Strategic Priorities and Initiatives

Provide an exemplary undergraduate education

Improve access by significantly increasing need-based financial aid
Increase enrollment in high-demand and high-capacity areas, contingent on new revenue
Transform curriculum to reflect changes in research and scholarship, and reward departments and interdisciplinary programs that make significant changes
Integrate technology into the delivery of course content
Improve the quality of undergraduate teaching among faculty, staff, and graduate students
Increase the number of tenure-track and tenured faculty positions in the liberal arts to avoid caps on popular majors, and make more faculty available to teach undergraduate courses, contingent on increased revenue
Integrate students classroom and out of-classroom experiences, with emphasis on internships, field-based and service learning, entrepreneurship, capstone experiences, and study abroad
Promote service and civic responsibility
Create the physical space and technology infrastructure to support enhanced teaching and learning

Improve communications, and build vibrant and mutually beneficial relationships with government officials, community and state business leaders, educators, and the broader public
Focus and highlight our efforts in areas where public problems and university strengths overlap, such as alternative energy sources, environmental protection and policy, public health, K12 education, internationalization, governance, and cultural production
Educate more students in fields that are critical to the state, such as engineering and nursing
Enhance the speed with which we transfer knowledge and technology to promote economic development
Support the efforts of faculty and staff to establish productive collaborations across the university, the state, and the world

Continue to invest in interdisciplinary life sciences and biotechnology, including the scientific and engineering disciplines that support 21st-century biology, and the humanities and social sciences that analyze and influence its effects
Reinvest in the liberal arts, with special efforts to publicize the importance of the humanities
Ensure strength in the core disciplines, while promoting innovation, interdisciplinary connections, and reorganization of disciplines, where it makes intellectual sense to do so
Improve our research infrastructure, including pre- and post-award management and compliance
Increase funding and support for graduate students

Make progress toward our goal of reaching the median of our peer group in faculty salaries, as well as relevant market medians for staff
Use recruitment and retention funds strategically to support existing or emerging areas of strength and innovation
Promote the passage of domestic-partner benefits
Enhance department cultures and hiring practices to ensure diversity
Continue to foster a vibrant intellectual community
Develop the skills and creativity of our faculty and staff

Prepare our students for a world that is diverse, global, and interconnected
Promote the appreciation of human differences
Step up efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented students, faculty, and staff
Establish new forms of accountability for efforts to increase diversity
Build an open, dynamic, and respectful learning and working environment for all members of our community
Align our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across our different campus units