Benedictine’s Eight-Year “Greatness” Plan

Things have been extremely busy in our office for the last few weeks. Here is why.

Benedictine College has launched “Benedictine 2020: A Vision for Greatness,” a strategic plan that was created by the faculty, staff, administration and board of directors to make Benedictine College “one of America’s great Catholic colleges.”

The plan can be found here, along with other materials: http://www.benedictine.edu/2020

“Benedictine 2020 focuses on achieving academic excellence,” says the plan. Then it lists four priorities, before spelling out plans beneath each one:

• Priority 1 will add more faculty in an effort to “Recruit, retain and develop one of the great Catholic college faculties in America.”
• Priority 2 will sharpen the college’s emphasis on “real results” for students in order to “Enroll, engage and educate students capable of transforming the world through intellectual, personal and spiritual greatness.”
• Priority 3 recognizes that the college has built nine new residence halls since the year 2000, as well as a grotto and state-of-the-art new academic center and seeks to “Build, maintain and beautify the facilities and technological infrastructure needed to serve our mission with excellence.”
• Priority 4 will dramatically increase the college’s endowment as it seeks to “Secure, sustain and steward the human and financial resources necessary for one of the great Catholic colleges in America.”

Benedictine 2020 is also a strong reaffirmation of the school’s Catholic identity. It lists “faith” under each of the four priorities, and in the first priority gives this vision of the Church and the truth:

“Benedictine College is committed to sharing with all members of our community the beauty and mystery of the Catholic faith as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and handed down through the teachings of the Church,” says the plan. “As a Catholic college, we consider faith and reason as ‘two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of the truth.’ [John Paul II, Fides et Ratio]  Benedictine 2020 is aimed at fostering this understanding of the distinctive benefit of a Catholic education.”

Benedictine College is the birthplace of Focus, the Gregorian Institute and the new Institute for Missionary Activity. The plan is to retain our status as “The flagship college of the New Evangelization,” calling on the college to:

“Institute programs that train students to be disciples in the modern world and advance the mission of the Church in the world through the study and implementation of the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the call for a New Evangelization. Train students to effectively develop and lead projects that advance Gospel values.”