UNCG Strategic Plan | Forward Together

Forward Together

Preface

In April of 2024, the twenty-two-member Strategic Plan Advisory Committee began work on refreshing the Giant Steps plan. We spent the final weeks of Spring 2024 engaged in listening sessions from campus wide forums, small groups, and interested individuals. The committee learned about enrollment trends, reviewed other plans, and began generating ideas. In July, we started getting feedback on ideas from the Chancellor, Provost, and Deans. Further revisions were made and additional feedback from Chancellor’s Council and Provost’s Council informs this draft.

This living document is offered as a conversation starter to engage campus throughout the Fall 2024 term to help chart our collective path forward. The draft plan includes an introduction, four pillars with between three and five goals each, and example Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to show how progress on these goals might be measured. We invite feedback on every part of this document. Does it capture who we are? Are these the right goals and effective measurements? Have we provided sufficient direction for our efforts while leaving room for units/departments to find innovative ways to help achieve the goals? How can we further differentiate UNCG from peers and build a stronger institutional identity?

This fall, the advisory committee members will host open campus forums (details at https://strategicplan.uncg.edu), attend Faculty & Staff Senate meetings, and attend unit/dept sessions when invited. Additionally, feedback can be submitted through an online form (QR code below) or via email to [email protected]. The committee will meet and review feedback throughout the semester, update the plan along the way, and submit a final version to the Chancellor by the end of the calendar year.

QR code for Forward Together feedback

I. A Participatory Approach

This document offers a draft plan for UNCG over the next five years and beyond. It is forward-facing, place-based, and, perhaps most importantly, participatory. Its four pillars describe our most important shared commitments in broad terms:

  1. Ensure Student Success and Upward Mobility
  2. Enhance Research Excellence and Academic Programs
  3. Serve Vibrant and Creative Communities
  4. Achieve Operational Excellence and Responsible Stewardship

Together these pillars point to a new way to understand our existing mission—one that faces our challenges head on while acknowledging that we can and should build on current strengths. Goals under these pillars point to outcomes that will see us do more for our students, more for our community through research and creative activities, and more for our faculty, staff, and the institution.

Forward Together is participatory. It was framed through listening sessions in the Spring of 2024, and through the contributions of a twenty-two member working group over the following Summer. This draft plan is for comment and revision, so we can assure we have the right pillars and goals, and that our path forward is clear and clearly expressed.

Forward Together imagines a shared future for UNCG that fully embraces a need to offer educational programs that resonate with students and contribute to their preparation for a dynamic post-graduate world. It also recognizes UNCG’s role in building healthy and vibrant communities supported by innovation in science, the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts.

Forward Together embraces the teacher-scholar model and identifies ways to support research and scholarship. Finally, this plan emphasizes the importance of resource stewardship and alignment. We can only build higher if we have a strong financial foundation and personnel who are empowered and developed to lead.

II. The Work Ahead

UNCG is the best institution in North Carolina and a leader in the US at accomplishing the most important work universities do: creating social and economic mobility through education. Forward Together foregrounds UNCG’s commitment to the liberal arts, putting students first and connecting them to lives and careers of growth and meaning. UNCG provides access to excellence like no other university in the state. This excellence flows in part from our research and creative activities and the strong connections we maintain to the community and to industry and civic partners in Greensboro, the Piedmont Triad, and beyond.

The pillars and goals of the strategic plan are designed to highlight and expand UNCG’s distinctive role in educating students from all backgrounds. As North Carolina diversifies, access to education will become even more important. Young people in North Carolina form a much more diverse group than older North Carolinians. The state demographer projects that by 2050, the proportion of North Carolinians who are White (Non-Hispanic) will be 52%, down from 65% in 2010, and that 14% of North Carolinians will be Latinx, compared to 8.6% in 2010.

UNCG is well positioned to support continued economic growth and prosperity for all North Carolinians through increased educational attainment.

The Strategic Pillars

Illustration of Forward Together Four Pillars.

