Strategic Planning 2022-2025

Hello, and thank you for your interest in William Paterson’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025. In a post-pandemic world, our institution, along with all of higher education, must adjust to a new landscape. This carefully considered plan will help our University meet the demographic and other challenges we face by leveraging its traditional strengths in student success while also adapting to serve new markets in our select online programs.

This Strategic Plan consists of five pillars on which the University community is concentrating its collective efforts:

The first two pillars are about creating new opportunities to extend and adapt William Paterson’s educational offerings into new markets in order to reach more non-traditional students. The next two address strengthening our efforts to increase student retention. The attrition pillar does this directly. Equally important is our ongoing work to decolonize the University so that every William Paterson student has a just and equitable educational experience in which they feel seen, engaged, and valued as a full member of our community.

The fifth pillar is to create a Mission Statement that will better reflect who we serve, how our educational framework functions, and our overall goals for our students. 

The plan’s purposefully compressed timeframe is intended to ensure that everyone at William Paterson brings a sense of urgency to these priorities. Built upon the plan’s five pillars is a comprehensive set of goals, action steps, and key performance indicators, which help us implement the plan, measure the impact of our actions, and make any necessary adjustments. 

This plan is the product of a lot of thoughtful work on the part of the entire University community, and I want to thank the co-chairs of the Strategic Planning and Branding and Identity Steering Group: Dr. Guillermo de Veyga, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and University Relations; Dr. David Fuentes, Interim Associate Dean of the College of Education; and Dr. Eileen Lubeck, Dean of Students. Thanks also to all the members of the four working groups associated with each pillar.

Finally, I also want to thank all the students, faculty, staff, and administrators who provided important feedback as the plan took shape, as well as the Chairs Council, Club Council, Faculty Senate, Marketing and Public Relations Advisory Committee, President’s Cabinet, Student Government Association, and University Council, which facilitated that feedback by providing forums for discussion and surveys. 

The plan was presented to and adopted by the Board of Trustees at its September 16, 2022 meeting.

Periods of great change can present great opportunity. William Paterson University is fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, trustees, and friends who believe in our mission to educate the students who are changing the social fabric of our state and our nation. The Strategic Plan 2022-2025 will help us all focus our energies on a common set of objectives and, ultimately, allow us to better serve more students and build a stronger William Paterson.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Helldobler, PhD
President


 

Strategic Planning Implementation teams
Strategic Planning Workgroups

Working Group Updates - April/May 2022

Branding and Identity