Happy Friday, Raider family
I have a quick update to share today on our SOU Vitality Plan processes. Students, faculty, staff and community members are all rolling up their sleeves to offer new proposals, recommendations and ideas for consideration as part of the SOU Vitality Plan that we will finalize in the next few weeks.
I have truly been inspired by all our colleagues who love this university and are committed to developing solutions. As a reminder, we are all working toward the development of recommendations for me to submit to our Board of Trustees, who will consider taking action on the plan on June 18.
Here is a link to an infographic that shows roughly how I perceive development of the plan to proceed over the next few weeks. I’ll accept responsibility for the final recommendations submitted to the board but definitely want to make the best strategic proposal possible, which is why I am so grateful to you all for sharing your perspectives. We have workgroups, both formal and informal, internal and external, developing plans and ideas. With a need to start developing the final recommendations soon, we really have only about a week left before I need to begin putting the pieces together. It doesn’t mean I won’t still consider ideas after that, but if you’re considering offering bold solutions, the sooner I have them the better.
If you have ideas or proposals that you want to put forward, please know that you are absolutely empowered to do so. If you would like to review the materials that our workgroups are using, the Administrative Footprint and Academic Portfolio are located under, ‘Materials’ on the website. I will give serious consideration to all proposals, which is why we have created this site for sharing all ideas and recommendations.
I will be using some key guidelines in evaluating all of these thoughtful proposals: 1) Is it truly helping us to meet the target of fiscal sustainability by summer 2027? 2) Does it reflect our identity as an institution and our values? and 3) Does it truly transform us in ways that will help us to thrive into the future?
As a reminder, our future university will be one that not only meets the challenges we face here in Oregon but is positioned to succeed in navigating the sea change taking place in higher education. We will be a university that offers streamlined pathways for students in every academic focus area. We will be a university that embraces artificial intelligence fluency for all of our students, but we’ll also be intentional about – and mindful about – humanity as its necessary counterpart. And we will take seriously our role as a place-based, regionally responsive institution by embracing deep integration with employers and entities in our region, so that students benefit from a truly experiential educational experience.
Thanks as always, everyone, for what you do and how you do it. I hope you and your family and friends all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.
Very respectfully,
