Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan
The Next 150 emerged from a collaborative, transparent yearlong
planning process
and sets the priorities for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign over the next five years. We invite you to scroll down and view the ambitious goals that will shape the future of the university. Progress on these goals will be shared on
Stories of Impact
, which currently lists accomplishments from the
previous Strategic Plan
Scholarship, Discovery, and Innovation
Transformative Learning Experiences
Societal Impact
Resources and Strategic Investment
Introduction
For 150 years, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been
changing the world. As we embark on our next 150 years, we do so with a
renewed commitment to educational opportunity, research, and public
engagement.
We envision a bold future built on our tradition of excellence and our
land-grant heritage that will require us to harness our community's
talents and our resources to be world-class in every dimension of our
mission. Our most powerful asset is our diverse community: the faculty
members who lead the research and teaching, the professionals who enable
and support every aspect of our operation, the undergraduate and
graduate students who learn from and inspire us, and the alumni who represent
us around the globe. We derive strength from the pursuit of complex ideas,
the value of multiple perspectives, and a commitment to scholarship and research
that asks the difficult questions needed to create a better future for everyone.
The quality, diversity, and breadth of our faculty are the cornerstone
of our success. Illinois is home to some of the most accomplished
scholars in the world. Illinois leads in academic disciplines that
influence global scholarship. The grand challenges we will face as a society in the next 150 years
will call for collaboration, listening, and a capacity for perspective-taking. Therefore, this
strategic plan sets the course to bring scholars together in even more
creative and innovative ways. In so doing, our university community will
continue to lead and to find solutions for society's greatest challenges in areas as
wide-ranging as energy, food security, health, and the human condition.
Illinois must continue to attract outstanding students who reflect the
full diversity of the world we will prepare them to lead. We prioritize access
and affordability as well as our responsibility to make institutional transformations necessary to remove the barriers,
assumptions, and biases that limit opportunities. By providing innovative
learning opportunities, both in and out of the classrooms, we will
prepare our students for multiple future careers, while teaching them to
think critically, excel in their chosen disciplines, embrace the
importance of continuing to learn over the course of their lives, and
engage with the ever-changing, increasingly diverse world around them.
We want our graduates and future alumni to be responsible citizens and
leaders who value knowledge, creativity, global awareness, and social
and cultural understanding.
Our ability to embrace, encourage, and adapt to the accelerating diversity of cultures, ideas, and identities fuels our creative spirit and leads us to consider new perspectives, possibilities, and knowledge.
As a land-grant university, Illinois is tasked with the privilege of
service—to the local community, to the state, the country, and the
world. As custodians of this charge, we are also recipients of an
immense opportunity, and we will use this moment to reimagine our public
engagement efforts. Interaction with our community will be woven into
the fabric of everything we do—from research and teaching to
educational experiences to our external partnerships. Specifically, we
will strengthen our connections across the state—with both urban and
rural communities—in a way that builds reciprocal and collaborative
partnerships. We strive to encourage, elevate, and enhance
community-engaged scholarship, teaching, and service to make a positive
and visible impact in the spirit of our land-grant mission.
Appropriate, sufficient, and sustainable resources are imperative to
our success. Our new, transparent budget model will help us thrive as we
progress toward our shared campuswide goals and aspirations. Reimagining
our budget model was not a logistical exercise—it was a deliberate
effort to build the engine that will power our plans. We must be
responsible stewards to ensure that we have the necessary elements to
achieve our goals. Through careful handling of resources, innovations
in services, and focused efforts to find new efficiencies, we will
conserve financial resources that can be reinvested across our strategic
priorities. We will couple this increased financial capacity with our
advancement efforts and new revenue sources to allow the university to
move forward on our goals. We must also be accountable to the state, to
our students and their families, and to our partners who invest in our
mission and our success.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's vision for the future is ambitious. Broad
consultation, transparency, and shared commitment to our institutional
goals will be necessary. We must balance long-term planning and
short-term opportunities by empowering the units' expertise and
flexibility to make their own strategic choices. The process we develop
and implement must respect and leverage our university's commitment to
shared governance.
