These experiences encourage students to grow intellectually and to clarify personal values. In making decisions about priorities and resource allocations, the new President must focus first on outcomes for students that emphasize the development of the whole person. The faculty endorse the primacy of teaching among their several roles and actively seek to promote instructional innovation. Advising and mentoring are important to them. Their effectiveness as teachers is consistently corroborated by very positive student responses to biennial student satisfaction surveys.
Faculty are also enthusiastic participants in a variety of interdisciplinary programs.
Susquehanna's faculty work hard to maintain high standards for their teaching, scholarship, and service. They are committed to the institution and to the community, and they are remarkably willing to assume additional responsibilities in areas such as admissions and grantseeking. The President must sustain the University's focus on teaching and learning by encouraging the development of new methodologies, supporting scholarly activity by the faculty and students, and assuring that institutional resources are increased and allocated effectively to serve these ends. As the institution's chief executive officer and the chair of the Board's Planning and Priorities Committee, the next President will be responsible not only for implementing the current strategic plan, but also for providing creative leadership to the campus community and the Board in the ongoing process of shaping Susquehanna's future. Susquehanna is not alone in the challenges it faces.