Goals and Strategies

Goal 1

Expanding world-class interdisciplinary research, creative, and scholarly endeavors.

• Promote nationally and internationally distinctive and prominent research and graduate programs,
• Strengthen the University’s research support infrastructure to enhance contracts and grants workflow and output – through critically examining the applicability of alternative models of F&A indirect cost distribution, and other innovative mechanisms,
• Focus on increasing the amount and proportional share of competitive federal research awards,
• Enhance and expand the talent pool of world-class, competitively-funded faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students,
• Establish a salary enhancement program that rewards highly productive faculty in the areas of teaching and learning; scholarship, research and creative endeavors; and service and engagement, and
• Strengthen and support integrated and synergistic interdisciplinary research across disciplinary, departmental, college and campus boundaries.

Goal II

Promoting globally competitive undergraduate, graduate and professional programs that support interdisciplinary inquiry, intellectual development, knowledge and skill acquisition, and student success through a diverse, fully- engaged, learner-centered campus environment.

• Create and support globally competitive, relevant and distinctive academic programs that address the changing needs of the region, state and nation through innovative approaches to curriculum development and delivery,
• Provide increased access to excellence in higher education for students who demonstrate the aptitude to succeed,
• Enhance and expand the talent pool by shaping the enrollment profile of USF’s undergraduate and graduate student body to reflect that found at a pre- eminent research university,
• Improve year-to-year retention and time-to-graduation; demonstrated acquisition of knowledge, communication and critical thinking skills; and competency to synthesize and apply new knowledge; together with providing an optimal college experience for all students,
• Build a sustainable campus environment at USF that meets the criteria for Carnegie classification as a “primarily residential” campus, and
• Improve and promote cultural and global literacy, foreign language proficiency, and the international competitiveness of USF graduates through significant growth in study abroad participation, an increase in fee-paying international students, and cross-cultural curriculum development.

Goal III

Expanding local and global engagement initiatives to strengthen and sustain healthy communities and to improve the quality of life.

• Establish a unified institutional structure to facilitate and promote community engagement, social enterprise, and global collaborations in education, research and service learning, including mechanisms for managing fiscal and human resources for student exchange, study abroad and international field placement programs, and faculty research, teaching, outreach and professional development opportunities,
• Develop an up-to-date clearinghouse of information about all the engagement currently occurring at USF and develop institutional systems to measure community engagement,
• Encourage and reward faculty effort in community engagement – require an annual faculty impact statement and explicitly introduce community engagement into USF’s promotion and tenure guidelines, and
• Encourage and reward student engagement in the community and explore the feasibility of acknowledging community engagement and other co-curricular activities on the official transcript.

Goal IV

Enhancing all sources of revenue, and maximizing effectiveness in business practices and financial management to establish a strong and sustainable economic base in support of USF’s growth.

• Refine business practices to ensure a strong and sustainable economic foundation at USF,
• Promote and sustain a positive working environment, significantly improve service quality, and improve staff support through providing competitive salary structures, expanding professional development opportunities, and building cross-functional teams,
• Build USF’s fundraising enterprise and endowment to a level commensurate with that found at a pre-eminent research university by completing a comprehensive campaign to support capital projects, endowed professorships and scholarships, and to supplement operating needs,
• Expand USF’s national identity through developing and implementing a comprehensive, cutting-edge branding campaign grounded in the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge; interdisciplinary collaboration; commercialization and economic development; and global engagement,
• Expand the commercialization of emerging technologies to enhance regional and state economic development, and
• Build a sustainable environment to support an expanded and improved teaching and research mission, a more engaged residential community, and a university-based global village.