Chancellor Releases Second Installment of Action Items in U of A's 2020: Focus on the Future Series

Chancellor Joe Steinmetz developed 10 action items for the U of A to focus on to advance the mission of teaching, research and service.

Chancellor Joe Steinmetz released this week an expanded explanation of his second action item, detailing how the university needs to be "flexible, adaptive, collaborative, and efficient in the creation and delivery of courses and programs if we want to increase our value and relevance to students."

Details on this action item and others can be found on the Chancellor's website. The first action item, which addressed exceeding expected student retention and graduation rates by at least 5 percent, was released last month.

Steinmetz announced the 2020: Focus on the Future Series of 10 action items as key goals for the university in October as part of his State of the University address. As he explained then "The point of this exercise isn't to develop another plan or set of priorities—we have that already and these priorities continue to steer our planning. The purpose here is to shift our focus to 2020 and beyond and to reframe our continual planning efforts at every level."

In the coming months, Steinmetz will release expanded explanations of all 10 action items, under the series title 2020: Focus on the Future. Each item targets specific actions the university needs to take to position itself for continued and future success.

"Not too long ago, we updated our university vision statement to articulate as simply as possible what kind of a university we should be. It reads: The University of Arkansas represents the best of public higher education, advancing Arkansas while building a better world," Steinmetz said.

Steinmetz went on to say he'd been thinking a lot over the last year or so about what this vision statement meant to him in concrete, actionable terms. He went onto list 10 items he would like to see the university move on in the coming years that would help distinguish U of A as a university. Chancellor Steinmetz encourages all supervisors to share with their staff.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among fewer than 3 percent of colleges and universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.