We are at an exciting time in our history. In our first 150 years,
Illinois asserted itself as a world leader in higher education. Today's
rapidly changing landscape does not allow us to rest on our
accomplishments. Right now, we have an opportunity—and a
responsibility—to redefine the role of public higher education. This
plan is our public declaration of what the world should expect from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign over the next five years, and
it sets the course for another 150 years of success.
Vision &
Mission
Our Shared Vision
We will be the pre-eminent public research university with a land-grant
mission and a global impact. This is how the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign will define pre-eminence:
We will be the best at what we do; this is a matter of excellence in
achievement.
We will have impact locally, nationally, and globally through
transformational educational experiences, innovative public engagement,
and groundbreaking scholarship.
We will be recognized as leaders by our peers. We will be visible,
engaged, and significant agents for the prosperity of the state, nation, and
world; this is the leadership expected from a world-class university
with a land-grant mission.
We will be leaders in advancing diversity and equity that will
contribute to creating an institution committed to excellence in
discovery, teaching, and research, and a climate where all can achieve
their highest aspirations in a safe and welcoming environment.
Our Mission
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is charged by our state
to enhance the lives of people in Illinois, across the nation, and
around the world through our leadership in learning, discovery,
engagement, and economic development.
We Will Achieve Our Vision by Leveraging Our Areas of Distinction
In our 150-year history, this campus has established a distinctive
identity. It leads us to work and explore in uniquely productive ways.
These areas of distinction provide the fundamental building blocks for
our strategic goals.
Our iconic, inspirational, and inventive campus
Our engaged and open scholarly community
Our campuswide commitment to diversity, inclusion, and accessibility
Our groundbreaking track record of convergence, innovation, and
creativity
Our technology-rich environment
Our comprehensiveness and land-grant tradition
Our effective, collegial, and nationally recognized system of shared
governance
Our regional, national, and global impact
Our global leadership in creating an interdisciplinary culture
Our hardworking, bright, and creative faculty, staff, students, and
alumni
Process
& Principles
Our Process
Starting with the 2013-2016 Visioning Future Excellence plan and over
the past five years, the entire campus community worked toward a shared
vision for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—one that
would strategically focus our intellectual and financial resources to
face and respond to the challenges of our state, nation, and world. In
the 2017-2018 academic year, the university celebrated its
sesquicentennial, a timely opportunity to reflect on the past and plan
for the future. Faithful to the guiding principles of our mission as the
state's flagship public research university, we considered the changing
landscape of higher education and the best ways to position ourselves
in the next five years to drive 150 more years of discovery, innovation,
and education.
A leadership team was formed to guide the collective and comprehensive
work of strategic planning. Faculty, staff, students, deans, and campus
administration collaborated throughout this past year to set out the
broad strategic goals, initiatives, actions, and metrics for success
that will guide our decisions and priorities over the next five years.
The 2013-2016 strategic plan served as a steppingstone to create a bold
and ambitious new path forward in research, teaching, engagement, and
resources that leverages our strengths and our identity, and embraces
areas of growing importance to our mission and excellence, such as:
Arts
Data Science
Diversity
Energy and Sustainability
Food Security
Globalization
Health Sciences
Humanities
Public Engagement
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Undergraduate Education
The Chancellor and the Provost charged Strategic Task Forces to develop
bold and broad strategies, comprehensive and far-reaching goals, and
ideas covering research, teaching, service, and diversity. The Task
Forces were also asked to reach out to stakeholders to garner feedback.
After drafting the reports, the Task Force chairs presented during a
strategic planning retreat, where administrators and a campuswide group
of faculty members and staff had the opportunity to provide feedback.
Following the consideration and integration of this feedback by the Task
Forces, the chairs submitted a final version of the reports, which were
posted on the planning website. To allow for broader ideas outside of
the focus areas, the Office of the Provost organized multiple
goal-development sessions on each of the four goals for several hundred
members of the community from across campus. Summaries from these
sessions were shared on the planning website.
Our shared vision for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will strategically focus our intellectual and financial resources to face and respond to the challenges of our state, nation, and world.
