Over the past year, the university has made important progress, including enrollment growth, strengthened advising and student support structures, renewed attention to shared governance, and early implementation of several new academic and community partnerships. This Focused Strategy builds on that momentum while sharpening where we direct our collective effort next.

Our Focused Strategy identifies a limited number of shared priorities so that our work, assessment, and institutional decisions are better aligned while honoring faculty expertise, disciplinary integrity, and university governance and giving units and departments the flexibility to contribute in ways that fit their context and strengths.

We begin with five shared commitments—our common priorities for moving WestConn forward. They set the focus; they do not pre-decide outcomes. Each commitment will be supported by a tri-led team (senior leader, faculty lead, and staff leader) that convenes broader working groups and invites broad participation. All our faculty, staff, and students will play a central role in shaping, leading, and evaluating this work.

These teams will guide the strategy through a four-phase, iterative learning process:

For each commitment, the Team will work to:

Focus: Financial Stewardship • Protecting Our Mission • Institutional Stability • Modernizing Facilities & Digital Infrastructure

Purpose: Stabilize finances, modernize facilities and digital infrastructure, and align resources with mission-critical priorities.

Target: Eliminate a $18.2M structural deficit by FY30, with measurable progress each fiscal year. Addressing the structural deficit is essential to preserving academic breadth, faculty and staff positions, and student access over time; it is a matter of stewardship.

Build a culture of transparency and shared understanding around our financial reality and the steps needed to sustain our mission. Focus resources on what matters most: supporting students, faculty, and staff while investing in essential infrastructure and technology. IT and facilities work proactively to maintain and improve our physical and digital infrastructure. Academic and administrative units focus on student success and responsible stewardship of shared resources. All work under this commitment is guided by the principle of academic stewardship — ensuring that decisions about people, investments, and initiatives support the long-term vitality of our academic programs and student success.

Focus: Welcome • Weave • Widen • Wolves First

Purpose: Leverage WestConn's identity as Connecticut's largest 4-year Hispanic-Serving Institution and most diverse public university to deliver a relationship-rich and student-centered, community-engaged, and workforce-minded liberal arts and professional education. Ensure every student is welcomed into an inclusive community, woven into coordinated support networks, and provided with wide-ranging, agile academic opportunities aligned with community and workforce needs. "Wolves First" is our decision lens: we choose what moves the whole university forward.

Coordinated student supports, clear pathways, and shared responsibility are central to supporting student thriving. Our advising ecosystem integrates professional advising with faculty advising and mentoring. Investments prioritize teaching faculty, staff, belonging, agility, advising, and career readiness.

Focus: Community Impact • Community-Engaged • Workforce-Minded • Partnerships

Purpose: Expand opportunity and strengthen Western Connecticut's economic and cultural vitality. Connect education, community-engaged and workforce-minded partnerships, and community well-being.

To amplify our role as a regional anchor, we will strategically invest in fostering robust external relationships, cultivating deep community partnerships, and forging strong workforce connections. This approach ensures our educational offerings are directly aligned with regional needs, driving economic and cultural growth and enhancing community well-being. Our operational focus centers on collaboration, responsiveness, and impactful engagement across our work.

Focus: Trust • Transparency • Participation • Shared Responsibility

Purpose: Strengthen trust, communication, and shared governance; invest in people; address silos and communication gaps while building shared responsibility.

Building a transparent and trusting campus culture requires intentional communication, clear processes, and persistent effort. This commitment serves as a foundational pillar, enabling the success of all other commitments by fostering an environment where collaboration thrives, innovation is encouraged, and shared goals are pursued effectively. Our operational focus emphasizes consistent practices and shared responsibility to build trust, alongside a strategic investment in people through robust professional development and leadership growth efforts.