Our plan for the future

The School’s faculty and staff developed a Strategic Plan in 2003 to guide the School’s priorities and actions through the 2008-2009 academic year. The plan has been updated annually.

Here is the full document. Below are some of the plan’s highlights.

Introduction

The faculty and staff of the School of Mass Communications spent much of the 2002-03 academic year reviewing the School’s “Plan for the Future,” a comprehensive identification of issues and opportunities adopted in the previous academic year. The goal of this review was identification and prioritization of those issues and opportunities that were most strategic for the School – issues and opportunities most closely aligned with its vision and mission.

This strategic plan is the result of that year of review and deliberation. It identifies goals and appropriate tactics to achieve them. It assigns responsibility and accountability for taking action toward each goal, and establishes a timeline for demonstrating progress and ultimate achievement. It also identifies resources – financial and human – beyond the resources currently assigned to the School that will be needed to achieve these goals.

The School intends for this plan to guide its decisions in the coming five years. The plan will be updated annually, with progress toward goals duly noted, as part of the preparation of the School’s contribution to the annual report of the College of Humanities and Sciences.

Vision

It is the vision of the School of Mass Communications to develop a community of learning in which:

the curriculum is responsive to the rapidly changing fields of communication.
students and faculty collaborate to explore and master new media technologies, including digital and interactive.
students are prepared to produce and disseminate information in multiple formats, including written text, audio, video and the Web.
partnerships are created with other University programs and with media and communication companies to enhance the education and training of students, faculty and professionals.

The School will become a regionally and nationally recognized leader in the transformation of journalism and mass communications education that meets the needs of the mass communications professions and of society in the 21st century.

Mission

The School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University was established in 1978 to prepare students for successful professional careers in the mass media - newspapers, radio and television - and in the professions of advertising and public relations. The Brandcenter (formerly called the Adcenter), the School’s graduate program in advertising, was created in 1995.

The media and communication industries have undergone almost unbelievable change since then, much of it due to the impact of technology upon communicators and their audiences. The old lines between disciplines are disappearing. The work of journalists and other professional communicators has changed dramatically, and even though they still may be specialists in one discipline, they must be conversant with all forms of media.

Despite this metamorphosis of the professions that the School serves and despite the ambiguity of the context in which its graduates will practice their craft, the School’s mission remains essentially unchanged: to prepare students for successful professional careers.

The School’s mission is to provide students with a leading-edge professional education that emphasizes a core of fundamental concepts, values and skills that will prepare them for communication careers in an era of unprecedented change.

It will educate students to understand the whole of communication, to solve problems, to understand the ethical and legal implications of media and communication, to be comfortable with innovation and to work in concert with their peers.

It will prepare them for leadership roles in their professions and in their communities.

Goals

Goal: The School of Mass Communications seeks to have its undergraduate program accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) during the 2005-06 academic year.

Goal: The School will acquire appropriate space for the Brandcenter and additional appropriate space for other programs in the School and will seek renovation of existing space that will result in first-class quarters and facilities for all of the School’s academic programs.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications seeks to attract, retain and develop a faculty with academic preparation, training, talents, interests, energy and commitment appropriate to its mission and to achievement of its other goals.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will deliver a curriculum that gives students a solid foundation in both the theory and practice of journalism, advertising, public relations and developing media.

Goal: The School’s curriculum will foster collaborative learning, with students learning from each other, from experts in the professions and from faculty.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will design and implement enrollment management measures that will increase the quality of students admitted to the major, resulting both in better students and, at least in the short term, fewer students, which will enable the School to more effectively use its limited faculty, facility, equipment and monetary resources.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will ensure that every undergraduate student admitted to the major is effectively advised.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will enhance placement services for students.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will expand student opportunities for networking with professional practitioners.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will work collaboratively with the University’s Student Affairs staff and student media staffs to strengthen VCU student media.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will expand the number of scholarships, awards and commendations provided to students and will expand the promotion of available scholarships.

Goal: The School of Mass Communications will improve communication between and among students, faculty and administrators in the School.

Goal: The School will accelerate its systematic upgrading of computer labs and production studios.

Goal: The School will seek major external funding to significantly enhance its financial viability, academic program quality and national reputation.

Goal: The School will increase endowments in both the undergraduate and graduate Brandcenter programs.

Goal: The School will seek to generate additional external revenue.

Goal: The Brandcenter will seek an increase in unrestricted gifts and in annual or endowed scholarships for Brandcenter students.