Our Foundations and FrontiersOrganization: Our strategic goals will require large-scale coordination, and the plan places an emphasis on building healthy academic organizational structures (departments, centers, programs) with effective faculty leadership and long-term planning. It also makes room for flexible approaches to academic oversight through bodies such as planning boards. The School will strengthen its procedures for the regular review of all of these entities. Sustaining a highly skilled and creative staff is essential to carrying out our strategic goals in terms of program coordination, the provision of technical expertise, the management and development of resources, and the delivery of outstanding customer service. The School must continue to incentivize and reward staff excellence and remain one of the top places to work in the Philadelphia area.
Funding: Providing financial support for the School’s highest priorities will require a combination of effective stewardship of its current resources as well as the aggressive pursuit of new ones. SAS must be vigilant in sustaining its culture of operational and financial efficiency in all of its activities. We will continue to diversify our portfolio of externally-sponsored grant support. Our pursuit of innovative non-traditional programming through the Division of Professional and Liberal Education will not only extend our educational reach but also offer new revenue streams. The plan’s priorities also offer a crucial guide to our fundraising efforts. The School’s ability to achieve its fundraising goals in support of faculty, undergraduate and graduate financial aid, the integrating knowledge initiatives, and facilities will also be an important indicator of our success.
Infrastructure: Cutting-edge research and teaching require specialized physical resources and tools. In support of its strategic goals, the School will invest in the following capital projects that will ensure the ongoing renewal of its facilities:
- Complete construction of the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, in support of the initiatives in Global Inquiries and in Public Policy and Social Impact
- Complete construction of the Neural and Behavioral Sciences Building, which will support the Mapping the Mind initiative
- Address the space requirements associated with the Energy, Sustainability, and Environment initiative
- Address the space requirements associated with the Humanities in the Digital Age initiative
- Resolve the need for teaching space that supports new forms of pedagogy
Keeping pace with advances in information technology will be paramount to the work of faculty, students, and staff across SAS as well as to many of the specific initiatives of this plan. The School will sustain its high performance computing in the natural and social sciences, including in support of the activities and infrastructure that will support our initiatives in Quantitative Explorations of Evolving Systems and Mapping the Mind, and will also build capacity in the humanities in support of our digital humanities efforts. Our instructional support will continue to evolve so that we can make the fullest use of the latest online and other teaching and learning technologies to enhance pedagogy.