2027 Strategic Plan Updates

I am pleased to share progress on our strategic plan efforts in the areas of generating new revenue streams, articulating the value of a USF education, and telling our story:

Alternative Revenue Streams

In collaboration with USF’s Office of Sponsored Programs, a USF team of faculty and staff was selected to participate in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) program for faculty research capacity-building and external partnerships. The goal is to broaden participation in innovation ecosystems that advance key technologies. Participating in EPIIC means that USF is eligible to receive $400,000 over three years to build a more inclusive regional ecosystem and connect to NSF Regional Innovation Engines.

In addition, the Office of Professional Education and Business Partnerships has implemented a new FAQ page for certificate creation and governance. They have also launched a professional education lead generation dashboard with the help and support of ITS. The office’s current initiatives include building corporate partnerships in Korea and university collaborations across Asia. Additionally, the Data Institute has created an Industry Advisory Council and is launching an AI data-driven workforce integration program, while exploring new partnerships for bootcamp delivery in full stack web development and cybersecurity.

The Value of a USF Education

The Career Services Center recently completed its first destination survey of undergraduate alumni from the Class of 2023. The results exemplify the collaboration between Career Services, USF students and faculty, and the employer community. Some of the impressive highlights from the Class of 2023 include:

• 95 percent are employed or pursuing further education (or doing both)
  • 79 percent are employed with a strong average starting salary of $71,600
  • 13 percent are continuing their education
  • 3 percent are working and continuing studies simultaneously
• 76 percent completed internships while at USF, averaging 2.5 internships per student and providing a meaningful competitive advantage in the job market
• Our recent undergraduate alumni landed “first” jobs at a wide array of organizations, including Boeing, the City and County of San Francisco, Genentech, Hilliard Architects, Insomniac Games, Meta, Morgan Stanley, Stanford Healthcare, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, UCSF Medical Center, and the United Nations. A breakdown of top employers by school is included below:

2013–23 Undergraduate Alumni

Top Current Employers By School

Telling Our Story

The One Earth Initiative (OEI) stewards USF's commitment to environmental and social justice in the spirit of Laudato si’ and in response to the strategic plan's call to “accelerate the achievement of a more just and sustainable world.” A working group of faculty, staff, students, and administrators developed the OEI action plan through a consultative three-year process. The plan identified four areas of impact for the university: ecological spirituality and culture; education and student experience; infrastructure and facilities; and institutional mechanisms for supporting environmental sustainability initiatives. The next phase of OEI's work involves implementing budget-neutral action items in each of these areas and working with OEI's executive sponsors to put in place medium- and long-term implementation structures. I am grateful to Alice Kaswan, professor of law, and Erin Brigham, director of the Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Ignatian Tradition, who have agreed to serve as OEI co-chairs this academic year.

I am pleased to share progress on our strategic plan efforts in the areas of strengthening our community and ensuring we are a radically welcoming, international, and inclusive campus:

ADEI

The Office of ADEI is collaborating with Student Disability Services (SDS) and the Working Group on Universal Access (WGUA) to promote an inclusive learning environment. We are grateful for the work of SDS and WGUA in making available the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) toolkit which helps instructors, trainers, and presenters reach and support all students, embracing disability justice and diverse abilities. In addition, ADEI sponsored 30 USF faculty members, librarians, graduate students, and staff to attend the Stanford Neurodiversity Summit 2024 (virtual), a forum focused on putting strengths-based approaches in action. For more information on neurodiversity and building a more supportive community on our campus, please join us for a panel led by USF faculty, staff, and students titled, Deepening the Conversation: Neurodiversity and Resilience on Wednesday, Oct. 2 from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Indigenous Engagement and Native Student Success Working Group

I am grateful for the work of the Indigenous Engagement and Native Student Success Working Group that is helping to advance our relationship with Ramaytush Ohlone and Indigenous communities and address our servingness model for Native students. Tangible steps toward these goals include:

• Holding the first Native and Indigenous Graduate Honoring Ceremony led by the Cultural Centers, Native students, and the Student Success Subcommittee.
• Providing access to the film Seeing SF Through Ramaytush Eyes for USF Orientation events. The short film, featuring Greg Castro, Cultural Director for Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, was shaped by Dr. Jonathan Cordero, Metush (Chair) of Ramaytush Ohlone People and was filmed by USF Alumna Samantha Berlanga ‘22. The film belongs to the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone and utilizes an Indigenous methodologies approach. Permission to screen the film can be accessed by contacting the office of ADEI.
• Holding campus conversations on developing community-engaged learning and faculty research protocols as outlined in the Year of Discernment.

