Six strategic themes are at the core of MSU’s strategic plan. Critically, these themes emerged through an engaged and inclusive process. They provided the scaffold for broad, outcome-oriented goals and related objectives that also represent the thinking of our campus community. For each objective, illustrative strategies and actions appear, and for each goal, potential indicators or metrics demonstrating progress are suggested. The Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) anticipates strategies/actions and indicators/metrics will be refined and expanded during plan implementation as well as by individual colleges and units in their unit-based planning and implementation.
The ordering of the themes is intentional. The plan begins with a focus on people, with the success of our students, faculty and staff at the heart of all that we do. We begin with students, the reason we exist as an educational institution, then follow with a theme addressing the needs of our unique workforce. Next come themes focused on excellence reaching across our core missions, concentrating on strengths, differentiators and areas of societal need. The plan concludes with foundational and cross-cutting themes required for sustainability, effectiveness and excellence in the future: themes addressing various aspects of sustainable stewardship, including financial, and our diversity, equity and inclusion theme, which highlights the intersectionality of our DEI strategic plan with the university strategic plan.