Purdue President France A. Córdova made these comments Friday (June 20) to the university's board of trustees.

President Córdova outlines Purdue's new strategic plan

This plan runs from July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2014. It is designed to position our university to be among the world's truly great research universities, meeting grand challenges and focused on the success of its students, faculty, and staff.

In our plan we have identified goals and initiatives that will enhance the quality of the student body and the quality of the faculty; that will raise our rankings and increase transdisciplinary research; that will enhance the beauty and sustainability of our campus; and that will create a workplace that is diverse and welcoming, supportive and stimulating.

Upon arriving at Purdue last July, I initiated a 100-day listening and learning tour so that I could discover Purdue through the accomplishments and aspiration of its students, faculty, staff, alumni and through discussions with people throughout the state, the nation and even the world.

Based on what I learned from that process, last November I appointed eight working groups on topics that were deemed by all to be of critical interest to Purdue's future. The groups were charged with critically reflecting on these areas and gathering input broadly, and then producing white papers with goals and initiatives.

The working groups were: student success and the student experience; large-scale research and infrastructure; economic development; quality of life in the workplace; globalization; campus design; synergies among the disciplines; and attracting new students to careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

These working groups held open forums on and off campus allowing all people ample opportunity to provide input. We devoted president's forums to working group topics. Many working groups traveled widely and all completed white papers in February.

We posted a Strategic Plan Internet site with the working group membership, the summary white papers, and a blog to encourage wider input.

A steering committee was charged with integrating the white papers into a single plan. It was co-chaired by Vic Lechtenberg, then interim provost, and George Bodner, then chair of the University Senate. On the steering committee were representatives from all the working groups and additional campus leaders. Rab Mukerjae, our director of Strategic Planning and Assessment, played a key leadership role in all of this.

At the most recent board meeting in April, George Bodner led a presentation on the plan in progress; the chairs of all the working groups joined him.

This week we posted on the Web site the draft of the plan that I will present to you today. I will start by summarizing the vision and mission of our plan. I will talk about our goals, our key priorities, our peer institutions for comparison of progress, and our benchmarks. I will walk through the steps of the implementation of this plan.

I will conclude by looking into a crystal ball and visualizing our university in the year 2014 at the successful conclusion of this plan.

Our strategic plan mission is a commitment to people.

Our mission statement says: "Purdue serves diverse populations of Indiana, the nation and the world through discovery that expands the frontiers of knowledge, learning that nurtures the sharing of knowledge, and engagement that promotes the application of knowledge."

Our vision is a university that "will set the pace for new interdisciplinary synergies that serve citizens worldwide with profound scientific, technological, social, and humanitarian impact on advancing societal prosperity and quality of life."

There are three over-arching goals in our plan. Our first goal is launching tomorrow's leaders - today.

Our goal is to: "Promote excellence in learning experiences and outcomes, fostering intellectual, professional, and personal development to prepare learners for life and careers in a dynamic, global society."

Our next goal is discovery with delivery.

Our strategic plan initiatives will: "Advance the frontiers of knowledge and innovate technologies that address the grand challenges of society to serve humanity and improve the quality of life around the world."

Our third goal is meeting global challenges.

This means we will: "Address the critical needs of society, and catalyze economic development and entrepreneurship consistent with a public research university of the 21st century."

Achieving Purdue's vision - new synergies - will require setting key priorities along with the investment of resources in targeted areas.

We have identified the key priorities with an overriding commitment to improving talent, diversity and inclusiveness, and the quality of programs and services across the university community.

There are too many to list them all today, but I would like to highlight some of our top priorities and investment areas.

I will begin with student success.

Our first priority in this area is to increase recruitment of excellent students. We will achieve a superior student body, well-prepared and motivated to undertake educational challenges, along with an accomplished faculty and staff with global perspectives dedicated to excellence in student learning and success.

Second, we will develop a plan to ensure increased diversity of the student body. Diversity is a part of every aspect of our plan and is important in all our initiatives for students, faculty and staff. In addition to increasing our diversity numbers, our plan also focuses on creating a welcoming community.

Third, we will provide honors and other accelerated learning programs for outstanding students. These are programs that attract and keep the best students at Purdue. They are important to helping students become all that they can be.

Fourth, we will market Purdue's advantage for recruiting STEM students. Our university has great strengths in science, technology, engineering and math. Keeping the U.S. competitive requires people educated in these areas; Purdue can play a leadership role in this effort. We can market Purdue's academic strengths to increase the number of students coming to our campus in these fields.

Fifth, we will improve the retention and graduation rate of students. Our goal is not just to enroll students; it is to graduate them as leaders for the future. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education, the governor and the General Assembly have made it clear that increasing retention and graduations rates is a high priority. This is a high priority at Purdue as well.

Sixth, to this end, we will enhance the first-year and second-year student experience, including development of a university-college for students who enter without identifying a major. The first two years a student spends on campus are critical to success, and we can take steps proactively to enhance that experience.

