Delivering on our Promise - Strategic Imperatives finalized

Dear students and colleagues,

A few weeks back, we shared a draft of Delivering on Our Promise, the University of Arizona’s strategic imperatives. Nearly 700 people sent responses to our questionnaire, and we have read every one. Thank you for your feedback and your engagement with this process and the framework it will provide for the U of A’s future.

Today, I am very pleased to share the final version of the strategic imperatives. This update incorporates your insights on what makes the U of A distinctive and your ideas for our collective future as Arizona’s land-grant university. Our next steps will be to create robust implementation plans that bring the vision to life, guided by incoming Provost Prelock and other senior leaders in collaboration with our department heads and directors, shared governance partners, and all of you. There will be ample opportunity for faculty and staff contributions throughout, so I ask that you stay engaged and continue sharing your perspectives and ideas.

Of the three imperatives, over half of respondents said Success for Every Student should be the highest priority, and we will put a great deal of effort in this area—including improving retention and graduation rates, better integrating student services throughout the university, and supporting and empowering faculty and staff to facilitate the greatest possible impact with students.

We also received many comments from people who felt the imperatives are too interwoven to be ranked. We agree! While articulating each imperative separately was necessary for this process and for evaluating our success, they work together and support each other, and finding points of connection across education, research, and community engagement will remain critically important.  

Another strong theme was the importance of our research enterprise and its impact. I invite you to watch a video that highlights the critical role of U of A research in our communities and in the educational experience of our students.

I encourage you to read the updated and finalized version of Delivering on Our Promise as well as a summary of the themes from your feedback. Those themes also are reflected in this final version of the imperatives and will be among the points of focus for our implementation process, which will include Provost Prelock’s work with the campus community to develop academic success goals.

As the implementation begins, especially with Provost Prelock’s arrival, I encourage you to take the continuing opportunity to help shape the future of the U of A. Thank you again for your feedback and your engagement.

Sincerely, 
Suresh