Participation in strategic plan refresh encouraged through four ways

Gauri Raje, News Editor

Last week, President Eighmy notified students via email of ways in which they can provide feedback to the university’s strategic plan refresh process, which was announced by the university in November last year. The plan will serve as a midpoint assessment of the university’s 10-year strategic plan. 

The strategic plan was launched in 2017 when President Eighmy joined the university. It includes three “strategic destinations” or goals and several initiative categories.

UTSA’s strategic plan was never intended to be a static vision. The refresh allows us to build on our momentum of success, celebrate our achievements to date, apply our lessons learned, adapt to a changing higher education landscape (indeed, a post-pandemic world), and align our resources to continue our trajectory of transformation,” the plan’s official website reads.

According to the university’s official FAQ webpage for the strategic refresh process, “the refresh process is our opportunity as a UTSA community to take stock of what we have accomplished in the last five years, affirm which pieces are currently working well, and make revisions that will enable us to continue our trajectory of success.”

As a part of this refresh process, President Eighmy held a town hall on Nov. 28, 2022. Furthermore, Eighmy has appointed Provost Kimberly Andrews Espy to chair the Strategic Planning Refresh Steering Committee. The committee includes university leaders along with members of the faculty senate, staff senate and SGA. 

In December 2022, the steering committee worked to “prime” students, staff and faculty for the process. As a result, this semester, faculty, staff and students will have four opportunities to share their input and feedback about the refresh; this includes an anonymous campus survey in February, a listening session hosted by respective vice presidents or deans between March and April. There will also be an opportunity to review and share reactions to summaries from the listening sessions from March to May and an opportunity to review and provide input on the Steering Committee’s evolving drafts from May to July.

Over the spring and summer, this feedback will be considered and used to draft revisions to the strategic plan, and the final recommendations will be submitted to President Eighmy. The revised plan is scheduled to be presented to the UT Board of Regents in November of 2023, one year after the refresh was announced. 

“Your voices remain critical to the refresh process,” Eighmy said in his email. “Thank you in advance for the time and thoughtfulness I know you will put into these feedback opportunities.”

More information about the strategic plan can be found at https://www.utsa.edu/strategicplan/.

To learn more about the refresh process, visit https://www.utsa.edu/strategicplan/strategic-plan-refresh/