Strategic Plan Update
November 2004
Mission Statement
The mission of Georgia Military College is to produce educated, contributing citizens by
providing its high school and middle school students an inclusive college preparatory curriculum
and its college students a liberal arts based two-year undergraduate curriculum in an environment
conducive to the holistic development of the intellect and character of its students.
Vision Statement
Georgia Military College will be an institution that is recognized by the citizens of Georgia as a
model of educational excellence and student success. Its renown will arise from the character,
intellectual skills, and performance of its graduates. The students will respect the faculty for their
caring attitude and ability to help them grow in all human dimensions and for their mentoring in a
community of learners. The institution will be respected for its caring and highly qualified
faculty and staff who are focused on student learning and student success. It will possess
facilities that support the institution’s mission and purpose. The students and graduates will be
proud to claim Georgia Military College as their alma mater and will be known and sought after
as men and women destined to be leaders of their generation.
Purpose
Georgia Military College will be successful in the educational development of citizens through
integration of two dimensions of education: development of the intellect and elevation of
character. Possession of these two dimensions, which includes the capacity to act upon one’s
knowledge, provides an individual the ability to function as a responsible citizen within a
republic. Georgia Military College graduates shall have an appreciation for the centrality of
education as a lifelong pursuit.
Georgia Military College will produce citizens who serve as role models by actively involving
themselves in their communities and in the democratic process. This will be accomplished by
creating and continually refining formal ethics programs, providing time for reflection, and
training students in right behaviors. The institution will encourage all members of the educational
community, students, faculty, and staff, to work in partnership with the communities in which
they live.
Georgia Military College graduates will understand the importance of and the need to respect the
dignity and humanity of others. They will be sensitive to persons of diverse backgrounds with
different values and ways of communicating.
Concomitant with the accelerating growth of information and derived knowledge, the focus at
Georgia Military College will be to teach students how to learn so as to increase their adaptability
to changing conditions. Students will be taught to think critically and to have confidence in their
abilities to act within a global environment.
Georgia Military College will strive to assist every student in identifying and achieving their
educational goal. Students will be assisted by faculty advisors and staff through early
identification and intensive intervention programs beginning at their first point of contact with the
college.
Georgia Military College will employ quality faculty and staff and develop facilities focused on
the successful achievement of both dimensions of education. The primary focus of the faculty
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Strategic Plan Update
November 2004
will be on excellence in teaching and the expansion of their knowledge and skills as teachers. The
institutional staff will be student-oriented and professionally competent. Facilities will reflect
state of the art capabilities and will contribute directly to the creation and maintenance of the
desired learning environment.
Strategic Goal: Georgia Military College has one Strategic Goal, which is to “Improve Student
Learning.”
NOTE: A review of the GMC planning and reporting system was completed at the direction of
the President in October-November 2004. Reviewers concluded that the system was overly
complex, unnecessarily burdensome, and difficult to administer. In a move designed to simplify
the system, the President directed that character education and enrollment goals be integrated into
the existing student learning goal their aim the accomplishment of the institutional mandate to
improve student learning. . He further directed that departments and Distant Learning Centers
sharpen their focus on planning for continuous improvement and build plans that have as
Strategic Areas: The purpose of designating strategic areas is to provide department and Distant
Learning Center planners’ focal points for planning.
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
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Student Learning: Develop student mastery of the GMC core intellectual proficiencies
and the learning outcomes of the student’s degree program—to include character
development outcomes.
Teaching: Teach and advise students who have diverse knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Resources: Provide facilities and services essential for meeting the needs of students
and faculty.
Recruiting and Retention: Recruit and retain students in numbers sufficient to
financially sustain college operations.
Strategic Guidance
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Job one is to take care of our students and improve student learning. To continue
the impressive progress made in recent years, plans must give highest priority to
improving the quality of the academic programs, while addressing other aspects of the
student experience that enhance student learning. The initiatives that attract and retain
students will be those that successfully meet student needs and expectations inside the
classroom.