International Strategy

USF has signed a partnership agreement with Taejae University (Seoul, South Korea) that will bring up to 50 undergraduate students to USF for the fall 2025 semester. Taejae is a global hybrid university with a pioneering educational model where students rotate as a residential cohort living in key cities around the world. USF will serve as Taejae’s partner in San Francisco, allowing more international students to benefit from and contribute to our diverse community and enabling them to leverage our distinctive strengths in curriculum, innovation, access to Silicon Valley, community-engaged learning, and vibrant community partnerships. We look forward to the Taejae students’ contributions in our classrooms and our community. I am thankful to the Center for Global Education for stewarding this partnership. Academic units that are exploring international MOUs (IMOU) or partnership agreements should be in touch with the provost’s office, which coordinates the IMOU process for the university. Those interested in exploring the possibility of an IMOU should contact Sharon Li for further information and guidance.

Horizon Collective

As introduced in last month’s issue, the Horizon Collective is a pilot program to give students a clear runway to a life’s work solving real-world problems in the three areas where students’ interests, global needs, and labor market demands intersect: 1) climate and sustainability, 2) AI and technology, and 3) health and well-being.

Students in the collective will:

• Enter as a distinct cohort, with experiential learning introduced in their first year.
• Learn from a project-based environment, where students not only collaborate across disciplines, but with industry, government and community partners, all working toward a common cause.
• Work with peer and professional coaches, including alumni mentors, who will review projects, offer guidance, and open doors.

The Horizon Collective experience will ladder up all four years — potentially five, for those who enter a 4+1 accelerated bachelor’s and master’s program. It will not only shape students’ job readiness; it will generate interdisciplinary solutions at the local, state, and global level.

We recently tested our concepts in focus groups with prospective students, which yielded promising results. Students found most compelling the opportunities to gain practical, job-relevant skills by working directly with faculty and industry/community experts on real-world projects; to be guided to relevant internships/research assistantships; to work with a personal professional coach; and to receive scholarships to support their endeavors. The findings aligned with findings from our core curriculum redesign survey, which emphasized the essential need to offer field experience, collaborative projects, and community-engaged learning.

As we continue to shape this pilot for launch in fall 2025, next steps include working with OMC and SEM to begin marketing to prospective students; reaching out to departments to inventory where existing faculty research and scholarship intersect with the three critical areas; and exploring ways our pilot concepts can benefit current students.

We will also monitor a number of key indicators to see how this initiative impacts our enrollment, yield rate, selectivity, and retention. The end goal is for students and families to view the University of San Francisco as their top choice.

We continue to make progress on the five themes that emerged from our strategic planning: 1) rebuild enrollments and improve retention; 2) evolve our education to be future-ready; 3) diversify revenue streams; 4) strengthen our community; and 5) tell our story. Below are highlights from the new initiatives outlined at the convocation as they relate to the five themes.

Strategic Planning

We continue to make progress on the five themes that emerged from our strategic planning: 1) rebuild enrollments and improve retention; 2) evolve our education to be future-ready; 3) diversify revenue streams; 4) strengthen our community; and 5) tell our story. Below are highlights from the new initiatives outlined at the convocation as they relate to the five themes.

4+1 Direct

To rebuild enrollments and improve retention, we have successfully launched the 4+1 Direct initiative that gives students a generous scholarship in their fifth year at USF. The goal is to establish USF as a place known for accelerated bachelor's and master's programs, with pathways for completion of two degrees in less time and at less cost for families. This places our students in a more competitive position in the job market. It’s also a new way to think about our value proposition and a strong yield and retention strategy. In this first year, 69 students have opted into a 4+1 program, three times our average intake, and more students this year than the total number who have graduated with a 4+1 in the past 12 years!