Ensure Student Success and Upward Mobility

Student success is an important component of who we are. Our first goal is achieving the highest rates of degree attainment among our peer universities—regional comprehensive institutions with very diverse student bodies. UNCG already boasts student success points of pride among public Research II universities nationally, with four- and six-year graduation rates above the mean, even though a larger proportion of our students are from low-income families. We are also significantly less expensive than average, which supports much lower loan debt accumulation for our students. In short, we serve more Pell students, charge them less, and graduate a higher percentage of undergraduates on time than is the norm for schools like ours.

But UNCG can lead the nation among access-focused regional comprehensive universities by holding its costs down, continuing to control student loan debt levels, and increasing four-year graduation rates to from 39% to 45% on the way to pushing six-year graduation rates from 59% to 65%. These goals are ambitious, but they are within our reach. Pillar I further specifies these goals, as well as some of the work needed to achieve them.

Enhance Research Excellence and Academic Programs

Forward Together asks us to examine the programs we are offering, how we are offering them, and how they are resourced and supported. Our students, civic community, and industry partners

rely on us to offer degrees that lead students to meaningful lives and equip them with the skills they need to participate fully in society. Our teacher-scholar model provides students the opportunity to learn from faculty who conduct high-quality research, scholarship, and creative activities. Support for faculty research is highlighted as a mechanism to enhance student experiences and learning, to prepare students for their careers, and to engage students in the community.

We are also an engine of discovery and creative work. From the lab bench to the studio and beyond, our faculty make contributions to their disciplines and our communities. This plan looks to maintain and elevate faculty research through careful attention to the ways the knowledge-production enterprise is organized and supported, pointing toward new collaborations and better coordination across campus, with industry, and in the region.

Serve Vibrant and Creative Communities

Forward Together envisions the kind of thriving teaching and learning environment that requires the myriad personal, social, civic, and professional connections our research and creative activity creates and maintains. This plan points toward deepening community engagement through amplifying the relevance of current work, broadening community-based scholarship that focuses on improving the lives and experiences of residents, better leveraging UNCG faculty, student, and staff expertise and accessible spaces to support partnerships, and expanding our commitment to under-resourced communities in the Triad and beyond.

Achieve Operational Excellence and Responsible Stewardship

The next five years will be a time of continuing challenges as the national landscape shifts. This is a time of significant political, cultural, demographic, and economic change. This plan acknowledges the importance of UNCG retaining and developing its workforce and asks how a University of our current size should be resourced, how its operations can be optimally supported, and how it can align its financial and human capital in ways that address current budget realities while still looking toward future innovations as it executes on its mission. Financial sustainability must be at the heart of how UNCG’s shared and participatory future is charted and realized.

Forward Together: The Goals

PILLAR #1: ENSURE STUDENT SUCCESS AND UPWARD MOBILITY

UNCG will create and support institutional structures that ensure our students develop the knowledge, skills, and opportunities necessary to achieve their educational goals, secure rewarding jobs after graduation and/or prepare them for post-graduate education, thereby improving their long-term economic and quality of life prospects.

Goal 1.1: Best-In-Class Undergraduate Degree Attainment

As an institution that provides access to excellence, UNCG will achieve graduation rates that equal or surpass those of our peers.

Example KPIs: First-year retention, Four- and Six-year graduation rates, Average credits earned per year, First-time student debt at graduation, Transfer student debt at graduation, Undergraduate degree efficiency, Education and related expenses per degree

Goal 1.2: Prepare Workforce-Ready Graduates

To prepare our students for the jobs of today and the careers of the future, we will provide our students with the tools they need to realize their personal and professional dreams in a globally competitive and ever-changing workplace.

Example KPIs: Employment rate of change for Degree completers, Completer earnings (ROI), Completer earnings five years after graduation vs. student’s household income, Career readiness metrics, Graduate Program Enrollment.

Goal 1.3. Enhance Student Well-Being

UNCG is committed to fostering an environment that promotes and enhances student well-being, so students feel at home with a sense of belonging both in physical and virtual spaces on our campus, and can thrive personally, academically, professionally, and socially.