Seventh, we will redefine "access" to Purdue, increasing enrollment at our regional campuses. We have outstanding regional campuses and we need to promote the opportunities they offer students.

Eighth, we will develop a university-wide core curriculum, working closely with the University Senate.

Ninth, we will foster success in "gateway" courses through new pedagogy. These courses statistically defeat a substantial fraction of their enrollment. We will transform our large introductory classes into exciting venues for learning. Not all large classes have to be smaller; many can be taught with more successful outcomes by adopting better pedagogical approaches. These approaches are being pursued within colleges currently and we will incentivize them further. With private philanthropy our College of Engineering is transforming its classrooms with 450 freshman students into a five-module, hands-on design experience called Ideas to Innovation.

Tenth, we will enhance research, service and global experiential learning opportunities.

Eleventh, we will develop a centralized "hub" or one-stop shop of services to foster student excellence and leadership.

Twelfth, we will pursue funding for increased financial aid and scholarships, focused on both need and merit. A $304 million Access and Success campaign focused on scholarships and student programs is already under way and a city steering committee is being organized. In addition, we are raising $32 million in private contributions toward the $99 million Mackey Project, which is focused on academic and athletic success for student-athletes.

Thirteenth, we will renovate and revitalize the student "rec center," a top priority of our students who want to enhance their wellness and fitness, and have an active venue for meetings. A welcoming center is also a competitive advantage for recruiting today's health-conscious students.

These are key priorities in faculty and staff development and work-life.

First, we will promote faculty for significant national awards and honors. We have outstanding faculty and we would like to see more of them attain membership in national academies and receive national and international recognition.

Second, working with the schools, colleges and University Senate, we will review/revise faculty promotion and tenure process to be aligned with the strategic goals enunciated in this plan.

Third, we will implement staff development programs and a campuswide system for staff promotion.

Fourth, we will achieve competitive compensation for all faculty and staff. This is very important to attracting and keeping the best people at Purdue.

Fifth, we will achieve competitive stipends for graduate students. This is vital to attracting top graduate students.

Sixth, we will enhance family friendliness with a prioritized menu of flexible benefits. This again is very important to attracting and keeping the best people for our university. A family-friendly workplace will increase quality of life and productivity.

To enhance Research Competitiveness and Economic Impact, these are our key priorities and investment areas.

First, we will build on Purdue's current strengths (e.g., Discovery Park), with investments in new facilities and infrastructure, and develop new business plans for financial sustainability.

Second, we will identify strategic research areas for new investment. These areas should encourage new synergies across disciplines, and address regional, national and global areas of critical strategic interest.

Third, we will increase senior research leadership, especially in identified strategic areas.

Fourth, we will increase strategic research alliances and partnerships including our partnerships with Indiana University.

Fifth, we will aggressively seek large-scale corporate and federal sponsorship.

Sixth, we will provide seed funding for new strategic research areas.

Seventh, we will accelerate IP commercialization of Purdue discoveries. We need to do an even better job of moving our best research into the marketplace where it can improve quality of life and the economy.

Eighth, we will attract more faculty onto the "Discovery, Development, Delivery" highway with incentives, support for infrastructure, and stronger ties to our commercial research parks.

Ninth, we will promote more robust infrastructure, including cyberinfrastructure, for both single investigator and large scale research efforts; we will invest in core instrumentation facilities to serve campus research goals and projects.

To increase our national/global presence our priorities are:

First, we will raise the rankings of all Purdue colleges to new levels. Some initiatives to accomplish this are hiring at senior level, promoting faculty for honors, marketing achievements and strengths.

Second, we will increase educational and research partnerships globally.

Third, we will grow and recruit leadership to address critical global challenges.

Fourth, we will establish signature programs abroad; become a national role model for effective global partnerships.

Fifth, we will reorganize or elevate selected Purdue offices to higher status to achieve strategic plan goals. Some examples are human resources, diversity, policy and global affairs, marketing and media, sustainability, and research.

Sixth, we will establish an institute for policy and global affairs. This interdisciplinary institute will link the sciences and the social sciences and give Purdue's research an opportunity for wider societal influence.

Seventh, we will embrace Purdue alumni worldwide in assisting with recruiting, mentoring, sponsoring students, sharing best practices with administrators and faculty, and building and extending partnerships globally. Our alumni are a tremendous asset we can use to help the university and our students.

Eighth, we will leverage the assets of our large body of international students at Purdue by encouraging more synergies with our nationally derived student body.

To effect a more vibrant and attractive campus design, our priorities are:

First, we will partner with regional communities on quality of life issues including arts, culture, and the environment. Arts, culture and the environment also play an important part in community economic development.

Second, we will exemplify the land-grant university as a "living laboratory" for learning, discovery, and engagement by establishing a process for campus design and development that allows for exploration of design ideas with hands-on experience, participation, and service.

Third, we will enhance facility repair and rehabilitation, aesthetics, and functionality of the campus.

Fourth, we will incorporate sustainability and environmental/ecological consciousness.