Having both the Strategic Task Force reports and the summaries from the
goal-development sessions posted on the web, the Strategic Planning
Leadership Team worked to make the campus community aware of the work
that had been accomplished and to encourage feedback from the campus
community. Strategies used included a town hall event, email messages,
and announcements in newsletters. To gather deeper feedback on the work
that had been done, the Office of the Provost organized faculty and
staff panels to read and respond to all of the material submitted. By
late spring 2018, most of the feedback had been received, and campus
leaders gathered to discuss what emerged from the yearlong activities
so as to prioritize specific ideas. This prioritization continued
through the summer months as the strategic plan underwent various
drafts.
By fall 2018, deans, campus institutes directors, Task Force chairs, and
the aforementioned faculty panel read and responded to the drafts. The
feedback received led to further improvements and refinement of the
plan, and yielded a bold call to strategic and responsible action that
sets the course for success in the next five years and a foundation for
continued excellence in the next 150.
Our Guiding Principles
While the mechanics and implementation strategies of a plan may change
over time to reflect the operating environment and global landscape, we
are committed to a clear set of open and transparent principles to:
continue to make strategic investments in institutional excellence
be mindful of and responsive to the changing financial landscape of
higher education
be agile as we pursue the current sets of priorities in our plan
embrace a culture of institutional improvement and assessment
collaborate and engage with faculty members, staff, students, alumni,
and other stakeholders in our planning and implementation
celebrate our achievements visibly and proudly
empower all members of our community to speak honestly and openly
strive to create an inclusive environment for our students, faculty
members, and staff
enhance and promote diversity as a fundamental value
foster connections across disciplinary boundaries to inspire and drive
multidisciplinary convergence
continue leading in areas that drive translation of innovation and
global impact
engage our local, state, national, and global community as we redefine
what it means to be a land-grant university in the 21st century
At the core of our university, and its principles, is the acknowledgement of
Native peoples and the land on which this university exists.
Our Goals
We will be the pre-eminent public research university with a land-grant
mission and a global impact. That is the vision our faculty, staff, and
students have collectively established for this university in its next
150 years.
Our efforts are focused around a framework of four fundamental goals:
Scholarship, Discovery, and Innovation
Transformative Learning Experiences
Societal Impact
Resources and Strategic Investment
To realize these goals, we will pursue specific initiatives created
through our collaborative yearlong planning process. To ensure success,
we will monitor our progress, make changes as necessary, and share
updates on at least an annual basis.
Goal 1
Foster scholarship, discovery, and innovation
Scholarship, discovery, and innovation are at the heart of Illinois'
local, national, and global impact. We will drive new frontiers by
attracting and retaining a diverse group of faculty, students, and
staff endowed with creativity and intellectual depth and breadth.
Modern infrastructures, streamlined processes, and enriching
interdisciplinary and convergent work will advance the university's
mission.
Strengthen our faculty and align resources with academic and research
units to capitalize on our scholarly synergies across campus
Increase the number of faculty members with an intentional focus on
enhancing diversity and retention, building disciplinary strength and
significance, advancing interdisciplinary discovery and innovation, and
elevating the importance of translational research
Create an inclusive, scholarly culture among the faculty, students, and
staff by improving the climate for all members of the university
community and aiding in the retention of underrepresented faculty
Support and empower specialized faculty to succeed in their primary
roles in teaching, research, or clinical work
Ensure explicit, detailed charters for centers, institutes, and
initiatives seeded at all levels across campus, and establish an
evaluation process to ensure their viability, sustainability,
cross-disciplinary reach, relevance, and impact
Grow the global impact of our research by building strong educational,
research, and translational partnerships with leading universities,
research institutes, and corporations in the United States and abroad
Develop a strong infrastructure, policies, and practices to support
scholarship, innovation, public engagement, and entrepreneurship across
disciplinary lines
Partner and leverage investments in state-of-the-art instruments and
facilities to provide safe and modern research environments
Enhance translational and commercialization support to promote
entrepreneurial opportunities
Promote and foster multidisciplinary convergent scholarly opportunities
