Preparing for Future Success

At KSU, our focus on providing students with an accessible and well-rounded education, combined with our commitment to research steeped in real-world application, makes our work more important and more relevant than ever. Simply put, the need for what we do has never been greater. To ensure KSU is positioned to continue to meet this need well into the future, we are launching a strategic planning initiative this fall. Through this work, we will reaffirm our priorities and identify new dimensions about who we are and how we can have a greater impact on the communities we serve. While the strategic planning process will help us become a better university, it will not change our core mission of preparing students for their future success. KSU is dedicated to the advancement of our faculty, students, and staff and they will always remain the epicenter of our mission.
President Kat Schwaig with students on the marietta campus.

 

Our Approach

The groundwork laid by the Roadmap to R2 Success serves as a foundation and reference point for our campus and community as we embark on our next phase of strategic planning. The R2 Roadmap has not only steered us towards achieving the Carnegie R2 Classification but also continues to serve as the bedrock for identifying and establishing goals that propel KSU's institutional mission.

Below a development schedule outlines our way forward over the next few months. This will be a collaborative process with broad engagement, and we hope you will lend your voice and experience as a critical stakeholder of KSU.

June

Project Initiation

  • Develop Relationships
  • Confirm Methodology
  • Establish Expectations

July

Environmental Scan & Institutional Comparisons

  • Review of demographic, Education, and Economic Data

July

Enrollment Trend Analysis

  • Examination of Historical Enrollment Data and Projections Along with Industry Needs 

September

Mission, Vision, Values

  • Review of existing statements with a focus on teaching, research, student life, and outreach

 

October

Community Engagement

  • Interviews Focus Group Survey


November

Future Envisioning

  • Virtual workshop with key campus leaders


February

Final Strategic Plan & Presentation

  • Comprehensive Strategic Plan Report

March

Implementation & Assessment Plan

  • Implementation schedule across the five to seven-year plan horizon

Our Foundation: R2 Roadmap

The goals and objectives within the R2 Roadmap are designed to promote pedagogical excellence, research advancement, professional development, transformative learning, community engagement, and a vibrant campus culture. Today, KSU stands at the threshold of a transformative era. Enhancements to our current plan will merge new opportunities with a solid foundation of success. Soaring to new heights, we will align our goals to position KSU for continued growth, innovation, and greater community impact.

  • GOALS: A Focus on Partnerships and Connections

    • Nurture a welcoming campus climate, a sense of belonging, and a broad marketplace of ideas.
    • Strengthen KSU engagement with external organizations to include corporations, boards, governments, and community partners.
    • Advance athletic, artistic, and educational programming to engage the community with campus events and activities.
    • Foster mutually beneficial collaborations to increase annual growth in KSU’s economic impact on the region. 

    Initiatives:

    • Offer inclusivity training for the campus community.
    • Host community impact events to celebrate partners, nonprofits, and public officials.
    • Improve Athletics facilities and advance the Athletics Master Plan.
    • Identify and engage in opportunities to enhance the visibility of KSU.

  • GOALS: An Impactful Learning Environment

    • Attain first-year retention rate of 82% by 2025.
    • Achieve six-year graduation rate of 60% by 2028.
    • Provide unique educational opportunities.

    Initiatives:

    • Strategically advance the impact of advising.
    • Improve class accessibility.
    • Increase external funding for scholarships.
    • Incentivize the Honors program.
    • Empower college-level accountability for student success.

  • GOALS: A Highly Educated Workforce

    • Increase graduate program enrollment to 10% of KSU
      student population by Fall 2025.
    • Align graduate programs to areas of strategic emphasis
      and growth.
    • Ensure graduate students, faculty, and programs are
      institutionally prioritized and adequately resourced.

    Initiatives:

    • Strategically develop new graduate degree programs in
      alignment with targeted research and academic priorities.
    • Enhance infrastructure to manage graduate research
      and teaching assistants and admissions processes.
    • Develop strategic initiatives to promote and populate
      Double Owl Pathways.

  • GOALS: A Commitment to New Knowledge and Discovery

    • Target research productivity goals, including increasing
      research expenditures and activity by 20% per year.
    • Build a strong and sustainable infrastructure to
      support research. 

    Initiatives:

    • Identify targeted research areas of excellence for KSU in
      partnership with university and community stakeholders.
    • Sustain and expand programming to encourage faculty
      and students to collaboratively engage in research.
    • Support the advancement of entrepreneurship
      and innovation opportunities arising from research
      and discovery
VIEW R2 ROADMAP PDF