CSU, Chico's Strategic Plan For The Future

"Today Decides Tomorrow" reads the inscription above the doors of Kendall Hall at the CSU, Chico campus. It is the motto of a university that focuses on the future while carrying forward the best of its past.

(In academic year 2018-19, CSU, Chico began the process of reimagining its Strategic Plan and campus physical Master Plan. The renewed strategic plan will replace the information below as soon as it is available.)

In this extract from The Strategic Plan for the Future of CSU, Chico, the full text of which is available on the CSU, Chico Web, we share our vision of that future. We highlight the actions we propose to take today so that tomorrow we may find ourselves in that envisioned future. The Plan is a "work in progress" and represents one phase in our ongoing efforts to position CSU, Chico to meet changing and often elusive internal and external challenges.

The Strategic Plan for the Future of CSU, Chico contains both our vision of the kind of institution we hope CSU, Chico can become and a set of reasonable steps to take in getting there. Our first priority is our students.

Our Vision

California State University, Chico sees its distinctive residential context as an opportunity to create an active, diverse, healthy, caring, innovative, and green learning and working environment. We aim to create a vital and collaborative living and learning experience for students, who will appreciate and embrace the local, regional, and global communities of which we are all a part. We have a well-respected and dedicated faculty, a superior staff, and committed leadership together with cutting-edge learning and information resources. All of these assets are placed within a beautiful and engaging physical environment. We are a place devoted to the academy's most fundamental tenets: reason, respect, civility, and community. We are a place where the passion of our commitments and clarity of our values find expression every day in the community of learning and serving we have fashioned.

As surely as we are a special place of people and ideas, as boldly as we are the "University of the North State," we aspire to be the "University of choice" for all those who wish to share our vision and values.

Our Mission

California State University, Chico is a comprehensive university principally serving Northern California, our state and nation through excellence in instruction, research, creative activity, and public service. The University is committed to assist students in their search for knowledge and understanding and to prepare them with the attitudes, skills, and habits of lifelong learning in order to assume responsibility in a democratic community and to be useful members of a global society.

Our Values

We stand for academic freedom, the exploration of the frontiers of knowledge, and a strong sense of intellectual community characterized by reason, respect, civility, and openness of expression.

We share a commitment to academic excellence and will communicate high expectations to our students.

We seek the purposeful integration of liberal and applied learning and the provision of full access and equal opportunity for all our students to the knowledge, skills, and habits that form the basis for life-long learning, civic engagement, and enlightened service in a diverse society and global community.

We promote active learning, curiosity, and the recognition that learning occurs in our classrooms, studios, and laboratories, and beyond, through the co-curricular experience, service engagements, social interactions, and other expressions of a full and healthy student environment.

We teach not only with the command of our disciplines, but with the force of personal example, enabling us to transmit knowledge effectively through integrity, intellectual honesty, kindness, and enthusiasm.

We emphasize both the quality and the spirit of services to our students, employing "student-friendly" policies and practices that foster student achievement and progress to degree.

We acknowledge not only the obligation of service, but also the value of service to others in defining institutional character and measuring institutional performance.

We hold dear the values of multicultural respect, awareness, and understanding and we pursue diversity not just as an idea to embrace, but as a community to form.

We aim to be a community connected in our conversations, confident in our strengths, and intentional in our aspirations.

We celebrate a distinctive institutional culture through a keen sense of place, a deep respect for our natural environment, an orientation to the principles and practices of sustainability, and the use of the campus's entire physical environment to promote the University's goals.

We appreciate the loyalty and achievements of our alumni and retired faculty and staff and the importance of a strong alumni organization to keep alumni informed and engaged with their alma mater.

We affirm that we are "One University" where collaboration, mutual support and trust, and common goals define our work together and the spirit of its engagement.

Our Strategic Priorities

1. Believing in the primacy of learning, we will continue to develop high-quality learning environments both inside and outside the classroom.

   California State University, Chico, above all else, is a center for active and lifelong learning. Its heart and essence is the learning process: active collaboration among a community of diverse students, staff, and faculty that enables learning opportunities connecting classroom instruction, out-of-class experiences, and service. This collaboration results in discovering and rediscovering the joys of learning and enabling participants to become effective lifelong learners and engaged citizens.



2. Believing in the importance of faculty and staff, and their role in student success, we will continue to invest in faculty and staff development.

   California State University, Chico recognizes that scholarship, research, and creative activity are essential components of its mission. The University will invest in the currency and the continuing professional development of its faculty and staff as a vital means of strengthening the capacity and quality of its programs and the services that flow from them.



3. Believing in the wise use of new technologies in learning and teaching, we will continue to provide the technology, the related training, and the support needed to create high quality learning environments both inside and outside of the classroom.

   Information technology provides opportunities to revolutionize and improve the way we teach, learn, and conduct university business. We will continue our history of leadership in the effective use of academic technology by seizing those opportunities that enhance our core educational mission, including on-line learning. We will continue to distinguish ourselves by building an electronic learning community that links knowledge, curricula, students, faculty, and staff. We will be guided by the "Seven Principles for Effective Teaching," as stated in our criteria for faculty retention, promotion, and tenure, and we will utilize instructional technologies that support these principles, where appropriate.



