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Campus News
As we enter this season of gratitude, I want to share my appreciation for everyone who makes Clarke such a special place. I am grateful for the hard work, dedication, and spirit of community that defines our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and board members. May this Thanksgiving bring you moments of rest, reflection, and joy.
November brought cooler temperatures, but that didn’t stop our cross country teams from delivering outstanding performances at the Heart of America Championships. They brought home 12 personal bests and broke both 6K and 8K school records. In addition, Jaycie Franco and Rory Bickler qualified for the NAIA Championships for the second consecutive year. Along with this, Rory placed first in the Women's Championship Race! Congratulations to all of our runners who competed and made this event a memorable one.
On November 8, we celebrated First Generation Day—a day to honor our students, faculty, and staff who are the first in their families to pursue a college degree. Today, nearly 1 in 4 Clarke students identifies as first-generation, a testament to the resilience and determination within our community.
On November 11, members of our community gathered for a flag raising ceremony to honor all military veterans. It was an inspiring way to begin the day.
This Friday, we look forward to welcoming 120 local high school students to campus for an Art + Design Workshop. The day will include a career panel, a tour of the art department, a Regional High School Exhibition reception, and several hands-on workshops. Later that evening, we will host Mark Zalaznik ’18 in the Lion’s Den for a live music performance, providing people with a fun opportunity to unwind.
Strategic Plan Update
The Plan’s goals are: Live Our Mission and Values, Empower Student Success, Sustain Institutional Vitality, and Cultivate a Lasting Legacy.
We continue to make significant strides in achieving the goals and objectives of our Strategic Plan, and that was one topic of discussion at the Board of Trustees meeting last week. Among the new initiatives discussed were the Clarke Promise Program and the Direct Admit Program. Clarke’s Promise Program offers full tuition to Iowa’s most economically challenged students, and the Direct Admit Program admits first-year students based on a self-reported GPA of 3.0 or higher. We look forward to seeing the impact these programs have on the goals of “living our mission and values” and “empowering student success.”
The goals of “sustaining institutional vitality” and “cultivating a lasting legacy” were also discussed at the Board meeting. The Blue Skies Think Tank, which I’ve mentioned in previous updates, has fulfilled its mission to imagine a future Clarke, with no limits hampering that imagining. Our work has naturally evolved into developing a plan to sustain Clarke and our legacy. As a result, an Extended Cabinet, with representatives from University leadership, the Board of Trustees, BVM sisters, faculty, and staff, has met for several weeks, and its recommended plans were submitted to the Board and approved. Therefore, Academic Affairs is reviewing several new and innovative areas of study in order to enhance our program offerings, and we are exploring strategic partnerships in order to remain, as Mary Frances Clarke said, “progressive with the times.”
Higher education continues to grapple with significant challenges that necessitate change. And we greet those challenges as we perpetuate our historical legacy—a community that has evolved by “working unitedly” (more wise words from our foundress) and striven to be “progressive with the times.”
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