International Strategy

International enrollment remains an area of future growth and an area of distinction for USF, which has historically been in U.S. News & World Report’s top 50 schools for most international students and is ranked No. 1 in the nation for ethnic diversity. To that end, we are bringing together our international recruitment efforts and our global expertise to clearly delineate a strategy that takes full advantage of the potential for growth, focuses our resources and support for our international students, and more closely integrates their experience from the time we recruit them through their life on campus and beyond.

The effort will be led by Vice Provost for Global Education, Immersions, and Strategic Initiatives Anastasia Vrachnos and ISSS Senior Director Marcella Pitcher DeProto, who will oversee the undergraduate international admissions team, working closely with SEM and OMC to build on existing global partnerships and utilize that expertise to navigate a complex and dynamic market. This deeper collaboration over time will also help us tell a compelling story of the international student experience at USF and raise the profile of these efforts among our peers and abroad. The positive reaction from all of the staff who have worked so hard to create a strong global presence for USF is encouraging, and we look forward to the collaborative gains ahead.

Alternative Revenue Streams

In order to diversify revenue streams, we are investing resources in our Office of Sponsored Programs and the newly created Office of Professional Education and Business Partnerships.

In fiscal year 2024, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) submitted 60 proposals totaling $32 million, a 33 percent increase over 2023. These proposals have led to several exciting developments. We have launched the newly named interdisciplinary research center, Center for Law, Tech, and Social Good, focused on preparing technologically skilled lawyers and government leaders to uphold equity and integrity in our digital society. We also saw 12 collaborative research projects get underway to address critical societal challenges with city and state agencies. And the AANAPISI program grant, awarded to School of Education faculty Melissa Canlas and Christine Yeh by the U.S. Department of Education, will provide USF with $1.4 million from 2023–27 for a range of programs to support AAPI students.

The Office of Professional Education and Business Partnerships is charged with increasing alternative net revenue sources outside traditional tuition. To date, an inventory of our existing offerings, faculty expertise, and research capabilities has been conducted to develop new educational pathways for non-traditional students and working professionals.

We are already seeing several high-impact successful partnerships such as those we have with Andersen, Kaiser, Hyundai Manufacturing, and a small consortium of third-partner providers. We have many projects in the works such as a SOM-Hospitality Academy, an SF-AI immersion program with the Data Institute, and new programming on blockchain law with the Center for Law, Tech, and Social Good. Many more are in the pipeline as we reach out to 100+ top Bay Area companies and institutions and build a new customer pipeline.

Horizon Initiative

We are introducing a new academic vision for USF that re-imagines how we future-proof our education and how we tell our distinctive story. Building upon our Jesuit liberal arts core and foundational pillars, the Horizon Initiative will elevate our interdisciplinary teaching and research strengths in three areas where students’ interests, global needs, and labor market demands intersect: climate and sustainability, AI and technology, and health and well-being.

Establishing USF’s distinction in these three areas will require us to draw on all disciplines — scientists, artists, linguists, policymakers, ethicists, lawyers, and entrepreneurs, to name just a few. Our first step this summer was to bring together faculty and administrative leads in a variety of fields to work on a starting point — a catalyst for how we can begin to better showcase USF as a living lab for addressing critical global needs on the nation’s most diverse campus in a pioneering city.

The result is the Horizon Collective, a pilot program to give students a clear runway to a life’s work solving real-world problems in these three critical arenas — through the hands-on experience they crave and the personalized guidance USF excels in. Students in the collective will:

• Enter as a distinct cohort, with experiential learning introduced in their first semester.
• Learn from a project-based environment, where students not only collaborate across disciplines, but with industry, government, and community partners, all working toward a common cause.
• Work with peer and professional coaches, including alumni mentors, who will review projects, offer guidance, and open doors.

