Service, vision and leadership: three words to guide UL’s future

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette has recently come out with its new strategic plan for 2023-2028, entitled “Vision. Louisiana.”

The plan goes in-depth on how it wants to make the university a better place for its students, faculty and staff. Many elements are mentioned and formulated in the plan on how they want to pursue this and succeed in doing so. 

The plan mentions the values, commitments and priorities of the university to ensure it gains a higher level of growth.

To ensure the success of their students, the strategic plan focuses on having an “exceptional educational and professional experience” for everyone who attends the university and the community. 

The university has five priority points that they are using as their goals to make the university thrive. 

Strategic priority one is “Academic Excellence,” which is UL Lafayette’s top priority. The university wants to help the students succeed and receive the best education possible to further their success in the future outside of the university. 

There are key initiatives that the university wants to achieve such as expanding academic programs that are of high quality and recognizing faculty for their hard work and dedication to the university, which are to help with academic excellence. 

“Through quality academic programs and exceptional faculty who design and deliver impactful learning, service and research experiences, students are provided the knowledge, skills, competencies and values required for their future success,” the plan said. 

The second priority is “Exceptional Student Experience.” The university wants its students to receive the best experience possible, whether academically, through events and programs on campus, or residential experiences. UL Lafayette wants to ensure that their students are getting the resources they need, such as academic support and preparing students for internships and other learning experiences. 

“UL Lafayette gives students the full support they need to succeed both inside and outside the classroom,” the plan said.

The third priority is “Intentional Stewardship.” UL Lafayette says that the success of the institution relies on the environment, finances and overall the community. 

The university wants to promote the well-being of the students and staff and upgrade buildings and areas on campus to accommodate for the generational changes and university experience and much more. 

In the fourth priority, “Public Impact Research,” the university mentions that they want to expand innovations and partnerships that could lead to discoveries for health emergencies and climate change, among many other components. UL Lafayette wants to increase research funds, as well as form new programs for students and allow students to engage in research opportunities. 

The last priority is to transform community engagement. The university gains a lot of support from the community and because of that, the community is a significant part of the success of the university, besides its students. 

UL Lafayette wants its students to be involved with the community whether it’s with acts of community service or engaging in events in the area. Though the university wants to always be involved with the community, it wants to “elevate the university presence in and contribution to the local community, region, state and beyond,” as stated in the strategic plan. 

UL Lafayette has big plans that will benefit the students, faculty, staff and surrounding members of the community, and it starts with “Vision. Louisiana.”