Taylor is a global leader in Christian higher education and is recognized as a place that prizes student learning, celebrates intentional community, and leads in the important work of faith-learning integration.
Taylor’s alumni are generous, winsome, servant-leaders who bring a thoughtful Christian witness to society, serving Christ wherever they are called with integrity of heart and skillful hands. The world has perhaps never been more in need of Taylor’s graduates, but industry headwinds, significant changes in the political and religious milieu, and a global pandemic have created an inflection point in the University’s history that requires us to think comprehensively and creatively about how Taylor will thrive in the years ahead. This is the call to which the University, and thousands of faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and friends have responded over the past nine months.
Campus
Our campus will thrive as we widen the circle of learners we serve—from high school, to undergraduate, to graduate and professional students—and as we tell the Taylor story more effectively and in more places. Taylor’s experiential learning and compelling campus culture spark joy and enthusiasm among our students and alumni. As our campus thrives, we will be inspired to live, as John 10 describes, life to the full!
Community
Our community will thrive as we develop and invest in our people and work to make Taylor and the surrounding community an even better place to live, work, and study. Taylor is a highly relational place where people selflessly support and encourage one another. As our community thrives, we will uplift one another and nurture the Christian ethos that makes our community so distinctive.
Mission
And our mission will thrive as we work hard to ensure the excellence of a Taylor education while making it more affordable, as well as seek to move from excellence to eminence in developing servant-leaders to minister to a world in need. We will remain unwavering in our Christ-centered mission; as it thrives, our graduates will be even better empowered to make a difference wherever God leads them.Among Christian colleges and universities, the commitment of Taylor’s people to carrying out our mission is a key differentiator in what makes our institution special. Faculty and staff are the essence of how we carry out our mission of developing servant-leaders. For too long, however, we have not developed and invested in our own employees. The University’s senior leaders need to do more to motivate our workforce, seek their input and keep them better informed. Taylor will invest time, resources, and energy to equip faculty and staff department chairs, as well as leaders across campus to become better managers. We also will develop emerging leaders on campus and build career paths to keep faculty and staff colleagues engaged and excited about their futures at the University for many years. Finally, we will model for other institutions how to develop and deepen servant-leadership, not only among students but also among faculty and staff year after year.
Taylor has a long history of contributing to our local community. Echoing the admonition in Jeremiah 29, we seek the peace and the prosperity of our community because if it flourishes, we also—at Taylor—flourish. Building upon our legacy and attending to newer developments that God has made possible, we aspire to harness the innovative and entrepreneurial energy of our campus to create a more robust ecosystem of care and development for our community. We also have identified a set of investments in Taylor’s physical infrastructure that will modernize our campus as we seek to make Taylor an even better place to live, work, and study.
Among Christian colleges and universities, the commitment of Taylor’s people to carrying out our mission is a key differentiator in what makes our institution special. Faculty and staff are the essence of how we carry out our mission of developing servant-leaders. For too long, however, we have not developed and invested in our own employees. The University’s senior leaders need to do more to motivate our workforce, seek their input and keep them better informed. Taylor will invest time, resources, and energy to equip faculty and staff department chairs, as well as leaders across campus to become better managers. We also will develop emerging leaders on campus and build career paths to keep faculty and staff colleagues engaged and excited about their futures at the University for many years. Finally, we will model for other institutions how to develop and deepen servant-leadership, not only among students but also among faculty and staff year after year.
Taylor has a long history of contributing to our local community. Echoing the admonition in Jeremiah 29, we seek the peace and the prosperity of our community because if it flourishes, we also—at Taylor—flourish. Building upon our legacy and attending to newer developments that God has made possible, we aspire to harness the innovative and entrepreneurial energy of our campus to create a more robust ecosystem of care and development for our community. We also have identified a set of investments in Taylor’s physical infrastructure that will modernize our campus as we seek to make Taylor an even better place to live, work, and study.
Every constituent group talked about the rising cost of higher education and expressed concerns that Taylor remain affordable for the kinds of families we have historically served. Affordability is a key driver for enrollment growth, and Taylor supporters have generously given to endowed scholarships and current-use scholarship funds for decades. In light of the increasing competitiveness of our market, Taylor must make significant gains in growing our endowment and launching new scholarships that can be deployed immediately. We have identified a slate of initiatives that we believe will draw additional philanthropic dollars to the University while we also seek to grow nontraditional revenues and increase the value proposition of a Taylor education.