Example KPIs: First-year retention rate; Four- and Six-year graduation rates; Participation in well-being programs and initiatives; Well-being survey data; iBelong data.

PILLAR #2: ENHANCE RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AND ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

As teacher-scholars, UNCG faculty recognize the role of innovative research and high-quality teaching in bolstering student success and serving the public good. We are committed to teaching and developing curricula that utilize the insights of high-quality research, scholarship, and creative activities to benefit students and society.

Goal 2.1 Maintain and Elevate Overall Research Excellence

UNCG is committed to maintaining and elevating research excellence across all disciplines. We will ensure that our research infrastructure, resources, and support systems are aligned with the highest standards of academic inquiry and innovation.

Example KPIs: Maintain high-impact research publications, External research funding, Continue recognition through national and international research awards, Faculty participation in prestigious fellowships and research networks, Continuous improvement in research facilities and resources, such as the Institutional Review Board and contracts and grants.

Goal 2.2: Foster Collaborative Research and Scholarship

Leverage our existing resources and capitalize on our strong teacher-scholar model to position UNCG faculty for success in conducting research and scholarship, effectively engaging in national and community-based research, developing collaborative and internal research teams, building strong foundations of research and scholarship while maintaining the required excellence in teaching, and obtaining external funding.

Example KPIs: External grants for collaborative research, Interdisciplinary publications; Cross disciplinary collaborations; Seed grants to support scholarship and advance grant activity; Research collaboratives to share knowledge; Mentored scientist program to support junior faculty.

Goal 2.3: Advance UNCG’s Research and Scholarship Portfolio that Align with Current and Emerging Needs of Industries in North Carolina and Around the Nation.

Establish public-private partnerships responsive to the needs of industry in NC and other priorities that are of national priority. Promote and accelerate research in areas of national and international needs. Align research centers and institutes with national needs and funding priorities. Convene programs that raise research and scholarship visibility at UNCG that attract the community and showcase UNCG’s current and emerging strengths.

Example KPIs: Public-private partnerships established; New grants obtained; New centers and institutes established that expand our current portfolio; number of events hosted.

Goal 2.4: Align our Academic Portfolio with Current and Emerging Workforce Demand

UNCG faculty will continue to adapt our graduate and undergraduate curricula to support the future career opportunities of students today.

Example KPIs: Alumni employment rate, Alumni earnings (Alumni ROI), Curricular changes reflective of workplace needs

Goal 2.5: Modernize Graduate Education

UNCG is committed to supporting the long-term vibrancy and sustainability of its graduate offerings by providing appropriate graduate assistantship opportunities and support and by continually assessing our program mix, modifying curricula, and increasing flexibility to meet student demands.

Example KPIs: Increase graduate student stipends, Increase graduate student graduation rate, Time to degree, Curricular changes reflective of workplace needs

Goal 2.6: Expand Curricular Pathways to Degree Completion and Career Advancement for Students from All Backgrounds

UNCG aims to broaden access to our academic programs. Through innovative curricular changes and integration between curriculum and experiential learning, UNCG will focus on developing access for an even more expansive range of students.

Example KPIs: Reduce/Eliminate performance gaps, Increase bridge program applications (camps, LSAMP, CHANCE, etc.)

PILLAR #3: SERVE VIBRANT AND CREATIVE COMMUNITIES

As a public institution, UNCG carries a responsibility toward both its students and the local and global communities it serves. This pillar focuses on leveraging university expertise to engage students and community partners for mutual benefit.

Goal 3.1 Address Community Challenges through Research, the Arts, and Discovery

UNCG will support and amplify the relevance of research, scholarly and creative activities to the communities we serve.

