| 8 | Co l l e g e o f Ch a r l e s t o n magazine

It’s been saId that a great cIty needs a great university, and that a great university needs a great city. This couldn’t be truer when it comes to the city of Charleston and the College of Charleston. Great universities infuse cities with youthful vitality, intellectual curiosity, cultural and racial diversity and a globally oriented mindset. Great cities, in turn, offer the employment opportunities, transportation infrastructure, neighborhoods, and quality of life that universities depend on to lure the best and brightest students, faculty and staff to their institutions. There are, at most, five or six very special places in the United States to locate a university. And they don’t include Chapel Hill or Ann Arbor or Princeton. Those are wonderful college towns, but they’re not Boston, San Francisco or Charleston!

The College has always recognized the importance of its relationship with Charleston, but it has not fully capitalized on the unique attributes that make the Lowcountry so special: a breathtaking and ecologically diverse natural environment, a world-renowned historic district, a vibrant arts community anchored by Spoleto Festival USA, an international seaport, a dynamic hospitality and tourism industry, urban livability, and the list goes on and on. Renewing and reinvigorating the College’s connection to its surroundings is a hallmark of our new Strategic Plan, which will guide us for the next decade and beyond. At the heart of the plan are its three values: The first, “educational excellence,” is a value you are likely to see in the strategic plans of nearly all universities. Its inclusion in our plan emphasizes the

College’s unwavering commitment to prepare students for productive and enriching lives. The second value is “student-focused community.” Our faculty have developed a nurturing environment for students that sets us apart from most other universities. We intend to maintain the individualized education our students receive while also offering the expansive academic opportunities that are characteristic of a national research university. But it is the plan’s third and most unique value that will truly differentiate the College, both nationally and internationally: embracing “the history, traditions, culture and environment of Charleston and the Lowcountry.” Our unrivaled location should afford our students and faculty with education and scholarship opportunities that they can’t receive anywhere else in the world. This value, celebrating our sense of place, will serve as a prioritization mechanism to help us make decisions about which academic programs to emphasize and where to invest our resources. Existing programs that this value calls out include historic preservation, marine biology, African American studies, environmental sciences and policy, hospitality and tourism management, global logistics and transportation, the arts, arts management and urban planning. There is so much more we can do to strengthen these programs and their relationships within the Charleston community, across the state and up and down the East Coast. The new decade that is upon us will no doubt present continued economic challenges, including the further erosion of state support for public higher education. As a result, it is more important than ever that we invest our limited resources wisely and strategically. Our Strategic Plan presents a clear vision of the College’s future and a roadmap for how to get there. Guided by our 240-year history and our core values, the College will achieve a level of distinction that is truly worthy of its great city.

– President P. George Benson

To learn more about the Strategic Plan, go online at www.cofc.edu/strategicplan.

The Value of Place

[ from the president ]