Strategic Planning
During the next 18 to 24 months, we will engage the global Principia community in a strategic planning dialogue with the goal of charting the most ambitious, creative, and meaningful path forward.
Building on Principia’s foundational mission to serve the Cause of Christian Science as an educational institution, the strategic plan will identify Principia’s strengths and the themes it should emphasize, strengthen, and protect against educational obsolescence and financial erosion.
Every day, we challenge students to think critically, collaborate effectively, and grow spiritually—and during this process, we’ll ask the same of ourselves and our community. Building on the Christian Science values we share, we can advance the ways we live our mission and put Principia on a path to its brightest possible future.
This will be an open and transparent process. It will rely heavily on widespread participation along the way—whether through open meetings, community bulletin boards seeking comment, meetings with constituency groups, all of the above, or other innovative ideas. We sincerely want wide participation because we are confident that community involvement and collective thought will make this a better, richer, deeper plan.
We will have one unified strategic planning committee for Principia as a whole. The plan will tackle everything from mission clarity to who’s going to do what and what it will cost. It will generate bold ideas and practical steps. The committee is designed to be inclusive and participatory in its decision making and transparent in its recommendations and rationale.
Additional details on this new approach to strategic planning will be forthcoming as we fully launch the planning process. We will soon begin establishing the membership of the Strategic Planning Committee by having representative bodies (such as Faculty and Staff Senate at the College) submit nominations. In order to keep the community informed of progress, we intend to provide monthly updates as we move through the planning stages.
Kent John Chabotar, PhD
Dr. Kent Chabotar, a nationally recognized expert on higher education strategy and finance, will help guide Principia through its strategic planning process. While president of Guilford College in North Carolina from 2002–14, Chabotar led the college through two five-year strategic plans. As a Quaker college (with a school attached), Guilford requires that everything be done by consensus, so Chabotar’s approach is highly inclusive.
Since stepping down as president, he has helped shepherd more than a dozen other colleges, universities, and independent schools through the process of setting priorities, establishing plans, and fortifying their financial equilibrium. Now president emeritus of Guilford, Chabotar continues to teach in their Political Science Department and to serve on the faculty of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education.
Chabotar has won numerous awards, including the Academic Leadership Award from the Council of Independent Colleges, the Fussa Distinguished Teaching Award at Harvard, and the Distinguished Educator Award for Teaching Excellence at Michigan State University. He holds a BA in political science from Saint Francis University and an MPA and a PhD in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
Who We Are
Principia is the only school in the world educating Christian Scientists from preschool through college. Our vision articulates our near-term destination and keeps the community on course as we strive daily to realize Principia founder Mary Kimball Morgan’s ideal of the Christ-idea in education.
How You Can Help
We welcome your feedback and your prayerful support for Principia’s strategic plan! As Principia founder Mary Kimball Morgan noted in 1940, “We must do everything from the standpoint of demonstration, in which infinite wisdom is the impelling force” (Education at The Principia, p. 126).
All alumni and friends are invited to participate in Principia’s progress.
