UofL launches 12-year strategic plan

When the Kentucky General Assembly approved the Higher Education Reform Act in 1997, legislators mandated that UofL become a "preeminent metropolitan research university" by the year 2020. The university's new strategic plan—Victory 2020: Making It Happen—is designed to complete that mandate over the next 12 years.

Victory 2020 is the sequel to UofL's Challenge for Excellence (1998–2006), the 11-point strategy that launched the university toward its goal of national preeminence. The Challenge focused on improving the quality of students and faculty, increasing research and the university's financial health, and spurring economic development throughout Louisville and the state.

By 2006 the university had met 10 of the Challenge's 11 goals. The final goal is well within reach. Subsequently, UofL today is a much different place than in 1997, according to UofL President James Ramsey.

"Our quality of students and faculty is up, research funding has risen dramatically and our business start-ups and other measures of economic development have increased sharply," Ramsey says. "Even the look of our campuses has changed drastically, improving the environment for students and leading to the redevelopment of the surrounding neighborhoods.

"By any measure, the Challenge was a success."

Victory 2020

How does UofL continue the momentum that was created during the Challenge for Excellence? The university spent a year trying to figure that out, says provost Shirley Willihnganz.

"We invited the university community to help us draft what was needed to continue the impetus of the Challenge for Excellence. We also looked at those items we needed to add or evolve to meet the challenges we are sure to face over the next decade."

Victory 2020 takes the university step-by-step through the process of realizing all goals laid out in 1997. "At the same time," Ramsey adds, "it shows how we will achieve the promise we made the people of our community and state: to be a great citizen university that helps improve the quality of life for Kentuckians."

The plan addresses five critical areas: educational excellence; research, scholarship and creative activity; community partnerships; diversity, opportunity and social justice; and creative and responsible stewardship.

Its specific goals are ambitious and many. The following are just a few:

• Add 373 new faculty—including 60 new faculty who will bring significant funding, 30 scholars who will help create national prominence and 283 teacher scholars to enhance the university's academic/clinical programs.
• Increase the UofL endowment to $2 billion.
• Lower UofL's physical space deficit from 645,000 sq. ft. to 0.
• Expand the Cardinal Covenant, UofL's groundbreaking financial aid program for Kentuckians living at or near 150 percent of the poverty level, to include those living in the 200 percentile range as well as transfer students. This requires expanding the program's funding from $500,000 in 2007 to $3.1 million in 2020.
• Improve student-to-faculty ratio from 22:1 to 15:1.
• Increase graduation rates from 44 to 60 percent.
• Increase number of doctoral degrees awarded from 145 to 350 and develop 23 new doctoral programs.
• Increase total extramural research funding to $400 million annually.
• Develop the downtown Louisville Haymarket and Health Sciences Center master plan.
• Fully develop the Shelby Campus research park.
• Continue work as a cultural/artistic driver through partnerships such as Museum Plaza and the Cressman Center for Visual Arts.
• And many, many more.

"The over-arching goal is to be nationally recognized as one of the top 20 metropolitan research universities in the country through programs that are excellent in their outcomes and focused in their scope," Ramsey says. "This metropolitan mission distinguishes us from other state universities, such as the University of Kentucky, which has a much broader mission, and from the comprehensive universities, which have a less translational research mission.

"We will continue to be one of the smartest investments the state can make, providing a world-class education for students and new economic opportunities for all Kentuckians."

A Tremendous Return

Ramsey and Willihnganz say more and better infrastructure is needed for the new plan to be a success.

For instance, basic infrastructure, which includes the common technologies necessary to support faculty, staff and students, will require an additional $10 million in funding by 2020. Research infrastructure, including the specialized resources for bioinformatics and computational biology—a strategic growth area—will require an additional $25 million. Instructional technology, vital to classroom instruction and distance education, requires $15 million. And administrative systems, including the tools to support financial aid, human resources, and other costs, will require an additional $11.5 million.

"These costs are in addition to the current costs of maintaining and continually upgrading the university's core infrastructure," Ramsey says. "At the same time, real cost savings are being shown in areas such as UofL's Voice Over IP telephone initiative, expected to reduce the university's phone expenses by $1.2 million per year."

Making the Vision 2020 goals a reality will require "attracting and retaining the best faculty and staff," Ramsey says, "including funds for bringing staff salaries to the average of the regional market and offering faculty salaries that will attract and retain the best of the best."

The goals also require new and newly renovated space for academics, research, student activities and administration. Funding needed for renovation and deferred maintenance is $484 million over the span of the business plan, and the university's capital renewal deficit and deferred maintenance continues to grow.

Ramsey maintains that UofL kept its commitment to the state by implementing and completing the Challenge for Excellence. Funding the new strategic plan is the next stop on the university's road to national preeminence.

"This effort will give the commonwealth a tremendous return on investment, providing a world-class education for our students and new economic opportunities for Kentucky's citizens," he says. "The investments we make now will ensure a bright future for our children and for the entire commonwealth."

The new strategic plan will be distributed to the university community soon.