Our bold plan is to build areas of excellence that allow us to fulfill our mission while clearly signaling our priorities and distinctiveness. These areas of excellence will address contemporary questions and challenges that require going beyond the specialization of a single discipline. They will provide our students with a distinctive and compelling education, while continuing to build a world-class faculty.
Democracy and Citizenship
Our nation is struggling with polarization, extremism, a vacuum in leadership and incivility. Our focus on democracy and citizenship leverages our long tradition of excellence in the study of politics. It will also focus on building up our new Public Policy Program, which will educate students by focusing on real world solutions infused with a focus on the common good, care for the poor and families, and ethical leadership. It foregrounds our new Cornerstone Program – an undergraduate living and learning community that invites students to consider the themes of citizenship and belonging. It will stand up a new undergraduate society aimed at cultivating the ability to disagree without being disagreeable. We will rejuvenate our Politics major by investing in new faculty and by building out high quality, curated internships and partnerships with think tanks, NGOs, federal agencies, and our alumni network on the Hill. We will also rejuvenate the teaching and research of social structures in our social science majors in order to attain excellence in economics and sociology.
Catholic K-12 Education
Education around the nation is at a critical inflection point. Parents are eager for an excellent education that eschews politicization and focuses on fundamentals. Families who want Catholic education want this and more – they want vibrant, joyful excellence Catholic schools. We will reclaim our national leadership in this area, in partnership with our new Institute for the Transformation of Catholic Education (ITCE). We will provide a rich education for future Catholic school teachers, graduate education for Catholic school principals and diocesan superintendents, and curriculum resources for Catholic schools across the nation. We will grow our new Lumen Accreditation for Catholic Schools; create certificate programs for educational leaders across the country focused on educational resources, marketing, and financial training that they need to be effective leaders in today’s landscape.
Mental Health and Wellness
Our nation is experiencing a crisis in mental health, particularly among emerging adults. We will continue to build on the success of our Psychology Department, the second-largest major in the School, with its nationally prominent faculty members, who have distinctive areas of expertise that are vital for addressing the mental health challenges of today. We will retaining our focus on resilience studies, positive psychology, human flourishing and wellness that is key to the sound reputation of our Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology. We will maintaining Dr. Jobes’ Suicide Prevention Lab, the source of some of the most innovative and effective strategies for intervention in the nation. We will also continue to grow our innovative Bridge Program, a three semester co-curricular program that focuses on building robust habits for comprehensive success for our undergraduate students.
Humanities
The humanities are the place where meaning is sought, interpreted and transmitted across generations. It is also undergoing a precipitous, national decline in the study of the humanities. At a time when students are hungry for this meaning, they are given overly specialized and highly politicized approaches that do not generate sustained interest and do not help them answer the important questions. We will meet this challenge by creating opportunities for our students to learn about the meaning behind our engagement of history, english, language, and culture in ways that help orient them to ethical, meaningful lives of purpose and beauty.
Sciences
Building on our strong foundation in research and education, we will foster a forward-looking science and math initiative aimed at cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders and moving the frontiers of science, in alignment with the University’s ambition to achieve R1 status. We will establish a transformative interdisciplinary research center (e.g. “Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies and Transformative Technologies), designed to take advantage of the synergy needed between science, engineering, mathematics, and humanities to foster collaboration between various science, engineering, and mathematics departments with a focus on areas with potential for significant breakthroughs (e.g., nanotechnology, predictive biology, personalized medicine, advanced clean and sustainable energy). We will prioritize the ethical implications and societal impacts of emerging technologies. Scientists will work with scholars in the humanities to promote an understanding of the human elements in scientific innovation, stressing ethical and social responsibility such that the new science and technology is beneficial and equitable for society. We will also create an interdisciplinary research center to foster collaboration between various science departments and other disciplines; it would focus on areas with potential for significant breakthroughs (e.g., nanotechnology, predictive biology, personalized medicine, advanced clean and sustainable energy).
Information Technology and Society
Information technology is growing in its scope and impact. These emerging technologies are changing the landscape of work, communications, and political and social life. They can threaten human dignity by focusing exclusively on quantitative measures and efficiencies. At the same time, they are enormously powerful tools that can be used to improve lives and organizations. We will build a new division in the School focused on meeting the demands of emerging technologies while safeguarding human dignity in work, social, and cultural life. This will include the Library and Information Science Program and a new Information Systems Program that will address the growing tendency of organizations and employees to be overwhelmed by questions of choosing which data to use and how to use it most efficiently and effectively. We will hire faculty for the division who can work across divisions on data analysis, organizational systems, and digital humanities to upgrade our curricula and research.