Department of Music’s Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategic Plan 2024-2029

As we prepare for Furman’s third century, faculty, staff, and students took this opportunity to reexamine our vision, mission, and values, and we are excited to share them with you now. These statements and this strategic plan were approved by a unanimous vote of the faculty on April 17, 2024.

 

Vision, Mission, and Values

 

Vision

 

A thriving global community enriched by Furman musicians through performance, education, scholarship, and lifelong musical engagement.

 

Mission

 

Provide an exceptional music education for students through artistically and intellectually diverse musical expression.

 

Values

 

• Excellent undergraduate teaching
• Preparing students for a career in music
• Engaging musical performances and scholarship
• Fostering artistic creativity and curiosity in the Furman community
• Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility
• Broad coalition of musical partnerships
• Interdisciplinary collaboration

 

We then relied upon these statements to form a strategic plan that will guide us through 2029, identifying the following key priorities:

 

Priority One: An Impactful and Distinct Student Experience

We will explore and implement student-centric innovations that enhance our pedagogical practice, galvanize learning, and challenge barriers by initiating a curricular review, strengthening our enrollment management strategies, pursuing facility improvements, enhancing our career counseling, and including music technology in our curriculum.

 

Priority Two: A Thriving Furman Musical Community

We will foster artistic creativity and curiosity in the Furman music community within a framework of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility that allows each person to thrive and flourish by making our facilities more inclusive, examining our curriculum, processes, and programming through an equity lens, working to engage Furman students broadly, providing enhanced mentorship for faculty, and fully engaging our staff.

 

Priority Three: A Sustainable, Broad, and Visible Program

We will strengthen partnerships beyond Furman to elevate and expand Furman Music’s reputation and identity, while building a sustainable future by developing strategic partnerships with other arts organizations, hosting a wide array of musical events, expanding our ability to tell our story, and enhancing our national profile.

 

As Furman University launches its new 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, these university efforts coincided with our desire to develop a plan that aligned our priorities within broader university planning. Furman has established three strategic priorities:

 

Priority One: University of Innovation and Impact

Priority Two: Thriving Community

Priority Three: Sustainable Future

 

Our departmental priorities have been designed in response to our own vision, mission, and values, but they also amplify, support, and bolster the university’s strategic goals. Over the next five years, our Department of Music must grow and adapt to an ever-changing world while simultaneously preparing for a new generation of students who have endured and overcome unique and historic challenges in their years prior to college. Making these adjustments will be critical to maintaining and enhancing Furman’s position as one of the oldest and most successful liberal arts college music programs.