Message from the President
Stephen F. Austin is a university that truly transforms the lives of our students. Together we are helping Lumberjacks realize their aspirations and empowering them to achieve the success in life that they desire and deserve.
During the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015, a team of 39 SFA faculty and staff members, representing a diversity of campus perspectives, worked diligently to formulate a strategic plan that anticipates the future and allows us to meet the needs of our students, our state and our nation. I appreciate the commitment and dedicated work of these team members, as they engaged with more than 2,100 stakeholders from both inside and outside the university, to obtain the data and insight necessary to inform the plan. The six themes that emerged from these data were used to develop a vision statement for the university. This vision statement serves as the foundation for the two over-arching and four supporting goals that we will work toward during the next eight years.
The president's cabinet is working together as a team to facilitate the work of faculty, staff and student groups as they address strategies that will help us meet our goals. These working groups will develop action plans to ensure that our goals are met as swiftly and completely as possible.
It will become quickly evident to you that the goals are all interrelated. Therefore, the work in meeting them will be interrelated, ongoing and dynamic - strategies will not be static, but will be modified and added as the plan progresses. Also, keep in mind that some work toward these goals was already underway when strategic planning began. This plan will serve to support that continuing work.
This strategic plan looks different than the strategic plans of the past because it is different. It is a working plan that will evolve to reflect current external and internal conditions and respond to the realities that we may encounter along the way. For a list of current strategies, visit the Supporting Goals link in the left-hand menu and select any of the goals. Updates to the plan and our progress will be continuously available to the campus community and other interested stakeholders on this website. Details regarding other progress reports and campus-wide meetings also will be posted there.
It was not by accident that this strategic plan takes us to our century celebration in 2023. With teamwork and collaboration, this plan can help ensure that Stephen F. Austin State University continues to make an impact on higher education in Texas and the nation for another 100 years and beyond. I truly believe that the best is yet to come.