It is imperative that we live within our means. The college's plans are ambitious and
require the discipline of a balanced budget. No initiatives will be undertaken without a
thoughtful analysis of their financial impact on the college within the context of a
comprehensive budget and staffing model. Though facilities and priorities will
undoubtedly claim our attention, a key element in our plans must be to strengthen the
college's overall financial position by increasing enrollments and growing the
endowment. Because the financial future is unpredictable, plans must be flexible enough
to respond to changing fiscal realities.
Get right what we are already doing before moving on the something new. Plans
should focus on refining, improving, and building upon the strengths of the college,
rather than seeking new programmatic directions outside the scope of our current
mission.
Strategic Plan: The purpose of our planning is to provide direction, fix responsibility, chart a
path of continuing improvement, provide a means of linking plans to budget, insure that scarce
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Strategic Plan Update
November 2004
resources are used to best advantage, and effectively close the gap between what our
stakeholders—students, faculty, and staff—expect and the programs, services, and facilities that
the institution is providing.
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Because of the large percentage of entering junior college students placed into Learning
Support Studies classes, the focus of the college’s efforts to improve student learning
during this strategic planning period will be on improving the quality of the Georgia
Military College LSS program. The college Quality Enhancement Plan will serve as our
roadmap for faculty development, improved student placement and advisement,
improved in and out of class student assistance, and improved assessment of student
learning.
FY 05
Faculty Development
Complete NADE and Kellogg Attendance
Accomplish NADE certification
Implement adjunct LSS faculty best practice
orientation
Redesign LSS courses to incorporate
technology
Out of class assistance
Train tutors
Build resource center
Placement
Implement LIFE Keys program
Purchase and train faculty on COMPASS
Hire testing coordinator
Develop New Student Orientation
Reduce student/advisor ratio for LSS students
Reduce class size for LSS
Assessment
Implement LSS Assessment Plan
Datatel Web Advisor fully developed
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FY 08
FY 09
X
X
Valdosta
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
M’ville
X
All DLC
X
X
X
X
X
M’ville
X
All DLC
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Student tracking system in use
Hire IT support person
FY 07
X
M’ville
Staff and equip resource center
In class opportunities
Implement student centered teaching
methodologies
Incorporate critical thinking skills
methodology
Establish Learning Communities
FY 06
X
It is imperative that during this strategic planning cycle, we complete the integration into
our academic programs and our student service and support programs of the two
dimensions of education essential to the accomplishment of our institutional purpose:
development of the intellect and elevation of character.
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Strategic Plan Update
November 2004
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The college will achieve SACS reaffirmation in FY07.
During the five-year period FY05-FY09, Georgia Military College (GMC) will build out
Distant Learning Center off-post campuses to accommodate current and predicted
growth. As well the college will replace facilities at the Milledgeville campus that are in
serious disrepair and build additional facilities required to accommodate current and
predicted growth in the junior college and high school/middle school student populations.
Complete build out of Warner Robins Campus
Complete new Academic Building on Main
Campus
FY05
X
FY06
FY07
X
Complete Maintenance Facility on Main
Campus
X
Complete build out of Augusta campus
X
Complete new Cadet Residence Hall on Main
Campus
X
Complete new High School on Main Campus
FY09
X
Complete build out of Valdosta Campus
Complete new Athletic Complex--Phase I on
Main Campus
FY08
X
X
Institutional Improvement Plans: Institutional Improvement Plans are prepared at the direction
of the President. These plans describe multi-year projects (2-5 years) that require institution-level
supervision, large expenditures of funds, and coordination with state and/or federal authorities.
The Quality Enhancement Plan and the Facilities Master Plan are examples of Institutional
Improvement Plans.
Department Improvement Plans: Department-level plans are operational plans that can be
supervised at department-level and completed and resourced in the current budget year.
Departments and Distant Learning Centers will annually prepare, as appropriate, the following
types of plans:
 An annual budget that details the resources required to routinely operate the department
or Distant Learning Center.
 A recruiting and retention plan for each DLC and the Milledgeville campus.
 Department Improvement Plans that describe initiatives to improve student learning that
require expenditure of resources other than that needed to support routine operations.
 Department Improvement Plans to correct Internal Review findings of “Needs
Improvement”.
 Department Improvement Plans to improve student satisfaction as indicated by annual
Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Surveys.
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