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CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State University Board of Trustees Friday approved a new university strategic plan that will guide OSU’s teaching, research, and outreach and engagement efforts through 2023.

The plan builds on the university’s past strategic plans that date back to 2004, and identifies four goals that will drive the university during the next five years:

• Preeminence in research, scholarship and innovation;
• Transformative education that is accessible to all learners;
• Significant and visible impact in Oregon and beyond; and
• A culture of belonging, collaboration and innovation.

“As a result of adopting this plan, we expect to see progress over time in advancing the mission of the university and the things that we value at the university,” OSU President Ed Ray said.

The updated strategic plan will advance the university’s Vision 2030 document, which articulates a number of aspirational values and outcomes for Oregon State to emphasize and achieve. Vision 2030 identifies four areas of focus to guide the university’s future: innovation in inclusion and collaboration; revolutionary earth systems science; leading in health and wellness; and advancing economic prosperity and social progress.

“There is a lot within this plan that is already underway at Oregon State, but in other areas, there is a great deal of urgency to get new things started,” Ed Feser, OSU provost and executive vice president, told the board. “It’s on us to be intentional and very responsible in achieving the priorities and actions that we laid out in this plan.”

At a future meeting, trustees will consider approval of proposed metrics to track how the strategic plan will support OSU’s mission and values.

The board also approved its 2017-18 assessment of Oregon State President Ed Ray.

In Ray’s self-assessment of the past academic year, he outlined progress in four major areas of focus: continued implementation of the university’s current strategic plan and creation of a new plan; expansion of OSU-Cascades and the university’s marine studies campus in Newport; revenue growth, cost containment and financial stability; and building a stronger sense of community throughout the university.

For the current academic year, Ray will focus on implementing OSU’s new strategic plan; engaging donors and the Legislature to increase operating and capital funds; advancing revenue growth, cost containment and financial stability; and continuing to build community and establishing a first-time faculty union contract.

In other business, the board:

• Heard an annual report from the Office of Institutional Diversity. The report summarized accomplishments from the past year, including creating an institutional diversity strategic plan; winning a national Higher Education Excellence in Diversity award; and hiring a new staff member to focus on institutional education for diversity, equity and inclusion;
• Endorsed a plan to seek $30 million in state support for the university’s Statewide Public Services – Extension Service, Agricultural Experiment Station and Forest Research Laboratory – from the 2019 Oregon Legislature. This figure is 25 percent above the current funding level. Ray said it is needed to restore, maintain, and build essential research and Extension programs that address Oregon’s critical needs in natural resources science and stewardship; sustainable agricultural, food and natural resource production; and community health and resilience;
• Approved an amended capital project budget of $50 million for an upper division and graduate student housing project proposed to be built on the eastside of OSU’s Corvallis campus. The project would serve approximately 300 students and is planned to open in fall 2020;
• Approved a policy relating to the review and approval of capital projects;
• Reviewed a self-assessment of the board’s performance in 2018 and approved a board work plan for 2019; and
• Approved a policy that allows the Board of Trustees to confer emeritus status upon a former university president.