for our undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students
Grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem, research translation, and new
venture creation through investments in EnterpriseWorks, Research Park,
and Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Align with opportunities in the Discovery Partners Institute and the
Illinois Innovation Network
Affirm our commitment to the foundational role of the arts, the
humanities, and the social sciences, and invest in their contribution to
our research, creative, and innovation pursuits for the common good
Facilitate new roles for artists and designers in research, teaching,
and engagement across the campus and community through integration of
arts practitioners into areas beyond their departmental homes
Advance the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities to an
Institute with additional infrastructure, staffing, and support for
leadership
Elevate the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Initiative to a
Center to foster intersections with technology, promote measurements and
assessment, and fight the root causes of poverty and social disparities
Establish Illinois as the global leader in digital transformation at the
service of society
Invest in new facilities, infrastructure, and resources that leverage
the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, expand our
computing strengths and resources, advance the frontiers of quantum
information and new computing paradigms, and bolster our strength in
information sciences, data science, data analytics, health analytics,
and machine learning
Foster and support new multidisciplinary research and educational
programs to advance our excellence and leadership in areas such as
autonomy and augmented human intelligence, environmental monitoring and
sustainability, e-Learning and personalized learning
Establish Illinois as the leading intellectual center for the
advancement of ideas, principles, policies, regulations, and tools for
the just, safe, sustainable, and peaceful progress of the world's
digital transformation
Enrich interdisciplinary connections and invest in new resources and
facilities to expand our campus's strength in food, nutrition, energy,
health sciences, and cancer
Establish new initiatives in data-driven agriculture and personalized
nutrition that harness the power of research at the Carl R. Woese
Institute for Genomic Biology
Invest in core infrastructure, including seed funding for health-related
programs and clinical partnerships that link basic, translational, and
applied research, positioning Illinois to partner with key health care,
government, and corporate partners such as the Mayo Clinic and Illinois
Alliance
Foster activities across disciplines to build a vibrant enterprise in
cancer research, education, and outreach, that translates Illinois'
innovations to societal impact, while securing National Cancer Institute
designation as a basic science cancer center
Goal 2
Provide transformative learning experiences
With a solid academic core, Illinois will deliver on the fundamental
promise of a public university—to teach students and to pioneer the
science and the art of learning. This is transformative
knowledge—for the individual and, collectively, for the world in
which we live and work.
Ensure that a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign education is available to all who
qualify academically by implementing financial aid programs to increase
accessibility and by growing our merit-based scholarship programs to
attract an outstanding and diverse student body
Develop a campuswide initiative in undergraduate and graduate student
success that integrates classroom experiences, academic support,
academic advising and mentoring, and co-curricular student services and
experiences
Continue to support and augment teaching excellence in all modalities by
investing in and valuing teaching
Assure the quality of learning on campus by fostering a culture of
assessing curricular and co-curricular programs, using evidence to
improve the student experience, and sharing learning outcomes for all
programs in a way that is transparent and consistent with the recently
endorsed campus student learning outcomes
Re-envision instruction, staffing, and educational spaces for
foundational courses that provide the academic base upon which all
programs build
Implement a new academic advising paradigm
Develop a campus center for academic support
Coordinate, connect, and create partnerships between the programs on
campus that support students' physical and mental health and well-being
Utilize student performance data and advanced analytics to improve
student success
Provide new educational pathways and enhance current programs to
increase flexibility and to foster education across disciplines
Identify opportunities for modular curricula that allow the creation of
new or modified degree programs
Explore ways students can develop skills and proficiencies across
multiple disciplinary areas by increasing the availability and
feasibility of dual majors and joint degrees, especially when majors
cross colleges
Examine methods to pilot cutting-edge degree programs that can be
implemented in a timely way
Re-envision, reshape, and re-examine the Illinois undergraduate student
