Harvest Our Treasures
The Seton Hall University Strategic Plan
"When so rich a harvest is before us, why do we not gather it?
All is in our hands if we will but use it." — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
We are grateful for the opportunity to share our new strategic plan, Harvest Our Treasures. Rooted in Seton Hall’s 165-year mission, the plan fortifies our strengths and expresses our timeless values in innovative and exciting ways.
American higher education is undergoing a transformational period unlike any in the last 75 years. The changes wrought by this transformation have only accelerated due to COVID-19, which has placed undeniable stress on institutions of every size and type.
Our Catholic university stands tall amid this uncertainty — ready to advance into a new era of achievement. Thanks to the unprecedented involvement of the Seton Hall community offering their thoughts and feedback, our strategic plan establishes a bold vision that honors our past and defines our future. Over the next three years and beyond, it will increase our distinction, enhance our reputation as a home for great minds, focus our energies and lead us into the future with confidence.
Academic Vision
Seton Hall University is an academically distinguished Catholic university with a national reputation for educating a diverse student body through the liberal arts and sciences and select professional programs that are infused with the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Inspired by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton’s work educating people of all backgrounds, encompassing the full range of human experience, our University integrates liberal arts and sciences with professional programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Seton Hall is committed to supporting and strengthening quality scholarship, as well as learning and academic advancement. A number of unique pathways exist for students to advance from the undergraduate level to our rigorous, nationally ranked graduate and professional programs, which strengthen Seton Hall’s academic reputation.
Seton Hall recognizes that our teacher-scholars form the heart of our institution. We pride ourselves on being a university with outstanding student:faculty engagement that affords all students the academic opportunities, challenges, and intellectual freedom that characterize exceptional programs.
Seton Hall offers cross-disciplinary learning to foster adaptable, capable, skilled and compassionate graduates; our graduate programs continue to develop students’ professional skills through research, advanced studies and clinical training. By both practicing and promoting a Catholic understanding of social and economic justice, Seton Hall develops students into citizens who are committed to serving communities and who are armed with the skills and knowledge needed to meet the challenges and opportunities the 21st century offers.
Commitments
Five equally essential commitments form the foundation of our academic vision:
- Breadth of education;
- Pursuit, creation and dissemination of knowledge;
- Integration of the liberal arts and sciences with the Catholic intellectual tradition;
- Faculty-student engagement; and
- Preparation for an uncertain future.
Guiding Principles
As a Catholic institution of higher education with a strong intellectual and spiritual heritage, Seton Hall University is committed to certain principles whose purpose is the promotion of human flourishing in all its beauty, richness and depth. These principles are as follows:
Seton Hall is committed to the whole person. Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God; they possess unique and inalienable dignity as children of God; the respect due to them is grounded in this divine kinship, and, as such, they must be cherished in their full humanity as spiritual, moral and intellectual beings.
Seton Hall is dedicated to the common good. The University is a community among communities, attentive to the needs of all its members and to the shared life made possible by its continued existence as a place of learning.
Seton Hall is committed to serving and enriched by local, national and global communities. It is the largest diocesan university in the nation, and it embraces its continuing obligation to the Catholic community of New Jersey and beyond.
Seton Hall is a place where scholars from every field engage in conversation within and between their disciplines; it is home to a mutually enriching dialogue between faith and reason whose purpose is the discovery of truth in an environment that upholds trust, respect, academic freedom and responsibility
Seton Hall welcomes individuals from all faith traditions and from none. Seton Hall’s Catholicism is an enabling vision, not a basis for exclusion.
Goal 1
Provide a distinctive and rigorous education in the liberal arts tradition that also informs curated professional and graduate programs and provides all students the education to become adaptable, imaginative, resilient, ethical and successful individuals.
Goal 1 couples the Academic Vision articulated in the Strategic Plan with the Catholic intellectual tradition and the rich heritage inherent in the founding of Seton Hall University. It develops along several integrated paths:
- dynamic and rigorous formation of students with critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity and ethical development
- a supported and connected faculty with the cross-disciplinary expertise and institutional commitment to engage students in mastering advanced content and competencies
- formation of innovative partnerships and collaborations both internally and externally, enhanced access for all students to these programs and vital advising mechanisms that enrich academic outcomes and professional lives
Goal 2
Support faculty in strengthening academic quality, advancing research and scholarship, and enhancing interdisciplinarity, equity and inclusion.
Goal 2 focuses on supporting faculty by strengthening academic quality, research and scholarship, and enhancing equity and inclusion guided by principles embedded in the Strategic Plan. Particular emphases are:
- renewing the faculty of teacher-scholars through enhanced support for research and by increasing faculty diversity
- integrating academic freedom, University mission and the Catholic intellectual tradition in the academic life of the faculty
- promoting partnerships to advance research and learning experiences for students
Goal 3
Create a premier student experience that is equitable and consistent, enhances student support and retention, and prepares students to be impactful global citizens.
Goal 3 focuses on providing all students with a premier, mission-centered engagement experience by improving and enhancing:
- the University's "affordability agenda"
- quality and outcomes of learning
- expansion and diversification of experiential learning opportunities
- technological enhancements and facilities that advance learning
- support services and programming focused on the unique needs of graduate students
Goal 4
Further cultivate and nurture a trusting and collaborative Seton Hall community that educates and empowers all its members to advance equity, inclusion and social justice on campus and in the wider world.
Goal 4 seeks to establish partnerships, transparency and equity as grounding principles. It will:
- create and/or cultivate cross-divisional partnerships
- improve communication across campus
- help Seton Hall strive to be a more equitable, inclusive and just community
Goal 5
Advance institutional sustainability by creating a nimble, responsive and innovative operational infrastructure and by making strategic investments in people, programs and partnerships to ensure that Seton Hall can achieve its mission for current and future generations of students.
Goal 5 focuses on advancing institutional sustainability through:
- exploring strategic partnerships
- enhancing employee recruitment and staff development programs
- identifying mechanisms that enhance the University’s ability to be nimble, expedient and flexible