AGENDA
FOR THE FUTURE

Merrimack College’s Future: 2021-2026

The Agenda for the Future provides a road map for the next chapter in Merrimack College’s history. The plan embraces our Augustinian Catholic mission while recognizing the challenges the College faces. It is bold, ambitious and aspirational and is designed to be successful, inclusive and transformative.
Two students in the library at a desk
GROWTH, MISSION & IMPACT

Three Strategic Directions

1

GROWTH

Merrimack seeks to grow its enrollments, its reputation and its core activities.

Merrimack will do this by expanding further into graduate education and sponsored research, by embarking upon a record-setting fundraising campaign and by building upon its recent success of creating an innovative, academically excellent culture of teaching and learning and improving upon its rising reputation and ranking.

2

MISSION

Merrimack’s Augustinian Catholic heritage and traditions are the anchors of our success.

Our mission serves as our North Star and guides our community of students, faculty, staff and alumni to think creatively, to solve problems with innovation, to serve our neighbors, to exhibit compassion in everything we do and to make a difference by being servant leaders and engaging our community, neighborhoods and greater society.

IMPACT

Merrimack’s core reputation is anchored by its undergraduate residential college.

This undergraduate experience has the amazing responsibility, ability and capacity to alter the direction of a young person’s life through education, exposure and opportunity. The base of this capacity is its physical campus, its ability to innovate and work as one organization on its undergraduate educational programs. When these three areas work in harmony its impact on the lives of its students, their families and their communities is exponentially enhanced.

AGENDA FOR DISTINCTION (2010-2020)

Building from Success: A Decade of Transformation

Developed in 2011, the Agenda for Distinction served both as a strategic aspiration for Merrimack College and as the framework for accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). It was through the accreditation process that the five goals of the Agenda for Distinction emerged and became the framework of the success the College enjoys today.

Arcidi Center
STAFF AND FACULTY INPUT

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

Merrimack leadership worked with more than 200 faculty and staff members on eight different planning committees to develop the Agenda for the Future.

“We began a preliminary planning process in June 2018 that engaged many members of our community and a variety of stakeholders across our campus. Our goal was simple — to dream, imagine and plan for our futures together.”

Achieving Our Vision

Implementing our strategic plan will require resources and investments and the College will:

Partner with External Partners to Expand Its Residential Campus
Raise Approximately $75-100M Through a Fundraising Campaign
Set aside $1-2 million annually for new AFF initiatives
Invest Approximately $50-75 million in Capital Improvements
Add Approximately 30 New Full-time Faculty Over Five Years