A new curriculum and a renewed contract mark Longwood University’s future following Friday’s board of visitors meeting.

The curriculum changes will put an emphasis on citizen leadership, said President W. Taylor Reveley IV, whose contract the board agreed to extend until 2023.

Robert S. Wertz Jr., rector of the board, said the decision was “a milestone.”

Wertz noted the board’s unanimous agreement to approve the new curriculum.

“The finished product is elegant and robust, and both timeless and timely,” Wertz said. “In a period of division in our country, the need for colleges and universities to prepare students for the challenges of day-to-day citizenship and democratic life has never been clearer.”

He said Longwood has a head start on doing just that and the new curriculum will help attract and retain students, in addition to invigorating the school’s mission.

Longwood will “serve as a beacon across higher education,” Wertz said.

Reveley agreed.

“It’s a really profound thing for Longwood and it’s something that the work … has been ongoing for almost three years now and it’s still almost three years again before it’s in play in full,” he said.

Reveley said the curriculum will not begin in its entirety until the fall of 2018, though students will see some pilot courses before then.

During the program’s initial years, not all students will be engaged with the new curriculum.

“It’s really not until 2022 thereabouts that the shift is 100 percent to the new system,” Reveley explained.

While the changes will not significantly affect students’ major course work, general education classes will be adapted to focus explicitly on citizen leadership.

“The major will be getting people ready for their careers and this core curriculum will be getting students ready for their life as citizens, serving the common good. That’s the biggest change,” said Reveley. “The hope is that this makes the general education courses feel like they really matter and they are really helping students understand citizen leadership as opposed to how they sometimes feel now, which is kind of check the box, get them out of the way.”

He said he sees this improvement helping to align the curriculum and mission in a “really powerful way.”

Reveley said the recent $5.9 million Brock Endowment will help create courses that fit well in the mission of the curriculum.

He also recalled discussion from faculty about a curriculum update when he first began as president during the summer of 2013.

“The board of visitors and I gave them our encouragement and said, ‘Think big and dream up something great,’” he said.

A 13-member committee appointed by the university’s Faculty Senate met twice a week to discuss the details of the change and ensure it met the guidelines set forth by the accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Dr. Sharon Emerson-Stonnell and Dr. Larissa Fergeson served as the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the committee.

Following the Faculty Senate’s approval in November and the board’s approval Friday, the university will now submit the plan for changes to SACSCOC.

“The committee that was working on this was very attentive to the requirements in play all along — it’s more just a matter of timing and notice,” Reveley said. “The faculty senate took great care in picking 13 stellar faculty members to be on the committee and … the committee took great care to get ideas and feedback from other parts of the university community, from the administration, from student affairs, the SGA (and) students in English 400.

“What’s exciting for me … is the board and I extended my term through 2023, a second 5-year term. It is exciting to think that over these six years ahead we’ll get to see all these great things unfold and really fit together,” Reveley said.

“While his current 5-year contract runs through next year, the board was eager to finalize matters well in advance and ensure Taylor will be here, to borrow one of his phrases, ‘into the far future,’” said Wertz.

Justin Pope, Reveley’s chief of staff, pointed out the success the president has already achieved in three and a half years. He included Longwood having a 4-year graduation rate above 50 percent for the first time in decades and tuition increases staying below 3 percent each year.

He listed a new strategic plan, and a new master plan, along with the Brock Endowment and hosting the Vice Presidential Debate as successes for the president as well.

Reveley said he could not have anticipated his success, outside of aspirations.

“Reforming the curriculum has certainly been something on my mind ever since I started. It’s nice to see that coming to fruition,” Reveley said. “I think the success of the past three years and the success that lies ahead in great measure is due to the fact that Longwood is such a remarkable place. It’s also due to the fact that Farmville and the broader community is so remarkable.”

He noted it’s been special to him to see Farmville embrace its history as America’s first two-college town.

Reveley said all this shows that “as much as Longwood is rooted in tradition and draws strength from tradition, it is also innovative and looking to be a leader in higher education in the 21st century.”