The College of Arts & Sciences (ArtSci) has developed a strategic plan, “One College, Statewide,” that will help the college chart its path over the next five years, from 2025 to 2030.
Drafting a strategic plan involves several steps and the active participation of many stakeholder groups, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. This website provides an overview of work completed, in-progress, and to be completed.
Strategic planning is an iterative process that requires continual refinement, assessment, and engagement over the plan’s five-year lifecycle.
"One College, Statewide" Overview
“One College, Statewide,” signals that ArtSci is a single, integrated academic units whose people, programs, and partnerships extend to and thrive in every corner of Utah. Built from the legacy of three colleges, ArtSci now operates as one academic community with a shared mission, common standards of excellence, and a unified commitment to serve learners wherever they live and learn. This motto affirms that the breadth and depth of our arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences expertise and programs are not confined to a single campus; they are woven into classrooms, labs, studios, Zoom rooms, field sites, and communities across our state.
“One College, Statewide” also names the responsibility we have as the foundational college at the heart of USU’s land-and-space-grant mission. ArtSci engages with every USU undergraduate learner at some point in their college career.
As the axis of our strategic wheel, “One College, Statewide” orients and connects the other four core strategy areas: Learner Success & Career Readiness, Operational Excellence, Industry, Community, & Alumni Partnerships, and Discovery & Creative Work.
Together, these core strategy areas function as a wheel, aligning learning and curricula with workforce needs, supporting faculty and staff in their work, advancing impactful, innovative research and creative activity, and deepening our engagement with partners in every region. When this wheel is in motion, leaners identify coherent pathways and high impact opportunities at all our campuses. Faculty and staff are empowered in their pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, and creative activity. Our faculty and learners’ discoveries and creative works are translated into public value across the state. Community-engagement is a core facet of our mission with ArtSci developing deliberate partnerships with key industry leaders and successful alumni who can further prepare our learners for success.
Strategic Plan Committee
The Inaugural Strategic Plan Committee was responsible for drafting the strategic plan as well as a detailed implementation plan between August 2025 and July 2026. Dean Ward assigned Associate Dean for Faculty Success Julia M. Gossard to serve as the Committee Chair and Lead Author.
With nominations from department heads and other college leadership, Dean Ward and Associate Dean Gossard selected the following committee:
- Julia M. Gossard, Associate Dean for Faculty Success and Professor of History – Chair and Lead Author
- Dorcas Anabire, PhD Candidate, Technical Communication & Rhetoric (Student)
- Darrin Brooks, Professor, Art + Design (Faculty)
- Amanda Dawson, Assistant Professor, Theatre Arts (Faculty)
- Andrea DeHaan, Interim Communications Manager (Staff)
- Hannah Lewis, Professional Practice Associate Professor, Mathematics & Statistics (Faculty)
- Monica Schruhl, Financial Officer, ArtSci (Staff)
- Natalie Archibald Smoot, Director of Staff Excellence, ArtSci (Staff)
- Alex Theophilus, PhD Student, School of Social Sciences (Student)
- Jordan Truex, Academic Advisor for Chemistry and Biochemistry (Staff)
- Felipe Valencia, Associate Professor of Spanish, World Languages & Cultures (Faculty)
- Joseph Wilson, Professor, Biology (Faculty)
While the initial charge of this committee to draft a plan is complete, building an implementation plan and refining the overall strategic plan will continue through significant stakeholder engagement.
A second strategic plan committee will be convened in spring 2027 to being the process of assessing the college’s goals and implementation activity.
Designing Our Future
Strategic planning will occur over five years from 2025 to 2030. Each year focuses on a different activity. The following provides an overview of work completed, work in-progress, and work left to do.
Year 1 (2025-26): Building
The first year of strategic planning focused on collaboration between stakeholders to draft the strategic plan’s goals and objectives. This process was segmented into two distinct phases:
Phase 1: Gathering and Analyzing Data (August 2025-December 2025)
During this first phase, the Strategic Plan Committee worked closely with the ArtSci Steering Committee to hold town halls, develop stakeholder surveys, conduct SWOT analysis exercises, and gather essential data from our wide community of staff, faculty, learners, alumni, and community members that helped us draft our values, goals, and objectives. The college’s mission was also refined during this period using the data collected.
Phase 2: Drafting and Refining the Strategic Plan (January 2026-June 2026)
During this second phase, the strategic plan committee employed the data gathered in Phase 1 to draft our initial plan. We started with a values exercise to determine what values underpins the work we do as a college. From there, we transformed values into goals and objectives to ensure that the plan is values-aligned.
The committee chair met with senior college leadership, university leadership, and other stakeholders to further refine and align ArtSci’s strategic plan.
Year 2: Implementing (July 2026-May 2027)
A public presentation of the strategic plan will occur in August 2026 at the College’s retreat. This year will also be spent developing a robust implementation plan that articulates how the college will achieve its stated goals and objectives.
Individual departments and units will submit alignment exercises that are meant to capture the many ways we are currently fulfilling and plan to fulfill our goals and objectives.
Individual faculty, learners, staff, and community members are also invited to submit examples of how they’re achieving these goals.
Year 3: Assessing (June 2027-June 2028)
The Inaugural Strategic Plan Committee suggested a “third-year review” of the plan to take place in AY 2027-28. During this year, the committee will be tasked with assessing how the college has made progress on its goals and objectives.
Year 4: Refining (July 2028-June 2029)
Following the third-year review of the college’s strategic plan, this year will be spent dialing in refinements to the plan’s goals, objectives, and implementation plan.
Year 5: Transforming (July 2029-June 2030)
As the last year of the plan, the Strategic Plan committee will reflect on the progress made and begin the process of building a new path forward in a new strategic plan.
Stakeholder Involvement
Individual departments and units will create and submit exercises that identify key priorities that align with the strategic plan. The goal is to produce data to create a robust implementation plan that captures the breadth of excellent work happening across our units.
Individual staff, faculty, and learners are also welcome to submit their own examples, ideas, and other feedback.