Vision 2030 is a goal set for the University of Indianapolis that outlines President Robert Manuel’s vision for UIndy in 2030. According to Manuel, Vision 2030 is completed through a series of five-year strategic plans. The vision is what guides each strategic plan and will not change, although the strategic plans will once each is completed.
“So the first five-year strategic plan, which is in support [of] and guided by Vision 2030, has an update, a two-year update, which shows that 95 percent of it got completed or put away,” Manuel said. “And we’re beginning the process now at the university of thinking about what the next set of five years will look like.”
This will be determined by reaching out to the community, students, faculty, staff and alumni, according to Manuel. He said the process will be similar to the way the university defined the first strategic plan, by having about 1,500 people involved in 150 different conversations and surveys that will take about a year to complete and process. According to Manuel, this process will begin this summer.
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Michael Holstein said that the first plan laid about 30 strategic initiatives that the university wanted to complete, and they have done a good job of checking off those goals so far.
“Good progress has been made on all of these,” Holstein said. “And of course the ones that are visible [are] the Health Pavilion, Martin Hall renovations, the library renovation. We put in the lacrosse field. We put in the apartments. So those are all of visible things you can see, like the construction projects and things of that nature.”
According to Manuel, some of these also include adding 35 new faculty members to the Center for Advising and Student Achievement and the Professional Edge Center.
Holstein said there also are a lot of less visible or less tangible things happening, such as curriculum changes, implementing iClassrooms, transit-oriented development like the Indianapolis Red Line, summer term expansion and growing intellectual life. According to Holstein, the university recently has been focused on growing intellectual life. This means growing and expanding academic programs and curriculum at UIndy. Director of Communication and Content Strategies David Hosick said that it is important to focus on adapting UIndy’s intellectual programs to fit the needs of the community and state.
“A great example of the expansion of intellectual life—at least a recent example—is the launch of the engineering program,” Hosick said. “That fills a need that has been expressed widely across that state, that Indiana is lagging a bit in graduates with STEM [science, engineering, technology and math] degrees. There is a high demand for [these] people in the workforce.”
Manuel said he is proud of what has been accomplished so far.
“Well, what I’m proud of is I think that we have increased our appetite to aspire, to engage,” he said. “So we’re networking ourselves differently. We’re doing interdisciplinary work together. We’re thinking about the entire experience of the student and beginning to change things that are impactful of that…. Our notion of who we are and what role we play and how we become a critical piece in the quality of life in our community has grown tremendously, and I’m proud of that.”
Manuel said the first set of achievements is due, in part, to engaged faculty and student populations that care about the university, and he said that is an important piece of what has been done as well. Although the next five-year strategic plan is not yet defined, Manuel said he is looking forward to what it will be and moving closer to his vision for 2030.
“To have a vision for 2030 is a helpful tool for leading the university,” he said, “especially when it’s created by the voices of our people that belong to the community. And now that we’re on a strategic planning cycle of five years, we kind of know how to engage that and deliver it, so I’m excited to see what we can do. We were extremely successful in the first five years, and I’m excited to see what we can do with the next.”
