Dear Campus Community:
I'm sending out brief reflections each week on aspects of our new strategic plan. These reflections provide a context for the focus areas of the plan and are meant to underscore the significance of the plan and why each focus area is crucial to EWU's success.
Reflection on the EWU Strategic Plan: 2018-2023
We Drive Innovation
Crucial to the mission of EWU are the talented faculty and staff who are committed to our students while they're attending the university and after they graduate. In our volatile global society, we will ensure our curricula as well as classroom, laboratory, and campus experiences reflect the complex needs of both traditional and non-traditional students. We will foster opportunities for innovation, scholarship, creative work, and interdisciplinary learning that address pressing issues and support our students' success in the professional workforce of the 21st Century.
Critical issue: Faculty and staff are the heart of the university. We value their dedication and hard work as well as their deep commitment to students. We will support faculty and staff with the tools and knowledge to be successful in a dynamic environment that is increasingly interdisciplinary and forward-looking.
And we will celebrate success. Not only is it critical that the university invest in the talent needed to support and foster our crucial mission, but it is important that we recognize and celebrate outstanding, innovative approaches that enable our students to achieve their goals and dreams.
Critical issue: In addressing the needs of working students and new generations of students who seek expertise and knowledge that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries, Colleges and departments will work creatively to provide opportunities for collaboration with business and industry and with different academic disciplines. For example, we will design and plan for an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary Honors College that attracts diverse students from the region and beyond and enhances the distinctive mission of EWU.
Our curricula, collaborative work, and external partnerships will align strategically and creatively with the needs of students and the communities we serve.
Next week I will reflect on a fourth goal of our plan: We Transform Our Region.
Mary Cullinan
