Officially launched in July 2020, the Lead On, University Strategic Plan defines a clear plan for the Norman campus’ future and the comprehensive strategies to achieve it. As the university’s first Strategic Plan in a generation, it aims to position OU as a top-tier public research university that fosters a culture of innovation, excellence, and inclusivity.
Since launching the Strategic Plan, the university has made tremendous progress with new, transformative initiatives like the creation of a fully integrated academic health system, launching the OU Polytechnic Institute and OU Online, joining the SEC, and adding premier freshman housing, to name just a few. Additionally, the university has improved across all student success metrics, enjoyed record fundraising, research, and legislative funding, and has welcomed three consecutive record-breaking first-year classes.
Our Lead On, University Strategic Plan is a living, breathing roadmap to our future that will continue to be refined and updated to ensure ongoing progress. From late spring 2024 to January 2025, university leadership will review and refresh the Lead On, University Strategic Plan with input from the OU community as a midpoint review process.
Following the refresh, the updated Lead On, University strategic plan will be integrated and aligned across OU Norman, OU Health Sciences, and OU Tulsa. The updated plan will be added to the Lead On, University website once finalized in early spring 2025.
More information on the Lead On, University Refresh Process.
Our Strategic Plan serves as a guiding framework, providing a shared vision and key strategies and tactics while shaping our year-to-year plans and informing decisions at all levels of the university. As a part of our ongoing review process, the Strategic Plan’s tactics will be reviewed and updated in 2024 to ensure the university is agile and responsive to emerging strategic needs and opportunities.
The university’s Purpose: We Change Lives.
The Purpose is concrete, immovable, and enduring. It is the essence of what we do.
At the heart of our Strategic Plan are five pillars that define how we will fulfill our Purpose. Together, the pillars are our fundamental objectives, and they are carried out through the implementation of thoughtful and concrete strategies and tactics.
The Strategies articulate the key areas on which we will be focusing our efforts to help deliver on our Purpose.
Strategies separate Pillars into manageable parts and key areas of focus.
The Tactics accelerate OU’s progress toward its goals.
Tactics are where the rubber meets the road. Tactics are actionable and, in most cases, measurable and near-term efforts focused on advancing toward our long-term goals. They are fluid and correspond to immediate needs, while always remaining consistent with the corresponding Strategy.
OU leadership utilizes data reports and analysis to track the university key performance indicators and overall progress with the Strategic Plan. To view an extensive set of performance data and institutional reports, visit OU’s Office of Institutional Research and Reporting interactive data reports.
A core team of five executive leaders committed twice-weekly meetings to the strategic planning process. Each meeting averaged 3.5 hours. Beyond those sessions, each member committed time to developing ideas and identifying issues that would have to be addressed. It’s estimated this group collectively spent 2,500-3,000 hours on the project.
The group also shared ideas and concepts with the university’s 18-person executive leadership team and held feedback and strategy sessions with that group during weekly meetings.
The President's Academic Planning and Budget Committee, composed of faculty across varying ranks and multiple disciplines, was asked to begin exploring the establishment of our plan. The Advisory Committee represents faculty of varying ranks and multiple disciplines. Between September and December 2019, The Advisory Committee collectively spent more than 900 hours working on the Plan and interacting with campus stakeholders, including the representative leadership of faculty, students, and staff.
The Norman Deans’ Council began providing input on the development of the plan in August 2019 at its annual Deans’ Retreat. Updates on the plan’s process were provided at regular council meetings. The group provided critical feedback throughout the entire process.
In October 2019, executive leadership and the Advisory Committee invited OU community members from all constituencies to participate in a survey to help inform the campus conversation around OU’s Strategic Plan. The survey yielded more than 5,000 responses.
Executive leadership conducted six town hall meetings across all three campuses throughout December 2019 and January 2020, soliciting feedback for the Strategic Plan.
Final input was sought on a draft of the plan from the executive leadership team, the Norman Deans’ Council, student leadership, and Faculty and Staff Senate executive committees.
