2023 - 2028 Strategic Plan


Strategic Plan 2023-2028


PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE


In his fourth and last book before his assassination, “Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community” (1967, p. 209), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. observes:

 

“Universities adapting to the new needs of the day must learn how to develop the abilities of people who have had trouble with school in their youth and have not earned their credentials. They should be trained on the job, get university credit for their experience, learn in relevant courses and develop a liberal-arts knowledge that is built around their concerns. We need what S.M. Miller has called ‘second-chance universities.’A democratic educational system requires multiple doors.”

 

While Dr. King wrote those words decades ago, they remind higher education, particularly community colleges, of our civil rights imperative. We need to keep multiple doors of opportunity open for our students. Students deserve access to teaching and learning opportunities that help them follow their dreams. It is our charge to offer students different paths to choose from, guided by the intelligent and generous support of the entire college community. 

 

The responsibility to provide a just and equitable educational experience is a through line in this 2023–2028 Strategic Plan. Its six goals and 21 strategies were developed through an evidence-based, participatory process to offer mission-aligned ways our campus community and external stakeholders can collaborate toward our shared interests in student success for all. Our aspirations for the impact of this plan extend city-wide. Our student-centered and equity-focused agenda will help our University make progress toward the goals, initiatives, and targets outlined in CUNY Lifting New York, 2023–2030 system-wide strategic plan.  

 

I am most proud of how this plan balances supporting students intellectually and practically. We understand we need to build students’ sense of belonging and community on campus, alongside making sure they have the resources they need to stay in college and find upwardly mobile careers to support themselves and their families. However, as a college, our core purpose is engaging students academically. Our academic offerings must teach students how to think and learn. All students, no matter their socioeconomic status, should have the right to be part of an intellectual community. They deserve opportunities to develop their passion for knowledge within fields of study well beyond what they imagined when they first walked in our doors. 

 

This plan is a flexible, living document that turns these values into action via an annual process of planning and reflection that divisions, departments and units will participate in. It remains true to our mission, offers ways to improve the student academic experience, and builds our capacity to give all our students options once they leave us. What appears on the following pages champions community interests too, articulating multiple pathways by which community residents can come to us and benefit from our offerings. 

 

As we mark our 55th anniversary, we now have the roadmap we need to serve as an ongoing source of learning and mobility in the South Bronx. 

 

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Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Ph.D.
President
Eugenio María de Hostos Community College, CUNY



 

HOSTOS PLAN FRAMEWORK 2023–2028:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


This strategic plan was developed via a yearlong participatory process through which hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and community stakeholders participated.

SIX GOALS AND 21 STRATEGIES

The following are our defined areas of focus for the next five years.

GOAL 1: Equitable access to higher education at Hostos for our diverse student population

  1. Implement a comprehensive and integrated First Year Experience (FYE) program for all Hostos students.

  2. Offer an integrated and multi-phased student advisement model.

  3. Effectively communicate student support resources to all students.

  4. Strengthen students’ ability to finance their higher education.


GOAL 2: Build a culture of justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion at Hostos

  1. Increase JDEI-related education opportunities for faculty and staff.

  2. Institutionalize JDEI-related policies, processes, and structures.

  3. Encourage faculty to establish a more culturally diverse, inclusive pedagogy and curriculum as a requirement for all programs while respecting academic freedom.

  4. Institute JDEI-related climate assessment practices.

  5. Strengthen inclusion, belonging, and equity of experiences for student constituencies experiencing inequitable outcomes.


GOAL 3: Promote English and Math learning

  1. Facilitate successful student navigation through Gateway courses.

  2. Build student desire to pursue further learning in English and Math.


GOAL 4: Academic programs that balance intellectual growth and workforce preparedness

  1. Ensuring progression of intellectual growth in Gen. Ed. coursework.

  2. Strengthen infrastructure of Liberal Arts degrees and options to make Liberal Arts a degree of choice.

  3. Strengthen experiential learning and career preparation across majors.

  4. Measure and develop foreign language and technological competencies across majors.

  5. Develop the institutional infrastructure to deliver quality online academic programs.


GOAL 5: Increase student socioeconomic mobility

  1. Increase career exploration and placement support for Hostos students.

  2. Strengthen transfer to BAs and beyond.


GOAL 6: Champion social justice for the South Bronx

  1. Strengthen systems for mission-based strategic collaboration across sectors.

  2. Expand Hostos’ arts and culture offerings for students and the broader community.

  3. Strengthen K-12 partnerships to support career and admission pathways into Hostos.



 

PLAN IMPLEMENTATION AND ASSESSMENT


At Hostos, we have a robust operational planning system in place that is described in detail in the College’s 2022 Self Study. This involves the creation of annual overarching operational plans that share divisional priorities for each year, which then inform unit-based plans, called A-PARTs. Operational planning and A-PARTs will now align with this new college-wide strategic plan. Each year, all academic and non-academic units across the College will articulate their strategic plan-related activities, reporting out progress multiple times each year, and using year-to-year progress to inform future work.

In addition to undertaking divisional processes to plan, reflect and make adjustments to actions, college-wide leaders will similarly gather to set priorities and discuss progress, so that the course of action can continuously adjust and improve. This includes progress toward quantitative and qualitative measures, including:

  1. Strategy progress indicators (SPIs), which represent study areas to help Hostos faculty, staff, and administrators track if and how the activities undertaken are having their intended impact. The SPIs are included in the detailed plan narrative.

  2. Measurable college-wide key performance indicators (KPIs), which represent indicators of progress toward the collective activities of this plan. These are largely pulled from the CUNY Performance Management Process (PMP) indicators, which are tracked across CUNY colleges.

     

    HOSTOS COLLEGE-WIDE KPIs 2023–2028
    Total headcount enrollment (including first-time freshmen, transfer, re-admits, and non-degree students)
    Student retention rates (Fall to Spring/1 term, 1-year, and 2-year)
    Student persistence rates
    Graduation rates (2-year and 3-year)
    First-year credit accumulation (20 credits or more, 30 credits or more)
    Gateway course success (English and Math)
    Student transfer rate (post-graduation)
    Graduate wages (1 year, 3 years and 5 years post-graduation)


Each year, based on the College’s operational planning process, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Assessment (OIERA) will take the lead in tracking those SPIs connected to where the work in the operational plan is most concentrated. KPIs will also be tracked annually. A KPI public dashboard will be created and consistently updated to show five-years of data for each KPI. SPI data that is more quantitative will also be reported via the dashboard. Progress toward SPIs that are more qualitative in focus will be shared via research briefs on a rolling basis each year.