Educate. Innovate. Serve.

• Priority: Attract top students from every Iowa county, the nation’s 50 states, and around the world and work with campus partners to provide an excellent educational experience.
• Priority: Ensure accessibility and affordability to higher education by offering competitive levels of financial assistance.
• Priority: Combine applied learning and critical thinking to prepare students to engage in their communities, meet societal challenges, and pursue meaningful careers.
• Priority: Offer a broad range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional education programs to support students’ career goals.
• Priority: Enhance opportunities for high-impact practices that promote student success.
• Priority: Recognize and celebrate students and alumni as they achieve success at ISU and beyond. 

Key Progress Indicators:

• First-year retention
• Four-year graduation
• Six-year graduation
• High-impact practices in 3+ activities
• Student loan debt upon graduation
• Percent of students with loan debt
• Increase merit and need-based scholarship funding
• Post-graduation employment outcomes

Tactics to Employ:

• Develop innovations to support affordability
• Initiate research-based academic programs that address student and employer demand
• Drive continuous improvement in the curriculum, reaffirming its relevance to students and addressing institutional barriers to enable high-quality academic programs
• Enhance teaching support and professional development for instructors at all levels
• Enhance programs to support the undergraduate and graduate student experience, community, and belonging
• Inspire student and family participation at Commencement and academic celebrations
• Strengthen alumni initiatives and collaborations with the ISU Foundation

• Priority: Provide all students with the support they need to be successful such as through learning communities and high impact practices to promote retention and degree completion.
• Priority: Recruit and retain high-quality faculty and staff and cultivate a productive and respectful working environment.
• Priority: Support faculty and staff throughout their careers.
• Priority: Support faculty and staff efforts to foster positive culture in their departments and units.
• Priority: Identify and recruit faculty and staff in targeted areas critical to Iowa’s economy.
• Priority: Facilitate shared governance with the Faculty Senate, Professional and Scientific Council, Student Government, and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.

Key Progress Indicators:

• First-year retention
• Four-year graduation
• Six-year graduation
• Post-graduation employment outcomes
• High-impact practices in 3+ activities
• Faculty and staff retention
• Success in faculty promotion, tenure, and advancement
• Results of faculty and staff satisfaction surveys

Tactics to Employ:

• Support faculty and staff lifelong learning, career progression, and leadership within the university and beyond the campus borders through onboarding, professional development, mentoring, advancement, and promotion
• Increase mechanisms for faculty and staff honors, awards, and recognitions
• Enhance the recruitment and retention of faculty and staff in roles that support institutional priorities and Iowa’s economy
• Strengthen connections to the university community to support student success such as through learning communities, advising, student organizations, and mentoring
• Enhance collaboration and efficiency within and across the Faculty Senate, Professional and Scientific Council, Student Government, and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate
• Improve the representation of faculty, staff, and students within the shared governing bodies to stimulate the development and refinement of policies, practices, and cultures and enhance efficiency

• Priority: Develop opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to become future academic professionals and leaders.
• Priority: Expand ISU Extension and Outreach programming to meet Iowans’ needs across agriculture and natural resources, health and human sciences, economic development, and youth development.
• Priority: Develop micro- and stackable credentials to strengthen workforce development and pathways toward bachelor’s and graduate degree programs.
• Priority: Develop academic programs, notably online graduate programs, that appeal to adult learners to bolster their knowledge and skills.
• Priority: Encourage and offer educational and professional development opportunities for all faculty and staff, including programming for new academic leaders.

Key Progress Indicators:

• Post-graduation employment outcomes
• High-impact practices in 3+ activities
• Expand online programs to meet the increase in industry and state needs such as 2–4 new programs/credentials
• Extension and Outreach program participation levels
• Extension and Outreach impact of learning programs
• Increased Extension and Outreach service efforts for underserved populations

Tactics to Employ: 

• Create awareness of on-campus and off-campus learning opportunities
• Increase student participation and engagement in career readiness and student success initiatives
• Expand staff and faculty participation and engagement in professional development and leadership experiences
• Grow participation and outcome assessment for professional development programs
• Encourage Iowans’ participation and engagement in Extension and Outreach programs
   

• Priority: Drive innovation in academic programs, most notably using artificial intelligence and other technologies and expand offerings to students as appropriate.
• Priority: Foster efforts to secure an array of external and internal funding opportunities, strengthen and expand research initiatives, administer grants, and explore new opportunities from agencies, corporations, and industries.
• Priority: Support start-ups and commercialization efforts as part of a broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Priority: Enhance research communications to share discovery and impact with stakeholders.

Key Progress Indicators:

• High-impact practices in 3+ activities
• Research funding (3-year rolling average of HERD expenditures)
• Intellectual property disclosures (technology and other)
• Patents (new filed/active)
• Licensing revenue income
• Strategic industry partners and contracts
• Industry-funded contracts
• Research Park partnerships (tenants, pre-incubator companies)
• Extension and outreach impact of partnerships

Tactics to Employ:

• Develop artificial intelligence innovations and solutions in curricula, research, and university services
• Enhance Office of the Vice President for Research programming to support faculty and staff
• Incentivize the researcher enterprise
• Increase students, scholars, and professionals involvement in research
• Advance commercialization and new venture start-ups
• Promote high-impact research stories
• Disseminate external media mentions or features of ISU research
   

• Priority: Provide consistent and clear leadership to the units within academic affairs to ensure alignment with the University’s mission, vision, and goals.
• Priority: Engage industry through the academic colleges, ISU Research Park, ISU Foundation, and other units to secure investments, create opportunities for students, and ensure academic programs continue to be responsive to employers’ needs.
• Priority: Increase ISU Extension and Outreach engagement across both its programmatic areas and the State of Iowa, while maintaining effective and positive relationships with county offices.
• Priority: Enhance effectiveness and reach of externally facing, public-serving units for maximum stakeholder impact and engagement.
• Priority: Collaborate with other divisions and units, recognizing the complementary role needed to address institutional challenges and priorities.
• Priority: Responsibly steward appropriations and tuition funding by fostering continuous improvement initiatives that reduce costs and increase effectiveness.

Key Progress Indicators:

• Industry-funded contracts
• Extension and Outreach program participation levels
• Extension and Outreach impact of educational programs
• Extension and Outreach service efforts for underserved populations
• Extension and Outreach impact of partnerships
• Student loan debt upon graduation
• Percent of students with loan debt
• Increased merit and need-based scholarship funding

Tactics to Employ:

• Improve formal communications and direct leadership engagement with and across Academic Affairs units
• Support student internships, co-operative education programs, and project-based learning experiences facilitated through industry partnerships and advisory councils
• Strengthen relationships with Extension and Outreach county offices
• Highlight cross-division collaborations
• Continuously improve division and unit processes and procedures to reduce costs to students and the university, such as open access educational materials