By 2020, ACU will become the premier university in Christ-centered education.

At least, that’s what the 21st Century Vision states as its primary objective and lists the ways that ACU hopes to achieve that goal.

The vision aims to make ACU a better university academically, spiritually and physically and contains four imperatives, said executive vice president Phil Schubert.

“We want to produce leaders who think critically, globally and missionally; build distinctive and innovative programs; provide a unique Christ-centered environment with good student community and extend ACU’s reach nationally and internationally,” Schubert said.

Sounds great – but how does the university exactly plan to achieve these goals?

Several different aspects make up the vision, which focuses on spiritual, academic and physical improvements to the campus.

After planning the vision for three years, Schubert said the administration plans to choose a select number of academic programs they believe represent the university best and market and invest extensively in those.

The investments may include faculty research grants, student scholarships and help with internships.

Giving more funding to programs at the university would provide added benefits to both faculty and students and would enrich the educational value of the spotlighted programs.

Another aspect of the vision involves catering more to students outside of the Churches of Christ.

Schubert said the university does not plan to abandon its Church of Christ roots, but wants to encourage students who are not Church of Christ to attend ACU.

“Being clearer about our heritage will be central to who we are in the future,” Schubert said.

Attempting to reach out to non-Church of Christ students will create great spiritual diversity on campus and would allow for students to experience a broader viewpoint on Christianity.

“There’s already a trend with students from broader Christian backgrounds coming to ACU,” Schubert said. “We just want to specifically acknowledge that trend and embrace it.”

The vision also includes a new academic plan that involves completely changing the core curriculum and tailoring it more to specific majors, Schubert said.

“The focus will be on how to create a learning environment that is exciting for students,” Schubert said. “But we’re still thinking about how to make it innovative and exciting for them.”

Giving students a core curriculum based on majors would definitely be more beneficial to them, and paying money for a generic class that won’t help students in their chosen professions seems like a waste of that money.

Schubert also said that while some believe the plans for the vision will make ACU more exclusive in admissions processes, it is not at all a part of the vision.

He added that the only way admissions processes would grow to be more exclusive would be if ACU became too crowded and had to increase selectivity.

Another plan the vision has involves more renovations to campus facilities and amenities, like adding a sports recreation center and renovating the Bean to make it a better student hang-out, Schubert said.

“If we’ve got a better campus life, I think that will reflect better on the academic life of the school,” Schubert said.

Schubert said the vision will take at least 10 years to unfold and at this stage, the plan lacks specificity of investments. The planners have not yet decided where to invest money and how to best begin implementing the vision.

Beginning the vision will cost somewhere around $12- 15 million, Schubert said. He said there really wasn’t a way to pinpoint the exact cost of the vision but said the cost is definitely worth it to the school.

The administration needs to move quickly with the beginning stages of the visionso ACU students can experience this new spiritual diversity, a more beneficial core curriculum and enhanced community.

The 21st Century Vision may not be perfect, but the steps the administration plans to take will certainly help make ACU into a better institution.