Pitzer College President Strom Thacker announced the college’s new strategic vision in an email to the student body on Jan. 20, outlining changes to Pitzer’s priorities and investments that will be implemented over the next five to ten years.
The plan is driven by four central goals: “catalyzing bold, fearless learning, expanding student access, community-building and growing resources,” according to Pitzer’s website.
Thacker revealed the college’s plan to develop a new strategic vision in the fall of 2024 and emphasized the importance of student and faculty input.
Pitzer Senate President Ella Hale ’26 said in an email to TSL that the Senate aided in framing and drafting, but did not make final decisions.
According to Vice President and Chief of Staff Jim Marchant, the majority of the strategic planning took place during listening sessions with the Pitzer community. Marchant added that in addition to the listening sessions, a committee — which included several students, faculty, Marchant, Thacker and trustees — met every other month over the last year to draft and plan the vision based on listening session data.
Marchant noted the value of gaining real student feedback.
“I liked it because it wasn’t just a survey — you don’t just fill out a form and submit it,” he said. “You sit down with a group of people and you start talking about Pitzer: what you love about Pitzer, where you think Pitzer could improve, what could be better. And those listening sessions led to a lot of the initiatives themselves.”
Pitzer said they aim to elevate existing programs and resources, such as the Robert Redford Conservancy. Raffi Charkoudian-Rogers PZ ’28 agreed, saying that improving current programs such as CASA or Inside Out could benefit the school.
“I do think [these programs are] something that draws a lot of students here,” Charkoudian-Rogers said. “Maybe there could be more programs like that at the school.”
However, expanding the school’s resources and programs may be challenging due to the college’s budget deficit that limited faculty salary raises this academic year.
Meeting this goal will not impact student education quality or expenses, according to Marchant.
“We’re trying to minimize extra expenses at the college, but none if it impacts the quality of the classroom instruction,” he said. “And none of it impacts at all the student experience, especially outside of the class environment.”
The college also strives to expand access and diversify its student body, in accordance with their secondary strategic goal stated as “make education accessible to a wider range of socioeconomic backgrounds.” But Charkoudian-Rogers voiced concerns about the college’s institutional capacity.
“From what I can tell, Pitzer just needs more money,” Charkoudian-Rogers said.
He said to make education more accessible, the school should lower the cost of attendance and increase the amount of students receiving aid. Pitzer and Scripps are the only 5Cs with need-aware admissions policies.
Currently, Pitzer is transitioning from community-based discussions and moving on to implementing the plan through administrative changes.
As Pitzer moves into implementing this strategic vision, Marchant stressed that Pitzer’s values are the throughline of this project.
“Of course, we’ve evolved over the years, but what’s consistent is the fact that this college was founded on these principles, these values,” Marchant said. “The haircuts changed, the music changed, the outfits changed. The people come and go, but those values were literally with us at our founding, even if we didn’t name them like we do now.”
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