The Strategic Plan (DRAFT)

Honoring Our STEM Mission

Priority 1: Strengthen and extend HMC’s position as the preeminent undergraduate college for liberal arts STEM education.

HMC is among the finest undergraduate liberal arts colleges in the world. Our distinction lies in delivering a liberal arts education through a focus on the STEM disciplines. The entire College community is dedicated to fostering scholars and innovators who strive to make a positive impact on society.

Our Aspiration

Harvey Mudd will be the unparalleled leader in liberal arts STEM education, disseminating STEM pedagogy and engaging students in scholarship.

Principal Initiatives

1. Construct a new academic “Living Building” with state-of-the-art facilities that will support experimental scholarship, modern science, and engineering design.
2. Recruit and retain academic staff members and faculty essential to high-quality academic programs.
3. Expand the Core Impact course infrastructure and support to promote continued innovation and course sustainability as well as to create opportunities for additional interdisciplinary teaching across the curriculum.
4. Expand research opportunities for all students throughout the year.
5. Establish a Summer Enterprise framework with a comprehensive approach to summer session programming, including courses, summer research experiences with faculty salary and student housing support, and outreach initiatives such as Upward Bound.

Priority 2: Build pathways to make Harvey Mudd College affordable and accessible.

Harvey Mudd College is a beacon for students from all backgrounds, income levels, and communities who love STEM and more. Expanding access to Harvey Mudd and addressing STEM educational equity is an imperative ethical responsibility.

Our Aspiration

HMC will offer need-blind admissions and financially secure matriculation, creating an economically and socially diverse student body.

Principal Initiatives

1. Eliminate loans from all financial aid packages.
2. Endow a Secure Scholars Fund to meet all the indirect costs that our students face.
3. Endow key programs in support of first-generation and low-income students, including programs such as “I’m a First” and Summer Institute.

The World Needs Harvey Mudd

Priority 3: Empower influential STEM leaders through interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research by infusing creativity and innovation throughout our curricular and co-curricular experiences.

Despite our relatively young age as a college, there has been tremendous intellectual wealth imparted to the world as Harvey Mudd has pursued its mission. Our curriculum cultivates an environment of scholarship, inquiry, scrutiny and discernment so that we equip students with the tools necessary to tackle complex, real-world challenges. We must develop platforms that increase our ability to rigorously examine the intersections of pressing challenges while inculcating our students with the tools to lead through change, relying on the strength of our ability to explore the intersection of STEM fields with the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. Co-curricular activities should complement classroom learning by providing students with opportunities to pursue meaningful projects and innovative endeavors.

Our Aspiration

Harvey Mudd College will cultivate innovative thinkers equipped with multidisciplinary perspectives. We will foster a new generation of leaders who will tackle complex global challenges with care, creativity, critical thinking and technical expertise. We will animate a mindset of innovation, imagination and discovery.

Principal Initiatives

1. Establish an Innovation Accelerator to provide resources and infrastructure that empowers faculty and staff to create new pathways for inquiry and additional avenues for curricular and co-curricular innovation–including new institutes and centers of excellence—by providing access to time relieving benefits such as competitive teaching loads, course releases, stipend support, etc., for research and collaborative course development.
2. Expand the Hixon Center to increase our impact on the climate by adding new faculty, staff and programming.
3. Establish a Center for Data Science to focus on the ethical use of data across all academic disciplines for making a social impact.
4. Revitalize and expand the Impact Leadership program.
5. Establish joint majors with the other 4Cs in areas that will incorporate public policy, ethics, and STEM disciplines.
6. Establish a Center for Joy and Flourishing that will expand on the “prototype your life” framework.
7. Endow a sustaining fund for the Makerspace.
8. Elevate opportunities for professional/society affiliated clubs to compete and grow regionally and nationally.

Priority 4: Foster high-impact partnerships.

We recognize the immense value that collaboration with The Claremont Colleges, external organizations, businesses and community groups brings to our students, faculty and broader society. Building mutually beneficial partnerships—including leveraging the professional expertise and prestige of our alumni—amplifies our collective impact, drives innovation and addresses pressing societal challenges.

Our Aspiration

We will create a dynamic ecosystem of collaboration, innovation and collective progress that enhances educational experiences and drives societal impact.

Principal Initiatives

1. Establish a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to engage companies, VCs, nonprofits in building out our Eship Studio.
2. Expand Clinic partnerships with nonprofits and other entities to align Clinic more fully with its educational and mission-focused goals and to strengthen ties to companies and graduate programs in high-impact areas such as biotech and health informatics.
3. Develop partnerships to enable students to explore international systems and their impacts on humanity, including scholarships.
4. Establish a Claremont Colleges Computing alliance to collectively create a high-performance computing ecosystem.
5. Strengthen connections with Honnold Library to meet the evolving needs of students and faculty.

A Flourishing Community

Priority 5: Transform the campus to empower students through their residential living and personal growth.

Harvey Mudd College’s residential community is inclusive in nature where relationships are typically developed amongst a culture of respect undergirded by the HMC Honor Code. It is essential that we provide holistic support for students in building and developing their personal compasses and exploring their place in our society, our democracy, and the world.

Our Aspiration

Our central campus will provide the physical space and programmatic and staffing infrastructure to give Mudders social and cultural support as well as the tools with which to build a meaningful life.

Principal Initiatives

1. Build a new Student Union with support for academic and career development.
2. Build a new n-bed residence hall with spaces for club meetings and personal growth.
3. Renovate existing residence halls so that they continue to be formative in student flourishing.
4. Expand the Office of Civic and Community Engagement to build students’ citizenship and global awareness through local, regional and global outreach.

Priority 6: Bolster our strength in community, belonging and wellbeing.

At Harvey Mudd College, we recognize that success in our academic community is closely intertwined with personal fulfillment and holistic wellness. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive environment that celebrates diversity, fosters meaningful connections, and celebrates achievement.

Our Aspiration

By undergirding our strength in community, belonging, and wellbeing, we will empower individuals—our students and alumni, professional staff, and faculty—to lead fulfilling lives and make positive contributions to our campus and to society.

Principal Initiatives

1. Establish the Diversity, Equity, Community, Inclusion and Belonging (“DECIBEL”) initiative to integrate inclusive excellence paradigms more fully into all areas of the College.
2. Establish a Wellness Center to expand our capacity to support wellness and mental health needs.
3. Revitalize the Linde Activities Center and strengthen and celebrate athletics at all levels—varsity (CMS Athletics), club sports, and intramurals.
4. Attract, support and retain outstanding faculty teacher-scholars and professional staff by making HMC a great place to work through empowering and exemplifying healthy excellence.
5. Enhance the public art collection through temporary and permanent exhibitions that reflect who we are.