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Strategy 2025 Documents

MESSAGE FROM UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP


The main and health campuses at the University of Utah have joined in creating a strategic roadmap that ensures a One U approach to the future—a blueprint designed to accelerate the university’s rise as it focuses on four overarching goals: student success, knowledge transfer, community engagement and institutional vitality.

Strategy 2025 is the result of a process launched in spring 2019 that harnessed the creative power of our campus community and stakeholders to shape a new vision, with strategies and measurable outcomes to guide us for the next five years.

Our stakeholders proposed hundreds of ideas, including innovative approaches to education and health care, ways to support the well-being, equity and safety of students, and how to meet the changing demographic, educational, workforce and health care needs of our state and nation. If ever there was a time for us to come together on these issues, it is now. Our world is being reshaped by a pandemic and by the justified calls for a more equitable, diverse and inclusive society. The university is pivoting to be responsive to these global challenges and as the very landscape of higher education, health care and fast-paced technological developments require thoughtful and nimble considerations and implementation.

What follows is a summary of the ideas, themes and tactics that emerged and that will help guide the University of Utah to 2025—and continue our momentum as a leading research university and the state’s preeminent institution of higher education.

strategy 2025 data sources

Town Halls & Ideation Sessions

Convened eight town halls that engaged thousands of faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members

Alumni Survey

Partnered with Strada Education Network to survey and gather perspectives from 15,000 alumni

U of U Health Strategy Refresh Recommendations

Serving our communities
Education & discovery
Innovating care
Accountability for outcomes

Online Submissions

More than 120 ideas submitted online

Leadership Meetings

University leaders met frequently with various campus and community stakeholders to gather feedback

Exceptional Educational Research

More than 800 students provided feedback about their educational experience

Educational Futures & Student Success Task Force Recommendations

Expand online and certificate offerings
Revise budget models to support new initiatives
Centralize and streamline resources and services
Improve transit, parking and mobility options
Diversify pathways to student success
Utilize our physical infrastructure to its fullest potential
Ensure students have a sense of belonging

OUR VIBRANT CAMPUS COMMUNITY NURTURES CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP, EQUIPPING STUDENTS FOR SUCCESS as they join A DYNAMIC AND global WORKFORCE

Promote Student Success to Transform Lives

The core of student success is access, equity, growth, experience and completion. We are building an inclusive community that fosters a sense of belonging, well-being and safety in which every student to thrive. As the movement for racial justice has shown, this commitment is more vital than ever.

The university has made tremendous strides in providing an exceptional educational experience and advancing completion rates. With each new incoming class, the U continues to attract bright students from across the state and globe.

Going forward, the U seeks to engage in individualized partnerships with all students to ensure they develop academically, personally and professionally over their lifetimes. Our vibrant campus community nurtures creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, equipping students for success as they join a dynamic and global workforce.

THEMES FROM STRATEGY 2025
Meet students where they are
  • Increase physical footprint in the community and use community health clinics to reach nontraditional students and areas with high population growth
  • Improve processes and utilization of technologies to ensure delivery of exceptional service and education to each student
  • Increase online educational offerings
  • Develop alternative credentialing options to provide flexibility and enhance the skill sets of students to prepare them for a changing economy
Provide an exceptional educational experience
  • Deepen sense of belonging for all students by providing a foundation of safety and building a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Connect curriculum to career opportunities
  • Develop more structured mentorship opportunities for every student, starting in their first year
  • Provide, strengthen, communicate and connect students to resources, opportunities, events, etc.
  • Provide timely and innovative financial resources and support networks to increase retention and completion, particularly for minoritized and first-generation students
  • Expand and innovate mental health resources for students
  • Deepen the student experience by expanding learning opportunities beyond the classroom
Prepare students for a dynamic and global workforce
  • Develop certificate and certificate-to-degree programs that meet industry needs and student interests
  • Provide more opportunities for undergraduate research, internships, fellowships, international experiences and other career-readiness options
  • Partner with employers to provide hands-on training and experiences
Strengthen the on-campus experience
  • Increase on-campus housing capacity
  • Enliven students’ on-campus experience
  • Create an environment free of hate and committed to an anti-racist climate
  • Increase on-campus job opportunities
  • Continue to improve university safety functions
  • Expand dining and commercial retail options on campus, especially at night

