Leadership Retreat Theme Summary

Provides integrated and engaged learning opportunities for multiple phases of individuals’ lives to foster academic and professional success elevate civic engagement and meet personal life goals. (High quality and relevant education)

Actions that can be taken:

Provide high-impact learning experiences

• Include students, faculty and staff engagement

• Consider traditional and non-traditional approaches

• Provide options for transfer students

Build more community connections

• Expand connections with businesses, communities and nonprofit organizations

• Provide civic engagement opportunities for students

• Provide more diverse geographic opportunities for engagement

• Expand internship opportunities

Expand lifelong learning opportunities

• Provide opportunities for both alumni and the broader community

• Expand professional development – credentials and micro-credentials

• Increase classroom to community opportunities

Focus on real-world problems and engagement

• Create programs and courses around global issues

• Expand interdisciplinary opportunities and approaches

• Embed problems solving in the curriculum

Widens educational opportunity and enhances quality of life by insuring access to a supportive education and campus while retaining a sense of community and affinity for the university. (Access and support for all)

Actions that can be taken:

Create a sense of community

• Create opportunities for both on campus and off campus

• Expand the number of affinity groups

• Connect more broadly with Waterloo

• Create a welcoming environment for all students

• Connect centers with academic programs

Enhance affordability

• Increase financial aid

• Provide flexibility for working students

• Expand distance education opportunities

• Expand options for dual admissions with community colleges

• Create more options for degree completion

Expand learning options

• Connect outreach and learning

• Grow opportunities for experiential learning

• Consider both winter and summer mini-term options

• Create more learning communities

Deepen collaboration with the community and state

• Build mutually beneficial collaborations with community partners and residents

• Work closely with Waterloo, Dallas, and Polk Counties

• Expand our connections to high schools

Enhances the reach of human capital and is engaged in solving real world problems and meeting emerging societal needs. (Real-world engagement)

Actions that can be taken:

Incorporate real-world issues into the curriculum

• Connect general education courses to global issues

• Develop capstone courses on a common issue

• Help students connect to future life and career

• Expand internships in the community

• Create listening posts in the community on key issues

• Expand faculty and staff development on defining and addressing global issues

Create an interdisciplinary approach to engagement

• Provide an opportunity for all students to get a chance to work on a community engagement project outside of their discipline

• Create a campus-wide engagement project each year

• Connect social and community needs

• Provide more flexibility within curriculum and for faculty

Publicize what we are doing and have been doing in community engagement

• Determine how to measure the impact of students, alumni and centers

• Connect our centers to academic programs

• Promote the current projects and deep engagement in North Waterloo

• Expand the economic inclusion conference to include more students

Enhances living, learning and working environments to achieve diversity, equity, inclusion and a sense of community while responding to the changing demography of the population. (Living diversity, equity and inclusion)

Actions that can be taken:

Create or enhance equity-focused financial aid and student support practices

• Expand need-based financial aid for low-income, first generation, and working adult students

• Enhance the use of universal design to further promote accessibility

• Expand UNI’s footprint across the state to serve geographically place bound learners through 2+2 programming, micro-credentials or other educational offerings

Grow the diversity of UNI faculty, staff and students through an enhanced, strategic and synergized focus on equity, inclusion and accountability across campus

• Further synergize recruitment, retention, and graduation efforts on campus

• Enhance equity-focused employee recruitment and retention practices on campus.

• Normalize equity, inclusion, and diversity work as an enterprise-wide employee expectation

  • Provide continuous learning and professional development opportunities for employees to be informed in their EID work.

• Intentionally link campus climate surveys to systemic change-focused action items.

Integrates and ethically leads the application of emerging technologies and practices and provides an environment to ensure vitality through its academic programs and business operations. (Digitally and educationally innovative)

Actions that can be taken:

Expand access to a UNI education

• Create career-relevant distance education programs targeting workforce needs

• Establish hybrid/hyflex offerings that enable working adults to better balance home, work, and higher education

• Provide regular professional development opportunities for faculty to ensure proficiency in the use of educational technologies in meeting the needs of today’s students

Enhance the use of technology in business practices and operations

• Explore further synergies between departments in staffing and business operations

• Examine how we might employ artificial intelligence in university operations

• Provide regular training to faculty and staff on current and emerging campus technologies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness in UNI’s adoption of technological innovations

Efficiently and effectively utilizes campus spaces and resources to best support the university mission. (Great steward of resources)

Actions that can be taken:

Embrace remote work opportunities to capitalize on talent in a competitive market

• Create new remote work opportunities for university employees

• Invest in team development activities that maintain UNI’s sense of community in providing personalized educational experiences to students

Reduce the physical footprint of the UNI campus

• Prioritize deferred maintenance needs and identify unused space that may no longer be needed

• Promote energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in new physical projects

Explore shared spaces that promote interdisciplinary teaching, research, and student support services

• Examine whether certain departments may co-locate or be relocated into shared or close proximal space to enhance collaboration