The Horizon Collective experience will ladder up all four years — potentially five, for those who enter a 4+1. It will not only shape students’ job readiness, it will generate interdisciplinary solutions at the local, state, and global level.

As we continue to shape this pilot for launch in fall 2025, the working group will be reaching out to departments to inventory and explore where existing faculty research and scholarship intersect with these areas, to broaden the pilot, and to explore ways these concepts can benefit current students. We will monitor a number of key indicators to see how this initiative impacts our enrollment, yield rate, selectivity, and retention. The end goal is for students and families to view the University of San Francisco as their top choice.

Core Curriculum Design Phase

We have made significant strides toward revamping our core curriculum to better prepare students for a constantly changing and pluralistic world that demands agility, adaptability, creativity, and collaboration. The curriculum will help prepare them for future careers, many of which may not even exist yet.

The 15-member Core Curriculum Redesign Task Force, which includes faculty from all three undergraduate schools, staff from co-curricular and student support areas, and two student representatives, has led us through the discovery phase of our core revision. Drawing from the findings and recommendations of the discovery phase, we are now in the design phase with new and returning members of the task force. The goals of the design phase are to:

• Develop core learning outcomes that articulate the purpose of a redesigned core curriculum.
• Design and propose a new core curriculum model aligned with core learning outcomes that upholds the committee’s charge and the guidelines and principles outlined in the strategic plan working group recommendations, including a distinctive Jesuit education that equips students for success beyond their undergraduate studies and high-impact practices.

The task force will be soliciting feedback on potential models prior to proposing a redesigned core curriculum. The task force will be sharing updates throughout the year through community forums and on the core curriculum redesign website. Reports, presentations, and the final report from the discovery phase are also posted on the website.

Congratulations to Carolina Echeverria, Annette Regan, and the School of Nursing and Health Professions team on receiving the Outstanding Teamwork in Advancing the University’s Strategic Plan Award. Their work was recognized for making an exceptional contribution to advancing the USF Strategic Plan, with an emphasis on creative co-design, collaboration, and cross-departmental/divisional teamwork. SONHP team members have played leading roles in the university’s strategic planning efforts in several capacities, lending their talent, energies, and time, and prioritizing the school’s alignment with the university's strategic plan. The plan is a collective endeavor of everyone on our campuses, and I’m grateful to each of you for your contributions. Thank you, as well, to SPAC and the OMC team for continuing to share the latest updates on our progress with our community.

Strategic Planning

We continue to make progress on many of our strategic planning initiatives, including the redesign of the update to our Core Curriculum (see below). We have updated the strategic plan dashboard to reflect progress through the first quarter of 2024. In addition, SPAC has created an overview of SP progress and highlights in each area.

Undergraduate Core Curriculum Redesign

Thanks to all who attended the undergraduate core curriculum redesign survey findings presentations and the Undergraduate Core Curriculum Redesign Community Conversations last month.

If you missed the last two community conversations, the Undergraduate Core Curriculum Redesign Advisory Group has one more opportunity this semester. This community conversation will take place on Tuesday, April 16, from 11:45 a.m.–12:45 p.m. PDT on Zoom. Please register and a Zoom link will be sent to you.

If you have ideas or comments about the undergraduate core curriculum redesign, please share them with the task force.

Student Success Retention and Equity Task Force (SSRE)
In collaboration with the schools and college, the SSRE is engaged in multiple efforts to raise our retention to at least 81 percent of our first-time, first-year students by fall 2024. See highlights below and a full update here:

• Degree maps are being developed for each undergraduate major and will be available to all current and prospective students.
• Declare Your Major Week will be held this semester to help undeclared students find an academic home.
• High-impact practices (HIPs) are being mapped across curricular and co-curricular areas to assess their impact on retention and persistence.
• The USF Mentor Collective is pairing first-generation students with mentors and has inspired 340 conversations in its first six months.

