Strategic Planning

Strategy 2030: Moving Jacobs into the Future

Planning our future

The Jacobs School of Music (JSOM) has long-held a much-deserved reputation as an institution of distinction. Preserving and expanding that reputation well into the future requires our community to look ahead, identify the changing demands and needs of our students, patrons, and supporters, and effectively and efficiently plan to meet those demands. All industries, especially institutions of higher education, are finding that today’s stakeholders are more vocal and more active, and their engagement encourages invention and reinvention to develop programs and services that better serve our students, our faculty, our staff, and beyond. To prepare for the changing times ahead, the Jacobs community engaged in a robust strategic planning process to get ready for our future.

ALIGNMENT TO IUB 2030
In 2023, the Office of the Provost released the IUB 2030 Strategic Plan that will guide the campus for the next seven years. Where possible, the JSOM’s 12 strategic priority areas are aligned with the IUB 2030 plan to help the school and the campus increase its collective impact.

JACOBS SCHOOL OF MUSIC MISSION
The Jacobs School of Music provides distinguished instruction and outstanding opportunities for majors and non-majors to realize their full potential. We foster an equitable and inclusive environment in which students, faculty, and staff have boundless opportunities through creative activity and scholarship at the highest professional levels to shape their own unique paths in the arts. 

JACOBS SCHOOL OF MUSIC FIVE VISION PILLARS

• Excellence: Fostering performance, teaching, collaboration, and scholarship at the highest level. ​
• Study: Cultivating and nurturing a student-centered environment that inspires personal accomplishment, expression, and fulfillment. ​
• Connection: Nurturing a community of shared values and respect within the Jacobs School of Music. ​
• Belonging: Ensuring the commitments to care, fairness and impartiality are woven into the fabric of the school.  ​
• Impact: Expanding and cultivating a multi-national community with innovative initiatives in Indiana, nationally, and internationally.

Jacobs School of Music Strategic Priority Areas

VISION PILLAR: Excellence

PRIORITY AREA: Faculty

• Increase the number of prominent and award-winning scholars, researchers and artists to attract top-tier students
• Provide meaningful professional development that equips faculty to ensure all courses are meeting post-graduation market demands by including discussions and skill development on: musician health and wellness, musician career development, and the integration of music technologies
• Expand professional development for research faculty to assist them in developing research leadership skills
• Employ guest artists with diverse experiences and paths from current faculty

PRIORITY AREA: Academic Affairs  

• Modify the required curriculum to allow for the development of interdisciplinary degrees and/or certificates that better reflect the students’ individual professional goals and allows for practical work experience#
• Conduct regular reviews of department curricula that considers critical student outcomes
• Identify and clearly communicate the flexibility that is present in the current curricula
• Align music theory and music history courses to improve student outcomes across the disciplines
• Build online and hybrid degrees and certificate programs#
• Require students to meet with academic and career advisors once a year to establish and track academic progression and career preparation milestones to ensure they are on-track for graduation
• Revise required courses to include a broader and more diverse repertoire
• Expand curriculum offerings to include degrees, minors, and certificates relevant to today’s music environment 

PRIORITY AREA: Student Recruitment

• Increase and prioritize the number of endowed scholarships to secure our capacity to attract and enroll highly talented and diverse students#
• Utilize new and varied recruiting strategies and marketing efforts to attract and enroll students from diverse backgrounds and diverse demographics
• Increase new student enrollment from Fall-to-Fall semester

PRIORITY AREA: Update and Maintain Facilities and Resources

• Identify the necessary instrument, technology, and facility upgrades
• Prioritize the identified necessary upgrades
• Develop a long-range budget plan that identifies the timeline to carry out the prioritized upgrades 
  

PRIORITY AREA: Financial Stability

• Expand philanthropic and grant funding to support new degree programs, student scholarships and assistantships, and resource upgrades#
• Within a new funding model, ensure financial stability through increased degree programs and new streams of revenue

VISION PILLAR: Study

PRIORITY AREA: Student Health and Wellness

• Create a culture of student wellbeing with focused initiatives and curriculum that meet the physical and mental health needs and expectations of current day music students+
• Establish JSOM as a national leader in musicians’ wellness
• Train faculty and staff on student health and wellness best practices and resources
• Lead interdisciplinary research focused on musicians’ wellbeing and peak performance
• Create a uniform weekly rehearsal and course schedule that supports student wellbeing and their professional goals

PRIORITY AREA: Preparing Students for the 21^st Century

• Establish an expectation that all students complete one career development course during their degree program
• Define and expand experiential learning for all students and create a process for students to access internships in and beyond Indiana
• Actively align course content with the JSOM Office of Entrepreneurship & Career Development’s (OECD) programs and resources
• Market OECD’s programs, resources, and impact to students, faculty, and staff

VISION PILLAR: Connection

PRIORITY AREA: Enriching JSOM Experience

• Create and strengthen connections between current students and alumni to support student success
• Increase social resources and spaces that encourage connection between our students
• Increase outreach efforts throughout IUB campus to cultivate new and expanded audiences for student performances
• Create intentional and meaningful opportunities for students to consistently engage with faculty and staff

PRIORITY AREA: Staff Engagement

• Implement an annual Leadership Series that develops staff skills and promotes professional advancement for staff
• Provide access to professional development and training opportunities for staff
• Formalize the process to review and act on pay and staffing equity challenges
• Develop a formal onboarding and mentoring process that familiarizes new staff with IU and at the Jacobs School of Music

VISION PILLAR: Belonging

PRIORITY AREA: Improve Community

• Identify and address the opportunity and outcome gaps among our wide-ranging student populations
• Provide stronger supports and resources for our students from historically marginalized backgrounds
• Increase efforts to hire, retain, and promote individuals from historically marginalized groups to help expand the canon and improve student outcomes
• Provide annual community-wide training on cultural competence
• Develop a safe and clear system for bias reporting
• Develop a coordinated plan for programming and curricular offerings that better highlight the contributions that composers, performers and scholars of underprivileged backgrounds have made to the realm of music

VISION PILLAR: Impact

PRIORITY AREA: Expand Jacobs Academy for Outreach Across the State of Indiana

• Dedicate staff to create and disseminate free JSOM and Jacobs Academy content across various media and marketing channels
• Market Jacobs Academy’s free and paid offerings to the broader Indiana community especially throughout Indiana’s K – 12 public school system to improve K – 12 outcomes
• Expand Jacobs Academy’s asynchronous and synchronous online offerings to reach rural youth and youth from low-income families#

PRIORITY AREA: Reimagine International Priorities and Strategies

• Increase our international visibility and brand reputation to enable current students to: (1) perform internationally, (2) build their global professional networks and (2) participate in credit-bearing exchange programs with international institutions
• Spotlight alumni working internationally to highlight potential career paths for current student, expand new student recruitment areas, and build stakeholder engagement
• Build dedicated funding stream to enable: (1) international co-productions, (2) international faculty performances, (3) web-based masterclasses with international audiences and guest instructors, and (4) partnership with international festivals and conservatories to showcase our faculty and students