Example KPIs: Number of events hosted on campus, Number of community members hosted at UNCG events, Number of community engaged research projects, Demonstrated university and local impact of community engaged practice, Financial impact on the local economy

Goal 3.2 Leverage the Millennial Campus to Build Sustainable Partnerships

UNCG will transform its Millennial Campus into a dynamic hub of innovation, arts excellence, collaboration, and economic growth. By 2030, we aspire to create a thriving ecosystem where academia, industry, the arts, and community converge, fostering groundbreaking research, entrepreneurship, creativity, and workforce development. Our vision is to establish the Millennial Campus as a nationally recognized model for research innovation and university-community engagement, driving regional economic development and enhancing UNCG’s reputation as a forward-thinking institution. We aim to cultivate a diverse network of sustainable partnerships that not only benefit our students and faculty but also create lasting positive impacts on our local and global communities.

Example KPIs: Number of interdisciplinary partnerships; Economic and social impact; Student participation ratio in Millennial Campus activities and initiatives; Demonstrated collaboration between UNCG and community partners

Goal 3.3 Expand Support of Under-Resourced Communities in the Triad and Beyond

UNCG recognizes that we need to focus efforts on our most vulnerable partners if we are to improve as a university. We will strengthen relationships with under-resourced communities by supporting mutually beneficial projects.

Example KPIs: Number of internships, Community service hours, Partner defined outcomes (i.e. screenings done, food distributed, high speed broadband services expanded, etc.)

PILLAR #4: ACHIEVE OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP

UNCG aspires to be an exemplar of operational excellence and responsible stewardship, ensuring that every resource is maximized to its fullest potential to support our mission. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement, we will enhance our university’s reputation, strengthen our financial sustainability, optimize research infrastructure, and empower our faculty and staff to drive innovation and excellence.

Goal 4.1: Elevate the University Brand and Reputation

Enhance the UNCG story to align reputation with performance. Increase brand identity and value with prospective students, parents, community partners, and legislators.

Example KPIs: Increased brand identification, Rate of student acceptance, Increased corporate partnerships

Goal 4.2: Strengthen Resource Management and Financial Sustainability

Maximize efficiency and effectiveness of financial, physical, and operational resources. Enhance and diversify revenue generation. Strengthen alumni and donor engagement and giving.

Example KPIs: Increased revenue, Reduced costs per degree, Alumni engagement, Campaign success, Total dollars raised, Number of new revenue streams

Goal 4.3 Enhance Research Infrastructure

Explore ways to enhance infrastructure that supports research and scholarship. Improve administrative processes.

Example KPIs: Increased researcher satisfaction, Increased publications, Increased grant applications and awards, Improved support infrastructure; Core-facilities that make our university distinct and enable research excellence, reduce administrative burden; Shorten the time to approval for IRB applications; Clarify points of contact for grant-related questions; Increase funding to support summer work expected to lead to grant submissions; Ensure that F&A generated from external grants is supporting efforts to obtain additional funding.

Goal 4.4. Retain and Empower a Productive and Talented Faculty and Staff

Continue to develop and implement initiatives and programs addressing employee satisfaction. Provide development programs allowing employees to maximize their potential. Increase institutional support for mentoring and intentionally participate in succession planning.

Example KPIs: Faculty/Staff turnover, Faculty/Staff promotional rates; ROI of leadership development (e.g. number of employees completing leadership development who are promoted and successful in leadership positions), Increased opportunities for employee recognition; Funding to support a competitive compensation structure which includes alignment with the labor market and implementation of performance and retention bonus policies.

Goal 4.5. Adapt to Achieve Sustainable Operations

To sustain the productivity of UNCG’s workforce and the effectiveness of the UNCG’s operations, we will work towards processes that are efficient and standardized, allocating work in a manner that is sustainable and optimized while aligning with applicable policies and available funding. We will stive to ensure that the work performed by our faculty and staff is supportive of the UNCG’s mission, recognized, acknowledged, and managed with care and consideration for their well-being and the sustained success of the University.

Example KPIs: Increased SCH production per FTE, Increased system funding based on performance, Increased research dollars awarded, Increased corporate partnership dollars; Faculty/Staff headcount aligned with student enrollment and benchmarked against universities similar to UNCG; reduction in steps/days needed to complete a process; elimination of outdated practices that are no longer needed or add value.

Strategic Plan Advisory Committee Members

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