In order to construct a manageable action plan for PLU 2000 from the 100 recommendations proposed by the planning participants, we had either to select or condense. We chose to condense -- although this required a degree of selectivity. It also required a broad retreat from the specification of action per se (and even from detailing the structure and process used to initiate action) and led, instead, to the authorization of the key policies defining and executing the implications of Part II of this document. Hence, the initiatives are here segregated and listed beneath the titles of the five axioms that form the "platform for action."

Those who are eventually commissioned to develop and implement the policies authorized here should feel obliged to consider, among other things, the oftentimes more specific suggestions for action recommended by each of the eight study commissions. These reports will be separately published and made available in the Mortvedt Library and in the various academic offices.

Although authority for carrying through the action plan emerged from and remains in the University community (including the ongoing work of the Long-Range Planning Committee), the responsibility for initiating the processes required to achieve it lies with the administration in consultation with the University's Board of Regents.

1. Strengthening the Learning Community
   1. Achieve a distinguishing reputation for academic excellence in all departments and schools by means of:
      1. Curricula that integrate liberal and professional education;
      2. Pedagogies that are guided by the concepts of collaborative learning;
      3. Program requirements and options that aim at the education of the whole person.

   2. Broaden access to, and deepen the level of participation in, the University learning community by means of distinguished programs of public discourse in the sciences, in the arts, and in the professions which illustrate and cultivate the critical intellectual virtues of curiosity, creativity, and a discriminating capacity for reverence.

   3. Develop a description of the University as a leading example of what has been called "The New American College[University]" which culminates in a characterization of its particular educational mission, and use it to guide the recruiting, orientation, instruction, and provision of services to students, and to shape and manage a human resources strategy for University employees.

   4. Recast our evaluation efforts into an outcomes-oriented assessment program in order to document and enlarge the University's reputation for academic excellence.

   5. Shape staff and faculty development programs to:
      1. Produce scholarship that is both practical and profound;
      2. Improve teaching and counseling;
      3. Raise the level and quality of support services.

   6. Clear away administrative practices, the unnecessary flow of paper, the excessive use of ad hoc committees, and organizational requirements that distract us from our various vocations and make no critical contribution to the reconciliation of participatory governance with executive direction.

2. Reaffirming the Tradition of Lutheran Higher Education
   1. Regularly sponsor deliberation among all University constituencies upon the relationship between the church and the University, and upon the meaning of our Lutheran heritage in learning, faith, service, and in reconciling the claims of community and diversity.

   2. Maintain a strong religious life on campus by the provision of leadership, space, and schedule for communal worship and study, and of resources for faith-centered counseling for all members of the University.

   3. Expand and enrich the University's relationship with its incorporating congregations for the sake of enrollment, the supply of lay leadership, and joint participation in the project of congregational renewal.

   4. Continue to support a theologically informed faculty and a vital pre-theological curriculum, and broaden opportunities for the continuing education of pastors and lay leaders.

3. Educating for Lives of Service
   1. Raise the currency and dignity of "vocation" among our students and graduates by a profound and guiding articulation of the connection between educating for lives of service and the integration of liberal and professional education.

   2. Strengthen the University's curricular offerings in service learning, including practica in the professional schools, and increase the array and substance of cooperative education programs and academic internships.

   3. Widen University participation in the affairs of Parkland, Tacoma, Pierce County, and the state of Washington to increase service delivery opportunities for members of our community.

4. Activating the Commitment to Diversity
   1. Develop a more diverse array of students and employees by means of vigorous recruitment, and make welcome room for them and their interests in the University by means of retention and other policies that are guided by the principles of integration and participation.

   2. Establish diversity as an educational objective intended to enable our graduates to excel in an increasingly diverse and internationalized world, exploring and confirming its consistency with our community, curriculum, the principles of collaborative learning, and the tradition of Lutheran higher education.

   3. Establish a distinguished academic reputation for international education by identifying and reinforcing our existing curricular and faculty strengths and by extending our participation in international exchanges.

   4. Sustain our position as the leading institution in private higher education in the region in welcoming and accommodating students and employees with learning and other disabilities.

5. Supporting the Enterprise
   1. Achieve and then sustain enrollment in the range of 3600-3700.

   2. Establish and follow a long-range financial plan that sets specific cost-reduction and revenue-growth targets, a preferred ratio of debt to endowment, and a schedule for eliminating our negative fund balances.

   3. Commission and begin the implementation of a campus master plan designed to accommodate the projected size and composition of our enrollment; the facilities and technology requirements of our curriculum; the convenience, safety, and environmental interests of our employees and students; and the overall charm of the campus as a study and work place.

   4. Develop a plan to acquire and appropriately use technology in the delivery of both academic and support services.

   5. Adopt a communications strategy that articulates our central message, prescribes the styles and venues of its publication, and presses every employee and student toward conscious representation of the University.