Planning at Earlham

This site is a reference point for some of the planning and visioning projects at Earlham.

The current Strategic Plan was approved by the Board of Trustees in early 2003. The Strategic Plan provides a framework for college governance by identifying key agenda items and budget priorities for the next ten years.

The Environmental Plan (approved 2005) is an assesment of how Earlham impacts the environment, what steps have been taken to reduce impact, and what could be done.

The current Master Plan (approved in 2004) is a theoretical blueprint for possible future expansions of Earlham's campus.

The Diversity Plan (approved in 2002) is a vision statement and guiding plan outlining the aspirations of the Earlham community in regards to diversity.

Planning is a distinctively human activity, a process of stepping outside the mindset of our everyday activities to review the past, take stock of the present and imagine the future. Elton Trueblood once said, "We have made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when we plant shade trees under which we know full well we will never sit." Over the past several years, Earlham has engaged in a number of separate, but interwoven, planning processes. In each case, we have examined our mission, assessed current activities and resources, and articulated future institutional goals to carry that mission forward. It has been important to understand that any such plan represents, essentially, an outline of intentions and that any healthy institution must balance the integrity of past commitments with the need for flexibility and adaptation to a future whose form we can only guess.

The various plans described herein are serious statements of institutional intentions, rooted in careful appraisal of the mission, values, and traditions of the college as well as the growing body of data gathered through institutional research. These plans have grown out of extensive consultation within the Earlham community. Still, the products of this planning represent only the starting points for future decision-making about programs, personnel, and facilities. There are no fixed outcomes dictated by these plans. The planning process has certainly enhanced Earlham's sense of institutional identity and the existence of such plans will offer efficiency to future deliberations. Decisions we reach should, generally, be consistent with the relevant plan(s). However, there is a quality of openness to each plan that will allow us to adapt to ever-changing challenges even while remaining faithful to the defining principles of that plan.