Latiné/x Excellence & Belonging Initiative (LE&BI)
The LE&BI Working Group aims to support the inclusion, retention, and holistic development of Latiné/x students, and to foster connection for Latiné/x faculty and staff. If you are a Latiné/x faculty or staff member and are interested in being notified of events, please join the email list. Key highlights of the group’s work to date include:

• Launching the Casa Madriz Living Learning Community for first-year students in fall 2024, building on the legacy of the Esther Madríz Diversity Scholars
• Developing a dashboard to support access and retention for Latiné/x students
• Hosting a welcome event for Latiné/x students and their parents at orientation
• Organizing a faculty, librarian, and staff social to cultivate connections among members of the Latiné/x community at USF
• Working with the Cultural Centers and the ADEI office to offer community-wide opportunities to celebrate Latiné/x heritage

• Undergraduate Core Curriculum Redesign: Next Steps The Core Redesign Task Force continues its data collection and sharing out its findings, while developing the guidelines and values for the redesigned core curriculum. The Core Redesign Advisory Group seeks to amplify this work and widen the core conversation by facilitating community listening sessions. Upcoming opportunities include:

• The next Community Conversation on the core redesign will explore how we can better support and advance student learning in a newly designed core curriculum.
  Monday, March 25, from 12–1 p.m. PDT online via Zoom. Register »
  (An in-person listening session is forthcoming.)
• The Core Redesign Task Force will share its survey findings with the community. Thank you to the 222 faculty and staff and 1,239 students who completed the Core Redesign Survey last month!
  Wednesday, April 3, from 4–5 p.m. PDT online via Zoom. Register »
  (An in-person listening session is forthcoming.)

Ignatian Leadership and Holistic Success Fellowship Program
The Ignatian Leadership and Holistic Success Fellowship Program builds on the discernment and ideas developed by Strategic Plan Working Group #5 to ensure USF is an extraordinary and equitable place to work. With support from the Jesuit Foundation, the program offers opportunities for current employees to expand their skills in leadership, conflict resolution, effective management practices, and career advancement strategies.
Please join us on Tuesday, March 12, from 12:30–1:20 p.m. PDT (online via Zoom) for On Leading with Clarity, Courage, and Compassion: Mindfulness for Well-Being and Ethical Engagement at Work. The session explores how mindfulness can support us in enhancing our well-being and ability to work effectively with others, even in the face of disruption and the rapid and challenging changes in the broader world. Register »

The strategic plan calls for reimagining Jesuit education and revising USF’s curricula and co-curricula to be responsive to our students’ aspirations and to prepare them for a changing and pluralistic world. I am grateful for the work that many faculty, librarians, and staff are engaged in to redesign our curricula.

Undergraduate Core Curriculum Redesign Task Force (CRTF) Update

On Feb. 26 from 12 to 1 p.m., the task force members will share what they learned through the data collection process on the current USF core curriculum as well as core curricula at other higher education institutions. Please register here. Interested, but can't attend the presentation? Register anyway — all registrants will receive a recording of the presentation and a copy of the presentation slides.

The task force continues its work this semester with ongoing data collection during the discovery phase and wants to hear from you! Please complete this survey before Feb. 11. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Community Listening Sessions

We are planning two Community Listening Sessions this spring for faculty curricular stakeholders and the wider USF community to participate in this redesign process. Please be on the lookout for more information. These sessions will be organized and facilitated by the newly formed Core Redesign Advisory Group.

Core Redesign Advisory Group

Comprised of 10 full-time faculty members representing units across the university, the Core Redesign Advisory Group is tasked with creating a community engagement plan around the core redesign process and supporting the provost’s office and Core Redesign Task Force by providing timely feedback on core-related issues. The group was formed out of a recommendation advanced by last year’s Strategic Plan Working Group #1: Reimagining Jesuit Education that sought to support the core redesign process, provide key stakeholders more opportunities for input, and increase transparency and community involvement.

The strategic plan calls on us to reimagine Jesuit education and revise USF’s curricula to respond to our students’ aspirations and prepare them for a changing and pluralistic world. Redesigning our core curriculum is a key element of evolving the education we provide our students, and I am grateful for the work of the Core Curriculum Redesign Task Force. The task force is engaged in Phase I: Discovery and has spent the fall semester examining existing data on the core curriculum and exploring general education and core models at peer institutions. In the spring semester, the task force will share its findings with the community and gather feedback on what the community hopes to see in a redesigned undergraduate core curriculum. Please be on the lookout for opportunities to share your feedback in spring!

