UW-La Crosse Strategic Plan
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Strategic Plan
Sustaining Excellence
Increasing community engagement
UWL embraces community engagement as a key component to our teaching, scholarly, & service mission.
Goals
- Initiate strategies that create and promote increased opportunities for students’ community engagement that are academically grounded.
- Measure, assess and create accountability structure for community engagement across UWL.
- Market mutually beneficial relationships between UWL and private/public organizations in the greater La Crosse community, state, region, and globally; in particular, focus on the importance of public/community engagement in advancing UWL’s mission centered on the value of a Liberal Arts education.
- Integrate community engagement into UWL policies and procedures.
- Secure funding to support continued community engagement.
Achieving excellence through equity and diversity
UWL is committed to being an equitable & welcoming community to maintain our status as a high quality & competitive university.
Goals
- Achieve demographic equity in access and retention for students, staff, faculty, and administrators. Equity liaison initiative
- Provide fully inclusive educational experiences for all students.
- Ensure that all employees are engaged in creating a dynamic and welcoming campus community.
- Make UWL's Equity & Diversity efforts highly visible and coordinated across campus.
Investing in our people
UWL recognizes that our status as a high quality and competitive university depends on our faculty and staff.
Goals
- Prioritize employee compensation.
- Promote an environment of employee inclusion, ownership and engagement.
- Create clear and consistent assessment and accountability policies for all employees.
Advancing Transformational Education
High-impact teaching & learning opportunities that are proven to aid student success across diverse backgrounds.
Goals
- Increase the opportunities for students to engage in high-impact practices by graduation.
- Monitor persistence and retention rates with the goal of improvement.
- Expand international/global learning opportunities for all students.
- Enhance graduate education.
- Increase opportunities for cross-disciplinary teaching and learning.
- Evaluate and revise the General Education program.
Values
Fassett Cotton, our institution's first leader, serving from 1909-1924, conceived the original University of Wisconsin-La Crosse educational philosophy of the total development of the individual. Later, history professor and Dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences, William M. Laux (1922-1967), suggested the symbols of our official university seal along with the accompanying Latin phrase, mens corpusque ("mind and body"), to exemplify our collective commitment to a high quality education for the whole person.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse values:
- The mens corpusque educational philosophy that recognizes each student as a whole person and aspires to enhance both mind and body through the noble search for knowledge, truth, and meaning central to a wide range of high quality learning experiences and scholarly pursuits.
- Diversity, equity, and the inclusion and engagement of all people in a safe campus climate that embraces and respects the innumerable different perspectives found within an increasingly integrated and culturally diverse global community.
- A high quality of life and work balance, incorporating best practices for shared governance and the acquisition and efficient management of resources, equitable compensation, general wellness, and social, environmental, and economic sustainability.
- Civic engagement and a renewed commitment to the Wisconsin Idea, in which our socially responsible campus serves as a resource for our increasingly intertwined local, state, and global communities, collaborating and sharing resources and expertise to improve the human condition.
Mission
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse provides a challenging, dynamic, and diverse learning environment in which the entire university community is fully engaged in supporting student success. Grounded in the liberal arts, UWL fosters curiosity and life-long learning through collaboration, innovation, and the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge. Acknowledging and respecting the contributions of all, UWL is a regional academic and cultural center that
prepares students to take their place in a constantly changing world community. The university offers undergraduate programs and degrees in the arts and humanities, health and sciences, education, and business administration. The university offers graduate programs related to areas of emphasis and strength within the institution, including business administration, education, health, the sciences, and the social sciences.
Vision
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse aims to foster within each student the curiosity, creativity, and tenacity necessary to solve the regional, national, and international challenges of the 21st century. The university's official motto mens corpusque ("mind and body") will continue to guide our direction as a student-centered university committed to a quality education for the whole person. As such, it will continue to provide opportunities both inside and outside the classroom for the development of sound mental, emotional, and ethical skills, as well as general well-being. Our students, faculty, and staff will experience the world through constantly evolving technologies and cultures. Thus, the skills of effective communication, critical thought, leadership, and an appreciation for diversity must be the hallmarks of a UWL education.