experience by considering the role of General Education in preparing
students for an ever-changing society
Provide all Illinois students the opportunity to have a meaningful
exposure to data science and to integrate arts into the curriculum such
as through the Siebel Center for Design
Incentivize the development of cross-disciplinary graduate education
programs and certificates, while addressing some of the barriers to
these programs
Integrate and emphasize global perspectives within our learning
environment, and benefit from the international diversity of our
students, faculty, and staff
Identify a path forward to respect diverse groups, develop educational
strategies to increase knowledge about different cultures, and create a
campus that celebrates our diverse university and community
Prepare students for living in a diverse, globally minded society by
offering enriching programming and services
Enhance support for students with disabilities to ensure that all
students have the same opportunity to acquire information and receive
services in an equally effective and equally integrated manner
Conduct climate surveys at regular intervals and use the results to
educate and improve the campus community
Create educational opportunities and resources for faculty members to
work with and advocate for a diverse student body
Encourage every undergraduate student to complete one or more
integrative learning experiences, such as capstone courses, internships,
research, and study abroad
Develop uniform campus mechanisms to award academic credit for
experiential learning activities, while ensuring the experience is
aligned with our high-quality educational standards
Assure that students have opportunities to participate in University of
Illinois Extension and public engagement activities through volunteerism
and service learning
Leverage the Discovery Partners Institute and the Illinois Innovation
Network to provide undergraduate students with immersive experiential
learning opportunities
Provide transformative learning opportunities for undergraduate
research, taking advantage of our world-class faculty and research
infrastructure
Develop global awareness and cultural competency through a combination
of curricular, student-life activities, and international experiences
that build and foster collegewide and universitywide strategic
partnerships
Innovate in graduate, professional, and continuing education, with new
degree programs and certificates at the intersection of disciplines, and
support recruitment and retention of graduate students
Invest in the success of graduate education and our graduate students to
ensure access and inclusion to our university for as diverse a student
population as possible, through sustainability funding and graduate
fellowships
Empower our graduate programs to recruit, fund, and retain
underrepresented minority graduate students
Leverage the Discovery Partners Institute and the Illinois Innovation
Network to make the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign the go-to place for
professional and continuing education programs
Provide sustainable funding for graduate fellowships in the humanities,
arts, social sciences, and other areas of importance to our scholarly
excellence and societal impact
Expand investments in building and renovating state-of-the-art learning
spaces and infrastructure to support the latest modes of instruction and
learning for Illinois students both on and off campus as well as in
small and large classroom spaces
Pursue new opportunities for programs to have online components
including new technologies such as virtual reality
Build additional training grants for faculty members to develop online
courses and programs
Develop additional MOOCs to reach a broader population of students both
on and off campus
Goal 3
Make a significant and visible societal impact
When the core foundations of unabashed discovery combine with
transformative learning and teaching, the outcomes are no longer
measured simply in degrees or in citations. They are seen in how the
world is changed for the better through contact with the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The university lives up to its land-grant
mission in many ways, and we will better organize, enrich, and value
these contributions as we reach out to our local, regional, national,
and global communities.
Empower University of Illinois Extension to differentiate itself from
other state extension networks by focusing on societal grand challenges,
to balance its efforts to address rural and metropolitan needs and
issues, and to collaborate with faculty and staff across all colleges to
have a higher impact
Create a structure and culture that facilitates and values long-term
partnerships with external stakeholders through the development of a
campuswide strategic plan on public engagement that includes both
extension and nonextension activities
Promote a faculty and institutional culture that prizes and rewards
engaged research/scholarship and teaching
Build a better network of cooperation among the many publicly engaged
activities already occurring in the colleges, departments, research
institutes, and public good entities, such as those activities focused
on K-12 schools, veterans, and continuing education for lawyers, social
workers, teachers, veterinarians, etc.