4. Believing in the value of service to others, we will continue to serve the educational, cultural, and economic needs of Northern California.

   California State University, Chico has articulated service as a fundamental tenet of its identity and strategic plan. We emphasize not only the obligation of service, but also the value of service to others in defining individual and institutional character. Embedding a regional orientation into our daily campus life and connecting our work to the needs and quality of a democratic society enacts a powerful affirmation: we are an American university and we are "the University of the North State."



5. Believing that we are accountable to the people of the State of California, we will continue to diversify our sources of revenue and strategically manage the resources entrusted to us.

   California State University, Chico has articulated service as a fundamental tenet of its identity and strategic plan. We emphasize not only the obligation of service, but also the value of service to others in defining individual and institutional character. Embedding a regional orientation into our daily campus life and connecting our work to the needs and quality of a democratic society enacts a powerful affirmation: we are an American university and we are "the University of the North State."



6. Believing that each generation owes something to those which follow, we will create environmentally literate citizens, who embrace sustainability. We will be wise stewards of scarce resources and, in seeking to develop the whole person, be aware that our individual and collective actions have economic, social, and environmental consequences locally, regionally, and globally.

   A hallmark of Chico State is the beautiful and inviting physical environment of our campus. We will become an environmentally engaged university, seeking to elevate our collective consciousness about the environment, recognizing our responsibilities to steward the inherited and created assets of our region, while articulating these values for the wider audiences we reach. We will make Chico State the distinctive "green" campus in California and become a national leader in environmental education, science, and public policy analysis; the building of environmentally responsible facilities; and practicing sustainability principles.



7. Believing in the importance of civic engagement for both individual fulfillment and the institutional commitment to serving the public good, we will educate generations of civically engaged, informed, and active students. We will engage students, faculty, staff, and community members through curricular and co-curricular experiences that actively involve them with the communities and the issues of the North State and beyond.

   California State University, Chico recognizes the development of civically engaged and minded students, from a diversity of backgrounds and experience levels, as central to their broader education and effective participation in a democratic society. We recognize that dialogue between campus and community is beneficial for learning and community building. As an institution of higher education we are committed to the development of student agency. Through active engagement with our local and North State communities, our students will realize the benefits of these experiences in their lives and careers beyond their time with us.

   We will:
   

   • Develop a civic dimension in classes across general education and disciplinary majors.
   • Emphasize the opportunity for all departments and programs to include a focus on civic engagement.
   • Value faculty, staff and student work in civic engagement.
   • Encourage civic engagement as a criterion for new tenure-track hires.
   • Engage community partners in the development of new and existing civic opportunities.
   • Create infrastructure to support the facilitation of work between campus and community.
   • Encourage the formation of interdisciplinary teams of students, faculty, staff, and community members working together on civic engagement.
   • Support the dissemination of civic work throughout the North State and beyond.
   • Serve as a model of civic engagement for other campuses.
   • Work with K-12 and community colleges to establish civic pedagogies to promote student engagement and success.
   • Support a focus on civic engagement through classroom instruction, out-of-class experiences and service.
   • Ensure the civic mission of our campus is a priority in advancement efforts.
   • Develop financial resources devoted to expanding and managing our current civic engagement efforts.
   • Recognize and build on the Chico State interrelated values of intellectual community, sustainability, diversity, service and student learning and success through civic engagement.
   
   
8. Believing in the importance of diversity as central to the values of the University and the education of its students, we will continue to develop and enhance programs, policies and activities to create and sustain a welcoming and inclusive learning and working environment for all.

   California State University, Chico understands that embracing diversity in all its forms – including but not limited to ability, age, culture, disability, race, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, sexuality, body size, regional and national origin, political affiliation, life experience, religion and socio-economic background – is at the heart of academic excellence and what it means to be an outstanding public university in the 21st century. The University is committed to the proposition that diversity is not just an idea to express, but fundamental to a vibrant and inclusive community. That commitment extends not only to the students, faculty, and staff on campus but to the citizens of our 12-county service area, with whom the campus works closely for the betterment of the region. We actively pursue “inclusive excellence” to best serve all community members, and, in particular, our students, to help prepare them to be the next generation of leaders for our global society.

   We will:
   

   • Increase the University’s outreach and access for underrepresented and diverse student groups, especially from our service region.
   • Improve the success of students from underrepresented populations.
   • Ensure that curricular and co-curricular programs foster diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies and engagement with the issues.
   • Engage and support faculty, staff and student scholarship, creativity and research on diversity.
   • Develop a shared understanding of “inclusive excellence” and what it means to be a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
   • Develop, implement and regularly assess policies, programs, activities and funding mechanisms that create and sustain a welcoming and inclusive campus climate.
   • Increase diversity in faculty, staff and administration at all levels of the University.
   • Design and implement a system of recognition and accountability for increasing campus diversity and fostering a welcoming and inclusive learning and working environment.