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Guiding Narrative for Malone’s Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal #1: Widening our Circle of Learners

Widen our circle of learners to establish Malone University in the education marketplace as the institution which provides students with a Christian, service-oriented, liberal arts curriculum aligned with the needs of the workforce.

1 CHRONICLES 4:9-10 NLT

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

Success Measures: 

We must focus our efforts strategically on the kinds of students we attract and the kinds of people we send out to serve communities, the Church, and the world. 

  • As a Christian university affiliated with the EFC-ER, we need to enhance the mission-fit of new students by increasing the proportion of students with church backgrounds as well as from Evangelical Friends churches in particular. 
  • In alignment with our Pendle Hill Program, we also want to attract students who have a sense of calling so that we can help them to develop a clearer and stronger sense of calling over time. 
  • Our efforts to increase the racial/ethnic diversity of our student body reflects a conviction that diversity is an intrinsic part of what it means to be a Christian university and a service-oriented university aligned with the needs of the workforce. 
  • Our ultimate measure of success is how students are living after graduation. Students ought to be living out their callings through additional education, through service to their churches and communities, and through careers that are meaningfully connected to their education and formation during their time at Malone.

2026 Success Outcomes:

  1. Increase traditional undergraduate student body to 871+ full-time students.
  2. Incoming traditional undergraduate student body of 70% faith-aligned students by identification of a home church on application.
  3. NCAA student athlete population </= 40% of incoming undergraduate population.
  4. Increase overall percentage of undergraduate students of color to 20%+.
  5. Increase graduate student credit hours per year to 4400+.
  6. Pendle Hill Pathway U scores for Seeking Purpose, Presence of Purpose, and Living Purpose reflect growth from first year and match/supersede CCCU institution scores.
  7. Achieve post-graduation outcomes alumni/ae survey scores being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” related to the Malone experience regarding career preparation (85%), spiritual growth (85%), intellectual experience (90%), and the overall Malone experience (90%) with a response rate of at least 20%.

2023-2024 Institutional Priority Goals:

  1. Enroll 285 new full-time traditional undergrad students, including 80+ new full-time students from 5 partner Christian high schools, homeschool students, and the EFC-ER and 30 transfer students.
  2. Increase the percentage of incoming students of color to 17.5% (+5%).
  3. Increase Fall 2024 new graduate enrollment to 87 (750 CHs), including 12 new student enrollments within the MSN. 

Strategic Goal #2: Enhance and Develop Academic and Athletic Programs

Enhance our ability to identify marketplace needs and opportunities, create programs and partnerships that meet those needs, and launch those initiatives effectively.

PROVERBS 27:17 NLT

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

Success Measures: 

These success measures will require us to focus strategically on community-college partnerships and on the particular new, existing, and joint programs that are most likely to attract students to the university. 

Furthermore, we will need to do so without increasing our discount rate. We must diversify our revenue streams and, in particular, reduce the University’s reliance on traditional undergraduate tuition revenue.    

  • Enrollment and Average Net Revenue Per Student in existing and new programs that have been targeted for enhanced marketing and recruitment efforts, and in joint programs with other institutions.

2026 Success Outcomes:

  1. Implementation of an effective new program develop system in which multiple new programs met benchmark goals in enrollment and net tuition revenue.
  2. Effectively utilize current program metrics to revitalize programs to meet benchmark goals in enrollment and net tuition revenue or to have sun-setted those programs.   

2023-2024 Institutional Priority Goals:

  1. Complete feasibility studies for 3 potentially high impact new programs. 
  2. Assist 3 businesses submit new TechCred applications to partner with Malone.
  3. Expand Learn & Earn from 1 to 3 business partnerships. 
  4. Complete feasibility studies for 1 complete CBE program. 
  5. Complete all designated unscheduled academic program reviews and propose revitalization or sunsetting plans. 

Strategic Goal #3: Fiscal Sustainability

Secure Malone’s long-term future by ensuring annual profitability through data-informed decision making. That is, erase the structural deficit and create a fiscally sustainable university with an annual margin of 5%. 

LUKE 14:28 NLT

But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?

Success Measures:

These success measures are designed to increase the overall net revenue of the University by setting targets and making data-informed decisions strategically on the basis of key sources of revenue rather than on absolute metrics, such as enrollment numbers and team rosters.

  • Annual Profit/Loss statement
  • Increase the amount and percentage of revenue from non-traditional tuition and fees and other sources

2026 Success Outcomes: 

  1. To have erased the structural deficit through an equivalent combination of the following:
    • 871+ FT undergraduate students at current discount rate
    • 60% of traditional undergraduates in on-campus housing
    • 4400+ graduate student credit hours
    • $1.8M+ in annual fund giving
    • Other revenue of $230k+ per year

2023-2024 Institutional Priority Goals:

  1. $5M in Extraordinary Giving through Cash, Pledges, Property, and Planned Giving to Close Budgetary Gap and Produce DOE Fiscal Responsibility Score 1.5+
  2. Secure positive cash flow through October 2024

Strategic Goal #4: Caring for Our People

Increase student and employee belonging and satisfaction

JOHN 15:12 NLT

This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

Success Measures:

These success measures target student and employee satisfaction and belonging in different ways at different points in time. 

  • Student satisfaction will be measured using two objective measures that are significantly impacted by satisfaction and belonging: program completion and alumni giving. (Note: the Forbes Grateful Graduates Index has generated a national focus on alumni giving as a key measure of student satisfaction.)
  • Employee satisfaction will be measured using key results from the ModernThink Higher Education Insight Survey from the Great Colleges to Work For program.

Success Outcomes: 

  1. From the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) administration in 2025, to increase +6% overall experience as “excellent” or “good” and +6% who would “definitely” or “probably” attend institution again.
  2. Achieve SSI student centeredness responsiveness scores for Sense of Belonging, Administrator Approachability, and Campus Experience to match/exceed CCCU institutions mean at the survey administration in 2026.
  3. Achieve scores of Very Good to Excellent in all categories of the ModernThink Higher Education Insight annual survey.
  4. Increase four-year graduation rates to 55%.
  5. Increase graduate program completion rate to 65%.
  6. Increase the overall number of and percentage of minority faculty and staff to meet or exceed local and CCCU comparison group data in the categories of full-time faculty, part-time faculty, and staff.  

2023-2024 Institutional Priority Goals:

  1. Achieve SSI student centeredness responsiveness scores for Sense of Belonging, Administrator Approachability, and Campus Experience to match/exceed CCCU institutions mean.
  2. Improve communications of decisions across all campus constituencies
  3. Implement a universal employee review system
  4. Review and revitalize recruitment policies and processes
  5. Alumni giving to meet or exceed: $450k unrestricted, $150k restricted
  6. Achieve the following retention rates:
    • Fall 2023 Freshman to Fall 2024 77%
    • Freshman Fall 2022 to Fall 2024 65%
    • Graduate program overall retention Fall 2023 to Fall 2024

The Strategic Planning Committee receives a wide-range of input from the community. Based on this input and their monitoring of the strategic plan success measures, the Strategic Planning Committee will make annual recommendations to the President’s Cabinet for any modifications to the Strategic Goals and for annual strategic initiatives.