Strategic Plan Update: The Reinert Center's current strategic plan originally was developed for the period 2013-2015. However, because the University's new strategic plan was in development in 2014-2015, we decided to revise and update the current plan to reflect our continuing work in key areas and holding off on another formal strategic planning process until the University's strategic plan implementation is well underway. This decision allows us to better align our efforts with the University's strategic educational priorities. The current plan will continue to evolve and to guide our work until 2019, when a new strategic plan will be implemented.
Context
In 2012, the Paul C. Reinert, S.J. Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, formerly the Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence, celebrated its 15th year as a formal teaching center serving both faculty and graduate students at Saint Louis University. Established in 1997 through a faculty initiative, the Center grew out of the successful Teaching Resource Room (created for graduate students in 1992). Since then, the Center has enjoyed increasing success and support from faculty and administrators alike, and it has begun to move from a period of formation into a period of transformation.
In recent years, the Reinert Center has enjoyed a period of tremendous growth: demand for services and programs is on the rise (at both the individual and unit-level), and the regional and national reputation of the Center and its staff are growing. In 2011, the University invested new resources in the Center, doubling the size of the staff and creating the Learning Studio and the Innovative Teaching Fellowship that sustains teaching there. In 2012, the Center officially changed its name to better represent the importance of transformational teaching and our strong commitment to innovative, reflective pedagogical practice. The new name also better represents a larger vision for the Center and its role at the University, and the degree to which it has become ingrained in the larger University community.
As the Center continues to deepen its work, both on and off campus, the University is experiencing rapid changes in the instructional needs of SLU educators and in the University's broader educational initiatives - all of them consistent with broader shifts in higher education generally and in the profession of educational development more particularly. All of these shifts continue to mean new challenges and opportunities for SLU faculty and graduate students, and the Center commits not only to respond to but also to anticipate these challenges and opportunities.
The state of the Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning is strong, but we have much work to do as we increase our reach across the University, improve the quality of our services and programs, and enhance our reputation both internally and externally. We are confident that, with continued support from faculty and administrators, we are achieving the goals laid out in this strategic plan and that we continue to add value to the University and its reputation. Even as we continue to experience a time of transformation, we commit to honoring the values and traditions that have shaped our work since the Center was founded, to find innovative ways to live out our mission, and to do all of this work in ways that align with the [https://podnetwork.org/about-us/pod-governance/ethical-guidelines] >ethical guidelines for the field of educational development. And we commit ourselves fully to doing so in ways that express the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm.