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WSU Unveils New Plan For Its Future

Courtesy
/
Wichita State University

After nearly eight months of meetings with staff, students and community members, Wichita State University has developed a new plan that will be used to shape the future of the university.

On September 5, 2012, WSU President John Bardo kicked off a campus and community-wide strategic planning process. He appointed a steering committee made up of WSU personnel, community and business leaders, plus others with a stake in the future of WSU and the region.

Thousands of comments were received during the process.

The steering committee unveiled the new strategic plan Thursday afternoon on the WSU campus.

The new vision:

Wichita State University is internationally recognized as the model for applied learning and research.

“We don’t want to be a model for how you do applied learning and research; we want to be the model,“ says Cindy Claycomb, WSU marketing professor and co-chair of the strategic planning initiative. “And so this is a big and bold vision and it’s aspirational. It will take us a while to get there.”

The new mission:

Wichita State University is to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good.

“And our new mission is just what we are,” says Claycomb.

Claycomb says with WSU in a metropolitan setting, it allows the university to have a vision and mission that would be different than at other institutions.

“It becomes obvious what we ought to be and that was exciting,” she says.

The next phase of strategic planning includes a review by WSU departments and colleges to determine how they can help accomplish the goals. President Bardo will take the plan to the Board of Regents in June.

Once finalized, WSU is expected to implement the plan this fall.

Read the full details of the new strategic plan.

Carla Eckels is Director of Organizational Culture at KMUW. She produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations and brings stories of race and culture to The Range with the monthly segment In the Mix. Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work in broadcast/journalism.