Goal 1: Academic Excellence & Student Success

Achieve academic excellence and student success through the advancement of intercultural, global, and interdisciplinary education, experiential learning, and individualized student-centered resources.

Objectives:

a. Provide learning environments and opportunities that encourage the development of deep content knowledge that leads to discerning engagement in work and in the world.

b. Increase high-impact practices that promote creative expression, scholarly research, and applied learning.

c. Grow service opportunities and civic engagement to explore personal identities and diversity, and make a positive societal impact locally, regionally, and internationally.

d. Strengthen our culture of mentorship through integrated and individualized support systems and resources that help students succeed.

Goal 2: Inclusive Community

Foster a diverse, empathetic, and vibrant community that inspires a culture of inclusivity, accountability, and collaboration.

Objectives:

a. Prioritize personal well-being by promoting healthy practices and environments.

b. Advance a culture of belonging, equity, inclusion, and trust by embracing diversity, access, and accountability.

c. Promote an environment that elevates voices, examines structures of power and privilege, and creates justice-oriented actions and solutions.

d. Develop future leaders who gain self-awareness, mentor others, and emerge as change agents.

e. Foster school pride by building relationships and partnerships, amplifying creative collaboration, and enhancing community engagement.

Goal 3: Agile Stewardship

Drive institutional distinction, sustainability, and pride by galvanizing our community members and partners, and building organizational agility, accountability, and resilience.

Objectives:

a. Drive institutional distinction through student and alumni satisfaction and success, faculty scholarship, thought leadership, national and international collaborations, and organizational expertise.

b. Bolster Ramapo pride through serving as both a public college of choice and an employer of choice.

c. Secure long-term fiscal sustainability through the entrepreneurial management and development of resources at every level.

d. Strengthen organizational resilience and agility through sustainable practices and data-informed SMART choices (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound). (Doran, 1981)

Source: Doran, G. T. (1981). “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives,” Management Review, Vol. 70, Issue 11, pp. 35-36.

Boldly Ascending launched in 2023. At that time, 43 units across campus designed and began implementing their 2023-26 Unit Effectiveness Plans (UEPs). The UEPs included desired annual and multiyear outcomes that tied directly to Boldly Ascending’s goals and objectives. Following unit submissions of results and findings in the Fall of 2026, the UEPs were closed out.

Members of the Administrative Assessment Committee then assessed the closed out UEPs. This assessment, alongside a review of the College’s Key Performance Indicators, assorted survey findings, Task Force reports, and other data sources led to the College-wide Findings & Opportunities (listed below) which, alongside unit-level findings and other data sources, were discussed with all units to inform the development of 2026-2029 UEPs.

Finding 1: Seeded Initiatives Have Built Strong Momentum | Leverage Them to Drive HIPs

• Detail: The launch of high-touch centers and targeted programs (such as the Center for First-Generation Students, Multicultural Center, IGG, and the ENHANCE Therapeutic Support Program) has successfully expanded campus resources, advanced student success, and elevated institutional reputation/demand.
• Opportunity: Capitalize on this momentum by leveraging these centers and other campus spaces as resources to increase students’ participation (throughout their academic career) in High Impact Practices [1] such as undergraduate research, learning communities, global and experiential learning, and civic engagement.

Finding 2: Institutional Alignment and Trust Are High | Build on this to Optimize Real-world Problem Solving and Leader Development Across Cores

• Detail: Inclusive practices, experiences, and programs across all Cores have helped establish trust, clear mission alignment, and campus-wide commitment to student success and mentorship.
• Opportunity: Leverage this collaborative culture to drive curricula, practices, experiences, and programs that prioritize developing students as leaders who are exposed to and can solve real world problems.

Finding 3: Student Needs and Demographics Are Rapidly Evolving | Routinize, Hasten, and Pilot Data-informed Adjustments

• Detail: Our student profile is changing at a rapid rate. Agility and intentionality that keeps pace with this rapid change is necessary across academic and administrative units.
• Opportunity: Routinize data-informed decision-making and continuous assessment across all areas to dynamically assess, adjust, pilot, and deliver academic programs and services.

Finding 4: Institutional Mission & Vision Are Steady, but the Societal and Economic Landscape is Not | Make Clear Across All Endeavors the Link between Liberal Arts Learning, a Ramapo Degree, and Upward Mobility

• Detail: Ramapo has established clarity around its public liberal arts mission (“teaching how to think, not what to think”) and its trajectory toward national distinction for developing ethical change agents, empathetic problem solvers, and responsible leaders. However, external headwinds—such as shifting workforce expectations, declining populations, economic pressures, and public scrutiny around return on investment—require enterprise-wide efforts to articulate the link between liberal arts learning and professional achievement.
• Opportunity: Affirm the public liberal arts mission and pursuit of national distinction by ensuring and articulating how RCNJ’s programs, services, and curricula actively adapt to the realities students will navigate, clearly demonstrating how a contemporary liberal arts education drives both transformative personal growth and long-term career mobility.

[1] Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Ramapo College’s strategic planning process included four key elements: Planning Forums, The Future Series, Needs Statement Process, and Campus Facilities Planning. These four elements all shaped the development of Boldly Ascending by: exploring our context, igniting our passion, envisioning our environment, and ultimately, making a bold impact.

PDF of Boldly Ascending