Fifth, we will implement a new campus master plan in concert with our local community.

As we advance with our plan, we need to compare Purdue with a set of peer institutions for the purpose of benchmarking to assess progress and competitiveness.

There are two sets of comparative institutions, one including all public Big Ten institutions, and the other representing a wider geographic distribution of aspirational peers.

The two sets have four institutions in common, and you can see them in the center of the slide in the darker shaded area.

The aspirational institutions have been selected with these characteristics.

* Quality comparable to or greater than Purdue.

* Carnegie Foundation Research-Extensive classification.

* Strengths in the sciences, engineering, liberal arts, and management.

* Major public institution.

* Flagship institution in the state.

* Geographic distribution.

* Membership in the Association of American Universities.

* Mechanism for collaborative information exchange.

On an annual basis, we will compare Purdue with our peer institutions using input and output benchmark measures.

These measures are chosen based on competitiveness factors used nationally and the availability of reliable data for such measures.

Our input measures are listed here, and I won't dwell on them:

* Entering students' standardized test scores, high school GPA and rank percentiles.

* Student admission/yield for enrollment.

* Number of National Merit Scholars.

* Student-to-faculty ratio.

* Integrated Post-secondary Educational Data Systems (IPEDS) revenues/expenditures per student.

* Undergraduate class/section size.

* Faculty compensation by discipline/rank; staff compensation by job/comparison group.

* Graduate student stipend level by discipline.

* Student financial aid disbursement.

* Share of classes taught by faculty as primary instructors.

* Endowment value.

* Participation rate of alumni as donors.

Our output measures are listed in this figure, and again I won't dwell on them. As we go forward with implementation of this plan, we will clearly define targets for these measures.

* National and international rankings (institutional and programs) and related criteria.

* Undergraduate retention and graduation rates.

* Undergraduate indebtedness upon graduation.

* National Study of Student Engagement (NSSE) [includes study-abroad participation].

* Graduate student time to degree.

* Ph.D. degrees granted per year.

* Graduates' career placement and advanced study enrollment.

* Sponsored program awards and expenditures.

* Faculty recognition (national academy memberships; national/international awards).

* Demography of underrepresented populations (faculty, staff, students).

* Licenses and patents for technology commercialization, and start-up companies per year.

* National grading for sustainability characteristics.

We will restructure our organizational framework for senior leadership to position us to accomplish our goals. Several announcements to this effect are forthcoming. These persons will be charged with more detailed designs to achieve our metrics and accomplish our goals.

Annual action plans will be crafted to implement specific initiatives. These action plans will be implemented by Purdue's administration and other responsible offices at various levels of academic as well as non-academic units with oversight and accountability.

This implementation will engage faculty, staff, students, and other constituents both within and outside Purdue.

Using this strategic plan as an overall framework, each college, school, and other academic or non-academic unit will develop its own strategic plan demonstrating congruity and consistency with the university strategic plan. These plans will delineate respective strategies to improve national and international competitiveness. The plans will require the approval of the offices of the president and/or the provost and the vice presidents as appropriate.

In September the board will hear presentations on strategic plan proposals from our regional chancellors.

Comprehensive assessment of progress on the strategic plan, including the specifically defined metrics and benchmarks for peer comparisons, will be conducted every year.

Our funding strategy for this plan is still being developed.

Our investments will focus the key priorities of the plan: people, programs and partnerships.

The scope of funding will be comparable to budget growth during the past six years.

To summarize, the three major goals that form the foundation for this strategic plan are:

* Launching tomorrow's leaders.

* Discovery with delivery.

* Meeting global challenges.

Launching Tomorrow's Leaders includes enhancing student success with careers in a dynamic global society and fostering intellectual, professional and personal development for life-long learning.

Discovery with Delivery includes conducting field-defining research with breakthrough outcomes and catalyzing research-based economic development and entrepreneurship.

Meeting Global Challenges includes enhancing global presence and impacting and addressing grand challenges of humanity.

If we looked into a crystal ball and could visualize the future, here is what we could expect to see at Purdue six years after the start of this strategic plan.

* Purdue will be among the top-ranked research universities in the world, with a high reputation in all schools and colleges.

* Purdue will be a pacesetting university for synergy among disciplines.

* Measures of student success will be at par with the best academic institutions in the nation.

* We will be known for world-renowned faculty and the highest-quality staff.

* We will have global recognition for contributions to society and a global presence.

* Our campus will be the site of breakthrough research with wide societal impact.

* Purdue will be a model for contributions to economic prosperity.

* Purdue will have a national reputation for campus sustainability.

* Purdue will be among the best places to work and thrive.

* We will be a diverse and inclusive campus.

This is an exciting time. This has been an incredible learning experience for all of us. The process of drafting a strategic plan not only has set goals for the future, it has helped us better understand where we are today.

With your approval, we will begin implementation of the plan immediately. Then we will be on our way to Tomorrowland!

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions and comments.

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