Strategic Plan
We’re going to let you in on a little secret. A liberal arts education offered as we do at Presbyterian College truly is a key to success and a force for positive, enduring change in the world. Our students’ views of the world become broader, and their capacity for ideas, compassion and service expands, all while our college continuously adds new credential-bearing programs that address society’s emerging needs. We enthusiastically embrace our calling to make a Presbyterian College education relevant, useful, and engaging.
Initiatives Include:
- Provide the ability to complete select undergraduate degree programs in 3 years.
- Offer stackable, multiple degrees that can be completed in 4 years.
- Offer first-in-kind partnerships with premier graduate schools.
- Expand transfer-friendly policies and procedures.
Dum Vivimus Servimus
“While we live, we serve.” That’s our credo. That’s what’s foremost in the DNA of Presbyterian College. While we’re continually ranked in Washington Monthly for contribution to the public good, we’re fervently committed to gaining additional regional and national recognition for a level of societal service that delivers meaningful partnerships and extraordinary results. We are a beacon of light for our students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
Initiatives Include:
- Centralize essential student services into a one-stop location to increase convenience and reduce the amount of time it takes students to receive assistance.
- A commitment to recruiting and retaining specific populations of students including first- generation students, those from underserved communities and students interested in serving our country through ROTC and the military.
- Position PC as one of the “Best Places to Work in South Carolina” by providing intentional professional development opportunities, a steadfast commitment to excellent services and benefits, and a supportive and thriving campus community that celebrates together.
Many colleges these days are running from their church affiliation. We choose to run toward it. To us, Presbyterian tenets such as pluralism, justice, hospitality, grace, and service are values which we encourage and nurture. We’re dedicated to building stronger, distinctive partnerships with churches and Presbyterian-affiliated institutions. Through a commitment to lean into our Presbyterian connectedness, we cement our status as America’s Presbyterian college.
Initiatives Include:
Create the Presbyterian Promise scholarship to grow enrollment and make a PC education accessible for all Presbyterians around the country.
- Partner with seminaries to develop accelerated, dual degree programs.
- Establish PC’s Lake Campus in collaboration with Camp Fellowship to create educational, co-curricular, and recreational opportunities for faculty, staff, and students.
Socially conscious organizations and businesses try to play a vital role in building strong communities, but often they are not as effective or enduring as they could be. Indeed, few academic institutions actually study how social enterprises can be effective in creating real change. We are different. Presbyterian College offers unique programs that ignite creative problem-solving to address societal challenges at their root causes through service entrepreneurship.
Initiatives Include:
- Establish a National Service Entrepreneurship case competition for high school students designed to encourage a sense of purpose and a positive predisposition to the programs our school offers.
- Establish a signature center for Innovation, Service, and Faith.
Presbyterian College is a diverse community that encourages us all to broaden our horizons and realize the inherent dignity and worth of every individual. This is not lip service for us. This is who we are as adherents to tenets of the Presbyterian beliefs of justice, hospitality, grace, pluralism, and service. We will build and sustain a best-in-class Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion division that drives positive enrollment, retention, graduation, career placement, and hiring across all our initiatives, programs, curricula, and policies.
Initiatives Include:
- Establish a JEDI division with a signature space to house and deliver services to foster a greater sense of belonging among students and employees.
- Provide robust Presby First+ programming and support for first-generation college students.
- Expand the curricula to include a Racial Justice General Education Course and a minor in Race and Ethnic Studies.
The Rev. Dr. William Plumer Jacobs arrived in Clinton, S.C., soon after the Civil War. He dreamt of starting a home for children orphaned during the war, and with a partnership with the Presbyterian Synod he founded Thornwell Orphanage. To provide higher education for the orphaned children, he founded Presbyterian College in 1880. The college continues to embrace its founder’s vision to provide educational opportunities for those impacted by foster care with the creation of the Jacobs Scholars Program. While most colleges attend to some of the needs such as housing, meals or partial tuition assistance, Presbyterian College addresses all the major needs of youths impacted by foster care who aspire to earn a college degree.
Initiatives Include:
- Provide full tuition, fees, room and board to students impacted by foster care and include wrap-around services, such as supplemental academic and mental health support, an alumni mentor, a faculty advocate, host families, and special cohort-based programming.
- Partner with organizations such as the National CASA/GAL Association for Children, Fostering Great Ideas, Thornwell, the NSORO Foundation, and others to serve as a resource for best practices.
- Inform, educate, and partner with associations of guidance counselors, social workers, and therapists to share program opportunities with top candidates.
Presbyterian College’s expertise, relationships and experience in international education—particularly related to East Asia—will enable the launch of a new, nationally elite center focused on South Korea, a historic U.S. ally with a significant population of Presbyterians. The Center will also allow the college to realize some of its most closely-held PCUSA church-inspired values, including pluralism, hospitality, service, justice, and grace. This innovation is timely in that it capitalizes on the surging popularity that South Korea is undergoing in the U.S.
Initiatives Include:
- A foundation from which to launch a series of articulated agreements with secondary schools and colleges throughout South Korea and East Asia, particularly those affiliated with the Presbyterian denomination.
- Coordinate and advance the college’s recruitment activities at churches, secondary schools, and colleges throughout South Korea.
- Offer a curated series of speakers, colloquia, seminars and programs that promote robust cultural exchange between domestic and international citizens affiliated with Presbyterian College.
"If you want to learn how to solve real-world problems through creativity – if you want to serve your community and the world and help people facing struggles – if you seek a life of meaning and purpose – THAT is what you get from an education at PC. That’s who we are."
Dr. Matthew P. vandenBerg
19th President of Presbyterian College
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