2025-30 Strategic Plan Framework
Vision, Mission, and Values
Vision
John Jay College of Criminal Justice is committed to building an equitable society where opportunity and justice are accessible to all. We empower diverse communities through transformative research and advance social mobility by cultivating critical thinkers and principled leaders who champion integrity, challenge injustice, and serve the public good with courage and compassion. We educate fierce advocates for justice.
Mission
A premier liberal arts college, John Jay College of Criminal Justice is a diverse and inclusive community seeking justice in its many dimensions. Through distinctive undergraduate and graduate programs, we prepare students for meaningful and rewarding careers and lives of impact in New York City and beyond. As a Minority, Hispanic, and Asian serving institution committed to historically marginalized communities, we educate and empower every graduate to strengthen communities, expand equity, and advance justice.
Values
Academic Freedom: We uphold the free exchange of ideas in teaching, research, creative arts, and scholarship without retaliation or censorship.
Diversity and Belonging: We cultivate and sustain a participatory community that values diverse identities, experiences, and perspectives.
Equity: We challenge and address biases, systemic injustices, and other barriers to access, inclusion, and success.
Integrity: We act with honesty, transparency, empathy, and ethical responsibility across our academic and college work.
Learning and Scholarship: We engage in transformative teaching, learning, creative activity, research, and scholarship that generates and disseminates knowledge.
Public Service: We commit our expertise and energy to strengthening communities and partnerships that support the public good.
Respect: We honor the dignity, humanity, and contributions of every member of our community with civility and care in a safe and supportive environment.
Goals and Objectives
Goal 1: Teaching, Learning, and Academic Excellence
Advance academic excellence and learning through high-quality and responsive curricula and evidence-based teaching practices.
Objective 1: Align academic support programs with curricula and academic programs to strengthen student access, participation, and success.
Objective 2: Broaden the use of active learning strategies in undergraduate and graduate classrooms.
Objective 3: Improve the dissemination, integration and assessment of institutional learning goals.
Objective 4: Increase alignment of academic, professional, and civic learning outcomes in general education and required courses in the majors.
Objective 5: Prepare students with transferable core academic skills for career readiness, lifelong success, and adaptability beyond John Jay.
Goal 2: Inclusive Access, Equitable Success, and Holistic Student Development
Ensure inclusive access to integrated academic, career, and holistic supports that advance equitable student development, retention, and meaningful post-graduate outcomes.
Objective 1: Strengthen the recruitment and onboarding process to increase the enrollment and retention of adult, returning, transfer, and graduate students.
Objective 2: Identify retention, credit-accumulation and degree completion gaps across key student groups and implement targeted interventions to reduce those gaps over time.
Objective 3: Implement and evaluate coordinated care across divisions to ensure accessible and equitable student support services and coordinated communication.
Objective 4: Expand student participation in high-impact college experience focused on leadership development.
Objective 5: Engage students with the resources, supports and experiences that enhance career readiness and guide the exploration, creation and execution of post-graduate plans.
Objective 6: Expand alumni and external partner collaboration with the college community through opportunities to connect, engage, and invest in student success.
Goal 3: Research, Scholarship, and Knowledge Creation
Advance research, scholarship, and creative activity through faculty inquiry, student research, and institutional support for knowledge creation.
Objective 1: Expand institutional support for faculty and staff research and creative activity by strengthening research infrastructure and communication systems.
Objective 2: Grow and diversify the college’s portfolio of externally funded research by strengthening grant development support and expanding strategic partnerships.
Objective 3: Strengthen coordinated support systems to sustain a culture of inquiry for faculty and staff.
Objective 4: Broaden student access to high-impact research experiences by increasing the number of faculty mentors and supporting student participation.
Goal 4: Leadership and Innovation in Safety and Justice
Support safer, healthier, and more equitable communities, including those most impacted by the justice system, through rigorous research, transformative partnerships, and public safety and justice leadership.
Objective 1: Increase the impact of research, scholarship, and knowledge that shapes policy, impacts practice, and prepares the public safety workforce of the future.
Objective 2: Advance the development of safer communities through enhanced support for high-impact centers and programs that encompass the public safety ecosystem including prevention, community-based violence intervention, law enforcement, diversion and re-entry.
Objective 3: Enhance readiness and preparation for current and emerging high-impact public safety and service careers through innovative curricular experiences, integrative co-curricular opportunities, and collaborative engagement of alumni and external partners.
Objective 4: Expand pathways for all John Jay community members to engage in civic action, civil discourse, and community building.
Goal 5: Belonging, Engagement, and Inclusive College Culture
Promote intentional practices to cultivate an inclusive and supportive college culture that deepens belonging, engagement, shared governance, and a sense of community.
Objective 1: Increase faculty, staff, and student participation in shared governance and participatory decision-making processes.
Objective 2: Embed strengths-based language and practices into curriculum, pedagogies, and college policies and documents that recognize the cultural wealth and knowledge of our students, faculty, and staff.
Objective 3: Cultivate a culture of continuous growth by expanding investment in professional development for faculty and staff.
Objective 4: Expand cross-divisional initiatives that strengthen community, address basic needs, enhance accessibility and safety, and support the well-being and growth of all campus members.
Objective 5: Expand practices and programs that celebrate faculty, staff, alumni, and external partner achievements to strengthen a culture of recognition and appreciation.
Goal 6: Institutional Effectiveness, Operational Excellence, and Ethical Resource Management
Strengthen institutional effectiveness and long-term financial sustainability through ethical and environmentally responsible resource stewardship, effective leveraging of data and information, evidence-informed decision making, and the responsible integration of current and emerging technologies
Objective 1: Address the structural budget gap through continued, disciplined financial management, public advocacy, strengthened revenue generation, realizing operational efficiencies, and development of a strategically-aligned, multi-year financial planning and budget process.
Objective 2: Strengthen the college’s investment ecosystem to generate annual and permanent funding that supports long-term financial sustainability, college priorities, and student success.
Objective 3: Build and leverage a comprehensive data and information infrastructure that expands access to analytical tools, expands data visualization and digital storytelling, supports data informed decision making, and enhances institutional communications.
Objective 4: Implement a strategic technology framework that strengthens digital infrastructure, accessibility, mobile-optimization, institutional communication platforms, and the responsible integration of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence.
Objective 5: Strengthen enrollment levels to support long-term financial sustainability while improving student-to-full-time faculty and student-to-staff ratios.
Objective 6: Advance environmental justice and sustainability through programming, initiatives, and an ongoing review of college operations.