On Dec. 6 of 2022, Samford’s board of trustees approved a plan called Fidelitas, which will drastically change the University while attempting to maintain its core values.
In Greek, Fidelitas means faith or loyalty. This highlights the plan’s emphasis on keeping core values, such as faith and student engagement. However, it will also require a lot of faith in Samford leadership to maintain these core values while growing.
The plan has seven core values: the first is academic distinction, something we already are starting to see with changes coming in curriculum.
The second is student engagement, which the university has excelled in recently. With the addition of a new gym, Samford will look to grow its engagement with new workout classes and more on campus activities.
The third pillar is employee elevation. Essentially this means that Samford plans to expect more out of their employees. As a student, employee elevation is ideal because it means the quality of my life will be increased.
The fourth pillar is faith. With the trend of religious institutions dropping faith association, like Furman, Duke and Mercer, I find this fourth pillar incredibly honorable.
It may be easier to grow when you aren’t associated with a religion. However, the history of Samford is intertwined with Christianity, I would be ashamed to hear Samford drop their faith affiliation.
The fifth pillar is community celebration. This pillar mostly focuses on celebrating the diverse experience that each Samford student has. This pillar is groundbreaking for the University, especially in light of recent events. I believe the leadership at this University will emphasize the importance of diversity.
The sixth pillar, and quite possibly the most interesting, is athletic success. Athletic success has never been part of a university plan in the past, and we have already seen athletic success emphasized with the re-signing of Bucky McMillan and the signing of Megan Curry.
As a huge sports fan, and as someone who has written about Samford sports for years, I am excited about this pillar and expect it to help the university grow.
I also think that this pillar is going to make every coach hired before this plan prove their worth — something that a lot of coaches have done, when looking at how many Southern Conference Championships Samford has won over the past four years.
I believe that struggling coaches may be moved on from, and I wonder if it will start with Chris Hatcher at the end of this football season.
When I first looked through the plan, excitement coursed through my veins as I read the words “athletic success” and academic distinction.
The seventh and final pillar is global influence. Samford is already set up to be impactful around the globe as it has always emphasized studying abroad and welcoming international students.
Though I love the idea of this plan, from a student’s perspective, it is impossible to ignore the contradictions it has.
It will be harder and harder for the university to expect its students to have academic distinction while being as involved in the university as they are. It will be increasingly difficult to expect employee elevation with a change in credit hours, and everyone has seen so many other universities fold their faith values due to the growth of its other values.
Trying to grow while maintaining what makes the university itself will be an exceedingly difficult challenge — but the university wants us to have Fidelitas, and I think we should too.
Even though parking is awful, the lines at food stations are too long and study rooms are rarely available, the University growing is a good thing. It is hard for a growing university to die, and when I graduate, the last thing I want is for my university to die. I want us to be a powerhouse. A stagnant university is a university on the chopping block and that’s what this plan prevents.
Editor-in-Chief
