fter completing the Elon Vision in 2001, which developed Belk Library, Rhodes Stadium, McMichael Science Building and raised academic qualifications as well as other aspects, President Leo Lambert realized another plan would need to be implemented immediately to make sure the school continued to flourish.

Elon is always guided by a strategic plan, since we are a big planning-oriented culture and are always thinking where we want to be, Lambert said. Annually, the planning committee sets priorities about where we want to focus and what pieces of the plan we can achieve [for the coming] year.

Originally comprised of 16 trustees, alumni, faculty, staff and students, the task force began meeting to implement their ideas in 2000 and wasted no time to set their overarching goal To be a national model of engaged learning, founded upon our traditions of innovation and community.

Quickly crafting their ideas into reality, new facilities, resources, staff, programming and student requirements began to be implemented and appear around campus in 2001. [For a full list of accomplishments please see visit www.elon.edu/e-net/newcentury/]

Expected to be finished in 2010 or early 2011, the plan has come a long way, but still has substantial pieces missing, Lambert said.

To ensure the best quality is produced from the project, he said a Phase II slowly emerged to make sure the big picture of the plan continues to stay intact.

We created Phase II because we wanted to take a refreshed look at the plan and come back and remind ourselves of what we wanted to achieve and add new objectives, Lambert said. [We want to make sure] we can hold our heads high and acknowledge that our plan was completed with a great deal of excellence having been achieved.

There is no clear-cut demarcation point between the phases, Lambert said. However, he also said Phase II is set to be approved by the Board of Trustees in April and will place an emphasis on enhancing academic excellence, providing facilities to support excellence and providing resources to support excellence.

In large measure a lot has already been done, Lambert said. But Elon is a dynamic environment and is always changing, so there are still a lot of important things left to do.

Among the to-do list, Lambert personally highlights building a long-term endowment and fundraising program since the current major source of revenue is tuition and number of students.

If we want to continue to grow in quality as an institution, we are going to need a new revenue stream, he said. It is absolutely pivotal and essential to our future.

But despite all the changes that have occurred and those that are planned for the future, many students are unsure or even unaware of the NewCentury@Elon program altogether.

Junior Megan Farrell said upperclassmen in the communications or business departments have an edge on understanding the plan, since the school they are majoring in went through an accreditation period while they were attending. However, she said her peers that do not fall into this category are generally uninformed about the changes.

It was clear there was something more behind it that was driving it, but it was never started that there was this whole plan or anything else, she said. You dont realize that its connected completely across campus.

Lambert said he thinks the plan floats in and out of student consciousness since visual reminders cannot represent all of the changes being made on campus.

Less visible elements, such as investing in tens of thousands of new books and digital collections, are all really important to the quality of our institution but may not be as noticeable as a construction crane, Lambert said. But you have to realize these are mostly stretch goals. We have to learn to measure our progress and stay committed and focused on our goals.

While there are still a few years left to complete the project, Farrell said as long as we follow the pattern we have taken to get here we should have no problems with future plans.

So far the project has been really, really progressive and successful and now its just a matter of them implementing everything they have planned for, she said. It makes the campus look better, gives our degrees more worth in the long-run, and builds us up to be recognized as more of a real, esteemed college.

During a voluntary survey conducted Feb. 19 through 20 by The Pendulum, students and faculty annoymously expressed their opinions regarding the NewCentury plan.

I feel well informed after the decisions have been made, an anonymous student said. [However,] as current students and future alumni of Elon, I think we should be more informed of the prospective changes and have a say as a student body as to the measures that should be taken regarding NewCentury@Elon.

While meetings are held occasionally, Lambert has created an online form to add local input [see above box].

While Lambert hopes student and faculty involvement will increase, he also hopes the changes will boost Elon to gain a national reputation.

The goal of this plan is to make sure students degrees are as valuable as possible when they leave and continue to gain in value over time, open doors for them, and give them a second-to-none education, he said. In order for that to happen we have to make sure that the great work that is being done here is known beyond the bounds of campus and part of the challenge is to tell the story of what a fine institution this really is.

Overall, he said, Phase II has been implemented to ensure the progress continues to move forward.

You can easily become adrift or even slide backwards if there are no goals set, so we have to make sure not to focus on the small pieces because then the big pieces may become stagnant, Lambert said. In order to do that we need a plan the university can agree is in our best interests and common good, and right now that is what Phase II is focusing on.

Special Features Editor: Andie Diemer - 02/22/07