Schreiner University
2023 Strategic Plan
“Here the seeds were planted from which grew my firm conviction that for the individual, education is the path to achievement and fulfillment; for the nation, it is a path to a society that is not only free but civilized; and for the world, it is the path to peace — for it is education that places reason over force.” ––––Lyndon Baines Johnson, native son of the Texas Hill Country, and 36th President of The United States of America, remarks upon signing the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Message from the President
Schreiner University’s 2023 Strategic Plan is designed to be bold, ambitious, and completed in its entirety at Schreiner’s 100th anniversary in 2022 – 2023. When we accomplish this plan, we will have proclaimed our distinct identity, identified and effectively recruited the students who are the best fit for Schreiner, taught these students to be resilient, assembled a set of high impact experiences in which they will all engage, and accelerated the growth and development of the Hill Country community. Those are some big goals for a small school—good thing Schreiner has never been afraid of punching above its weight.
Let’s go get ‘em,
Where We Came From
Named after the Texas Ranger and “Father of the Hill Country” who provided the original land and endowment for the school in 1923, Schreiner University is a product of the soil in which it was grown. Captain Charles Schreiner immigrated to Texas as a teenager and lost his parents soon after he arrived. Through hard-work and commitment, he built a livestock, retail, and banking empire in Kerr County, the heart of the Texas Hill Country. His story, like those of so many other Texans, is one of courage, strength, hope, and resolve. Though the odds were against him, Captain Schreiner had a vision of a vibrant and diverse Texas Hill Country that included a school educating young men—and later young women—in the military tradition.
Schreiner Institute also grew out of the vision of the Presbytery of Western Texas. In the tradition of the denomination, the Presbytery of Western Texas recognized the people of the Texas Hill Country required a quality education in order for their minds and, therefore, their hearts to be liberated and truly free. As early as 1906, records indicate the Presbytery intended to start a school in Kerrville. In 1923, working alongside Captain Schreiner, it saw that school—Schreiner Institute—become a reality.
Out of the minds and hearts of Captain Schreiner and the Presbytery of West Texas grew the maverick educational institution known today as Schreiner University.
Who We Are
At Schreiner University, students enter with hope and leave with achievement. We are a diverse, fiercely independent university. We are affiliated by choice and covenant with the Presbyterian Church (USA) with our campus located in the Texas Hill Country.
What We Do
Schreiner University is a place of opportunity. We offer undergraduate and graduate students a personalized, integrated, and holistic educational experience that prepares them for meaningful work and purposeful lives in a changing global society. Students study in-depth in a specific area of interest while acquiring broad skills and habits of mind to navigate a complex, diverse, and unscripted future.
Why We Do It
- All students are valuable and unique;
- Every student should grow intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially;
- We value diversity of people and thought in a setting of open, civil discourse;
- Life-long learning and service to society are critical in a global world; and
- Higher education must develop thoughtful, productive, and ethical citizens.
Where We’re Going
By 2023, Schreiner University will be a university of 2,250 students, educating men and women for service and leadership in the Hill Country, Texas, the nation, and world. We will recruit enthusiastic and diverse men and women and forge in them the intellectual, emotional, and personal resilience that has made Schreiner Institute, College, and University the uniquely Texan educational institution it has been, is, and will be.
CORE GOALS
SCHREINER WILL HAVE ACHIEVED THE FOLLOWING STRATEGIC GOALS:
We will be Known as a Uniquely Texan and Faith-Based Institution Whose Graduates Make a Difference;
We will Recruit, Retain, and Graduate Students with the Capacity to Thrive;
We will Provide Students the Experiences, Resiliency, and Wisdom to Lead in their Communities; and
We will Invest in the Delight of the Campus Community and the Growth and Vibrancy of the Hill Country Community.
GOAL 1
We will be Known as a Uniquely Texan and Faith-Based Institution Whose Graduates Make a Difference
Texas sits at the intersection of people, cultures, and ideas. It is an exceptionally diverse state with a history of redeeming, restoring, and transforming ordinary individuals into people who achieve the extraordinary. In this way, Schreiner reflects the state out of which it grew. Schreiner will promote its identity as a uniquely Texan institution, cultivating students who are smart and resilient and graduates who have impacted the state in enduring ways. In doing so, Schreiner will differentiate itself in the crowded space of higher education. We will be known as the small college of Texas that believes in the classic Texan virtues of spirit, fortitude, and achievement and produces alumni who embody these virtues.
Among these Texan virtues we cherish is the intention to stand for something. Because of Schreiner’s relationship to the Presbyterian Church (USA), we expect our students, faculty, and staff to articulate individual and shared values. Our church-relatedness also means we engage in service to society and practice whole-person development: mind, body, and spirit. We also are called to live in community with a diverse set of perspectives, scholars, and faith traditions. To that end, we will create an ecumenical campus ministry experience so that all students find opportunities to celebrate their faith traditions and commitments to their communities.
GOAL 2
We will Recruit, Retain, and Graduate Students with the Capacity to Thrive
Schreiner University greets guests with these words: Enter with Hope. They indicate that, while conventional metrics inviting students into a campus community—metrics such as high school GPAs and SAT scores—are not irrelevant, they are absolutely insufficient. Students are more than their scores. We will seek out students with the capacity to thrive and cultivate this potential within them. In doing so, we will achieve excellence not simply by recruiting excellent students but by designing an educational environment that leads students to excellence. Using all the tools and knowledge available to us, we will provide our students every opportunity to graduate from Schreiner University.
Having selected students who are the best “fit” at Schreiner, we will work with them and their families to provide an affordable education by deploying financial aid so that Schreiner becomes more affordable—not less affordable—from year to year. At the same time, we will invest in the curricular and co-curricular experiences of students to enrich Schreiner’s value proposition.
Goal 3
We will Provide Students the Experiences, Resiliency, and Wisdom to Lead in their Communities
We will design an educational environment that enables students to grow into the people, professionals, and citizens they want to be and we need them to be. In designing this environment, we will utilize the best thinking in higher education about what matters and transform our learning environments to reflect these practices. As importantly, we will invest in our own research and design laboratory, understanding what matters to our students, in our learning environments, and at each stage of our students’ development.
We also will enable and expect students to be the architects of their learning experiences so that they can manage—in creative and intentional ways—the unscripted world they will face when they graduate. We will do this by launching the Resiliency Project, a program that utilizes advisors, mentors, and coaches who walk alongside students and help them make strategic educational and life choices, manage set-backs, course correct as necessary, and articulate where they are going and why they want to go there. We will incentivize participation in this project by allowing students to earn more financial aid as they participate in the project.
Goal 4
We will Invest in the Delight of the Campus Community and the Growth and Vibrancy of the Hill Country Community.
Our students, faculty, staff, and alumni will connect to each other as a community and constantly re-connect to Schreiner. The Mountaineer family will take shape through the construction of spaces on campus where community-building takes place, and it will take shape through our creation of campus spirit and pride initiatives.
We will work shoulder-to-shoulder with our neighbors to build a sustainable future for the Texas Hill Country by serving as the primary intellectual and cultural resource in this region. We will accelerate the economic and cultural growth of the Hill Country by launching new economic and cultural endeavors and growing and expanding existing endeavors. We will bring Schreiner to the Hill Country’s communities by sharing with students all the resources and opportunities that exist in this region.
