We will strengthen not only access to but graduation from Puget Sound, provide opportunities for advanced study in alignment with our mission, and diversify our sources of revenue to ensure our ability to reach our goals. In so doing, we commit to fully living our responsibility as an intellectual asset in the broader world, contributing leadership and vision in advancing civic discourse and addressing the issues of the times in which we live.
1. Advance institutional excellence, academic distinction, and student success
We will advance educational excellence and our academic and institutional distinctions to ensure that all students have high-impact engagement that leads to deep learning and strong educational outcomes. We will enhance student recruitment and retention, and promote the visibility and reputation of Puget Sound.
Key Initiatives
- Develop a distinctive undergraduate model of education to ensure all students graduate prepared for success
- Increase connections between graduate and undergraduate programs--and develop new graduate programs in areas of university strength and market demand
- Consider the development of more flexible pathways to graduation
- Enhance our strengths in health sciences
- Develop comprehensive, integrated plans for aggregate annual undergraduate and graduate enrollment, with a goal of 2,800 students
- Develop comprehensive operational plans for the cocurricular program, including residential and Greek life, academics, and athletic programs
- Consider the development of new or enhanced signature Puget Sound centers of distinction
2. Enrich our learning environment through increased diversity, inclusion, and access
We will more fully develop a welcoming learning environment through initiatives that increase and support equity, inclusion, access to, and successful graduation from Puget Sound.
Key Initiatives
- Align institutional efforts to increase and support equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Develop the Legacies Project, a university-wide set of activities, practices, and curricular initiatives that will empower students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the broader community to understand and learn from the diverse histories that have shaped our region, and to acknowledge the role that the university has played
- Continue efforts to substantially increase, across all measures, the diversity of students, faculty, and staff
3. Support and inspire our faculty and staff
We will support and inspire our faculty and staff members through the promotion of their well-being, professional development, retention, work with students and engagement with each other.
Key Initiatives
- Examine the nature and definitions of faculty work in a changing landscape for higher education
- Further develop a faculty and staff total compensation and professional development program
- Further establish Puget Sound as a great place to work
4. Enhance engagement with the community, including promotion of environmental justice and sustainability
We will more deeply engage with and learn from our local and regional communities to strengthen the quality of a Puget Sound education and our role as a community asset. We will define key actions to which the university will commit to advance environmental justice and sustainability. And we will work closely with alumni to build their lifelong engagement with the university and each other, and to leverage their ability to mentor and guide current students.
Key Initiatives
- Better coordinate, integrate, and support the university's community engagement efforts
- Develop and strengthen partnerships, including corporate partnerships
- Update institutional goals and commitments related to our long-standing commitment to environmental justice and sustainability as a community-based concern
- Increase alumni engagement with each other and the university, and in their mentorship of students
5. Pursue entrepreneurial and other opportunities to fully leverage and expand our assets
We will pursue entrepreneurial opportunities consistent with our mission, and will promote the accessibility, affordability and value of a Puget Sound education, strengthen the institution and our financial position, and enhance our ability to anticipate and respond to technological and social change.
Key Initiatives
- Maximize avenues for revenue generation to strengthen institutional vitality and financial stability
- Enhance opportunities for students to engage in project-based learning, service learning, clinical and field placements, and other community-based experiences that strengthen their preparation for technological and social change