In fall 2023, UO stakeholders were invited to provide feedback on a list of three priorities and ten working goals. Stakeholders’ questions and concerns were used to revise the priorities and goals into four university priorities intended to guide the work of the university over the next five years.

Four University Goals:

1. Enhance pathways to timely graduation.
2. Be a leader among the nation's public research universities in career preparation.
3. Create a *flourishing community.
4. Innovate for societal impact.

Notably, our fourth goal is grounded in our scholarship. We will continue to strive for excellence in everything we do, but we will also focus on areas of unique strength as follows:

• We will seek preeminence in environmental resilience, including and especially programs that provide novel and scalable approaches to help mitigate the effects of a changing climate; or that provide blueprints for human society to ethically adjust and adapt to a rapidly evolving world.
• We will continue to build on strengths in mental health and wellbeing, including and especially programs focused on early detection, intervention, and support for mental and emotional health; and programs that add insight to our understanding of the factors that strengthen individual and collective wellbeing.
• We will seek to be leaders in the study of human performance and sport, leveraging our unique strengths in the study of human performance and the business and science of sport.
• Finally, we will accelerate the impact of our science on society, including and especially scholarship that builds on our strengths in biological, materials and applied sciences to accelerate the rate and scope of societal impact to Oregon and the nation.

*Flourishing is the holistic development and thriving of every individual in our diverse community achieved through growth, well-being, resilience, trust, belonging, and sense of purpose. Flourishing requires commitment to accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion in all forms. A flourishing community is built on collective experience and is made stronger by our shared commitment to one another. Top themes that emerged from stakeholders’ questions and concerns were used to revise the goals.

Examples of Changes Made in Response to Stakeholder Feedback:

Feedback: There are too many priorities and goals. The UO needs to focus on a few things and do them well.

Change made in response: The original three priorities and 10 working goals were simplified to just four goals.

Feedback: The goal to “improve time to degree, e.g., four-year and six-year graduation rates” is too narrow. It does not address barriers for students (e.g., cost) and does not seem inclusive of all students (e.g., transfer students).

Change made in response: The goal is now “Enhance pathways to timely graduation.” This is more inclusive of the diversity of the student body (e.g., transfer students, graduate students; students’ personal goals) and the range of academic programs. Cost is one of several barriers being examined as we develop strategies for this goal.

Feedback: Some terms need defining. For example, the term “flourishing” is not understood, well defined, or measurable.

Change made in response: We are attending to this feedback as we develop the plan, including how we describe our goals and strategies. For example, we have developed a definition for “flourishing”: the holistic development and thriving of every individual in our diverse community achieved through growth, well-being, resilience, trust, belonging, and sense of purpose. We note that flourishing requires commitment to accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion in all forms; and that a flourishing community is built on collective experience and is made stronger by our shared commitment to one another.

Feedback: Why is athletics emphasized as a goal? Athletics is too narrow to focus on. What does it mean to “leverage athletics”?

Change made in response: Athletics is no longer emphasized in the goals.

Feedback: Something is missing from the goals. Most prevalent themes: (a) the UO’s current/potential contribution to the environment and sustainability, and to globalization; (b) attending to basic operational/foundational activities before moving to new, innovative work; and (c) ensuring the inclusion of staff.

Response: Cross-functional goal teams tasked with developing potential university-level key performance indicators, strategies, and tactics for each goal attended to the input collected, the university's current state (including strengths and challenges), and best practices as they undertook this work. (a) One resulting recommended strategy is to invest in our research and scholarship that focuses on environmental resilience; (b) a recommended strategy for reaching our flourishing goal is to improve some of our operational systems and technology to reduce student and employee frustration; and (c) a guiding principle for forthcoming implementation and alignment work is focused on inclusion of staff.

Feedback: How will we measure success towards these goals?  How will we create strategies? How will we align efforts across campus towards common goals?  How will we actually do this?

Response: The strategic plan will include very high-level strategies and key performance indicators to measure our success. After the creation of this broad strategic plan, an operational plan will be developed taking into consideration the current infrastructure (e.g., organizations, policies, processes) and resources available (human, financial, data, etc.). Every school/college, division, and department will have the opportunity to identify ways to align their “unit-level” work with the plan, through strategies and tactics informed by their own expertise, programming and resources, and indicators to measure their own progress.