Strategic Initiatives

The following prioritized initiatives and programs will guide our time, effort, and resource allocation to achieve our priorities and goals. These initiatives will translate our vision into results and ensure that every step aligns with our priorities.     

By focusing on the highest-priority impact areas, we will drive progress, foster innovation, and enhance our operational excellence. Each initiative is a critical component of our strategic roadmap, providing clear direction and measurable outcomes in pursuit of creating the extraordinary.

The following initiatives are not intended to be exhaustive of all initiatives implemented as part of this strategic plan. Additional initiatives will be solicited during the operationalization phase.

Phases of the Strategic Plan

  • SI 3: Alumni Relations

    The Alumni Relations department and the Alumni Board have re-engaged to rebuild alumni relationships through alumni events and improved communication and engagement. Building and strengthening alumni relationships is paramount to achieving many of the College’s strategic goals and is necessary for many other initiatives to succeed.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal C.1 : Support a vibrant community culture and experience that fosters creativity, curiosity, belonging, accessibility, and well-being
    • Goal C.3 : Cultivate and strengthen robust alumni relations and engagement and increase campus involvement

  • SI 5: Retention Initiative

    The Retention Initiative pulls together a cross-divisional council to analyze and address the first-year undergraduate student retention rate. This initiative will create retention goals across the institution (i.e. within individual majors, for specific populations, etc.) and will build both holistic and area-specific strategies to meet those goals. This initiative will locate and address key barriers to retention, including financial challenges; academic and curricular barriers; structural deterrents; and broad student concerns and needs. These efforts reflect a commitment to inclusion and belonging, as well as to creating a vibrant community where all students can be high-achieving scholars, creatives, and communicators.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal B.1 : Enhance Emerson Los Angeles and increase engagement and recruitment in targeted US cities and regions
    • Goal B.2 : Enhance Kasteel Well, global programs and partnerships, and increase international student recruitment from targeted regions
    • Goal C.1 : Support a vibrant community culture and experience that fosters creativity, curiosity, belonging, accessibility, and well-being

  • SI 6: Emerson Branding Initiative

    Through external and internal research involving deep engagement with Emersonians, the Emerson Branding Initiative will allow the College to evaluate Emerson’s position in the marketplace and impact on cultural and prospective student conversations. This initiative will craft an updated expression of the Emerson College brand that authentically represents the College and effectively highlights the unique value of an Emerson education. The process will allow the College to refresh the key messaging and creative expression of the brand, inform all of the College’s communication platforms and materials, and provide clear guidelines and tools for Emersonians as brand ambassadors.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal D.3 : Refine and elevate Emerson’s branding, positioning, marketing, media, and engagement with priority audiences

  • SI 7: Emerson Career Readiness Initiative

    The Emerson Career Readiness Initiative will gather, assess, review, and analyze current career development programs to improve and expand career initiatives at Emerson. This initiative will document current programs and resources, curate data on each program, and assess its effectiveness (job placement, salary, internships, etc.). It will also benchmark Emerson’s programs against peer institutions. This initiative will develop plans for potential investment, realignment, new programs, program integration, potential staffing, and targets for new comprehensive and coordinated career readiness programs, emphasizing increased alumni involvement and mentoring.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.3 : Expand and strengthen career readiness for all students
    • Goal B.3 : Develop and diversify industry, organizational, and community collaborations and partnerships

  • SI 8: Strategic Enrollment Plan

    This initiative involves developing a new comprehensive strategic enrollment plan for Emerson College focused on its mission, fostering growth, and ensuring excellence. It emphasizes strategic recruitment in key markets, utilizing data analytics to enhance enrollment, optimizing financial aid, and strengthening Emerson’s positioning. Key aspects include promoting inclusive access while boosting success through innovative programming, improved partnerships with high schools and communities, and retention strategies for undergraduate and graduate students. The strategic enrollment plan will attract, enroll, and retain an inclusive student population, supporting Emerson’s long-term goals and priorities.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal B.1 : Enhance Emerson Los Angeles and increase engagement and recruitment in targeted US cities and regions
    • Goal B.2 : Enhance Kasteel Well, global programs and partnerships, and increase international student recruitment from targeted regions

  • SI 9: Media Arts and Ventures

    Emerson College is advancing and elevating the arts and media that serve, support, and enrich our campus and local communities. Through the Division of Media Arts and Ventures (DMAV), we will strengthen, coordinate, and strategically align our constellation of arts and media assets, positioning Emerson as Boston’s preeminent cultural destination and serve as a national model for arts-integrated higher education. DMAV will also explore and develop new opportunities for sustainable revenue generation, ensuring that Emerson’s distinctive creative assets are leveraged to their fullest potential.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal B.4 : Expand external engagement and integration with our local communities through arts, media, service, and civic engagement

  • SI 11: Internal Communications

    This initiative focuses on how the College fosters communication with and among members of the Emerson community. By developing people, processes, and products to support these efforts, the College will communicate administrative and academic priorities and goals more clearly and foster multidirectional communication with people across our campuses. These efforts will promote organizational alignment and bridge-building, supporting both the elimination of redundancies and the force-multiplication of efforts through shared intelligence. More effective internal communications will empower community members to feel engaged with and champion the Emerson College brand.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal C.2 : Strengthen internal communication, engagement, and collaboration among students, faculty, staff, and administrators

  • SI 12: Institutional Research and Data Initiative

    This initiative will evolve the College’s institutional research capacity to holistically track the student journey from admissions to job placement to drive opportunities that improve yield, retention, engagement, and outcomes. It will also assess performance against the strategic plan by measuring outcomes of strategic initiatives, identifying risks or new opportunities based on trends, and performing continuous peer benchmarking and environment scanning to perform mid-term adjustments to the plan. This initiative will perform targeted market analysis to identify opportunities and workforce needs to inform the launch of new programs and identify strategic partners in industry for institutional leaders to pursue. Finally, the goal is to build a team that will serve as the central hub for ongoing analysis of program effectiveness and institutional efficiency, lead accreditation processes and compliance reporting, and reduce the administrative burden of departments College-wide. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal D.2 : Develop coordinated enterprise data systems, analyses, and infrastructure to inform strategic decisions and direction

  • SI 13: Queer Media and Arts Center

    Emerson’s Queer Media and Arts Center brings together faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners focused on research, creativity, service, and teaching in queer arts and media as part of Extraordinary Emerson 2030. The Center supports interdisciplinary research, curricular innovation, and creative practice that critically examine culture and representation. As a collaborative space for scholars and artists across disciplines, the Center will coordinate research opportunities, support graduate and undergraduate researchers, advance fundraising, and serve as a thought leader for the broader creative industries. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.1 : Increase innovation, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration throughout the academic enterprise

  • SI 14: Emerging Technology Initiative

    This new initiative will help the College rethink how emerging technology interacts with students, faculty, and staff in a forward-thinking manner. It will focus on expanding support for teaching that goes beyond traditional models. This effort will also establish an ongoing assessment process to ensure cutting-edge technologies remain embedded in current facilities, curricula, and organizational structures. This approach will facilitate the seamless integration of emerging technologies such as XR and AI into academic and co-curricular activities, ensuring the continuous strategic and creative use of facilities in Emerson’s unique context.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.2 : Enhance student education and institutional capacity in emerging media and technologies
    • Goal A.4 : Recruit, develop, and support an innovative and inclusive faculty
    • Goal B.3 : Develop and diversify industry, organizational, and community collaborations and partnerships

  • SI 19: Campus and Facility Master Planning

    This campus-wide initiative will create a new Campus Master Plan to optimize space utilization and maximize the efficiency of existing facilities to support faculty, staff, and students while planning for future growth and evolving institutional needs within the existing footprint. It will adjust deferred maintenance to ensure buildings are well maintained; strengthen community collaboration; and create an accessible, vibrant campus that fosters collaboration and engagement and strengthens ties with the City of Boston. Finally, it will enhance campus sustainability by implementing environmentally sustainable practices to reduce the College’s carbon footprint, ensuring long-term operational resilience and preparing the campus for future environmental challenges. This effort will provide sufficient support and planning for regular renewal and support of existing spaces. It will also plan to integrate efforts across multiple campuses, ensuring that resources, facilities, and programs evolve to meet the College’s long-term goals.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal C.4 : Use facilities strategically and creatively to enhance the Emerson experience

