Coastal Georgia 2027

Engaged Learning – Every Student, Every Time

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Overview

In August 2021, the College of Coastal Georgia (Coastal Georgia) partnered with the Georgia Center for Nonprofits (GCN) to design and facilitate a consultative process of creating a new five-year strategic plan (2022-2027). The strategic planning process began with a series of listening sessions, ensuring an equitable, inclusive, and comprehensive planning process that provided internal and external stakeholders the opportunity to participate and contribute. A comprehensive analysis of the College’s strengths and limitations and the opportunities and threats in its external environment was conducted. Strategic plan working groups were established for each strategic focus area identified through environmental scanning to develop goals, objectives, and tactics. To help inform the working groups’ recommendations, feedback was gathered from a broad spectrum of the Mariner community – using surveys and in-person and virtual town hall meetings. These collaborative efforts resulted in six strategic goals with their corresponding objectives.

Strategic Goals and Objectives

Defining a five-year strategy requires focusing on a select number of key priorities. To achieve Coastal Georgia’s vision for the future, the institution will pursue meaningful and measurable progress in six strategic focus areas supported by three thematic pillars – Grow & Thrive, Excel & Lead, and Engage & Connect – reflecting the characteristics the College sees in itself and attributes it will continue to enhance. Institutional objectives provide the means for achieving and evaluating progress toward the six strategic goals.

Grow & Thrive

Goal 1: Attract, recruit and enroll a diverse and inclusive student body.

Objectives:

  • Design and implement a comprehensive enrollment management and recruitment plan to attract diverse student populations.
  • Streamline the enrollment process as seamless, equity-minded, and student-focused.
  • Increase awareness of the College’s potential student ecosystem: parents, high school staff and teachers, students, traditional, non-traditional, veterans, and active service members.

Goal 2: Drive student success and promote timely degree completion.

Objectives:

  • Provide a coordinated and enriching student experience that helps students achieve timely progression and remain on track to attaining their educational and career goals.
  • Provide meaningful and relevant programming that promotes student success through co-curricular engagement.
  • Build and maintain an inclusive classroom culture to support student success.
  • Create culturally responsive retention and student success strategies that target institutional performance gaps and address the specific needs of diverse student groups.
  • Monitor and track in real-time student engagement to reduce student departure rates.
  • Develop programs to provide students with the workforce skills needed to thrive as global citizens.
  • Increase engagement through enriching campus employment opportunities for students.

Engage & Connect

Goal 3: Cultivate and sustain a welcoming and vibrant Mariner culture that engages the community.

Objectives:

  • Enhance and sustain an infrastructure that supports and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • Expand professional and leadership development opportunities for faculty, staff, and administrators that contribute to a culture of care, support, and inclusion.
  • Create a climate where internal stakeholders feel included, valued, empowered, and seen.
  • Enhance opportunities for faculty and staff to share their expertise.
  • Develop and promote mutually beneficial relationships, partnerships, and connections with local and regional communities.
  • Build relationships with alumni to ensure they remain strong advocates for the College.
  • Maximize offerings of varsity athletics, intramurals, club sports, and student well-being activities.

Goal 4: Enhance the College’s unique identity and increase brand visibility.

Objectives:

  • Increase utilization of branding in communications across units and departments.
  • Create and establish a unified voice and visual identity for the institution.
  • Increase capacity to manage and diversify integrated marketing efforts across the institution.
  • Strengthen the institution’s local, regional, and national visibility and reputation.
  • Expand and diversify institutional outreach and market base.
  • Increase capacity to articulate diversity as a value-add to the College experience.
  • Support and feature intercollegiate athletics and student wellness offerings to reflect the comprehensive nature of the College.
Excel & Lead

Goal 5: Engage students in a rich academic and co-curricular experience to prepare them for future careers and lifelong learning.

Objectives:

  • Create a culture of well-being by providing students with mental and physical health support.
  • Engage students as peer mentors to support student development and success.
  • Deliver programming through appropriate modalities and provide professional development for faculty and staff.
  • Provide meaningful and relevant programming and engagement opportunities.
  • Strengthen the first-year student experience by implementing a student success course.
  • Implement the Endeavor framework to provide collaborative and engaging curricular and co-curricular learning experiences.

Goal 6: Diversify and grow resources and improve operational efficiency and effectiveness at all levels.

Objectives:

  • Maintain continuous improvement of operations, policies, and practices to support the College mission and strategic plan.
  • Make investments that support effective instructional, athletics, student well-being, and administrative operations.
  • Promote and maintain institutional policies that support a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion.
  • Design, develop, and execute a comprehensive fundraising campaign.
  •  Enhance resources for strategic initiatives through grants and corporate parntnerships.