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Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning

Strategy 2030: Moving Jacobs into the Future

Planning our future

At the Jacobs School of Music, much of the 2022-23 academic year was used to embark upon a rigorous and disciplined strategic planning process. Employing conversations, brainstorming, surveys, and ongoing dialogue across multiple groups of stakeholders, much of the year was devoted to exploring and examining who we are as a school now, as well as thinking aspirationally about who we desire to be as we enter our second century.

Led by a steering committee comprised of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council, we analyzed information, drafted updated mission and vision statements, and identified vital themes for the future. Smaller working groups developed new ideas, initiatives, and priorities that were then synthesized with the work of other teams, and together, we’ve proposed a plan that will guide our work over the next five years.

Steering committee

The Steering Committee had the responsibility for providing advice and helping steer the strategic planning process and the development of the plan itself. The committee ensured involvement of our community at large—faculty, students, staff, alumni, off-campus partners, and others—in a manner that was inclusive and reflective of the diversity that makes our school a great place to be. 

Specifically, the Steering Committee, as advisor to the dean and the leadership of the school, led the work of Strategy 2030: Moving Jacobs into the Future with the following goals:

Ensure all members of the Jacobs School of Music community are given multiple and appropriate opportunities to engage in the process—by having their opinions sought, their voices heard, their feedback invited, and their buy-in encouraged. 
Guide and facilitate the process of developing a strategic plan that reflects the wider JSoM community’s input.
Connect with, build from, leverage, and integrate work done in the Working Groups to establish, synthesize, and articulate the goals of the strategic plan.

Working Groups

1. Student Health and Wellness

The physical, mental, and emotional health of any performing arts professional is a critical ingredient for a successful and satisfying lifelong career. What is the current vision for this priority? What are the key objectives and strategies the school needs to prioritize in order to best support our students in the near term (6 months to 1 year), the immediate term (the next two to three years), and the longer term (the next five years)?

2. Curricular Flexibility

Throughout the strategic planning process, the need for greater flexibility and fewer requirements in the JSoM undergraduate core curriculum has been raised as essential. What does it mean to make space in the core? What does flexibility mean for the core? What is missing from the core curriculum for 21st-century musicians? What does increased diversity within the music core mean? What are the goals and the key initiatives in the near term (6 months to 1 year), the immediate term (the next two to three years), and the longer term (the next five years)?

3. Preparing students for 21st century careers

Career preparation is essential for all students graduating from performing arts schools today. This includes practical preparation (including CV/resume development, grant writing, monetization of work, and technological proficiencies) and coursework or programs preparing performing arts industry skills. How might we ensure all students who graduate from JSoM have engaged in fundamental career preparation before they leave, not only those who self-select for specific coursework?

4. Reimagining International Priorities and Strategies

As one of the world’s most prestigious schools of performing arts with students from more than 50 countries represented, we are responsible for ensuring that our students are prepared for careers and have connections around the world. While there has been a long tradition of global connectivity, many of those partnerships collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic. How might we reconsider and reform our international partnerships from the past, develop new partnerships, promote international engagement, and develop a sustainable strategy for the initiatives in which we engage?

5. Student Recruitment

The JSoM has a longstanding tradition of recruiting some of the world’s best musicians and ballet dancers. Challenges stemming from the forthcoming changes in the number of students who will be attending colleges and universities will require the school to reimagine and reconsider how and where it recruits, how scholarship support is allocated and how to engage in recruitment. How might we ensure that we are actively recruiting excellent, diverse students, appropriately allocating financial aid (merit and/or need-based aid), and yielding the most prepared students?

6. Strengthen and Demonstrate JSoM’s Commitment to DEI Efforts

The Jacobs School of Music has students from all 50 states and 50 countries around the world. It is our diversity of people, thought, and identities which make us a rich environment for creativity. Building on the existing plans strategic plan established by the D&E committee, what are the goals and the key initiatives for DEI in the near term (6 months to 1 year), the immediate term (the next two to three years), and the longer term (the next five years)?

7. Expand Jacobs Academy and community engagement across the state of Indiana

How might we position the Jacobs Academy and the JSoM community engagement efforts to ensure there is teaching, creativity and impact both regionally and across the state of Indiana? What are the key initiatives in the near term (6 months to 1 year), the immediate term (the next two to three years), and the longer term (the next five years)?

8. Faculty & Staff Engagement

The Jacobs School of Music should not only be a leading destination for students studying music and dance, it should also be a good place to work. Building on the excellent work of the Staff Engagement Task Force, this group should focus on challenges for both faculty and staff in the areas of salary equity, work life balance, professional development, leadership development, community development, access to resources for scholarly and creative activity, and more.

9. Enriching the JSoM Experience

Every institution is enriched by the diversity of thought and experiences all members of the community bring to it. In order to continue the infusion of these new ideas, methodologies or thoughts, bringing extraordinary guest artist and scholars to campus for performances, talks, masterclasses, and networking has emerged through the planning process as a key initiative. How might we strategically and in a cost-effective way increase our guests at the JSoM? How do we ensure that they have been screened for any reputational concerns before invitations are extended? What should the focus be given limited resources?

Interested in the outcome of Strategy 2030: Moving Jacobs into the Future?

View the plan