Last week the Board of Governors approved our 2021-2026 long-range plan for the Springfield campus.

As I discussed in a prior note, our new plan is built on aspirational stories and examples of big ideas that will guide our decisions and reality over the next five years.

Those stories and ideas fall under four topical headings:

• Evolving Academic Directions for Future Careers
• Global Engagement
• Inclusive Excellence Driving University Success
• Community Leadership and Partnerships

I would encourage you to take some time to review the plan and see yourself and your unit or department in the stories. Respond to the stories and engage with the ideas. Talk about them with friends, family and colleagues — on and off campus.

You will like some of the ideas and dislike others. Most of all, I hope you will be inspired. I hope you will come up with your own big ideas to propel the university to success over the next five years.

Making the Action Plan

Each unit or division should develop a list of action items that align with the themes of the plan.

We will continue to do that centrally by developing an annual action plan and reporting on that plan at the end of each academic year. The administrative and academic leadership teams will begin to develop the Action Plan for 2021-2022 at a planning retreat this week.

We will also continue to track metrics and establish measurable goals. The board discussed metrics under the new plan at their meeting last week.

In addition to many of the metrics tracked under prior plans, the board would like to track metrics in three additional areas:

• Number of global partnerships.
• Number of professional doctorates and masters of fine art.
• External funding received.

Administration will present draft metrics and measurable goals to the board at their retreat in August.

Thankful for a hard-working team

Developing the 2021-26 Long-Range Plan was an arduous process.

I would like to thank Suzanne Shaw and Shawn Wahl for their hard work to co-chair the steering committee and lead this process.

I would also like to thank all of the members of the steering committee. They met weekly throughout the year and invested many grueling hours to coordinate the creation of the plan.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!