Establish principled, long-term partnerships in the public sector for
areas where the research stands to benefit the public good through
collaborative policymaking or other applications
Foster an environment where our excellence in education and scholarship
have a global impact and where international perspectives are built into
the institutional culture such as through the area studies centers and
critical conversations
Develop our students to be future leaders with deep understanding of the
unique commitments, traditions, and challenges of distinct communities
by increasing student opportunities for service learning and
volunteering through campus organizations and off-campus organizations
Draw local and regional community members onto campus through the
development of a broader spectrum of enriching cultural and athletic
experiences that leverage the university's common good facilities and
community programming
Build on the 50 years of success of Krannert Center for the Performing
Arts to increase its scale and reach by providing additional enriching
educational opportunities
Support and celebrate the educational and outreach efforts of Krannert
Art Museum, Spurlock Museum, cultural resources centers, Illini Union,
Campus Recreation, and athletics
Coordinate and communicate clear paths for broad audiences to attend
existing public lectures such as those offered in the College of Law or
through the CAS/MillerComm Lecture Series
Build better translational and transparent communications to share
research findings and other successes by leveraging the Illinois Experts
database and the connections to Illinois Public Media
(WILL-AM-FM-TV-Online), and other university media sources
Partner with a wide variety of stakeholders, including Division of
Intercollegiate Athletics, who bring people to campus to showcase the
research and education happening at Illinois
Engage with our local and regional community and neighborhoods in ways
that have an impact
Better connect and communicate how our master planning affects the area
and region
Develop synergies and strategies to examine how our procurement and
contracting services support local and minority-serving businesses
Examine and assess creation of jobs, business, and new ventures locally
and regionally
Accelerate the growth of the Illinois entrepreneurial ecosystem to
establish Champaign-Urbana as the best university-based entrepreneurship
and innovation hub in the Midwest
Invest in new facilities in the Research Park to grow our resources and
services in support of new business creation, economic development, and
prosperity in the region, across the state, and beyond
Advance and accelerate the impact of our university's outstanding record
of breakthrough discoveries and innovations by dedicating resources for
marketing, advancement, corporate relations, and alumni engagement
Increase the capacity for our entrepreneurial ecosystem to leverage
networks of people, companies, and capital, and to set up and manage
partnerships with the Discovery Partners Institute, including other
innovation hubs and universities
Reach out to all community stakeholders and partner with them to make
our university and its surrounding region the leading innovation center
and testbed for the technologies and services that will enable the safe,
healthy, and sustainable communities of the future
Engage our students in a technology-augmented living and learning
environment that nurtures their wellness, empowers their academic
success, and inspires them to be proactive innovators and contributors
to the communities of tomorrow
Leverage our strengths in computing, engineering, and data analytics to
build a functional "smart and connected community" for our campus and
its neighboring areas
Work closely with all community stakeholders to anticipate and research
the opportunities and challenges associated with making our community
safe, inclusive, healthy, sustainable, and resilient to any major
natural or manmade disruption, and to conceive, develop prototypes, and
test the relevant policies, programs, and services
Create workforce-development strategies and related partnerships across
the public and private sectors, with an emphasis on using Illinois
expertise to create new jobs and enhance the skill sets of new and
continuing workers
Develop and execute an integrated, coordinated, and sustained marketing
and communications effort to all stakeholders and influencers: students,
alumni, parents and friends, business and government leaders, and
residents of the state of Illinois
Build and implement a university-level brand platform that clearly
establishes a distinct position for the university among our peers
Create a strategic marketing-communications campaign that shares our
story of learning, discovery, and engagement to internal and external
audiences to achieve metrics-based goals
Provide training for researchers to better communicate their scholarship
and discoveries with general audiences, making research findings more
readily available to all media platforms
Place special emphasis on articulating the overwhelming economic impact
of the university to the state of Illinois as well as the university's
contributions to the Discovery Partners Institute and the Illinois
Innovation Network
Increase visibility and connections for the university's leaders among
opinion leaders in the Chicago area
Improve visibility and coordination for university efforts that allow
students and faculty to work closely with the public sector and decision-makers to impact public policy
Goal 4
Steward current resources and generate additional resources for strategic initiatives
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has stewarded its land-grant mission and
accompanying financial, human, technology, and infrastructure resources
while tackling significant budgetary challenges. We need to continue to
refine, coordinate, and structure our financial framework to manage all
of our resources effectively and develop new lines of revenue to support
our human resources, infrastructure, operating budget, and strategic
initiatives. To create this framework, we must streamline our processes,
reduce redundancies, and improve the quality and quantity of services
throughout campus.
