Renewal Update: Initial Implementation Results in Significant Progress

Dear APU Community,

Four months have passed since the university launched Renewal: Strengthening Our Capacity for Cultivating Christ-Centered Scholars and Leaders. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, APU has already made significant progress in this early implementation period.

Engagements: The Fall 2020 semester saw a number of intentional opportunities to engage in discussions around the five Grand Initiatives in Renewal. For example, 170 faculty and staff participated in breakout conversations as part of the Leadership Summit; 70 faculty and staff discussed the topic of Financial Sustainability with the CFO; and 65 faculty and staff engaged with the President and Vice President Barton around “Affirm, Support, Sustain” language. In addition, 110 faculty, staff, and students attended 11 Presidential Roundtables and 500 faculty and staff attended an Employee Town Hall meeting addressing a wide range of topics and themes relevant to the strategic plan. The Provost has had regular and meaningful engagement with the Faculty Senate around the numerous priorities outlined for Academic Affairs. In addition, the winter edition of APU Life magazine provided a broad overview of Renewal, and its vision to strengthen and extend APU’s impact, to approximately 70,000 alumni, donors, friends, faculty, staff, and student families.

University Rightsizing: A strong step toward building a high-impact, sustainable, and thriving institutional model is to assess whether personnel and budget levels need to be restructured to better represent current and future anticipated needs. Since the Renewal launch, four Divisional areas (Athletics, Business Office, University Relations, and University Services) have made progress in this analysis and implementation, leading to identified savings of more than $3M per year. As part of the ongoing University Budget process, these savings will be considered for permanent reduction, future reallocation, or reinvestment. This analysis will continue through 2021 in other Divisions.

I am encouraged by this initial traction around Renewal and, importantly, the change that is beginning to occur. I look forward to future updates and sharing greater levels of progress and missional success. I encourage each of you to review the Executive Summary piece that was sent to your homes in December and be reminded of the Renewed Vision, Grand initiatives, and Outcomes. I ask for your continued contribution and support to advance the vision for APU set out by Renewal-–to be the premier Christian university of choice for our culture and times.

Together,

Andrew Barton, EdD Vice President for Strategic Planning and Mission Integration