Phase 2

Planning underway

Student Success

The Student Success Initiative fosters a coherent and holistic approach to ensuring student retention, graduation, and overall success. This initiative builds on findings from the 2024 External Review and will create equitable, targeted student outcomes by addressing key barriers, such as financial challenges, curriculum limitations, and broad student concerns and needs, while improving communication and collaboration across campus. These efforts reflect a commitment to inclusion and belonging and developing a vibrant community where all students can be high-achieving scholars, creatives, and communicators.

Performance Targets Include

  • Increase undergraduate student 4-year graduation rate to at least 80% by Spring 2027 
  • Increase first- and second-year undergraduate student retention to at least 90% by Fall 2028

Goals Supported

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

Strategic Enrollment Initiative

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.

Performance Targets Include

  • Expand the number of overall applications by 10%, decrease the admission rate by 5%, and increase overall undergraduate enrollment by at least 10% over Fall 2024 numbers by Fall 2026 
  • Expand graduate enrollment by at least 15% over Fall 2024 numbers by Fall 2027

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

Community Arts and Media

Emerson College is endeavoring to advance and shine a spotlight on the professional arts and media that serve, support, and advance our local and campus communities. Through the Community Arts and Media (CAM) Initiative, we will strengthen and coordinate all community-facing, professional arts and media initiatives across the College. While Emerson’s core teaching and learning mission is paramount, greater strategic and tactical alignment of the arts and media with that mission will also be a primary goal of CAM, along with increasing Emerson’s community visibility and impact while exploring opportunities to increase revenue. 

Performance Targets Include

  • Develop and implement a new organizational structure for CAM by Fall 2025
  • Ensure all student internships within the arts and media units have formal linkages to academic programs by Fall 2026

Goals Supported

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

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. 

Performance Targets Include

  • Launch an Alumni Center on the Boston campus by Spring 2026 featuring exhibits on the history of Emerson, an alumni hall of honor, and event space
  • Grow the number of alumni visiting the Boston campus, measured year-over-year by Alumni Center visits beginning in Spring 2026

Goals Supported

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

Internal Communication

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.

Performance Targets Include

  • Launch a comprehensive plan for campus internal communication leveraging multiple communication channels by Fall 2025
  • Expand internal communication satisfaction by at least 10% annually from Fall 2026 to Fall 2028 as measured by internal satisfaction surveys

Goals Supported

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

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. 

Performance Targets Include

  • Launch a comprehensive plan for campus-wide Institutional Research and recruit a new leader for IR by Summer 2025
  • Establish and maintain a dashboard for assessing strategic plan progress by Fall 2025

Goals Supported

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

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. 

Performance Targets Include

  • Establish a comprehensive plan for increasing student, faculty, and staff satisfaction and joy within their respective campus experiences by Spring 2026
  • Increase year-over-year self-reported well-being and satisfaction across all audiences on all campuses starting in Spring 2026

Goals Supported

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

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.

Performance Targets Include

  • Develop and/or expand opportunities for supporting and training managers and administrators throughout the faculty and staff by Fall 2025
  • Increase annual staff and faculty retention rates by at least 5% by Fall 2026 based on annual HR data tracking

Goals Supported

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