WSU Vancouver Strategic Plan
WSU Vancouver Purpose and Values Statement
Purpose: Washington State University Vancouver's purpose is to enhance the intellectual and practical capacities of the individuals, institutions and communities that we serve.
Values: The enactment of purpose through specific institutional decisions and actions is guided by a commitment to quality embodied in a set of core values that jointly give WSU Vancouver its distinctive identity.
Intellect - Intellectual growth is at the heart of WSU Vancouver's mission. The university strives to instill within students, faculty, staff, and those whom we serve, a love of learning. We are committed to fostering intellectual inquiry and developing the capacity for thoughtful reasoning, reflection and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Practice - We believe in the inherent value of applying knowledge and expertise to address complex issues that have a strong regional focus, and whose scope extends to encompass national and international concerns.
Character - WSU Vancouver aims to create, through our work and the relationships we develop among our constituencies, a context that cultivates individual virtues, institutional integrity and the good of communities.
Engagement - We are guided by an ethic of leadership and service that recognizes the importance of identifying, creating and responding to the interests and needs of WSU Vancouver's diverse constituencies. Engagement must occur in a reflective way, sensitive to the interplay of various interests and commitments among these constituencies.
At any point in time, one or more of these values may be tested or particular values given added emphasis. Three additional institutional values give needed balance and support to the challenging interweaving of intellect, practice, character and engagement.
Stewardship - Purpose and values are most likely to be achieved when faculty and staff at WSU Vancouver take ownership for upholding the full scope of values, and acknowledge the tensions created in fulfilling these values in light of financial and human resource limitations.
Caring & Community - We recognize that in order to serve our diverse communities, we must first be a community within WSU Vancouver. As a community of faculty and staff, we demonstrate our concern and regard for each other through extending mutual respect and acknowledging the dignity of each individual.
Diversity - We embrace diversity and inclusion by honoring racial, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic and ideological differences.
Back to TopWSU Vancouver Five Year Strategic Plan
Student Success
Offer the best educational experience (undergraduate and graduate) in a research university.
The aim is to have WSU Vancouver be known for its devotion to student success. Whether it relates to technology, research and writing skills, critical thinking, etc., the commitment to support and serve all students, including those considered at risk in various ways, should become synonymous with WSU Vancouver. This requires development of a curriculum and learning experiences that sustain this direction and the cultivation of a campus culture that enhances diversity.
All degree programs will include opportunities for students to work with faculty on scholarly activities.
All degree programs will include opportunities for students and faculty to address real life issues being experienced by our partners in the local community.
Provide graduate and undergraduate curricula that are balanced, comprehensive and coherent.
WSU Vancouver will provide a support program that encourages all students to succeed.
Faculty at WSU Vancouver will be distinguished by their commitment to quality, to student success and to the integration of teaching, research and service.
Expand the culture of inquiry throughout the local community.
Provide structures for academic success and increased access to higher education for a diversified student body, evidenced through recruitment, retention and degree completion rates comparable across all subgroups of the student population.
Back to Top
Research
Nurture a world-class environment for research, scholarship, graduate education, the arts and engagement.
Continue to build the infrastructure to support world-class research.
Increase university partnerships with private business, public agencies and community groups.
Commit to the scholarship of engagement by seeking opportunities to address issues of community concern both in teaching and in research.
Increase university partnerships with private business, public agencies and community groups.
Develop a culture of shared commitment to quality in all our activities.
Back to Top
Community Partnerships
WSU Vancouver will become a vital and vibrant institution within the greater Portland/S.W. Washington region, enriching the intellectual, social and cultural life of these communities.
Seek all appropriate opportunities for the community to participate in the campus' instructional mission.
Provide opportunities for staff development.
Areas of Excellence
Recognizing that no institution (including large comprehensive ones) can be expert in all fields, it is important that WSU Vancouver determine what areas of selective excellence will identify this campus. Such area or areas of excellence must be ones that take advantage of the unique strengths of the campus and environment in which it exist.
Identify those areas of strength in the local community that can contribute to the WSU Vancouver areas of excellence.
Identify those areas, which are less well served by the other academic institutions in the region.
Identify those areas of strength or emerging strengths on the campus that can serve as the beginning points for the areas of excellence.
Encourage academic areas individually and in collaboration with other areas, to identify centers of excellence. These centers should help to direct efforts around a common focus, to guide efforts in program development, faculty hiring and allocation of resources.
Back to Top
Diversity
Recognizing that diversity is a core element in achieving the goals of the campus, we aspire to take full advantage of the importance that diversity brings to a quality education and to be recognized for our commitment to diversity. We embrace diversity and inclusion by honoring racial, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, ideological and other differences. Diversity of thought and expression are crucial social resources which the university can foster. We affirm a dedication to the exercise of freedom of thought and expression at WSU Vancouver and in our community.
Provide leadership and encourage an administrative structure that creates systems of accountability in teaching, research, and service to all communities, including those underrepresented.
Create at WSU Vancouver an institutional environment that is safe and inclusive for work and learning.
Develop curriculum and scholarship that enhance learning about, and respect for, diversity and equality.
Faculty/staff recruitment, employment and retention. Provide structures to recruit, employ, develop, and retain a diversified workforce that includes all underrepresented groups but is not limited to those classes protected by federal and state law.