Longwood University’s Strategic Plan calls for growth in its student population from 4,600 to 6,000 students by 2025, with a vision to 1) Make Longwood the same but better; 2) Create a strong residential community; 3) Establish Longwood as a key node in the region and an engine of prosperity; 4) Be an attraction for alumni; 5) Develop a sustainable campus in the broadest sense of the word; 6) Build an environment that fuels and supports aspirations for academic and athletic excellence; and, ultimately, 7) Be a beautiful place with strong claims to people’s spirits that will survive in the long term.

In support of Longwood’s vision, the Master Plan preserves and enhances the scale and beauty of the existing campus, while proposing several bold moves to create a critical mass of varying activities that will benefit the local economy and provide Longwood with much-needed new programs. These include the following: relocation of the baseball and softball stadiums to downtown Farmville; consolidation of field sports at south campus, including a new, garden-like pedestrian connection to the Moton Museum; a new Performing Arts Center to seat 300 to 400 people; as well as a new Multi-Purpose Hall for 3,500 to 5,000 people.

Building on Longwood’s strong sense of community and livability, the Master Plan also establishes a consistent palette of lighting standards, street furniture, and landscape/hardscape materials to create a cohesive whole and identifies “opportunity sites” on the main campus and in historic downtown Farmville for development by the University or the private sector in the form of hotels, housing, and mixed-use improvements—positing that Farmville has the potential to be one of the great college towns in the country.

The Master Plan for Longwood University was developed through a collaborative process that incorporated the input of stakeholders from across the University, as well as the Farmville Town Council – a process that Farmville Mayor David E. Whitus called “open” and “hand and glove.”