Develop & Transfer New Knowledge

The University of Utah is recognized as one of the nation’s leading research institutions as evidenced by its selection as a member of the Association of American Universities. The U is engaged in research, scholarship and generation of knowledge that seeks to solve grand societal challenges and positively affect the state, the nation and the world--a role highlighted during the coronavirus pandemic. The importance of our role as a research institution and the high quality of our work is reflected in increases in sponsored project funding, faculty publications, and awards and projects that benefit our communities. The U aspires to continue this momentum while also broadening the diversity of faculty and researchers who are producing new knowledge and expanding our understanding of the world.

THEMES FROM STRATEGY 2025
Solve serious challenges of our time
  • Be the place the world looks to for experts and leaders to research and solve our biggest challenges, such as: cancer, diabetes, communicable diseases, suicide prevention, mental health, interpersonal violence, equitable public safety, immigration and human rights, climate change, air quality and energy innovations
  • Orient research agenda, make investments in and align faculty hires to directly address societal needs
  • Build on a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation to ensure long-term economic vitality with a focus on informatics, artificial intelligence, data science and ethical challenges related to rapid changes in a technologically based society
adopt structural changes that increase One U success
  • Expand campuswide infrastructure to incentivize and support diversity, interdisciplinary and nontraditional programs through, for example, large-scale grants, courses, projects, centers, labs and faculty appointments
  • Increase programmatic opportunities for students, scholars and staff across campus to support professional success, with particular attention to increasing opportunities to add diversity
  • Improve communication of research opportunities and potential faculty partnerships, etc.
Enhance career development opportunities
  • Support and develop programs for a new generation of researchers
  • Offer more internships, fellowships and tangible work experiences for new researchers
  • Expand career development opportunities and campuswide communication about mentorship for junior faculty, as well as graduate and undergraduate students
  • Deepen industry engagement to facilitate research and student career opportunities
THE U IS one of america's leading research universities
THROUGH COLLABORATION AROUND A SET OF SHARED GOALS, WE WILL POSITION THE U AS A NATIONAL LEADER IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Engage Communities to Improve Education, Health, Economic Well-Being & Quality of Life

As the state’s flagship university, the U is the University for Utah just as it is the University of Utah. The U embraces its role as a vital anchor institution serving the education, health and economic needs of Utah, catalyzing the state’s economic engine and engaging students in impactful community service and learning opportunities. The U also serves as the state’s major art, culture and athletics hub. Our reciprocal grassroots partnerships with stakeholders from across the state foster improved education, health, economic well-being and quality of life for Utah families. Through collaboration around a set of shared goals, we will position the U as a national leader in community engagement while recognizing our state's changing demographics. It is incumbent upon us as an anchor institution to embrace and serve our state's diverse communities, a role particularly important in times of great economic and social disruption.

THEMES FROM STRATEGY 2025
Meet our communities where they are
  • Expand presence, outreach, admissions and partnerships in underserved, rural and growing parts of the state
  • Engage the “some college, no degree” population and alumni by delivering credential and non-degree program opportunities
  • Incentivize community engagement, research and community-based courses that boost workforce readiness
  • Expand fine arts, cultural and athletics outreach to the community
Develop and strengthen reciprocal partnerships
  • Create more and deepen employer, government and nonprofit partnerships in education, research, employment and economic development opportunities
  • Increase collaboration among campus units to facilitate community engagement
  • Strengthen partnerships with Salt Lake Community College and other higher education institutions to enhance transfer pathways
  • Expand and deepen outreach and recruitment efforts to elementary, middle and high schools
  • Utilize our expertise and excellence in arts and education to innovate and extend new knowledge and cultural enhancements to our communities
  • Create structural changes that build capacity for One U success
  • Broaden engagement of alumni, expand alumni networks and enhance student/alumni connections
  • Strengthen international partnerships and student recruitment through our global hubs in Ghana and South Korea, while ensuring constituent safety
Strategic marketing, branding and community presence
  • Increase visibility and cohesive U branding in the community
  • Strengthen town and gown relationships to enhance community connections to the U

