Strategic Plan 2025-30

Highly engaged alumni

Alumni who maintain a strong and active connection with FLC, participating in alumni events (experiential engagement) and demonstrating involvement in at least two of the following CASE-defined modes of engagement:

• Volunteer: Serving in formal roles such as mentors, career guidance, board members, public advocates, or speakers
• Philanthropic: Providing financial or in-kind support on an annual basis
• Communications: Actively engaging in meaningful two-way communication, such as social media interaction or direct outreach

Their multifaceted engagement strengthens the college's visibility, success, and reputation.

Belonging

The feeling and belief created through actions, words, resources, programs, and events that honor and support everyone's lived experience, helping them feel connected and valued as part of the campus community.

Campus climate

The overall environment and experience of community members, including how safe, included, supported, and respected they feel in their learning and working environment.

Campus events

Any organized campus gathering that brings together two or more people for social, cultural, academic, or resource-based purposes.

Community service

Voluntary activities and actions that address community needs and foster a sense of cooperation and civic responsibility while benefiting on and off-campus FLC members and the broader community.

Equity gap

The quantifiable difference in retention and success metrics between demographic student groups (e.g., first-generation, Pell-eligible, and racial/ethnic subgroups) and their counterparts. Equity gaps signal where targeted action is needed to remove barriers and improve student outcomes.

Well-being

Encompasses not only individual health but also the structures, policies, relationships, and environments that help individuals thrive. It is a collective responsibility and centers on the health and success of entire communities.

Wellness

The active process of becoming aware of and making choices for a healthy and fulfilling life. It focuses on individual behaviors and lifestyle choices that promote physical, mental, intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual health.

Departments

A distinct division within an organization that is responsible for a specific set of tasks or functions.

At FLC, an academic department is an academic unit organized around a specific discipline or area of study and serves as a "home" for faculty. An academic department initiates and is responsible for the curriculum and advising students studying the programs offered by the department. Each department has a personnel committee responsible for evaluating faculty for tenure, promotion, reappointment, managing other internal personnel matters, and appointing a term-limited chair who reports directly to the dean. Departments may also be responsible for hiring and mentoring faculty.

Other departments are organized around functions necessary for the operation of the college. For example, FLC Skyhawk Station is responsible for student-facing interactions involving registration, transcripts, advising, and financial aid. Diversity Affairs is responsible for student wellness, belonging, and safety. FLC campus departments include Advancement, Human Resources, etc. Each department is an essential component of a campus system.

Shared governance

Fort Lewis College is committed to the principles of shared governance set forward by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in 1966. We believe in the collective decision-making process and the representation of key constituency groups. Shared governance requires that all stakeholders (administration, faculty, staff, and students) be allowed meaningful participation in issues that impact them. It includes the ability to co-create, co-interpret, and co-enforce policies regularly.

Student-support employee

Staff who, in their job descriptions, have responsibilities related to student well-being, academic success, or retention.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation with and for Indigenous communities in the United States aims to address the historical and ongoing legacy of U.S. settler colonialism and repair relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples while respecting the self-determination and sovereignty of Tribal Nations. Fort Lewis College began in the late 19th century as Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School, a site of violent, assimilative, and other harmful practices prevalent in the federal Indian boarding school system.

Reconciliation at Fort Lewis College is a comprehensive process that acknowledges the institution’s troubled origins while establishing respectful and reciprocal relationships with Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities. The ongoing work of reconciliation at Fort Lewis College is a shared responsibility that centers Indigenous voices, where non-Indigenous community members contribute by engaging with our history and actively participating in collaborative efforts to advance meaningful institutional change.

Our Reconciliation framework seeks an impact across four priority areas: Tribal Nation Building, Indigenous Culture and Knowledge, Language Reclamation, and Health & Wellness. 

Directions

The FLC Strategic Plan 2025-30 outlines five "Directions." These are five core areas for the plan to focus on, identified through a collaborative community-driven process, the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, and the FLC Board of Trustees.

Objectives

Eight objectives state the plan's intended overarching impact and outcomes.

Bold Goals

Five bold goals drive the strategic plan, one connected to each Direction.

Vision

Each Direction has a vision statement that explains what each direction means and our desired future state for each area.

Priorities

Each Direction has three to four priorities. These sub-areas were identified as the priority topics/themes to address to make progress for the Direction. The priorities were approved by the FLC Board of Trustees.

Initiatives

Each Priority has 3-5 initiatives. These strategies or programs will enable FLC to achieve each Priority. The initiatives were approved by the FLC Board of Trustees.

Accountability Measures

Each Initiative has an Accountability Measure. These measures are like KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)—stretchy, ambitious, and achievable. They are collective, not individual, and are how FLC tracks progress and stays accountable to shared goals. The second draft was released in July 2025 and is currently under review, with a final version planned for October 2025.