Implement and promote Operational Excellence @ Illinois, a
campuswide initiative to streamline, innovate, reduce costs, improve
services, and coordinate processes at all levels
Build a smarter budgeting and financial system that will allow multiyear
planning, provide more effective data for decision-making, enhance our
cash management strategies, and coordinate university and system
financial plans
Promote continued transparency and accountability with smarter budgeting
systems by providing better data for multiyear planning, estimating the
cost of instruction, and evaluating the cost of research for both
operations and capital planning
Improve understanding of budget, accounting issues, and financial
planning at all levels
Implement ongoing programmatic and budgetary review processes for
nonacademic units
Develop, integrate, and coordinate high-quality technology solutions at
all levels by investing in integrated solutions that have scale
efficiencies, improve service quality, and enhance campus cybersecurity,
while encouraging innovation that addresses specialized needs of units
Identify specific areas to reduce overhead costs for research to
maintain and improve our competitiveness with our peers
Allocate resources devoted to Operational Excellence @ Illinois
proposals and actions that can be implemented to improve processes,
reduce costs, enhance productivity, and develop an operational
excellence mindset across all units on campus
Become more cost-efficient on renovation, repair, and building projects
with a particular focus on reducing time to completion. Examine process
improvements starting with more effective planning, project management,
and execution
Evaluate and address how to optimize space on campus through multiyear
master planning
Heighten our efforts to apply universal design and individual access to
the campus environment including architecture, instruction, services,
and technology
Actively explore additional revenue sources by increasing online
education, corporate partnerships, and royalty and patent revenue
through creating the proper infrastructure for building large-scale
research proposals, and supporting scholars as they commercialize
research for entrepreneurial opportunities that bring cutting-edge
technologies to market
Allocate additional institutional resources to increase the amount and
availability of student scholarships and other financial aid, to make an
Illinois education accessible for every qualified student through the
Illinois Commitment Program, and to attract the best and brightest to the
university
Understand that the largest resource on campus is its employees and
students while creating an inclusive and welcoming campus climate
Deploy a professional development strategy and award system for
employees by leveraging existing programs and adding new programs where
required
Recognize that diversity is essential to our excellence, and interweave
diversity through planning and operations
Recognize that climate challenges differ for faculty, staff, and
students
Develop a robust infrastructure to identify, manage, and mitigate
internal disputes and climate issues
Commit to mentoring and support for the success and professional
development of faculty and staff to ensure that processes governing
recruiting, hiring, and promotion are inclusive and follow
research-based practices for avoiding bias
Be a leader in developing and implementing effective, evidence-based
policies to address discrimination and harassment
Foster an integrated and holistic approach to institutional advancement
efforts
Further develop and expand Illinois Alumni Association programming
toward a unified and innovative relationship model for engaging alumni,
friends, parents, and students
Continued refinement of responsible data-sharing practices throughout
the institutional and constituent lifecycles
Prioritize our campus fundraising efforts through With Illinois to
emphasize soliciting support for programs and projects tied to our
strategic vision
Redefine the With Illinois experience by leveraging existing or creating
new engagement channels to inspire, capture, and share Illinois pride
and affinity
Enhance and emphasize our robust international alumni network to
increase financial resources and Illinois passion across the globe
Strategically source, share, or add essential advancement staff and
resources to deliver efficiencies across the campus
Remain focused on synergistic alignment between industrial/corporate
relationships, research collaboration, and philanthropic gift
opportunities
Plan
Leadership
A core group of individuals from across the campus provided significant
guidance on the development of the campus strategic plan.
