Sydney Martinez, Campus Carrier news editor

Roxanne Gasana, Campus Carrier staff writer

Sandeep Mazumder, Berry’s ninth president, has come to Berry with an outsider’s perspective, ready with new ideas and developments he thinks will improve the college. The President’s Strategic Plan outlines these ideas and lays out the college’s direction for the next 10 to 15 years.

Mazumder said that as he began to settle into the Berry environment, the Board of Trustees asked him to begin developing a strategic plan for the college. 

“That’s a big deal,” Mazumder said. “We want to think about that seriously and assess what’s already going on here, look at previous work, and then try to map out what’s going to happen in the future of the college.”

The Strategic Plan, which will launch in Fall 2026, began to take shape last fall. Mazumder’s plan is designed to raise the college’s national profile and help students succeed beyond Berry.

The document identifies five strengths that define Berry’s mission. Mazumder emphasized that the Strategic Plan is a 
living document that will be edited continuously and followed loosely.

 “I think we’ve taken it as far as we can take it,” Mazumder said. “I just wanted to reiterate to everyone here on campus that the plan is not done. So, this is still an incomplete plan, but it’s a draft of a plan.”

Mazumder said the purpose of the plan is to follow Berry’s mission statement, drawing the college closer to Martha Berry’s vision and strengthening Berry’s position.

“We’re a very missional college,” Mazumder said. “I think all of our students, our faculty, our staff, we deeply believe in Martha’s vision of the school when it was founded 124 years ago. Those ideas really are still alive and well, and that hasn’t really changed.”

As Mazumder came up with the plan, he recognized that the college’s faculty and students are doing outstanding work that should be appreciated nationally. He said the plan is built to emphasize what the college is already doing.

“So much of what we’re doing here is really good work,” Mazumder said. “Whether it’s through our students and LifeWorks jobs or the academic programming, athletics, art, music, we want to share the things that we’re good at in a winsome way with everyone out there as well.”

The Strategic Plan is not a complete list that describes everything that will happen at the college. Instead, it is broken down into five parts, with each part having three to five subgoals, including Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure whether the goal is achieved.

Mazumder said that rankings are often not the best way to measure outcomes and progress towards goals.

“There are some metrics you can use to track your national reputation; ranking is one,” Mazumder said. “I would say rankings are a measure, but it’s not perfect. There’s some flaws in the way they rank colleges and universities, so we definitely don’t rely on just that.”

The geographic diversity of the student population is a better way to measure progress toward the national profile goal, according to Mazumder.

“I would like for us to keep having students from as many states as possible,” Mazumder said. “I think that could be one metric we could use to measure how are we doing nationally.”

Mazumder hopes Berry will be recognized among the top liberal arts colleges with a recognizable name.

“There are some top liberal arts colleges out there, like Davidson or Williams, those types of schools,” Mazumder said. “I would like Berry to be talked about with those schools, with an asterisk in recognizing we’re not those schools ­— we’re different from those schools ­— but can still be considered by students who are thinking about those schools.”

The first part of the strategic plan is titled “Visibility, Affordability and Operational Excellence.”  The goal is to raise Berry’s national profile to attract and retain students from all over the country who might not have otherwise applied 
to Berry.

“I do think we need to raise our profile to keep inviting future students into our mission because there can be students out there who don’t know about us, and we need to tell our stories so that they can think about coming to Berry College in the future,” Mazumder said. “We need to work on that to get that message out there as much as possible.”

The second part of the plan is “Character, Leadership and Community Engagement.” This aspect of the plan focuses on continuing Berry’s mission of educating the head, heart and hands, with mentors working with students in the process of learning integrity in residential and global settings.

Hands-on learning and graduate preparedness are the third priority of the plan. This will involve deepening students’ understanding of where they want to be academically or professionally post-graduation. Berry plans to emphasize and further develop Signature Learning Experiences and the LifeWorks program.

“One of the reasons you all are here is to think about the next step,” Mazumder said. “We need to keep being really focused on that. How do we prepare our graduates for that next stage of what’s coming for that?”

The fourth priority will be to further develop faculty and student research. The plan is to continue building on the collaborative work between faculty and students to conduct research.

“I’ve already been so impressed by the research that our students are doing with faculty here at Berry in the short time that I’ve been here,” Mazumder said. “I think that’s a position of strength that we just need to talk about more. I don’t think we talk about that very much publicly, but we should.”

The final priority is to give students the chance to learn how to manage, study, enjoy and value the 27,000 acres of Berry as a part of their education at the college.

“We’re blessed to have a beautiful and amazing campus here, and it’s part of our campus life,” Mazumder said. “How do we integrate academics and other programming to the campus itself? We’re going to have a focus area on that.”

The plan has been sent to faculty and staff for feedback as administration begins the revision process. Students will be able to hear about the plan on Feb. 24 at the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting.

SGA President Anna Yard said Mazumder first observed all aspects of Berry before suggesting plans to strengthen the school.

“He really is looking at the college holistically and really trying to change things that people have told him about and care about while also keeping the core of Berry,” Yard said. “From what I can tell, he really does understand the nature of Berry.”

Yard said that she is excited to see what Mazumder’s plan will be for Berry based on what she and the president have discussed in their monthly meetings. She said that Mazumder will incorporate changes based on what he has heard from faculty, staff and students.

“I’m anxious to see what that’s going to be about,” Yard said. “I know from what he’s told me, I think it’s going to be great. Some significant changes, some minor, but all in all, it’s everything people have been asking for.”

Yard said that soon, students will have the opportunity to give their opinion on the strategic plan after the faculty gives their input.

“They’re going to start having focus groups with students pretty soon, proposing the ideas that the faculty have come up with,” Yard said.

Efforts to revise Berry’s Foundations Curriculum are unfolding at the same time as the drafting of the Strategic Plan. Mazumder pointed out that professors still have control over the curriculum. While Mazumder and Provost David Slade led the charge on updating curriculum to more closley align with Martha Berry’s mission, Mazumder recognizes faculty hold the lead on what works best for students and general education. 

“The general education discussion is going on right now with our faculty, so they are working on it,” Mazumder said. “One thing I’ve been mindful of is it’s not the president’s curriculum, it belongs to our faculty.”

Mazumder takes things slowly when it comes to Berry’s future plans, according to Yard. His style sits well with student representatives who value steady moves over quick wins. Yard sees it less about speed and more about laying groundwork that lasts.

“He doesn’t really jump the gun on anything,” Yard said. “He’s very cool-headed. He really lets things play out.”

Aiming beyond immediate goals, Mazumder framed the strategy as an evolving guide instead of a final destination.

“It’s not a product. It’s a platform,” Mazumder said. “It’s kind of a living, breathing document for the next five to 10 years, and it will evolve.”

Mazumder pointed to broader goals ahead.

“After the strategic plan is done, well, I’m hoping summer is really the goal for us to say, ‘All right, now it’s in a position to share with the world’,” Mazumder said. “And then after that, we will actually work on a master plan for the campus.”