Engineering excellence for the public good
Strategic Plan 2022-2027
Investing strategically in our future
The College provides a remarkable return on the resources entrusted to it by students and their families, the state of Washington, funding agencies and generous donors. We commit to strengthening our financial foundation and physical infrastructure, raising our visibility, investing in our people and increasing operational efficiencies through data-driven assessment.
To achieve the goals of this strategic plan, we will:
JUMP TO: Strengthen financial foundation Create and promote brand identity Enhance staff well-being Use data-driven analytics Increase operational efficiency
STRATEGY 1
Strengthen the College's financial foundation
FIVE-YEAR GOALS
Develop a resource generation and financial management plan to realize the College’s strategic plan.
Expand online, certificates, short courses, professional master’s programs and other program offerings.
Establish incentives and reduce barriers to innovative new initiatives and revenue generation.
Increase the College’s public and private revenues to provide permanent endowed funding, industry funds and support for student programming and services.
First year (2022-2023)
- Hire a director of new programs and innovation.
- In partnership with the UW College of Arts & Sciences, the Office of Planning & Budgeting, the Provost’s Office and the Office of State Relations, develop a STEM proposal to include engineering enrollment expansion in the Legislative agenda for the ’23-’25 biennium.
- Complete program fee feasibility study.
- Build case for industry prospects for term-use faculty support and graduate student support, in concert with partnerships involving contract and private grant funding. Build case for support and clear goals around medical innovation programming as well as prospective donor pool.
Second year (2023-2024)
- Implement a growth model that facilitates and incentivizes the creation of new programs or evolution of existing programs to maximize College revenue and support departments and students. Develop metrics that will define success, and create a baseline so that future progress can be measured.
- Pursue state support for enrollment and access expansion through STEM proviso request.
- Utilize the results of the program fee feasibility study to pursue a change that will begin to address the cost of educating an engineer and improve and enhance the student experience and outcomes while ensuring that access is maintained.
STRATEGY 2
Create and promote a compelling brand identity for the College that captures our excellence and impact
FIVE-YEAR GOALS
Develop a College brand identity and communications strategy in alignment with the University’s brand that supports the objectives of the organization and advances broad-based engagement.
Leverage the brand identity internally to strengthen affinity with and pride in the College among its departments and our faculty, staff and students.
First year (2022-2023)
- Present external research results to College leadership and utilize findings to inform next phase of work.
- In partnership with University Marketing & Communications secure a consultant to develop brand promise, platform and key messages.
- Develop and implement internal communication plan to ensure participation in and awareness of efforts.
Second year (2023-2024)
- Launch targeted publicity campaign to support student recruitment efforts; identify other audiences for targeted creative campaigns.
- Adopt brand internally, and increase internal awareness of College and its identity.
STRATEGY 3
Enhance the well-being and professional development of our staff
FIVE-YEAR GOALS
Promote continuous learning that encourages professional and personal development and improved job satisfaction.
Create clear career pathways and advancement opportunities within the College of Engineering and the University at large.
First year (2022-2023)
- Ensure greater than 20% staff participation in career advancement and professional development programs.
- Create a pilot mentoring program that includes staff support in the areas of career advancement and professional development.
- Survey staff every year for job satisfaction; create a baseline of understanding and to inform program development and resource allocation; use survey findings to plan and implement programs to address issues.
Second year (2023-2024)
- Expand the pilot program created in year one, implement a suite of career advancement and professional development programs, with greater than 50% staff participation.
- Provide opportunities for feedback and input, including annual surveys. Consider re-prioritizing resources for programs that do not receive positive feedback.
STRATEGY 4
Use transparent, understandable and data-driven analytics to assess and improve the College’s performance and align incentives with our priorities
FIVE-YEAR GOALS
Improve, expand and integrate data to support decision-making by implementing tools that create efficiencies for faculty and staff.
Use this strategic plan to direct new initiatives, resource allocations, policy changes and activities with significant bearing on our stakeholders.
First year (2022-2023)
- Conduct data and analytics inventory to identify and prioritize list of key metrics; identify trends and establish baselines; and understand options for managing local data, security and integration with enterprise data.
- Continue developing forecasting models for the College and its units to enable assessment of financial consequences of decisions. Publish dashboards and/or reports to provide resource and expenditures information by unit.
Second year (2023-2024)
- Utilize findings from first year inventory to inform the development of data collection, management, security, reports and enterprise integration.
STRATEGY 5
Leverage existing resources and expertise to increase operational efficiency
FIVE-YEAR GOALS
Strengthen administrative structures in support of our faculty, students and staff. Develop organizational structures that promote collaboration, efficiency and excellence in service.
Enhance collaboration and sharing arrangements among our academic departments across multiple support functions, such as computing services, advising and student services, financial transformation, DEI, and marketing and communications.
Strengthen the College’s physical infrastructure to support its education and research, including completion of the new Interdisciplinary Engineering Building and strategic renovation and retrofitting of current facilities and equipment.
First year (2022-2023)
- Identify operational inefficiencies, duplicative processes and service gaps. Prioritize opportunities for improvement, including required resources and pathways for change. Identify project leaders; develop process leads to form task force.
- Launch a pilot shared service program to meet changing departmental fiscal needs.
- In partnership with UW Facilities and OPB’s Office of Capital Planning Strategy review and update the College’s Payette space study (2017) to ensure our alignment with the campus master plan and our ability to accommodate projected enrollment and research growth.
- Develop a transparent process to support minor facility modifications and capital refreshes.
- Develop tools and systems to enhance communication, innovation and exchange of best practices across administrative divisions and between academic and administrative units.
Second year (2023-2024)
- Assess pilot programs and processes, including testing of systems and collection of customer satisfaction. Identify needed improvements and permanent investment requirements.
- Implement the process to support minor facility modifications and capital refreshes.
- Create a structure to support changes required by UW Finance Transformation.
- Establish standards and services for processing service agreements and contracts.
- Develop systems and determine staffing and funding model to support complex grant proposals.