Great institutions don’t just educate students. They inspire them.

For more than a century, Hendrix College has helped students develop their fullest potential and inspired them to lead lives of accomplishment, integrity, service, and joy.

As an institution and as a community, we have accomplished this by staying both rooted in the liberal arts tradition and at the forefront of American higher education.

Our liberal arts heritage anchors us, keeping our focus on cultivating qualities – creativity, empathy, informed deliberation, reflection, and rigorous inquiry – of timeless importance.

And our progressive spirit challenges us to better serve our students and our world.

As we look to the future, we should take care not to rush down the path of expediency or conformity. We should look instead to those values that made Hendrix into one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges and strive in the years ahead to affirm our historic identity and strengthen our distinctive character.

And we must also do even better that which we do best: offering a broad and rigorous liberal arts education that is high-touch, personalized, and labor-intensive. We must remain committed to engaged learning that links the classroom to the world beyond and dedicated to cultivating the whole person (intellectually, spiritually, and physically) in an intimate, supportive community.

Our extended family – alumni, faculty, friends, staff, students, and Trustees – came together to discuss how we continue to be Hendrix and to dream how we become a better version of Hendrix. This strategic plan is a result of our collective aspirations and will guide our focus over the next five years.

We want a more diverse and inclusive community. We want to ensure that a Hendrix education remains within reach of every talented, promising young person. We want to build a stronger relationship with our state and the central Arkansas community. We want an even greater emphasis on faculty development, interdisciplinary connections, and research that engages both students and faculty. We want to improve our facilities to give prospective students a warmer welcome, to provide new and renovated residence halls, and to bring the creative energy of music and the visual arts to the very center of campus. We want to enhance the stature, vitality, and impact of the Hendrix-Murphy Programs in Literature and Language. And we want to make sure students not only graduate in four years but also leave Hendrix with professional experiences that successfully prepare them for careers and life after graduation.

Attaining these goals will not be easy. Existing resources will need to be used even more efficiently and new streams of support will need to be developed. All those who care about Hendrix – faculty and staff, students and alumni, trustees and supporters in the community – will be called upon to work together more intensively than ever before. We will need commitment and creativity, focus and flexibility. And we will need stamina and more than a little good luck.

To make a college as great as Hendrix even better is a tall order, but this strategic plan charts our course to a future of even greater distinction, leadership in higher education, and service to our community, our state, our nation, and the world.