President Harroz Presents ‘Lead On, University: The Next Phase’ Strategic Plan

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Hundreds of members of the University of Oklahoma community gathered today as OU President Joseph Harroz, Jr. shared the renewed vision of the “Lead On, University: The Next Phase” Strategic Plan refresh. Building upon the success of the original Strategic Plan introduced in 2020, this updated roadmap outlines a bold course for OU's future – one that elevates academic excellence, fuels student success, advances research innovation and deepens community impact. Speaking to a captivated audience in the Oklahoma Memorial Union Ballroom – and hundreds more watching via livestream – Harroz called on the OU Family to embrace their shared power to fulfill OU’s Purpose: We Change Lives.

A Unified Vision for the Future

Harroz emphasized the university’s role in positively influencing Oklahomans’ education, health and economic prosperity. He also spoke of the importance of embracing change and seizing new opportunities.

“Our overall strategy, at the macro level, is to be the highest-value public research university in the country,” Harroz said. “Everything we do has to be focused on excellence and affordability. You can’t have one without the other.”

The refreshed plan is structured around five central pillars:

1.     Lead as a Top-Tier Public Research University – Achieving the highest standards of academic and research excellence while remaining steadfastly committed to affordability.

2.     Empower Students for a Life of Success, Meaning and Impact – Providing a world-class academic experience that drives personal and professional growth.

3.     Ascend as ONE OU – United By Our Purpose, Values, and Strategic Plan – Unifying all campuses and stakeholders to work collectively toward common goals.

4.     Lift the Health of Oklahoma – Advancing the quality and impact of health-related education, research and care.

5.     Shape the Future Through Discovery, Creativity and Innovation – Confronting grand societal challenges through strategic research investments.

Like OU’s original Strategic Plan, the refresh is designed to tackle immense challenges confronting higher education today, such as increased competition for students and top-tier faculty and staff; Oklahoma’s relatively low level of state funding on a per-student basis, significant federal and state policy changes, and cultural polarization.

Commitment to Accessibility and Affordability

A key component of the Strategic Plan is to enhance affordability and accessibility for students. Initiatives include securing $500 million in endowment funds for scholarships and fellowships, fully funding tuition and fees for qualified Oklahoma’s Promise students and raising graduate student stipends to be competitive with peer institutions.

Attendees heard from 2024 Truman Scholar Juan Dills on the impact attending the University of Oklahoma has had on his life and his future.

Advancing Research

To meet the university’s aspirations of AAU status, the refreshed plan calls for the strategic hire of 300 new faculty positions. “This is a huge opportunity we can execute on this and do it efficiently and make sure we're insisting on those metrics of productivity that demonstrate true excellence,” Harroz said. The Strategic Plan also outlines a path for growing OU research expenditures, a measure of its research output from $400 million to $1 billion in expenditures over the next five years.

Attendees watched a video of Amy McGovern, Ph.D., director of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather Climate and Coastal Oceanography and a professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma and in the School of Meteorology on the importance of academic research.

Lifting the Health of Oklahoma

Harroz spoke about the importance of OU being the only academic health system in the state and what value that provides Oklahomans and the university’s obligation in improving health outcomes of its citizens. He outlined ambitious goals to improve health outcomes in Oklahoma, including reducing cancer mortality by 10% and cardiovascular complications from diabetes by 30%.

“We provide 80% of the [state’s] health care workforce, but we weren’t serving the entire state,” he said. “We are the only academic health care system in the state. What's the difference? We teach. We educate the health care professionals of tomorrow. We do research – research is a massive part of this – and we do patient care."

Attendees met the Helmerich family and baby Parker. Last year, OU Health performed Oklahoma’s first pediatric heart transplant for more than a decade. Now, Parker and his family are thriving – a testament to the life-saving power of academic health care.

ONE OU

The Refreshed Strategic Plan unifies the strategy for the entire university, bringing together its Norman, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and online campuses to advance the pillars, strategies and tactics detailed within the plan. The plan’s development involved a collaborative effort across OU's campuses, with oversight from the Executive Steering Committee, including Chief Strategy Officer Jim Morrison. A 27-member cross-campus working group composed of students, faculty and staff from each campus was co-chaired by Associate Provosts Jill Raines and Sarah Ellis and included representation for the broader university community. The Board of Regents approved the plan during their March meeting, marking a significant step forward in OU's commitment to excellence and impact.

Harroz closed with the audience joining in exclaiming the university’s purpose: We Change Lives.

“I promise you, every single one of you matters. That we, and only we, change lives. That's the power of all of us. Not one of us, all of us, and the only way we can harness that power is by having a plan and a discipline and constantly measuring it,” he said in his closing remarks. “I'm so proud of what's been accomplished under the first five years of the Lead On, University plan. Lives are better because of it. The next five years under this refresh – in every aspect – is going to be incredible. Thank you all for being such a huge part of it.”