Taylor aspires to move from excellence to eminence in developing servant-leaders, equipping our students to meet the next generation of challenges and opportunities. We have identified a set of initiatives that will help us advance our distinctive as we further enhance the residential, undergraduate experience, invest in athletics as a catalyst for character development, and equip our students to better spread the Gospel in a pluralistic world.
Collectively, we believe these items will contribute to the thriving of Taylor University as we seek to respond to and reposition ourselves within the marketplace, to advance our distinctives and reinforce our historic strengths, and to develop new pathways for future growth and development for the University.
Every constituent group talked about the rising cost of higher education and expressed concerns that Taylor remain affordable for the kinds of families we have historically served. Affordability is a key driver for enrollment growth, and Taylor supporters have generously given to endowed scholarships and current-use scholarship funds for decades. In light of the increasing competitiveness of our market, Taylor must make significant gains in growing our endowment and launching new scholarships that can be deployed immediately. We have identified a slate of initiatives that we believe will draw additional philanthropic dollars to the University while we also seek to grow nontraditional revenues and increase the value proposition of a Taylor education.
Taylor aspires to move from excellence to eminence in developing servant-leaders, equipping our students to meet the next generation of challenges and opportunities. We have identified a set of initiatives that will help us advance our distinctive as we further enhance the residential, undergraduate experience, invest in athletics as a catalyst for character development, and equip our students to better spread the Gospel in a pluralistic world.
Collectively, we believe these items will contribute to the thriving of Taylor University as we seek to respond to and reposition ourselves within the marketplace, to advance our distinctives and reinforce our historic strengths, and to develop new pathways for future growth and development for the University.
In God’s providence, throughout church history, faithful individuals and institutions have been marked with special callings. Over the last nine months, the University community has worked together to identify the Lord’s calling in this season and to determine our unique strengths, in the context of a very competitive marketplace, that we can celebrate and accelerate in the years ahead. Based on that prayerful discernment and deep analysis, we have reached consensus on a vision for Taylor’s next five years. Simply stated, we pray that Taylor University would be the leading Christ-centered, student-focused university, committed to carrying the light and faith of Christ to a world in need.
The history of American higher education relates the story of hundreds of institutions who have diminished their Christian commitments in pursuit of academic respectability. Historian James Burtchaell has aptly referred to this as the “dying of the light.” Despite this general trend, there is a segment of American higher education that has maintained its Christian commitments, and an even smaller group that asks every community member to testify to their faith. Taylor is one of the leading institutions within this small group, and we increasingly stand apart from others because of our shared Christian commitments. This is important because we believe faith grows the best in the context of wider faith within higher learning (Hebrews 10:24-25). There are only a handful of ranked institutions in the United States today that foster this kind of thriving Christian community, and we are proud to be among that select group.
For decades, Taylor has been at the vanguard of educational institutions where students are the top priority. While some may assume this is the norm in higher education, it is remarkably rare. Many institutions over the last fifty years have followed one of two general paths—either emulating the model of the German research university or, conversely, pursuing enrollment growth at the expense of academic rigor. Taylor has distinguished itself as an institution that continues to care deeply about the academic and spiritual formation of students and prioritizes resources and institutional energy accordingly. From student learning to student engagement, to student development, Taylor has continued to ask, “What is best for our students?” As such, we are a bright star within the constellation of American higher education.
Taylor’s commitment to either of these areas would be a distinctive. The fact that Taylor is a global leader in both makes the University unique, and it is this distinctiveness that animates our vision for the future. In essence, we will build on what differentiates Taylor from other institutions and craft a vision that allows us to live into that uniqueness even more fully over the next five years.
We believe it is not only what students are taught, but also how, that reinforces the ultimate telos—that is, our ultimate aim—of what we pursue as an institution that claims the name of Jesus Christ.
Through athletics and the arts, through experiential and classroom learning, members of the Taylor community help one another better understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the myriad ways the Gospel speaks to the full spectrum of human endeavor (Colossians 1:15-20). We teach our students that Christ’s death and resurrection reconcile not only the human relationship with God but with one another and with creation as well, and we take up the servant’s towel as a way of modeling a counter-cultural approach to leading well. In so doing, we reflect the example of Jesus, who came to serve, not be served.