Strategic Plan

• Through a comprehensive rebranding process, Iona reexamined and redefined who it is, what it stands for and what makes it special. The rebranding resulted in a new logo, tagline, color palette, key messages and identity promise. As the new brand rolls out over the next several years, “Learn Outside the Lines” represents Iona’s current brand position and vision to provide national leadership in service learning, experiential and entrepreneurial education, innovative pedagogy, and community and civic engagement.
• In Fall 2020, the new Iona.edu website launched, bringing a dynamic, bright and fresh design. Better navigation and mobile-friendly interface along with simplified and clear admission, financial aid and academic programming pages deliver a much-enhanced user experience. As we continue to develop and build content for the iona.edu website, a laser focus on prospective and current student audiences will support our enrollment and retention goals.

• Under a single Senior Vice President, the Enrollment and Student Affairs areas began a realignment aimed at leveraging natural synergies among the units in order to support recruitment and enrich the student experience, thereby bolstering retention. Expanded and intentional cohort recruitment, new student orientation programs, and first-year experience support programs were launched and will continue to be built upon.
• In 2021, Iona’s inaugural Chief Diversity Officer was appointed as a member of the President’s Cabinet to serve as an integrated leader with the purview to organize, increase, and highlight efforts across the campus promoting and sustaining a strong sense of belonging, equity, and inclusion.
• Through the Spring and Fall 2020 terms, Library & IT Services have mobilized in support of mixed mode course delivery and new pedagogical and curricular needs engendered by our institutional response to the pandemic.
• Through the work of the Strategic Innovation Committee, the partnership between faculty and Library & IT Services is continuing, with the intention of establishing, through structured consultations in a studio setting designed to solve specific problems, a common conceptual framework and toolbox to enrich teaching and learning, and develop norms in a discipline appropriate way, beyond the demands of the pandemic.
  • Faculty-led Teaching and Learning Circles, along with the Presidential Roundtables launched in January 2021 to explore mixed mode teaching/learning solutions and experiments, are complementary keystones in the development of a vibrant institutional response to the challenges facing higher education, a response that we are committed to keeping centered on the core activities of teaching and learning.
• Essential systems and technology-supported processes will be revised to improve user experience in the service of student and employee support. Integrated software solutions enabling self-service across a multitude of areas from student recruitment and engagement to degree audit to human capital management that have already been implemented, or are in process, include:
  • Handshake
  • Paycom
  • Slate/Microsite
  • uAchieve Degree Planning solution.

• Following the roadmap laid out in our Undergraduate and Graduate Academic Plans, the College will explore additional offerings over the coming years in the areas of particular interest to incoming students.
• Leveraging learnings from successes already noted in Occupational Therapy and Nursing, an expansion of Allied Health Offerings will lay the foundation for a future School of Health Sciences; health disciplines under exploration include Athletic Training, Exercise Science, Neuroscience & Cognitive Disorders, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant, and Radiology.
• Other areas of potential expansion include Business and Biology, both including pre-professional programs, along with Criminal Justice, Psychology, and Education.
• Iona will also look to increase undergraduate to graduate combinations so that every undergraduate program has a pipeline to one or more graduate programs.

The creation of a hub of student activity around student support services including advising, enrichment, research and tutoring, is under review. There is a great deal of student support currently underway that will yield far greater impact if leveraged and coordinated to maximize student experience.

Iona will explore additional ways to raise the reputation and prestige of the program and yield more students, including offering guaranteed internships, faculty mentoring and research, and study abroad opportunities. With the assistance of donor funding, Iona will review the feasibility of launching an Honors College and Honors Residence Hall with space for guest lectures and special programming and events.

• Students who are recruited into teams, organizations, and clubs have a better college experience by virtue of joining us with an immediate support system of friends with a common interest. Each area of focus for cohort recruitment will have established goals for yield and retention. 
  • Performing Arts – A Director of Performing Arts was hired in January of 2021 and will begin to build a portfolio of performing arts programs including band, dance, theater, and chorus.
  • Varsity Sports – Pending the availability of additional field space working with College partners, Iona will review the feasibility of offering additional varsity sports in Lacrosse, Tennis, Field Hockey, and Track and Field.
  • Club Sports – Formalized and structured through organizations such as the National Federation of Collegiate Clubs and Sports, club sports can offer a competitive environment for student athletes in areas such as E-sports, Basketball, and Tennis.
  • Community Service – The College will leverage a campus culture already prioritizing community service with the aspiration to become a national leader in service, experiential learning, and community engagement. Building on the Iona legacy of teaching and service, the College will help students translate their service to practical workforce and life skills.
• Co/extra-Curricular – By intentionally connecting co-curricular experiences to student learning outcomes and workforce competencies, Iona will ensure graduates have the capabilities and skills employers are seeking. Iona graduates will be adaptable, flexible, agile, and able to work effectively in a team environment. A few areas that will be of focus in accomplishing this include:
  • Academic Clubs
  • Greek Life
  • Internships
  • Student Leadership

