Oregon State University releases new strategic plan to guide next five years

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University President Edward J. Ray announced Tuesday the launch of OSU’s fourth phase of two decades of strategic planning to guide the university’s service to Oregon, the nation and the world for the next five years.

“The university’s strategic plan – “Transformation, Excellence and Impact” – provides a blueprint for OSU to fulfill its mission of education, research and engagement from 2019 to 2023,” Ray said.

“This plan serves as a North Star in achieving Oregon State’s mission. It is this university’s commitment to the ideal that higher education is a public good. And that the education OSU provides, as a research-intensive land grant university, is uniquely important and will be accessible to all learners.”

Strategic Plan 4.0 establishes four strategic goals:

• Preeminence in research, scholarship and innovation;
• Transformative education that is accessible to all learners;
• Significant and visible impact in Oregon and beyond; and
• A culture of belonging, collaboration and innovation.

Oregon State’s new plan also includes 20 strategic actions that the university will take to reach its goals during the next five years. Ray said the plan will help achieve and build upon aspirational strengths the university subscribes to achieve by 2030.

OSU launched the first phase of its strategic plan in 2004. The second phase of the plan was prepared in 2009, and the third in 2014. Called SP4.0, the new plan was developed over the past year and half through an extensive stakeholder engagement process. Hundreds of OSU colleagues, friends, and stakeholders contributed input to the steering committee’s work.

OSU Provost Ed Feser led the overall strategic planning effort and worked with a steering committee chaired by Senior Vice Provost Susan Capalbo, university academic and administrative leaders, and the OSU Board of Trustees.

“Key external stakeholders, including the staff and trustees of the OSU Foundation, provided much valuable input,” Ray said.

Since launching its first strategic plan, OSU has undergone a major transformation, experiencing significant enrollment growth as Oregon’s statewide university, increases in research contracts and grants, the development of OSU-Cascades in Bend and a more visible presence in Portland, and completion of the university’s first comprehensive fund-raising campaign in 2014.