>
Life University ’ s Eternal Flame is a tribute to its founder Dr . Sid E . Williams .
Cont . from previous page
takes a tremendous amount of planning — probably a two-or three-year window .”
Life University ’ s Academic Master Plan : Take Two
Life University ’ s Academic Affairs departments are committed to serving individuals in our immediate community , the region , country and the world . To that end , the faculty , staff and administration recently spent eight months of research , with multiple meetings and conversations , developing recommendations for a second comprehensive LIFE Academic Master Plan ( LAMP II ).
The collegial academic planning process utilized a forward-thinking approach to recommend and develop successful academic programs at Life University , which originally started in 2008 , and will be used as the institution begins the journey into the implementation of the 2040 Strategic Plan . This academic master planning process was designed to ensure that new academic programs are developed thoughtfully and prudently , while appropriate services are identified and developed to maximize the probability that students will leave LIFE in a place to best achieve career success , life fulfillment and become supportive alumni of the institution .
The overall academic master plan , while concentrating on new academic programs as well as revisions or modifications to existing programs , will include various types of certificate or certification programs offered both on campus and online . LAMP II also includes a plan and timeframe for intentional program review of all academic programs with an eye toward making changes or modifications to improve and enhance existing programs . Further , program review identifies areas of commonality among various academic programs and informs program learning outcomes . The third area of concentration within the academic master plan includes enrollment management strategies focused on retention and recruitment of students for current and new programs .
Students are the primary beneficiary of any successful outcomes from LAMP II . They will have access to an increased number of educational offerings which will include active learning strategies and internship opportunities . As a result , the University also benefits through increased enrollment and retention , resulting in increased recognition throughout the country and internationally .
The ultimate goal of LAMP II is to ensure Life University has quality academic programming that meets student and industry needs while keeping an eye toward needed revisions to maintain current within various academic disciplines , occupational fields and workrelated careers . A successful LAMP II will increase educational offerings and support employers ’ evolving needs while educational offerings reach a broader constituency here locally and around the world .
Also under review is the possibility of adding academic programs within the next few years , the specifics of which were recommended by faculty and are being considered by the Board of Trustees .
“ Along that line , we ’ re going to beef up our online component of degree offerings . We want to be able to expand our College of Online Education ,” Dr . Scott said . “ Internationally , we ’ ve been talking about putting schools in other countries . We ’ re not going to be as focused on that as we are on online education globally . We will support organizations and groups who wish to start vitalistically based chiropractic colleges and we will work with them and even license LIFE ’ s brand and curriculum , but we will not be opening LIFE schools in other countries .”
As far as what Life University will look like in the year 2040 , Dr . Scott ’ s vision is one of a “ robust , impactful residential academic community .”
“ There ’ s a conversation to be had right now in our society , and the COVID-19 issue has brought this to light in a big way ,” Dr . Scott said . “ We ’ ve always considered ourselves to be kind of the rebel , if you will , in health care — certainly from a chiropractic perspective . But there ’ s a big need to have a conversation about the health care delivery system right now , and we are going to continue to play a very loud part in that moving forward in the next 20 years .
“ We have the opportunity , as we come out of the COVID-19 situation , to have the platform to be able to initiate the conversations ,” he continued . “ In March , we put out a video that talked about the health of the American public being terrible , and it ’ s a major contributor to people ’ s resilience and ability to fight off infection and disease — and we ’ re not having this conversation at all in this country . You have to start looking at all the underlying factors that go into the ability to ward off these things that are around us all the time . And LIFE is going to have that conversation and it ’ s going to be an important conversation , frankly , for the future of our country .”
10 Alumni . LIFE . edu | 2020