Strategic Plan Document (PDF)
Our Vision and Strategic Priorities
Our strategic plan is the culmination of the process and synthesis described above. In affirming our mission and acknowledging our history, we are committed to being an institution that puts students first, to make an impact on our communities now and in the future. We recognize that fulfilling our mission will require us to constantly evaluate our environment and our performance, and take a data-driven and strategic approach to ensure the future of the College.
Thus, our vision is that:
ENMU-Ruidoso will be a forward-looking institution that leverages the strengths of the ENMU system and the local community to deliver a learner-first educational experience.
This vision will be realized by setting and achieving the following strategic priorities over the next 5 years:
- Enrollment: We will build student enrollment, retention, and completion through our spaces, events, programming, people, and the community.
- Engagement: We will leverage our partnership with our community to enrich our campus and our services.
- Enhancement: We will create and maintain diverse revenue streams to ensure the future of our institution and continue serving the community.
- Evaluation: We will regularly and systematically assess and review the needs of our students, employees, and community to ensure data-driven decision-making.
- Expansion: We will build and market our unique brand of education to our community
Priority #1: Enrollment
We will build student enrollment, retention, and completion through our spaces, events, programming, people, and the community.
Our faculty and staff are excellent advocates for our students. Every day, they work to develop new ways to reach students, including our adult learners. Through the Success Emporium, we offer tutoring and other academic support services. Our faculty teach in all modalities and offer one-on-one assistance to students in need. However, some of our students continue to struggle academically, which speaks to the need for comprehensive services, including social and emotional support. Engaging students in other ways, including by offering innovative programs and opportunities to learn by experience in their community, may also improve academic performance.
Therefore, over the next 5 years we will:
- Explore new programs to attract students to our campus.
- Build an infrastructure to support our students academically, socially, and emotionally.
- Design courses and curricula using innovative modalities and formats.
- Facilitate connections between our students and the local community to foster professional development and networks.
Priority #2: Engagement
We will leverage our partnership with the community to enrich our campus and our services.
It was clear through this process that the Ruidoso community is one of our strengths. Over a dozen community members came out to our town halls and more still responded to our request to complete a pre-planning input survey. In general, participants indicated that the community wants (1) their children to stay close (and have local educational opportunities to train them accordingly), (2) the College to host events and gatherings to bring the community together, and (3) outreach to students and employers outside the taxing district. Perhaps most clearly, the community wants the College to provide the training and support that will build the local workforce and lend to a sustainable future for the whole community.
We have always had a valuable partnership with our community. We have a dedicated Community College Board and a Foundation, both of which actively work alongside our administration to work toward positive outcomes.
With their support, we will:
- Create volunteer experiences for interested members of the community to share in our mission and support our students.
- Identify new opportunities for internships and training in our supported communities.
- Increase our responsiveness to all of Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Tribe to foster an inclusive environment for our students.
- Coordinate community-building programs that use our space and infrastructure.
Priority #3: Enhancement
We will create and maintain diverse revenue streams to ensure the future of our institution and continue serving the community.
As we identified above, our external funding is sometimes limited and other times, inconsistent. Enrollment is an important source of revenue for our College as are our local appropriations. However, we have not attracted much in the way of private gifts, nor have we maximized our potential for external grant funding.
Moving forward, it is essential that we identify other ways to bring revenue to our College that will allow us to make investments in programs and services that benefit our students. Our constituents have the skills and awareness to bring us to the next level, and our community is energized by our recent successes.
Therefore, we will:
- Consider pathways to expand our taxing district and ensure that all localconstituents benefit from our services.
- Seek external grant funding to support our programs and services.
- Leverage our renovated spaces for hosting external events.
- Incentivize innovation in revenue-building for our employees and partners.
Priority #4: Evaluation
We will regularly and systematically assess and review the needs of our students, employees, and community to ensure data-driven decision-making.
While we stand ready to innovate, we must do so strategically, based on trends and projections, rather than on intuition or routine. One area of note is the performance of our programs and the students who graduate from them. We have several programs with enrollment under 10 students. While these programs likely offer a benefit to some constituents, it has thus far been difficult for us to determine whether these programs have benefitted the students who graduate from them, and thus, it is difficult to determine whether these programs should be continued or warrant further investment.
Historically, we are a small institution with limited resources. Much of the data that we’ve used in the past to inform our decision-making has been collected and housed by the ENMU main campus. Moving forward, we are committed to tracking outcomes locally and using them to create a sustainable and nimble system that benefits our students, faculty, and staff.
To this end, we will endeavor to:
- Maintain and analyze institutional data to identify innovative solutions and opportunities, including schedules, spaces, and systems that are strategic and student-centered.
- Conduct a regular program and service review to ensure our offerings meet the needs of current and future students.
- Assess our human capital and organizational design to optimize the delivery of our services for students and the local community.
- Develop a system of recognition for employees and students who live and sustain our mission.
Priority #5: Expansion
We will build and market our unique brand of education to our community.
Through our interactions with constituents, it is clear that, while we sit near the center of town, many families are not aware of our programs or services. Our own students are often uninformed about the many ways we can help them succeed. While we have made strides in terms of outreach, it will be essential that we begin to explore new ways to reach people in and around Lincoln County, as well as throughout the state and into neighboring regions. We have a product worth selling, are surrounded by natural beauty, and are nested within a vibrant and energized community. It is time for us to market ourselves accordingly.
Over the next 5 years, we will:
- Harness media and other solutions to capitalize on a large and untapped market of potential students and partners.
- Evaluate the local market for advertising, reputation-building and community education opportunities.
- Grow our network of contacts in and around New Mexico to improve our name recognition and our brand.