• As a college situated in a wider ecosystem, Iona must break free of the confines of a traditional academy divorced from economic, community, and civic contexts. Leveraging and strengthening partnerships in the community are critical to the College’s success. Areas of strategic focus include:
  • Concordia College
  • New York Presbyterian Hospital System
  • New York Archdiocese
  • Corporations
  • Montefiore Hospital System
  • City of Mount Vernon
  • City of New Rochelle
• Several initiatives will be made possible through some of these partnerships, including mentoring opportunities for Iona students, career pathways and a potential Lab School. Many of these present considerable funding opportunities while matching critical need to available resources. 
• Most important of these initiatives is our proposed purchase of the Concordia College campus and our emerging plans to center a School of Health Science on that site. Additional details of the Concordia opportunity will be shared in a further planning update as the deal comes to fruition.

We continue to view the challenges and opportunities before Iona through the lens of the three goals articulated in the Five-Year Plan -- Student Success, Academic Excellence and Distinctiveness, and Talent -- and have adopted strategies in pursuit of each. As of January 2021, several notable successes have been realized in these areas.

• New leadership in Enrollment Management has enacted an integrated admissions plan supported by enhanced communications and processes. Utilizing targeted micro-sites and offering extensive opportunities for potential students and families to engage with the College, the new plan also implements a targeted High School Counselor communication strategy. As a result of these changes, several successes have been realized.
  • Results for academic year 2020–2021 included a 16% increase in freshman enrollment year over year (745 vs. 642), with a class maintaining a strong academic profile: 3.4 GPA, 1103 SAT, 4.4 CV.
  • Enhancements to the Honors Program, including a streamlined acceptance process, resulted in rejuvenated applicant interest, increasing enrollment by 58 students (80%), with an appropriately strong average academic profile: 4.0 GPA, 1233 SAT, 11.3 CV.
• The offices of Enrollment Management and Student Life were brought together under unified leadership for a more integrated view of student experience.
• Programmatic efforts at retention have yielded strong results, increasing first to second year retention from 72.3% for the class of Fall 2018 to 77.1% for Fall 2019 (census data 9/30/2020).
• The Registrar’s adoption of the uAchieve Planning Solution to support degree planning in Spring 2021 is the first in a series of planned system enhancements to support student advisement and success.

• Progress on the Undergraduate Academic Plan implementation:
  • The Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation launched two new programs, a Bachelor of Business Administration in collaboration with the LaPenta School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in collaboration with the School of Arts and Science. By January 2021, more than 50 students had been admitted to these programs for the 2021-2022 academic year.
  • Allied Health Programs
    • The Nursing Program launched in May of 2020 and is currently the #1 enrolled or applied-to program for 2021-2022.
    • The Occupational Therapy program, launched in 2019, is on track to recoup its capital investment and produce cumulative positive cash flow in year 3.
    • Additional programs in Allied Health are currently under review.
• In 2020 the Annual Provost Programming, Planning, and Budgeting Review was instituted to track and improve student engagement by department/program.
• Provost Innovation Grants
  • In 2020–2021, seven projects were selected and funded to design or significantly revise curricular content to advance student engagement and learning outcomes.
• The Hynes Faculty Fellowship Program
  • The program serves as an important catalyst to bring innovative pedagogies into various disciplines.  During its first three funding cycles, the Hynes Institute has awarded grants to eleven projects from Ten departments.

• A Summer Institute in Innovative Pedagogy is under development for 2022, continuing the effort begun in Summer 2021.
• Faculty-led Teaching and Learning Circles with two areas of focus are ongoing; faculty-led professional development initiatives include:
  • Improving classroom engagement, especially in remote and mixed mode teaching.
  • Antiracism pedagogy and curriculum development.
• At the recommendation of the Strategic Innovation Committee of faculty and staff, a formal approach to the institutional advancement of innovation in teaching and learning, and a commitment to building a unifying technological platform to support it are in progress.