Vision 2025 

Dalton State College recently completed a new strategic plan – Vision 2050: Transforming lives and partnering for success. Our work on the plan began in late spring with extensive participation from external partners and members of the Dalton State community to ensure that our near- and long-term objectives and goals are responsive to and consistent with regional needs. The plan’s theme highlights Dalton State’s commitment to helping students achieve their educational and career goals and the regional partnerships that are crucial for our mutual success.

We produced an initial one-page plan encompassing three strategic priorities and three foundational enablers; internally, we refined that document over the past few months and completed it this fall.

Each priority has a “horizon map” that outlines key action steps to be taken immediately and over a longer period of time. Overall, we are committed to timely and effective action to ensure that our plan becomes reality.  Our Chancellor is fond of pointing out that if you are not keeping score than you are just playing around; as such, one of our first actions is to develop a public scorecard that will make transparent the results of our efforts.  

I invite you to review the plan at www.daltonstate.edu/strategic-plan, and I have summarized the key priorities, goals and projects here:

Student Success, Economic Competitiveness and Community Impact

• Designing and seeking approval for an academic program with embedded micro-credentials that would serve as a continuing / lifelong education program tied to an academic degree.
• Expand our summer Roadrunners Scholars program (math and English) to improve retention and graduation rates.
• Radically expand participation in experiential learning (EL) with the goal that 99%+ of students participate in some form of EL, like internships or co-ops, undergraduate research, etc.
• Earn the Seal of Excelencia in support of our retention and graduation improvement efforts inclusive of our Hispanic students, as well as all students enrolled.
• Develop and implement the Roadrunner Experience consisting of a more cohesive core curriculum and upper-division curriculum changes that achieve:
  • Technology literacy, including AI
  • “Soft skills” to include work ethic, communications, moral and ethical reasoning, and workplace etiquette
  • Civics and social development, to include civil discourse and debate
  • Global experiences
• A college-to-career mentoring and advising program inclusive of both traditional academic advising and coaching / mentoring for career success.
• Efforts are designed to impact our retention and graduation rates, number of degrees and certificates awarded, and median earnings of graduates.
• Exploration of potential new programs, subject to Board of Regents approval, including:
  • Bachelor’s degree of homeland defense with a focus on supply chain analytics and community resiliency.
  • Bachelor’s degree in occupational safety and fire science
  • Stand-alone Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree
• Development of a K-12 Lab / Charter School that would deliver a “classical” curriculum model combined with a focus on outdoor activities and dual-immersion language (English and Spanish) alongside Latin through 10th grade with subsequent dual enrollment in 11th grade (either DSC or Georgia Northwestern Technical College, if the student is pursuing a trade) and an internship, co-op or apprenticeship for all seniors. We would target academically disadvantaged students with an initial focus in Whitfield County but with potential future inclusion of Catoosa, Murray, and Gordon counties. We also would hope to offer relevant master’s degrees to enable adoption of this model alongside more traditional public K-12 approaches. To read more about the Lab School proposal, visit www.daltonstate.edu/lab-school. While Dalton State is helping to shepherd the establishment of this school, it ultimately will be an independent educational organization but with a deep Dalton State partnership.
• Development of multiple partnerships, to include efforts around literacy, entrepreneurship, healthcare, industry, and the arts.
• We are exploring launching an Army ROTC program to support students interested in careers as military officers.

Responsible Stewardship

• In addition to our current participation in multiple shared services arrangements with other institutions, Dalton State strives to be an institution of choice for USG pilots and a talent provider (leadership factory) across the USG. Our creation of an employee leadership development program with Georgia Highlands College and Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) is one example of this effort.
• Dalton State is already the #1 most affordable four-year college in Georgia and #52 in the country (according to the U.S. Dept. of Education) when considering net price; however, we hope to move this needle significantly by incentivizing residents of northwest Georgia to study here, stay here, and work and thrive here. Toward that end, our plan will require extensive private fundraising, to include our bold “Northwest Georgia Promise,” which would require a $50 million endowment to support attendance by students from northwest Georgia attending either Dalton State or GNTC. We already have made considerable progress in pledges related to the $50 million.

I am grateful to the involvement of so many of our faculty, staff and regional community partners in the development of Vision 2050. We have exciting times ahead and amazing opportunities to have a transformative impact in the lives of our students and prosperity of our region.