Meredith’s Academic Master Planning Efforts Advance

As part of Meredith’s strategic planning efforts, the academic division is creating an academic master plan that will align with the College’s mission and be used to guide curricular and program development decisions.

The Academic Master Planning steering committee, led by Senior Vice President and Provost Anita Thomas, was formed last fall. The committee provided faculty and staff a progress report and outlined the next steps in the planning process on Friday, January 16, 2026.

Thomas opened the session by discussing the purpose of an academic master plan, followed by an overview of the committee’s processes and discussions.

“It delineates the strategies needed to accomplish the academic mission,” she said. “It also informs the enrollment management plan.

Thomas said one of the reasons she and the steering committee felt the presentation to faculty and staff at this stage was important was to “provide transparency and clarity around the process.”

Members of the Academic Master Planning steering committee are:

• Karthik Aghoram, professor of biological sciences and director of the pre-health post-baccalaureate program
• Michael Altman, assistant professor of practice and hospitality and tourism program director
• Emily Caldwell, director of StrongPoints ® 
• Chasity Johnson, assistant professor of family and consumer sciences and Human Environmental Sciences department chair
• Eboni Malloy, director of Adult Education
• David McLennan, professor of political science and director of the Meredith Poll, and 
• Lisa Pearce, associate professor of art

Thomas said one of the committee’s main efforts so far had been to develop an academic model and drafts of academic mission and vision statements. She said responding to changing demographics and differentiating Meredith was the impetus for the academic mission statement in particular.

“As we looked at enrollment trends, the one thing that differentiates colleges and universities from each other is their mission statement,” she said. “We really wanted to map out how our academic mission maps to the institutional mission…and continue carving out distinctiveness.”

McLennan presented the academic model the committee is using to guide its work, noting the placement of strong academics.

“The strong academic experience is at the center of our model,” he said. “Everything is grounded in a strong academic experience, whether that’s adult programs or general education or majors.”

Johnson shared the draft mission statement, followed by Aghoram, who presented the draft vision statement, which is intended to be aspirational. 

“The biologist in me wants you to know this is still embryonic,” Aghoram said, acknowledging that additional feedback would be gathered to finalize the drafts.

In addition to soliciting input on the drafts through a survey, the next steps in the process include integrating the academic master plan with the ongoing strategic planning process.

Meredith’s new strategic plan is expected to launch in the fall of 2026, following review and approval by the Meredith College Board of Trustees. From January through the launch of the strategic plan, the College is celebrating its mission. For more information about the Meredith Mission in Action initiative and strategic planning updates, visit meredith.edu/about/merediths-mission-in-action.