Strategic Vision for Pitzer College

November 14, 2024

Dear Pitzer Community,

(Tl;dr: we are conducting a process of strategic visioning for the College and seek your help.)

These are uncertain and, for many, challenging times in our society and the world. As we navigate this terrain, I am again heartened by the ways in which our community comes together in support of itself. It harkens back clearly and crisply to the shared mission and values that brought us all to Pitzer College.

There are many ways in which we seek to advance that mission. We have a strategic plan that has guided this work since 2019 and that runs through 2025. Building upon that foundation, we are now launching a new process to develop a strategic vision for Pitzer that identifies a future for the College that crystallizes, capitalizes, and builds upon our distinctiveness and strengths. A mission identifies what an institution does and why. It is our north star, guiding all we undertake. Closely related to this but also separate, a vision portrays what we hope to become, what we aspire to be as an institution of higher education.

Every school claims distinction, but, frankly, few can match ours. The tasks before us now are to ensure that Pitzer remains at that cutting edge of higher education by building on and adding to our existing strengths, securing the resources necessary to support them at a higher level, attracting the strongest students, faculty and staff, and getting the story out to the world about this dynamic community and the amazing work being done here. To do this, we need a vision that inspires, that drives a passionate commitment to our educational mission. To do that, we need your help.

To that end, we are undertaking a process of engagement with our community to help chart that vision, its concrete goals, and what we need to do to achieve it. The first listening phase of this work will take place over the rest of this fall semester and focuses on faculty (beginning with this afternoon’s faculty meeting), students and staff to get their reflections and input on the elements that make a Pitzer education special and how we might strengthen and build upon them to achieve our lofty shared goals. Further conversations and reflections will continue into the spring 2025 semester, including engagement with trustees, alumni, families and other supporters of the College, as well as colleagues from peer institutions, as we seek a holistic array of perspectives on our shared and exciting future. To help guide us through this process, we are partnering with Wellspring Consulting, a strategy firm experienced in working with organizations across higher education and the non-profit sector. We will share regular updates with the community, including key insights gathered from the process along the way.

Our goal is to define a vision that sets a course for Pitzer over the next five to ten years, building on our distinctive assets such as justice education, the Redford Conservancy, our membership in the Claremont Colleges consortium, historic and emerging academic strengths, a commitment to social justice, student and community engagement, intercultural understanding and our traditions of interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research, among others. By the end of this strategic visioning process, which we anticipate concluding by the end of this academic year, we will develop:

• An aspirational vision for Pitzer’s future that builds on our distinctive academic and co-curricular programs
• A plan to increase accessibility to a Pitzer education for the most qualified students
• A compelling story that attracts students and deepens our relationships with current and potential funders, enhancing our capacity to support our vision

Many thanks in advance, at what we know is a busy time, to all of you who will engage and contribute to this exciting and vital initiative.

Provida Futuri,

Strom C. Thacker
President