Ensure Long-Term Vitality of the University

The University of Utah is on the rise, thanks in large measure to the achievements of our campus community and support we receive from the state, our stakeholders and funding organizations. Our goal is to ensure long-term vitality through the effective use of resources while improving the campus infrastructure and growing endowments and capital support. This will be achieved through innovations in health care and education and use of digital technology to provide broader, high-quality and efficient services. We also must work to ensure we are providing relevant and in-demand educational opportunities for students across their lifetimes and responding to the changing demographics of our state. As the coronavirus pandemic has shown, our vitality also depends on our ability to be adaptable and nimble in meeting societal challenges.

THEMES FROM STRATEGY 2025
Meet needs in growing areas of the state
  • Go and grow where the people are and offer a range of educational and health services
  • Offer more degrees and credentials in line with evolving workforce needs and opportunities
  • Leverage technology and communication platforms to better serve our communities
Invest in our people
  • Increase mentorship and career development for staff, faculty and students, emphasizing diversity
  • Invest in intentional promotion of faculty for national recognition
  • Develop retention, promotion and tenure and other structural processes to recognize international, interdisciplinary and community engagement work
  • Provide more accessible child care for students, staff and faculty
  • Build a safety infrastructure that allows the U community to feel safe and focus on work, education and other activities while on campus
Enliven the campus experience
  • Partner with the private sector to develop a more vibrant zone of commercial services and offerings in walking distance of campus
  • Transform campus into a “complete community” by providing more places to live, work, play, eat and shop
  • Increase engagement of students in athletics events
  • Increase student participation in arts and cultural activities on campus
Increase comprehensive and strategic marketing
  • Create more strategic, sophisticated and stratified marketing of the U
  • Simplify navigation of and improve websites campuswide to better communicate resources, opportunities, events, etc. for our campus community and for prospective students and families
Improve resource stewardship
  • Centralize, embed and/or outsource processes and procedures where it makes financial and service-level sense
  • Lead in sustainability via an emissions policy, transportation partnerships, procurement guidelines and a landscape master plan
  • Consolidate, develop and refresh technologies and centralize data and analytics to better serve our constituents
Enhance space utilization
  • Revitalize housing for families, as well as graduate and international students
  • Increase summer enrollment and diversity of academic pathways, including engagement of middle and high school students
  • Improve utilization of existing buildings, classrooms and lab spaces
  • Use community health clinics for educational support, classes, etc.
the university of utah is on the rise, thanks in large measure to the achievements of our campus community and support from the state, our stakeholders and funding organizations

CONCLUSION

We are grateful for the way our campus stakeholders have come together to share ideas and strategies for how we reach the next milestones at the University of Utah. The vision you are helping to shape today will make us a stronger, more vibrant university in the future and will enhance the mission, vision and values that have always been our foundation.

With this strategy refresh document in hand, we will truly act as One U to fulfill our role as one of America’s leading research universities and as the University for Utah, meeting the needs of our state, the nation and the world. We will be living up to our pledge to provide every student at the University of Utah an exceptional educational experience. And we will demonstrate the nimbleness and adaptability of our university in pivoting to meet new challenges.

Thank you for your partnership in this endeavor.

The University of Utah Strategy 2025 Documents

 
 

Strategy 2025

 
 

U of U Health Strategy Refresh

 
 

Educational Futures & Student Success Taskforce