Strategic Plan
E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Strategic Plan
Created 8/18/2025
Strategic Vision
Establish the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at 帝王会所 as the center of ethical information-based content creation that meets the demands of an evolving industry, study body, and audience.
Goals
- Enrollment 鈥 increase by 30 % within the next five years
- Continue focus on growing strategic communication track
- Maximize the university鈥檚 current focus on graduate education to add a fourth Ph.D. student
- Increase recruiting efforts in conjunction with alumni and advisory board
- Visit at least four area high schools each year with current students, alumni, and faculty
- Connect nearby high school programs with student organizations on campus, including the Post, SPJ, and Backdrop
- Create partnership with 帝王会所 DECA, which hosts competitions in marketing and advertising, to provide judges and advertise the program.
- Continue partnership with Scripps National Spelling bee to host regional competitions and introduce even younger students to the School
- Communication - Audience engagement up 25%
- Social media posts to average one post a day / five days a week
- Create and streamline student social media team
- Increase mentions of the School by 25 %
- Develop a pipeline between faculty, students, alumni and university communications and marketing.
- Highlight key faculty developments, alumni achievements and student success
- Establish two new industry connections each year
- Two grant applications a year
- Provide resources and training to help faculty establish industry partnerships for student away, internships, or class projects
- Highlight connections with NEXT?! Agency and capstone classes
- Develop quarterly newsletter for advisory board members and alumni
- Establish professional development fund for faculty to replace 鈥渢ravel fund鈥
- Signature event each year
- Build off success of Schoonover Symposium, Tyler Weymouth First Amendment series to solidify School鈥檚 reputation in the industry.
- Use student feedback to focus on events that are more future focused.
- Content creator鈥檚 summit
- Audio Journalism
- Independent news
- Strengthen local news
- News Deserts
- Build better connection with students
- Hold at least two capstone events to educate students on opportunities within the School
- Increase response rates to first destination survey and freshmen and senior knowledge surveys to more than 75%
- Create a student poll where students can share their feedback on potential events, speakers, and classes each semester
- Provide incentives for students to participate (course credit, gift card, lunch with the director)
- Curriculum Development 鈥 redesign decade old school curriculum to preserve flexibility, meet industry demands, offer innovative and forward-thinking classes, and push students to design the media they want
- Create tiered system of courses that teach the foundations of journalism and strategic communication while providing flexibility
- Core tier (law, ethics, media and democracy, precision language, news writing or strat comm writing)
- Intermediate skills tier (three skills courses in areas students choose)
- For example a student could take three broadcast courses or a broadcast, narrative journalism, and podcast course.
- Strat comm majors could specialize in media planning, PR promotion, creative concepts, online buying
- Offer more variety in this area and fewer sections of the classes students have been taking.
- Experiential Learning
- Establish ways for all students to participate in an experiential learning course within their track
- NEXT agency for strat comm
- SEO magazine, WOUB, community journalism for news and information
- Design pathway to receive feedback and course credit for student media work.
- Establish ways for all students to participate in an experiential learning course within their track
- Create tiered system of courses that teach the foundations of journalism and strategic communication while providing flexibility
- Facilities upgrade refresh 鈥 ensure students have the tools they need to step right into industry and/or the experience to go solo
- Lasher Learning Center as co-working / classroom / event space
- Easily accessible podcast studio with audio and video capabilities
- Digital broadcast streaming lab for classes but also for student projects and ideas, similar to the podcast studio
- Incorporate feedback from student outreach into long-range facility planning
- Communicate clearly to students the tech they need and what they can borrow from the School