  • SI 21: Leadership and Management Institute

    Emerson’s new Leadership and Management training programs will allow employees to learn from and engage with the College’s leadership and professionals. This professional development program will be an excellent opportunity to continue enhancing and reinforcing Emerson’s leadership culture and driving collaborative behaviors. It will serve all managers, supervisors, and academic administrators and focus on management and leadership best practices and professional development.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal D.4 : Recruit, develop, support, and retain an innovative and inclusive professional staff

  • SI 23: Student Modernization Initiative

    The Student Modernization Project is a transformative, five-year initiative to improve how students are supported through administrative processes. For one part of this project, the modern, mobile-friendly platform, Workday will replace Banner. This project will fundamentally redesign the student academic journey and internal administrative operations by providing students with self-service tools to map their own degree progression and plan flexible, career-aligned academic paths. By unifying student records across academics, financials, and advising into a single source of truth, the initiative will reduce departmental silos, process redundancies, and manual data entry. This will empower faculty and staff to collaborate more effectively and focus on higher-value student support. Ultimately, the project will create a secure, scalable, and adaptable infrastructure with robust reporting capabilities, enabling data-informed strategic decisions and ensuring the institution can evolve with best practices.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.1 : Increase innovation, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration throughout the academic enterprise
    • Goal B.3 : Develop and diversify industry, organizational, and community collaborations and partnerships
    • Goal C.2 : Strengthen internal communication, engagement, and collaboration among students, faculty, staff, and administrators
    • Goal D.2 : Develop coordinated enterprise data systems, analyses, and infrastructure to inform strategic decisions and direction

  • SI 24: Creativity@Emerson

    Creativity@Emerson is dedicated to emboldening and elevating creativity at Emerson College and beyond. Building on Emerson’s reputation for creative excellence, Creativity@Emerson draws upon faculty expertise, immersive and innovative learning environments, and public engagement opportunities to enhance and expand students’ educational journeys, preparing them to thrive as innovative thinkers, problem-solvers, storytellers, and creators in a dynamic and ever-changing world.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.1 : Increase innovation, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration throughout the academic enterprise
    • Goal A.3 : Expand and strengthen career readiness for all students

  • SI 25: AI@Emerson

    The AI Initiative positions Emerson as a leader in the responsible and creative use of artificial intelligence across teaching, learning, and operations. Co-led by Academic Affairs and IT, the initiative has published institutional Guiding Principles for AI use, launched ai.emerson.edu as the community’s central AI resource, deployed a ten-video AI literacy training program for faculty, staff, and students, distributed comprehensive Course AI Policy guidelines and considerations, and funded faculty-led pilot courses integrating AI into filmmaking on the Boston and Los Angeles campuses.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.2 : Enhance student education and institutional capacity in emerging media and technologies
    • Goal A.3 : Expand and strengthen career readiness for all students
    • Goal D.2 : Develop coordinated enterprise data systems, analyses, and infrastructure to inform strategic decisions and direction

  • SI 10: Campus Alumni Center

    Emerson has identified the need for a physical Alumni Center on the Boston campus. The Center will house the Alumni Board meetings and the Alumni Relations staff and be an essential stop on campus tours for prospective students. The Hall of Honor will showcase alumni accomplishments from across industries, demonstrating the power of an Emerson education. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal C.3 : Cultivate and strengthen robust alumni relations and engagement and increase campus involvement

  • SI 16: Global Engagement Initiative

    The new Global Engagement Initiative reimagines Emerson College’s approach to internationalization, setting the stage for transformative global impact. This initiative focuses on expanding global partnerships and pathway programs, creating innovative dual-degree models that enhance cross-cultural learning, and attracting an inclusive and talented international student body. By fostering more substantial connections with international alumni, Emerson will build a vibrant global network that supports lifelong engagement. Additionally, the initiative emphasizes institutional capacity building through global collaborations, positioning Emerson as a leader in arts and communication education on the world stage. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal B.2 : Enhance Kasteel Well, global programs and partnerships, and increase international student recruitment from targeted regions

  • SI 17: Comprehensive Campaign Research

    A critical piece of the strategic plan is identifying the significant funding needed to accomplish many of our goals. This initiative will provide the scaffolding for Emerson’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign. The strategic plan’s early launch will align with the planning stages of a fundraising campaign, including a feasibility study and readiness assessment.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal C.1 : Support a vibrant community culture and experience that fosters creativity, curiosity, belonging, accessibility, and well-being
    • Goal D.1 : Increase financial strength through innovative academic and programmatic offerings, increased philanthropy, and operational efficiencies

  • SI 18: Emerson Experience Initiative

    The new Emerson Experience Initiative will draw upon our communication and arts strengths to create more creative and vibrant campuses and more dynamic and joyful experiences for all Emersonians. This initiative will contribute to our local, national, and global communities; break down barriers; and provide touchpoints for connecting with neighborhood communities in Boston, Los Angeles, and Well. It will also increase meaningful experiential and community-based learning opportunities for Emerson students. Thus, it should bring more laughter, fun, and positivity to all Emersonians. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal C.1 : Support a vibrant community culture and experience that fosters creativity, curiosity, belonging, accessibility, and well-being
    • Goal C.4 : Use facilities strategically and creatively to enhance the Emerson experience

  • SI 15: Strategic Cities Initiative

    This new initiative, based on the successes and opportunities from Emerson Los Angeles (ELA), will focus on New York City; Washington, DC; Atlanta, GA, and/or other cities in the US. The initiative will provide opportunities to think imaginatively about Emerson’s next level of success in terms of partnerships, internships, career and job placement, alumni engagement, student recruitment and retention, innovative degree models, and capacity-building initiatives. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal B.1 : Enhance Emerson Los Angeles and increase engagement and recruitment in targeted US cities and regions
    • Goal B.2 : Enhance Kasteel Well, global programs and partnerships, and increase international student recruitment from targeted regions

  • SI 20: Executive Education

    Building on the initial gains of Professional Studies, Emerson will investigate its potential role in the landscape of executive education, offering non-credit courses and micro-credentials to post-baccalaureate professionals seeking to increase their expertise in specific areas. Offered by existing faculty, accomplished alumni, and high-profile professionals in their fields, these courses and programs will situate Emerson in a new market in Boston, LA, and internationally. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal D.1 : Increase financial strength through innovative academic and programmatic offerings, increased philanthropy, and operational efficiencies

  • SI 1: Academic Review and Future Visioning

    This initiative began in Fall 2024 to create a bold and future-focused academic infrastructure for Emerson’s future. The project involves mapping current educational programs and priorities and analyzing the future direction of arts and communication disciplines to provide recommendations for future growth and investments. This data-driven project engages faculty, staff, and students to review curricula, majors, minors, and interdisciplinary programs and consider programs to create, improve, change, or sunset. 

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.1 : Increase innovation, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration throughout the academic enterprise
    • Goal D.1 : Increase financial strength through innovative academic and programmatic offerings, increased philanthropy, and operational efficiencies

  • SI 2: Faculty Research Hub

    Emerson faculty expands the boundaries of research in higher education, advancing knowledge, creating change in the world, investigating complex problems, and creatively bringing ideas to life. The Emerson College Faculty Research Hub initiative launched in Fall 2024 to improve synergies among faculty researchers, fund individual and collaborative research internally, and raise awareness of Emerson faculty research expertise externally.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.3 : Expand and strengthen career readiness for all students
    • Goal A.4 : Recruit, develop, and support an innovative and inclusive faculty

  • SI 4: EmersonTogether

    EmersonTogether was created in Fall 2024 to help the community come together around solutions and shared values to address institutional silos and tensions. EmersonTogether is a living initiative supporting a spectrum of involvement across the silos that can sometimes form in higher education communities. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni at all of Emerson’s sites can contribute.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal C.1 : Support a vibrant community culture and experience that fosters creativity, curiosity, belonging, accessibility, and well-being

  • SI 22: Emerson Master Classes

    The Emerson College Master Classes Initiative offers curated opportunities for alumni, parents, and friends to share their insights with the Emerson community. The program connects students with accomplished professionals and industry leaders in the arts and communication across Emerson’s campuses, providing the real-world expertise essential for career readiness.

    Goals Supported

    • Goal A.1 : Increase innovation, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration throughout the academic enterprise
    • Goal A.2 : Enhance student education and institutional capacity in emerging media and technologies