DeSales will create a campus wide learning ecosystem with students at the center. This ecosystem will engage students, faculty, staff, and community partners regionally and around the world in a continuous and sustainable process of active learning based on student outcomes.
Strategic Plan 2019-2022
Our master blueprint to fulfill our mission, vision, and values.
Here at DeSales University, we've adopted the St. Francis de Sales quote, "Be who you are and be that well" as our unofficial motto. We believe it speaks to our relentless pursuit of "drawing out the goodness" as we educate our students — so that our graduates become successful, not only in their vocations but in their lives, as well.
De Sales' full quote contains the additional idea: "to give honor to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork you are." So as a University, we also strive to honor God by approaching our work as our Master Craftsman would — with careful and diligent preparation and planning.
The Strategic Plan 2019-2022 serves as our master blueprint to fulfill our mission, vision, and values. But rather than a static roadmap, it's a living, breathing guide to proceed in a way that gives honor to our Master Craftsman. Our five overarching goals serve as our trail blazes — each one helping us to remain oriented and centered as we push forward into the unknown landscape that is the future of higher education.
Welcome to DeSales
Who We Are
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Our Mission
DeSales is a Catholic, Salesian university that energizes transformative learning through the liberal arts and professional studies. Fostering dynamic relationships and moral, spiritual, and intellectual virtues, we grow as a community to stand for and with others to advance their dignity and serve the common good.
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Our Vision
We aspire to be a learning community where innovative teaching, mentored professional practice, and ethical preparation expands the minds, the talents, and the hearts of curious students to construct new ideas and lead lives of impact.
To accomplish this vision, we will strive for continuous improvement through a coordinated set of strategic initiatives defined by the following elements:
- Mission-forward actions
- Keenly focused enrollment growth
- Online learning throughout our programs
- A developed nexus between career and alumni development
- Effective utilization of our campus resources
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Our Values
- Gentleness
- Humility
- Gratitude
- Wisdom
- Hospitality
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Our Philosophy
DeSales University is firmly and publicly committed to the principles of Roman Catholic doctrine and morality. It also fully recognizes that the search for truth requires an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and that love demands an openness to all that is good.
DeSales carefully distinguishes between the free pursuit of truth - which it guarantees every member of the campus community - and its own commitment to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
For DeSales University, Christian humanism means that every aspect of human experience is capable of enlightenment by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This Gospel brings light to each dimension of personal existence (physical, intellectual, social, moral, aesthetic, and religious) and every environmental domain (natural world, social institutions, cultural achievements, historical periods, and religious societies).
The encounter between the Word of God and the concrete world of the human person makes a fully meaningful existence possible. DeSales University strives to teach the student what it means to be Christian in a Salesian way, what it means to embrace one's own life, and what it means to bring this Good News to the human family.
"Be who you are and be that well, to give honor to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork you are."
Five Goals for our Future
Active Learning, Continual Improvement, and Sustainability
1
Goal: Deliver the best student experience
Innovation, Rewards, and Inclusiveness
2
Goal: Inspire outstanding employee commitment
DeSales will become a campus community that intentionally recognizes innovation, rewards achievement, and values inclusiveness to engage faculty and staff through recruitment, professional development, and programming.
Pedagogy, Process, and Outcomes
3
Goal: Improve educational products and services
DeSales will transform the development and delivery of higher education through a reengineering of pedagogy, processes, and systems centered on student learning outcomes.
Creative Risk, Financial Stability, and Accountability
4
Goal: Achieve financial, operational, and quality commitments.
DeSales will support its success through a foundational culture of data-driven decision-making and accountability, a capacity for collaboration, creative risk-taking balanced with financial sustainability, and outstanding infrastructure and effective operations.
Catholicism, Community, and Partnerships
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Goal: Leverage strategic partnerships and community outreach.
DeSales will solidify its status as a leading Catholic, regional university by tailoring programs to meet emerging market needs.
