LHC Strategic Plan and College-Wide Student Learning Outcomes: 2024-2028

Goal: We provide high-impact learning experiences, impactful classroom instruction and experience-driven learning opportunities to create a hub of academic excellence for honors students to thrive as scholars.

Key Metrics:

1. Graduate 180 students annually.
2. Maintain 90% retention rate of first-year honors students at the university and 80% within the honors college (fall-to-fall).
3. Recruit and yield 25% of WMU's incoming first-year class annually.

Goal: We create and nurture community and campus partnerships to provide opportunities for honors students to engage with, receive, and provide support in the WMU and Kalamazoo communities. 

Key Metrics:

1. Increase building space utilization for both course meetings and programming to 50% occupation during available operating hours.
2. Coordinate at least 1,200 hours of service annually to campus and Kalamazoo community.
3. Fully enroll five Study in the States courses annually.

Goal: We foster a sense of belonging among the honors student body and provide a welcoming, inclusive environment for all members of the honors community.

Key Metrics:

1. Maintain a student population representative of the WMU undergraduate student body with respect to race and ethnicity as well as Pell Grant eligibility.
2. Offer a minimum of five WMU Essential Studies courses annually that fulfill the Diversity and Inclusion SLO.
3. Offer LHC program fee scholarships for students in select WMU programs and those with demonstrated financial need.

Goal: We offer courses, experience-driven learning opportunities, and study abroad experiences that prepare honors students to thrive and contribute as citizens on the global stage.

Key Metrics:

1. Offer honors college study abroad opportunities.
2. Secure annual donor contributions to fund study abroad scholarships up to $50K per year.

Goal: We provide guidance and facilitate mentorship between honors students and WMU faculty or practicing experts in their respective fields that lead to the publication of an honors thesis based on students' undergraduate research or creative scholarship. 

Key Metrics:

1. Award $30,000 annually in research funding to honors students .
2. Recruit five new faculty thesis chairs annually.
3.  Establish a structured faculty development program for honors thesis mentorship.

Goal: We are committed to the responsible and sustainable use of our resources and provide our students with meaningful learning opportunities so that the value of sustainability is an innate aspect of their future lives.  

Key Metrics:

1. Offer a minimum of five courses annually that fulfill the WMU Essential Studies Planetary Sustainability SLO.
2.  Facilitate at least ten impactful learning and engagement opportunities annually with a planetary sustainability focus. 

Goal: We support our students holistically through courses, events, advising, peer mentoring, programming, and other learning opportunities for honors students to engage in self-discovery and exploration, so that they are prepared to pursue healthy, fulfilling professional, and personal lives as graduates. 

Key Metrics:

1. Offer a minimum of six courses annually that fulfill the WMU Essential Studies Personal Wellness SLO.
2. Offer at least one personal wellness enrichment opportunity weekly during the academic year.

College-Wide Student Learning Outcomes

The Lee Honors College at Western Michigan University (WMU) was founded in 1962. The honors college now serves more than 1,900 undergraduate students and for the first time in college history will implement and begin to measure college-wide student learning outcomes during the 2018-19 academic year. The information below outlines proposed student learning outcomes as well as the plan to measure them to ensure continuous improvement of student success led by data-driven decisions.