Kansas State administration is requesting community input following alterations to the K-State 2025 visionary goal.
The K-State 2025 plan was launched in September 2011, with the paramount goal to be recognized as a Top 50 Public Research University by 2025.
The draft for the goal now states: “By 2025, Kansas State University will be a premier, student-centered, public research university serving communities at home and across the globe through our land-grant mission.”
Provost Charles Taber addressed the reasons behind this change in an email.
“We believe that it is important that our vision follow directly from our land-grant mission,” Taber said. “Our aspiration to be a Top 50 Public Research University, which was the previous visionary goal, has not changed, but we see Top 50 status as a metric for measuring our progress toward being a premier, student-centered, public research university.”
Taber said there are many factors that have changed, both at the university and community level, in the past decade.
“The economy is different, our role in economic development, enrollment, the competitive landscape in higher education,” Taber said in an email. “Our biggest current challenges revolve around budget and enrollment.”
President Richard Myers and Taber echoed these sentiments in a K-State Today announcement on Sept. 30.
“This is a great time to refresh our plan and define strategic initiatives to address challenges that have evolved over the last several years and take us to the successful completion of K-State 2025,” the announcement reads.
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Of the six planned phases, K-State 2025 Refresh is currently in the second: explore strategic initiatives.
This phase involves facilitated planning groups — organized by the provost and president’s offices — including members from across the university community, exploring four strategic areas of focus: global food, health, and biosecurity; aviation; the cyber land-grant university; and innovation in education.
The phase will also review feedback from annual visits to colleges and major units to consult with faculty and staff, as well as online survey, available through December, requesting university community feedback about the vision, values and university metrics of K-State 2025.
“The purpose of the meetings is to have robust discussion of our values and work to define priorities for the next five years of our strategic plan,” Myers and Taber wrote in their K-State Today letter.
The schedule for the college visits, taking place through Dec.11, can be found in the Sept. 12 issue of K-State Today.
“We have just announced the draft vision and visionary goal and the set of strategic initiatives and have set up a process to collect feedback,” Taber said. “We have visited with the College of Veterinary Medicine, the Graduate School, and the Office of the Vice President for Research so far to discuss the 2025 refresh.”
The final phase, rolling out the updated plan, is set for September 2020.
“We have just started, but we have gotten excellent feedback from our 2025 visits so far,” Taber added.
