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Strategic Plan 2022-2027: 'Extending the Reach and Impact of Science'

By Tamara Cissna

After a full year of community-wide engagement, more than 100 members and friends of the College of Science gathered on Oct. 6 to celebrate the launch of our next five-year strategic plan, “Extending the Impact and Reach of Science.”

Aligned with Oregon State University’s mission to develop leadership among land grant universities, this plan will guide the College of Science over the next five years in our aims to lead in inclusive scientific research, education and engagement in Oregon and globally.

Read the College of Science Strategic Plan 2022-2027 online, and learn about our collaborative, extensive process in developing the plan on the strategic planning website.

On behalf of the Strategic Planning Committee, thanks to the many individuals in the College of Science for engaging in the plan’s development. This is a community plan that reflects the priorities and values of our College of Science community – undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni – and strategic partners, board members and alumni who deliberated over the 2021-22 academic year.

“I am grateful for the engagement of our Science community and proud of the work our Strategic Planning Committee has collectively done while being transparent, collaborative and empathetic. I am especially proud of our student members for being equal partners in this endeavor,” said Interim Dean Vrushali Bokil, who chaired the Strategic Planning Committee.

Their input, along with Oregon State’s SP4.0 commitments and our diversity action plan, shaped the strategic plan’s bold vision to extend the reach and impact of science. They also shaped the College of Science’s new mission:

We develop the next generation of leaders, mentors, educators and culture shapers to advance scientific discovery and science literacy for addressing local, regional and global challenges to provide solutions that improve the human condition.

To set the course for the College of Science’s future, the plan focuses on three strengths that will be achieved by 2030:

-Excellence in research and innovation,
-Transformative science education and literacy, and
-Partnerships to support community, equity and engagement.

Importantly, this new plan is integrated with the College’s diversity action plan, Embedding Equity, Access and Inclusion, which aims to ensure accessible and equitable education and research opportunities in the College.

“We set out to create a strategic plan that reflected the reach and impact of Science here at OSU and globally, knowing that it can only be achieved by incorporating our core values around equity, access and inclusion,” said Kameron Kadooka, EAI director in the College. “Rather than creating one specific action goal, we instead chose to directly embed EAI into each goal and to interweave that lens as part of all the actions of the Strategic Plan.”

While it is great to have a strategic plan with a big vision, mission and goals, Bokil stresses the importance of creating a roadmap for the implementation of the actions in the plan.

Stay tuned for more information about the implementation committee and for calls for providing feedback into the implementation of this plan.