Career-connected learning

Prioritizing practical skills, professional development, and career readiness alongside academic learning. (See CDHE's Career Connected Campus Designation Checklist)

Co-curricular

Activities, programs, or learning experiences that complement what is taught in the classroom but are not part of a formal curriculum.

Co-teaching

An instructional approach where two or more teachers plan, instruct, and assess students' progress toward curricular learning outcomes.

Community-engaged learning

A type of experiential learning that fosters opportunities for students to work alongside community partners in addressing community needs and empowering their strengths. It is based on understanding mutually beneficial relationships and reciprocity of learning and action. Community-engaged learning understands that knowledge sits in many other places beyond academia and works to integrate multiple ways of knowing into course themes.

Culturally responsive teaching

Culturally responsive teaching is a student-centered approach grounded in the framework of culturally relevant pedagogy that "not only addresses student achievement but also helps students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that challenge inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuate" (Ladson-Billings, 1995). It entails proactive instructional design (including curriculum, policies, interactions, teaching strategies, and assessment) that considers students' lived experiences and cultural identities, and the sociohistorical contexts of their communities to support equitable experiences and equitable outcomes (Gay, 2000; Kiyama, Rios-Aguilar, & Deil-Amen, 2017).

At FLC, this represents our fundamental commitment to action. Through inclusive pedagogy, equitable policies, comprehensive training, and welcoming environments, we foster learning spaces that celebrate and support our students' diverse backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We approach this work with an asset and strengths-based mindset, recognizing the power of diverse perspectives.

Curricular

Pertaining to curriculum.

Curriculum

A set of courses, lessons, and learning experiences provided by a school, college, or educational program developed to achieve a defined set of learning outcomes for that specific academic course or program. Faculty govern the curriculum within their area of expertise.

Experiential learning

Often described as 'learning by doing' or 'hands-on learning,' experiential learning encourages students to build their understanding of knowledge through application and reflection. It reimagines a key assignment as a project or experience. It involves risk-taking and making mistakes, and its results are often uncertain. It also frequently involves social, cooperative, and open-ended forms of understanding. Experiential learning provides multiple entry points into the learning process and can increase student agency through inclusive pedagogy.

High-impact educational practices

High-impact practices, or HIPs, are active learning practices that promote deep learning by promoting student engagement. High-impact practices encourage deep learning, creative and critical thinking, collaboration, and applying skills and concepts. According to the AAC&U, examples of high-impact practices include: first-year seminars and experiences, undergraduate research, diversity/global learning, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, service learning and community-based learning, collaborative assignments and projects, internships, and capstone courses and projects.

Inclusive/equity-minded teaching

[Created by CTL & Majel Boxer, fellow, in fall 2024] At Fort Lewis College, equity-minded teaching responds to and values FLC students' diverse identities, intersections of identities, and learning needs. Equity-mindedness prioritizes inclusive access to learning for all students using universal strategies. It is an iterative, reflexive practice involving instructors with a growth mindset, rigorously designing courses, transparency, and cultural relevance, using evidence and data to identify and remove student barriers, and fostering student belonging and trust (Artze-Vega et al., 2023). As FLC focuses on healing and reconciliation within our strategic plan and our designation as a NASNTI, equity-minded teaching brings this work into the classroom to support students' academic endeavors. Moreover, equity-minded teaching is essential given our increasingly diverse student population and growing Latinx student population.

Industry-sponsored project

The objective of an industry-sponsored project is to create a unique, high-quality educational opportunity for participants, where the educational content will enhance the educational objectives of the program and class to which it is assigned and is aligned with employer-partner needs. (See https://dhr.colorado.gov/work-based-learning-quality-expectations)

Internship

An opportunity in real-world environments for exposure to the requirements of a particular occupation or industry, the work environment, and the behavioral expectations for success on the job. Such work experiences are not expected to provide formal training for occupational skills, although some skills may be learned. (See https://dhr.colorado.gov/work-based-learning-quality-expectations)

Place-based learning

A pedagogical approach that focuses on the connection between curriculum and the environment in which students are learning. It centers around experiential and community-based learning, connecting students to culture, environment, and other qualities of place to increase student learning and connection to the curriculum.

Trauma-informed

A trauma-informed approach recognizes how common and impactful trauma is on individuals and communities, understands the signs and symptoms of trauma, and uses this knowledge to shape policies and practices.

Work-based learning

Learning opportunities that occur in part or in whole in the workplace and provide the learner with hands-on, real-world experience. Work-based learning opportunities include but are not limited to internships, apprenticeships, residencies, and incumbent worker training. (See https://cwdc.colorado.gov/strategies/work-based-learning)

Workforce certificate

A completion-based award related to discrete skills within one or more industries. (See USDOL doc chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/advisories/TEN/2020/TEN_25-19_Attachment_1.pdf)

Industry and business

Industry

Any general business activity or commercial enterprise that can be isolated from others, such as the tourist or entertainment industries. Colorado looks at industry by dividing it into 14 economic regions and the 14 major sectors that drive our economy. (See choosecolorado.com/)