Vision
We are a community that embodies innovation, inspiration and impact, united and emboldened by urgency to better understand our changing planet and collaboratively develop and communicate lasting solutions that shape a more vibrant future for all.
Preamble
This strategic plan is the result of work carried out by a strategic planning committee over six months. The committee was made up of nine college faculty and staff with varying backgrounds, career stages, leadership responsibilities and history within the college. The committee sought input from the greater college community, including graduate students, on numerous occasions with dozens of informal conversations; a college-wide workshop (with participation of 60+ individuals); and an online feedback portal (with 40+ reviews).
The committee established early on that the audience for the plan is primarily the faculty, staff and students of the college. The plan is meant to be aspirational and motivational to us. It is here to remind us about our strengths and points of pride, and to articulate how we will build on these strengths with specific actions – some of them quite pragmatic, others more aspirational – that we collectively want to tackle to make our vision a reality.
The plan is organized around three overarching strategic imperatives and several key objectives associated with each imperative. The work envisioned here is meant to be iterative and self-correcting based on progress and changing circumstances. Specifically, we will review progress annually, learn from doing the work, and adjust as we go along. We anticipate that the imperatives will remain the same, but the objectives and actions could change as we embark on the work and learn as we go. Some actions will generate revenue, while others will require resources. Hence, actions will be sequenced to allow for revenue-generating work to occur first to help fund the other investments.
Throughout the deliberations and discussions, the strategic planning committee repeatedly discussed the importance of balancing attention to three mission elements – teaching, research, and engagement – and emphasized the interconnectedness of these elements. The committee also discussed throughout the process the importance of creating capacity, fueling creativity and continually advancing inclusivity. The reader will find these concepts dispersed throughout the imperatives, objectives and actions.
Finally, this plan is highly responsive to OSU’s strategic plan, Prosperity Widely Shared (PWS). The work outlined in the CEOAS strategic plan will help create capacity and capability so that CEOAS can meaningfully contribute to the PWS actions related to building faculty excellence, research distinction, knowledge translation and innovation and partnerships. Many of the actions in this plan will also support the PWS actions related to growth in our student population and in furthering student success. As a college, we feel that we are well-positioned to contribute to OSU’s vision and goals and look forward to doing so.
Strategic Imperative I: Sustainable Culture — Grow our cultural core into a source of opportunity
Challenge | CEOAS has a unique and valued culture. Our community-minded, tenacious approach has helped us get to where we are. We want our core culture to endure, deepen and become even more inclusive, but if not properly supported we will face burnout and frustration. We must recognize the valuable contributions of each person. Everyone in CEOAS should feel equally seen and supported, and thus equally able to take risks when opportunities arise. We need to appropriately balance the attention we pay to research, teaching and engagement to sustain a culture where we can all flourish, both individually and collectively.
Key Objectives
- Objective 1
Create mental space for our CEOAS community to allow for deep thinking, risk-taking, and innovation in education, research and engagement. - Objective 2
Ensure that CEOAS has the high-quality physical space required to sustain excellence in all of our mission-critical activities. - Objective 3
Increase transparency, accountability and agency in how each member of the CEOAS community contributes to and grows within CEOAS. - Objective 4
Distribute and balance authority across more people/positions and align leadership responsibilities with authority to make us more responsive.
Strategic Imperative II: Internal Synergy — Ignite our collective potential
Challenge | CEOAS has a well-earned reputation for transcending disciplinary boundaries. Despite this reputation, our research, education and engagement efforts often remain siloed. To truly understand our planet and innovate lasting solutions, we need to achieve and maintain a cultural and organizational model that explicitly discourages siloed thinking and behavior. Enhancing our internal synergy across research, education and engagement demands bold risks, expanded networks, innovative thinking and a long-term investment. These steps will foster convergent research, impactful experiential learning, co-production of new knowledge, a unified college and efficient use of time and resources.
Key Objectives
- Objective 1
Identify and amplify key areas of excellence: Identify key areas of excellence within CEOAS and increase opportunities to build synergies with adjacent and new research, education, and engagement activities. - Objective 2
Catalyze cross-functional collaboration: Create incentives, opportunities, structures and facilities for increased communication and collaboration across faculty, students, staff and programs that will lead to greater integration of education, research and engagement. - Objective 3
Create a culture of bold innovation: Build on the previous two objectives to spearhead bold initiatives across education, research and engagement that foster cross-disciplinary collaborations and inclusive excellence.
Strategic Imperative III: External connectedness — Vastly increase our external connectedness
Challenge | We aspire to become an indispensable, go-to resource, i.e., a community for innovation, inspiration and impact. That can only happen if CEOAS becomes more connected to the world around us, starting with our home, the U.S. Pacific Northwest. We have an opportunity to serve the people of Oregon and beyond with the science-based solutions they want and need. To do so, we must strengthen our connections and forge new reciprocal partnerships with the university at large, prospective students, peer institutions, various public and private sectors, employers, funding agencies and donors. This requires an improved understanding of the motivations, needs and values of a wide range of current and potential partners, as well as honoring diverse ways of knowing.
Key Objectives
- Objective 1
Determine strategic areas to strengthen our undergraduate and graduate curricula in ways that are better tailored to relevant employment opportunities and contribute meaningfully to OSU’s strategic goals. - Objective 2
Create more capacity for, and improve effectiveness of, research and outreach/engagement, capitalizing on existing connections and growing new strategic relationships. - Objective 3
Sustain and grow our external connections in ways that interweave research, education, and engagement and contribute to an inclusive climate in and beyond CEOAS. External connections may include, but are not limited to: K-12; pre-college programs; peer institutions; community colleges; local, state, regional, federal, and international organizations; Tribal Nations; and industry.
Access full report: 2024-2030 Strategic Plan