A Message from President Harroz – Announcing Our Refreshed Strategic Plan: “Lead On, University: The Next Phase”

Dear OU Family,

From our very beginnings, the University of Oklahoma has been a place of transformation – where ambition meets opportunity and lives are fundamentally changed. Our story has always been one of courage, innovation, and an unyielding pursuit of limitless possibilities.

The vision that inspired OU more than a century ago continues to guide us today. Almost five years have passed since we introduced a forward-thinking vision for OU’s future through our “Lead On, University” Strategic Plan. Crafted with boldness and honesty, our Plan has sparked a spirit of excellence across our University, reshaping our trajectory in ways that will endure for generations to come.

Driven by our Purpose – We Change Lives – our community embraced the challenge of turning vision into reality – and the results have been nothing short of extraordinary. Outlined below are just some of our defining achievements.  

• We have continuously prioritized ensuring an OU education remains affordable and accessible, especially for those with the greatest need. While college tuition skyrocketed nationwide, today an OU degree is more affordable than it was five years ago. We’ve increased need-based aid by 38%, enhanced scholarships awarded by more than 20%, and resident freshmen have seen a nearly 30% reduction in net tuition and fees. 
• To meet Oklahoma’s demand for more college graduates, we’ve grown enrollment across the University while ensuring more students earn their degrees. This year, total enrollment across all OU campuses rose 5.7% – our largest percentage increase in nearly 50 years. We’ve also welcomed four consecutive record-breaking freshman classes, grown new student enrollment at OU Health Sciences by 18% in just two years, and catapulted online enrollment at OU by more than 100% in five years. At the same time, our six-year graduation rate has risen from 67% to 75.3%.
• We reimagined health care in Oklahoma by creating OU Health – our state’s first and only research-driven academic health system. Not only are we delivering world-class care to more Oklahomans than ever, but in just three years, bold structural changes have transformed our clinical enterprise from a $1.5 billion organization to a thriving, $3 billion organization that has emerged as the state’s top-performing health system. Plans also are underway to expand Stephenson Cancer Center to Tulsa and Norman to further extend life-saving cancer care to communities in need.
• As Oklahoma’s leading research engine, our status as a top-tier public research university continues to climb, with our research enterprise achieving an average 12% annual growth rate for awards over the last four years, and the 4^th-fastest rate of growth in research in the nation.  
• To fully deliver on our promise of changing lives, we launched a historic $2 billion fundraising campaign. Through the unwavering loyalty of our OU Family, we’re approaching the $1.4 billion mark, with donors contributing $330 million to date toward student support. We’ve also shattered fundraising records, celebrating an all-time high of $334 million in gifts in FY2024.

Our progress stands as a benchmark few institutions can reach. Yet, shaping Oklahoma’s future demands even more.

After nearly a year of thoughtful evaluation, gathering broad input, and refining our priorities, I am thrilled to unveil our refreshed Strategic Plan, “Lead On, University: The Next Phase.” Unanimously approved yesterday by the OU Board of Regents, this Plan builds on our momentum while embracing transformative new aspirations that position us for significantly greater success and impact.

This renewed Plan confidently declares who we are, who we strive to be, and how we will deliver on our promises. It strengthens our resolve to push boundaries, lead with purpose, and seize new opportunities. And it reaffirms our commitment to the highest levels of academic excellence, research innovation, student success, and service to our state and beyond.

Within our refreshed Strategic Plan are five updated central Pillars to guide our work: 

1. Lead as a Top-Tier Public Research University
2. Empower Students for a Life of Success, Meaning, and Impact
3. Ascend as ONE OU – Unified by our Purpose, Values, and Strategic Plan
4. Lift the Health of Oklahoma
5. Shape the Future Through Discovery, Creativity, and Innovation

Every university has a limited number of key levers it can pull to shape its future. The refreshed Lead On Strategic Plan asks all OU stakeholders to commit decisively to these choices: becoming an AAU institution, the gold standard of academic achievement; steadfastly maintaining our commitment to affordability and accessibility; advancing Oklahoma’s health and well-being, achieved through seismic ambitions like reducing cancer mortality by 10% and the cardiovascular complications and death from diabetes by 30%; leading the way in civic education to help our students discover their purpose and responsibilities as citizens; leveraging key partnerships to develop a coordinated “Strategic Plan” for the state of Oklahoma; uniting as One University, bringing together our campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa, as well as OU Online, to move forward as a collective force for progress; and harnessing our strengths to lead globally and confront society’s most pressing challenges.

With the full support of the OU Board of Regents, we now turn to implementation. In the coming months, divisions, colleges, and units will align their strategic plans with the University’s Strategic Plan to ensure we continue advancing with clarity and purpose.

I invite you to explore our refreshed Strategic Plan at leadon.ou.edu and join us in shaping a future of boundless opportunity.

Thank you for being an integral part of this journey. What we build today will undoubtedly echo far beyond our time, propelling the future of our University and our state in ways we can only begin to imagine.

Live On, University,

Joseph Harroz, Jr.
President