Input sought on strategic plan and implementation

Following ten months of planning, input and assessment, the University of Oregon’s UO Onward strategic planning process is entering its next phase, and members of the UO community are invited to participate in a survey about the university’s goals and implementation of the strategic plan.

President Karl Scholz outlined the university strategic goals during Investiture and at the Board of Trustees’ recent meeting.

“Over the next ten years, the University of Oregon is committing itself to accomplish meaningful progress in four key goals, focusing our resources, talents and attention on the foundations of the university — our students, our state, our people and our scholarship,” Scholz said.

The goals include enhancing pathways to timely graduation, being a leader in career preparation, creating a flourishing community and innovating for societal impact.

“We will have a special focus on scholarship and creative work that accelerates societal impact, elevates the human experience and develops innovative models for a changing world,” Scholz said.

While he noted over the next ten years the UO will continue to try to be outstanding in everything it does, focused investments will happen in four areas, including environmental resilience, mental health and well-being, human performance and sport, and accelerating the impact of science on society.

The president launched the strategic planning process last fall. Over several months approximately 1,200 members of the faculty, staff, students, alumni and other stakeholders chose to provide input through 25 live, facilitated input sessions and an online survey.

In the winter, the president considered the input and worked with deans and vice presidents to revise the priorities into four goals. The president charged four cross-functional goal teams to use the community’s input, best practice research and their own subject matter expertise to propose high-level strategies and measures for evaluating progress.

Scholz says the next step in the process is to align the good work happening across the university with the four goals and develop a plan for how to implement the selected strategies.

To inform these next steps, all members of the university community are encouraged to complete this survey. The survey will be open until 5 p.m. on June 18.

The president anticipates being ready to present the university’s strategic plan in greater detail to the board during its September board meeting.

For additional information on strategic planning, the engagement process, goal team planning, and the goals and priorities visit the UO Onward website.