In Phase II: Design, a working group of faculty, librarians, staff, and students will be convened to collaboratively engage in the design of the new core curriculum. Members of the working group will meet throughout the 2024–25 academic year, with an opportunity to attend the AAC&U 2024 Conference on General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment in the spring.

To nominate yourself or a colleague for the Phase II: Design working group, please complete this form and submit it by Jan. 31, 2024. Faculty, librarians, staff, and student nominations are invited and self-nominations are accepted.

I am grateful to the working groups, the faculty, librarians and staff, and the Strategic Plan Advisory Council (SPAC) who have been working on initiatives in our community-driven strategic plan. We look forward to implementing as many of the working group recommendations as possible this year. SPAC has created a dashboard that outlines key implementation priorities, identifies lead stakeholders, and includes outcomes or key performance indicators (KPIs) to track our progress. We will be updating you regularly on the progress of the many initiatives underway, and assessing their impact in May, which will mark the end of year two of our five-year strategic plan.

Strategic Enrollment Management’s second year of implementation of USF’s ISEP continued efforts to translate the vision, goals, and actions in the USF 2027 Strategic Plan into a roadmap for concrete enrollment gains, with a holistic focus on recruitment, retention, and student outcomes post-graduation. Below are updates on projects completed and in progress during year two, grouped into four priority areas:

New Undergraduate Enrollment

Projects here focused on growing enrollment and aid opportunities for Bay Area and international students, and improving yield:

• Hosted the AICCU conference and individual counselors on campus, invited them to high-visibility events, and connected them with campus leadership;
• Expanded recruitment in UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, South Korea; created new student funding partnerships with Oman, Botswana; extended brand-building and inquiry search in Africa; work in progress to create MOUs and 2+2 pathway transfer programs with other international institutions and six community colleges in California, Washington and Florida;
• Increased local recruitment interactions by 11.5% YoY, and coordinated this year’s Northern California Jesuit Excellence Tour;
• Established a benchmarked and replicable survey process to assess matriculants and non-matriculants YoY to inform our strategies on search buys and outreach each cycle; offered and promoted monthly financial aid webinars, with strong attendance.

Recruitment and Engagement

These projects aim to diversify lead generation and enhance our digital recruitment strategy:

• Launched live chat functionality and online community (Unibuddy) where prospective students can engage directly with current students throughout the cycle; launched email nudge campaign triggered by tracking visitor behavior on key recruitment webpages
• Enhanced website and worked with testing agencies to better capture parent data; enhanced virtual tour with new campus construction and embedded in key sections of the website;
• Work in progress on enhanced segmentation and personalization of yield communications in eight high-demand majors, providing stronger proof points on academic experience, career opportunities and experiential learning;
• Established deeper data analysis process that will allow us to better track the performance of our search buys over time.

Student Financial Services

Work here has targeted technical improvements in aid processing and payment collection, and timely information to students and families:

• Completed SSB 9 (Banner) customizations for easier navigation through outstanding requirements and academic recovery for at-risk students;
• Developed and launched surveys to measure satisfaction with service to students;
• Collaborated with data team to enhance reporting and create comprehensive performance tracking dashboards;
• Launched quarterly newsletter with strong engagement rates; work ongoing to create a comprehensive financial literacy program (in-person and virtual).

Service and Collaboration

The registrar’s office led these efforts to enhance processes for articulation, readmission, and digitized forms:

• Completed updates to 64 articulation agreements (60 CA + 4 Seattle-area) and established thorough review process for subsequent annual updates;
• Digitized registration and graduation forms, enhanced online veteran Yellow Ribbon enrollment; improved digital notifications re: GR/DR deficiencies; centralized process for reviewing transfer athlete’s progress to degree;
• Work continues on improvements to the readmission application and website.