Capilouto: Your input needed for our next strategic plan
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 20, 2021) — University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto requested input regarding the university's strategic plan in an email to the campus community the morning of Friday, Aug. 20. You can read the president's message below.
Dear Campus Community,
Even as our campus prepares for a new academic year, part of our mission is always to look to the future.
And that mission revolves around a central question: How do we ensure that we are doing all we can as the state’s institution to advance Kentucky?
That mission — of advancing our state — was why we were created more than 150 years ago. It is our focus today. It must drive our relentless efforts for the future.
But we need your help to answer the question of how we advance our Commonwealth in a world that we all know is increasingly complex and challenging. Yet, it is a world also filled with intriguing opportunities for growth and innovation in the way we serve and think about our mission, our meaning and purpose.
Over the last several weeks, five teams — of elected faculty, students and staff, deans and administrators from across the campus — have been working on a first draft framework of UK’s next strategic plan as a starting point for your input. Following your ideas and feedback, the reshaped and edited plan will be taken to the Board of Trustees for consideration at its October retreat.
Our most recent strategic plan was completed in 2020. We delayed development and implementation of the new plan last year during the pandemic, which has created a compressed timeline. Although compressed, we need your input, as it will matter and shape the final plan.
Here’s how you can help:
- You can read a draft of the plan here.
- You also can provide feedback and ask questions about the plan here.
- We would ask that you provide that feedback by noon Friday, August 27.
- With your input, the five planning teams will make adjustments to the plan and also seek additional input from UK alumni and community leaders.
- In early September, we will circulate another draft of the plan to the campus community once more for final review and feedback, before taking it to the Board of Trustees in early October. Yes, we will circulate the draft plan again after this current initial round.
On the website and in the draft of the plan, you will see this recurring theme of Advancing Kentucky. Five principles support that overarching mission. Those principles came directly from hundreds of conversations I had with leaders throughout this campus last spring as I was considering the selection of a provost and gathering insight about how our campus must think about the future.
Several ideas consistently emerged from those conversations, from faculty to students, and staff to community leaders and alumni. In short, the ideas revolved around five principles:
- Putting students first.
- Taking care of our people.
- Inspiring ingenuity.
- Ensuring greater trust, transparency and accountability.
- Bringing together many people, one community.
The plan you will review builds upon those principles in terms of goals and ways to achieve them. I want to thank the teams that have put much time and thought into this first draft. It is a strong and forward-looking effort to build out objectives, tactics and ways to measure our progress in each of these five areas.
I am excited to hear from our community about your hopes and aspirations, your concerns and the opportunities you think we should grasp as a university. To be sure, so much about our world remains challenging. But we know from the past year that there is so much we can do when we come together. It is time to do so again.
Thank you for all you do for each other and our Commonwealth.
Eli Capilouto
President