meet three times during Fall and Winter terms.

5. We will encourage our majors to enter state, regional and nationwide competitions for student journalists.

a. The internship coordinator will oversee entries selected from internship work for regional and national competitions, including those sponsored by Hearst, SPJ, ONA, Scripps Howard, SABEW and the Virginia Press Association.
b. The internship coordinator will encourage independent student media to enter national, regional and state competitions.

6. We will earn re-accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2025.

a. All faculty and staff will contribute to our self-study in 2024-25, with the goal of submitting it to ACEJMC in the fall of 2025.
b. Dr. Coddington, the department head, will work with the dean's, president's and provost's offices, the department's administrative assistant, and other university support personnel to facilitate the site team visit during the 2025-26 school year.

7. We will engage with our alumni.

a. With support from the department's staff, we will use email, Facebook, and Instagram to let our graduates know of new events, opportunities to speak in classes, and other communications that will keep us connected.
b. We will hold annual meetings with the department's alumni Advisory Board and divide it into subcommittees that will confer by email or conference call as needed.

8. We will heighten our profile in the local community and acknowledge the community's role in helping to educate our students.

a. We will advertise the availability of The Rockbridge Report as a news source for the local community.
b. We will continue to work with W&L Office of Community-based Learning to offer strategic communication products and consulting to local nonprofits, both faculty expertise as well as course-based projects.

Goal 4: Improve our facilities and resources.

We will maintain and upgrade our resources to ensure that our curriculum remains relevant and prepares students for the workplaces they will enter and eventually shape.

1. The department will continue to work with the Office of University Development to cultivate donors to help us improve and expand the integration of technology in our curriculum, on both the journalism and strategic communication sides of our program.

a. We will convert the current green room (Reid 307) into a collaborative workspace for strategic communication students that includes iMacs outfitted with state-of-the-art software utilized in persuasive communications.
b. We will renovate Reid 314 and 315 so the spaces are unified as a newsroom, teaching space and production lab for the Rockbridge Report and other skills courses.

2. Given our commitment to providing our students with quality multimedia skills, we willcontinue to urge the university to create a technology endowment as part of its strategic planning to alleviate our dependence on capital budget requests to purchase big-ticket items that are essential in journalism and mass communications education today and in the future.

3. We will explore possibilities of adding one-credit modules to our curriculum to introduce students to various aspects of technology earlier in our programs.

4. We will regularly refresh membership on our department's alumni Advisory Board to ensure that members represent the full range of current communications professions. We will consult members often for curricular advice.

5. We will strengthen our students' and department members' exposure to global issues by encouraging faculty to develop study abroad courses and to encourage students to take advantage of such opportunities.

a. We will look for international expertise when selecting our speakers, visiting professors and permanent hires.
b. We will be more proactive about encouraging students to pursue international internships and attempt to use all available international internship funds each year
c. We will encourage students to become fluent in at least one other language and to seek bilingual internships.

6. We will maintain a superior internship program that offers our majors appropriate opportunities for professional practice.

a. At the August retreat, the internship coordinator will report to faculty results of thatsummer's intern placements and highlight any areas of concern.
b. We will continue to require students to learn abo ut timely professional issues during their internships - such as the financial structure and health of their employers and the use of social media - and report their findings in internship papers and oral presentations.