Leadership Team:
William Bernhard
Michael DeLorenzo
Robin Kaler
Susan Martinis
Staci Provezis
Rosa Milagros Santos
Assata Zerai
Arts Strategy:
Cynthia Oliver, Chair
Robert Anderson
Teofilo Carrillo
Arnab Chakraborty
Terri Ciofalo
Lynne Dearborn
Kevin Erickson
Jason Finkelman
Kevin Hamilton
Lauretta Hogin
Sharon Irish
Julia Nucci Kelly
Susan Koshy
Jennifer Monson
Veronica Paredes
Jesse Ribot
Stacey Robinson
Valleri Robinson
Stanley Ruecker
Rochelle Sennet
Data Science:
Robert Brunner, Chair
Brian Aldridge
Vikram Adve
Gabrielle Allen
Scott Althaus
Matthew Ando
Katherine Baylis
Roy Campbell
Peter Christensen
Jana Diesner
William Gropp
Matthew Hudson
Heidi Imker
William Sanders
Douglas Simpson
Jacob Sosnoff
Ramanath Subramanyam
Venugopal Veeravalli
Pramod Viswanath
Ted Underwood
Diversity:
Assata Zerai, Chair
EDGE Council Chair
DRIVE Committee
CORE Co-Chairs
Isabel Molina
Maureen Banks
Nancy "Rusty" Barcelo, ex officio
Energy and Sustainability:
Brian Allan
German Bollero
Jeffrey Brawn
Carla Cáceres
Arnab Chakraborty
Don Fullerton
Praveen Kumar
Sarah Taylor Lovell
Stephen P. Long
Benito Mariñas
Stephen Marshak
Dipanjan Pan
Jesse Ribot
Peter Sauer
Murugesu Sivapalan
Rizwan Uddin
Gillen D'Arcy Wood
Donald Wuebbles
Nick Heyek
Food Security:
Alex Winter-Nelson, Chair
Richard Akresh
Brian Dill
Brenna Ellison
Barbara Fiese
Paolo Gardoni
Richard Gates
Craig Gundersen
Kristin Hoganson
John "Jack" Juvik
Prasanta Kalita
Michelle Nelson
Shelly Nickols-Richardson
Jesse Ribot
Hans Stein
Sarah Williams
Matthew Winters
Globalization:
Clara Chu, Chair
Peter Constable
Andi Cailles
Jerry Dávila
J. Stephen Downie
Melissa Edwards
Margareth Etienne
Edward Ewald
Boyi Guo
Prasanta Kalita
Maryam Khademian
Kenneth Long
Ben Lough
Osamu Miyawaki
Robert Pahre
Beth Scheid
Erol Tutumluer
Alex Winter-Nelson
Allison Witt
Steve Witt
Angharad Valdivia
Deana McDonagh
Health Sciences:
Neal Cohen, Chair
Reggie Alston
Stephen Boppart
Martin Burke
Roy Campbell
Sharon Donovan
John Erdman
Tim Fan
Barbara Fiese
Martha Gillette
Craig Gundersen
Wendy Heller
Thenkurussi Kesavadas
King Li
Brent Roberts
Sue Schantz
Jim Slauch
Brad Sutton
Derek Wildman
Jeff Woods
Humanities:
Antoinette Burton, Chair
Ruth Nicole Brown
Eric Calderwood
Cara Finnegan
Sam Frost
Harriett Green
Christopher Higgins
Jonathan Inda
Isabel Molina
Bob Morrissey
Justine Murison
Carl Niekerk
Naomi Paik
Anke Pinkert
Gabriel Solis
Nora Stoppino
Angeliki Tzanetou
Terri Weissman
Kirstin Wilcox
Martin Camargo, ex officio
Public Engagement:
Wynne Korr, Chair
Kimberlee Kidwell
James Anderson
Antoinette Burton
Michael Ross
Assata Zerai
Danita Brown Young
Rosa Milagros Santos
Social Sciences:
Brent Roberts, Chair
Kristen Bub
Craig Gundersen
Hillary Klonoff-Cohen
Christopher Larrison
Jeffrey Mondak
Silvina Montrul
Andrew Orta
Eva Pomerantz
Brian Quick
Patrick Vargas
Undergraduate Education:
Tracy Sulkin, Chair
Janet Carter-Black
Kevin Jackson
Emily Knox
Craig Lemoine
Patricia Loughran
Kathy Martensen
Carla McCowan
Ruby Mendenhall
Umberto Ravaioli
Linda Robbennolt
David Ward
David Zola
Michel Bellini, ex officio
It is no ordinary work which we are set to do, and it comes to us under no ordinary circumstances. We are not here to reproduce, in this new locality, some old and well-known style of college or university. The hungry eyes of toiling millions are turned, with mingled hope and fear, upon us, to see what new and better solution we can possibly offer of the great problems on which their well-being and destiny depend.
John Milton Gregory, Regent, March 11, 1868, on the inauguration of the Illinois Industrial University