2030 Strategic Plan Pillars

We explicitly call out this goal, because focusing on enhancing our culture helps everyone move toward their own personal summit and our campus aspirations. Our shared focus on care moves us away from the “more with less mindset” and into a space where faculty and staff workloads are appropriate and sustainable. We will examine how to invest in human-centered strategies that help people, including professional development in management, leadership, resilience, and inclusion and belonging skills. Central to this effort is fostering a culture of care, where every individual feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute fully. Developing this culture of care for ourselves will create a better culture for our students so they feel that care and stay here to achieve their goals. This will include a focus, as well, on becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution, among other student-focused initiatives.  

Using a growth mindset, we’ll partner to expand in-demand programs, support lower-cost programs and enhance curricular efficiencies to stabilize our budget. We'll seek to enhance research contributions to our community and the world through sponsored projects and other partnerships. We’ll seek endowments for faculty and chairs. We’ll develop a fast-track academic program development framework while better marketing what makes us unique. We’ll redouble our efforts to regain our place as a university of first choice that attracts and graduates more students. We’ll launch C3 Innovation to elevate our existing community partnerships and build bridges to new ones.  

A differentiator for our university, our faculty and student success, and a primary bridge to our larger community, our research mission will continue to drive us forward to our shared summit. UCCS is the only research university in southern Colorado. The research and creative works of our faculty and students generate new knowledge and disseminate it to Colorado and the world. We'll continue to foster an environment where our faculty and students are empowered to be drivers of innovation, and continue to engage with our community to build to the next level of research and creativity. 

Our efforts toward continuous improvement will support our work to re-envision how we serve our students, faculty, staff, and our community. Our student-facing staff will get the support and training they need to improve processes and practices and provide excellent customer service to the students and families who choose us. Across campus we will reinvent how we serve and support one another. Together, we will confront our financial challenges with accurate data and honesty to address our short- and medium-term budget shortfalls with an eye toward developing a balanced budget for 2025-2026 and into the future.