AUGUST 16, 2023 — This week, members of the Strategic Planning Refresh Subcommittee shared their final recommendations regarding the UTSA strategic plan. The report is a culmination of a yearlong refresh process to affirm the university’s three strategic destinations, apply insights learned from surveys and listening sessions, and continue advancing UTSA toward becoming a leading Hispanic Serving, public research university.
One year ago, the committee was charged by President Eighmy to undertake a refresh process that would celebrate the university’s successes, hone its approach to meet its three strategic destinations and align its resources to ensure continued forward momentum.
“Last year, at the midpoint of UTSA’s 10-year strategic plan, I charged the steering committee to facilitate a refresh to assess the progress we’ve made and evaluate how we might further evolve our destinations,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “Thanks to their leadership and our community’s participation, we can affirm that our three destinations are the right ones going forward and that we can remain focused on becoming a university of the future in the city of the future.”
At the onset of the process, the committee reflected on the work the university has accomplished at its midpoint, including completing many strategic initiatives and moving the needle on important key performance indicators. It then applied four steps—reflect, survey, listen and summarize—to gather insights from the campus community. Approximately 3,000 members of the campus community collaborated at each stage, sharing proposed ways to make UTSA an even better place to learn, work and discover.
“All of UTSA’s accomplishments and milestones of the past several years, such as our Carnegie R1 classification and Seal of Excelencia certification, were achieved because of the talent and dedication of our Roadrunner faculty, staff and students,” said UTSA Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Steering Committee Chair Heather Shipley. “Engaging these audiences was key to a successful refresh effort to inform new ideas that will help us reach our strategic destinations.”
Based on responses from faculty, staff and students, the committee developed four recommendations for President Eighmy and university leadership’s consideration including affirm UTSA’s mission, vision and values; affirm Destination 1; modestly refine Destinations 2 and 3; and update UTSA’s peer models of excellence.
Other findings include recommendations on key opportunities to advance the university such as facilitating growth and evolution at scale, investing in key faculty and staff, adopting efficient and innovative practices and further enhancing campus communication and collaboration.
“Over the past year, the UTSA community has contributed some great ideas and inspired suggestions for the future. What emerged is a clear consensus that UTSA is on the right track and building momentum,” said UTSA Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the President Lisa Jasinski. “My colleagues said it best: This is such an exciting time to be at UTSA.”
In the coming months, President Eighmy and university leadership will use the committee’s final recommendations to help develop UTSA’s long-range financial plan that will be presented to the UT System Board of Regents in November 2023. Updates on content to the strategic plan will continue to be communicated to the campus community as well as updated on the strategic planning website.
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Día en la Sombrilla, formerly Fiesta UTSA, is a festival hosted each spring as a part of Fiesta® San Antonio events. Sponsored by Roadrunner Productions, the event features music, food, confetti, games, event t-shirts, and more.
Sombrilla Plaza, Main CampusCovidence is a systematic & scoping review tool used to streamline the process of screening and reviewing articles. Using this software, research teams can easily import studies, perform automatic deduplication, and extract data using templates. This workshop will show attendees how to start a review in Covidence, add collaborators, and get started on screening.
Virtual (Zoom)In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to Pandas, a Python tool for working with data easily. It makes it simple to organize and analyze information when data is organized and categorized, like spreadsheets or tables.
Group Spot B, John Peace LibraryEach fall and spring semester, students convene at the Main Campus at UTSA with booths, ideas and prototypes. A crowd of judges, local organizations, students, faculty and sponsors walk around and talk to the students about their projects and ask questions. Students get the real-life experience of "pitching" their project with hopes of getting funding or support to move to the next level.
UTSA Convocation Center, Main CampusJoin the doctoral candidates for the Doctoral Conferreal Ceremony and celebrate their accomplishments.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusCelebrate the graduates from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and University College.
AlamodomeCelebrate the graduates from the College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and College of Sciences.
AlamodomeThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.