The UHart
Experience
A Community Where Every Person Thrives
Centered on student success, UHart cultivates an environment where individuals are equipped to learn, grow, and thrive in a changing world.
Defining Priority One
The UHart experience is the heart of our strategic vision because transformational learning occurs when people feel connected, supported, challenged, and inspired. Students today seek more than a degree. They seek an experience that helps them discover who they are, who they can become, and how they will contribute to the world. Our responsibility is to create an environment where every student can confidently pursue those aspirations.
Supporting Success at Every Step.
This commitment extends beyond the classroom. It encompasses every interaction, service, relationship, space, and opportunity that shapes the student journey. From first inquiry through graduation and throughout the decades that follow, we will strive to create an experience that is seamless, welcoming, engaging, and deeply personal.
Our recent investments demonstrate this commitment. The Hursey Center for Advanced Engineering and Health Professions, the Lincoln Trading Room & Analytics Lab, the Center for Student Success, and the Allan Center for Career and Professional Development represent more than physical spaces. They reflect our belief that students deserve environments that match their ambitions and connect learning directly to opportunity.
The student experience is at the center of everything we do. By investing in programs, services, spaces, and opportunities that connect learning, personal growth, and belonging, we are creating an environment where students can explore their interests, build meaningful relationships, and achieve their goals, supported by a community committed to their success.''
Our Four Goals for Strategic Action
To realize this vision, Priority One focuses on four goals designed to foster belonging, support achievement, promote well-being, and help every member of the UHart community find purpose.
Goal 1: Build a Seamless, Student-Centered Experience
Core aim: Make the student journey intuitive, supported, and easy to navigate from pre-admission to program completion.
- Redesign academic, financial, housing, and advising systems to reduce navigational burden.
- Implement a comprehensive undergraduate (two and four-year) and graduate
- student advising model with clear pathways to degree completion.
- Invest in advising tools to facilitate a seamless experience for all learners.
- Expand opportunities to connect all students with faculty, alumni, industry partners, and peers.
Goal 2: Cultivate an Engaged, Supported, and High-Performing Workforce
Core aim: Attract, grow, and retain faculty and staff through meaningful initiatives where they feel valued and empowered to excel.
- Create a workforce plan to attract, develop, and retain top talent, including a continued focus on faculty and staff diversity and inclusive excellence.
- Ensure equitable, transparent, and competitive compensation.
- Fund merit-based compensation that is aligned to strategic priorities and progress.
- Support employee well-being, motivation, and recognition of accomplishments.
- Expand and incentivize opportunities for faculty and staff professional development and leadership pipelines through academies, mentorship programs, and learning modules.
- Expand opportunities to connect all students with faculty, alumni, industry partners, and peers.
Goal 3: Strengthen Community, Well-Being, and Belonging
Core aim: Foster a systemic, sustainable, and health-promoting campus culture that fosters an inclusive and vibrant campus community where every student, faculty, and staff feel connected, supported, and able to thrive. This is foundational for academic, work, and life success.
- Enhance engagement through programming and events for all students (undergraduate,graduate, transfer, commuter, non-degree), faculty, and staff.
- Develop robust engagement opportunities onsite, online, and with alumni/industry partners.
- Upgrade living, learning, and wellness infrastructure and programming for students, faculty, and staff to support physical, mental, and social well-being of faculty, staff, and students.
- Cultivate a holistic, inclusive, and vibrant campus ecosystem that integrates connected residential living, diverse student engagement, and a championship athletic culture to foster lifelong affinity and student success.
- Strengthen institutional expectations around civility, inclusion, and belonging
Goal 4: Deepen Alumni Engagement and Lifelong Connection
Core aim: Build a vibrant and enduring alumni network that remains connected to the university across a lifetime.
- Strengthen alumni relationships through targeted giving, mentorship, and legacy programs.
- Bring alumni back to campus, and students to alumni in various professional settings, for coordinated and enhanced development and networking opportunities.
- Demonstrate the impact of alumni and donor support.
- Expand lifelong learning and access to career and professional development resources for alumni.
Measuring Success
Through improvements in satisfaction, retention, graduation, and engagement.
Through stronger employee engagement, development, recruitment, and retention.
Through increased belonging, well-being, campus participation, and lifelong alumni engagement.
Moving Forward, Together.
How you can make an impact:
- Give: Your support fuels innovation, student success, and the continued growth of our campus.
- Volunteer: Share your time and expertise to strengthen programs, mentor students, and support key initiatives.
- Career and Professional Development: Partner with us to provide internships, career opportunities, and real-world learning experiences for our students.
- Share Your Thoughts: We welcome your ideas, feedback, and questions as we move forward together.