Presenting Our University Strategic Plan (Faculty)

February 4, 2014

Dear Faculty Colleagues:

With enormous thanks for the leadership you have provided throughout the planning process, I am pleased to report that the Board of Governors approved our University Strategic Plan today. This bold, five-year plan challenges our University community to work together toward a shared aspiration for Rutgers: to be broadly recognized as among the nation’s leading public universities—preeminent in research, excellent in teaching, and committed to community.

You can download a PDF of the plan or read it online at: http://universitystrategy.rutgers.edu. If you would like a hard copy of the strategic plan, please contact Brian Register in the Office of the President: bregister@oldqueens.rutgers.edu or 848-932-7865.

You have played the most prominent role in creating our plan. Rutgers faculty have been engaged throughout the planning process—from the surveys that began the process to the departmental discussions, faculty forums, town hall meetings, and retreats that were held regularly during the past 18 months. You provided frank assessments of the challenges we face and insightful strategies for meeting those challenges. Your contributions led to the creation of the plan’s framework, and the faculty members who served on the planning committees last fall shaped the strategic priorities, foundational elements, and integrating themes outlined in that framework. Thanks to your leadership and the participation of our students, staff, alumni, and friends of the University, this is truly a plan written for Rutgers, by Rutgers.

I am confident that the goals we have set, the initiatives we have envisioned, and the integrating academic themes we have selected will advance Rutgers into the ranks of the nation’s most outstanding public research universities. But our work is just beginning. The next critical step is to form campus- and division-level strategic plans for Camden, Newark, New Brunswick, and RBHS. That work, which we expect to complete by the end of the academic year, will be led by the chancellors and will rely once again on your vital participation. In addition, in the coming weeks I will launch several University-wide initiatives that will begin to shape the vision outlined in our strategic plan.

As the strategic plan makes clear, our distinguished faculty are at the core of our University’s aspiration. I look forward to continuing to work together to reach the goals we have established.

Sincerely,

Bob Barchi