UMass Amherst’s 2024–2034 Strategic Plan: For the Common Good

Chancellor Javier Reyes sent the following update on UMass Amherst’s 2024-34 Strategic Plan to the university community Monday, Sept. 30.

Dear Campus Community,

Image

Last fall, we embarked on a journey to develop UMass Amherst’s next ten-year strategic plan. Through a process guided by the strategic planning steering committee and six working groups composed of faculty, staff, and student representatives from a broad range of disciplines and departments, we were asked as a community to imagine UMass Amherst in 2034. We reflected on what is unique about our university and the many ways in which our work impacts the region, the commonwealth, the nation, and the world. We reviewed our challenges and our most promising opportunities. We examined what success looks like–for our students, faculty, staff, and community. The steering committee and working groups asked us questions. They listened, and they asked more questions. They wrote, gathered feedback, revised, deliberated, and then revised some more. It has been a yearlong, campuswide effort, and today, I am excited to share UMass Amherst’s 2024–2034 Strategic Plan: For the Common Good.

For the Common Good has been informed by faculty, staff, and students within every school, college, and administrative unit, our governing bodies, and many other members of our community. It is a cumulative expression of our mission, our vision, our values, and, importantly, our common goals and priorities as one university. It is a statement on working together collaboratively, respectfully, and toward a more just, sustainable, and inclusive future. Both inspirational and aspirational, it is a declaration of who we are and where we are going. And in conversations across all corners of our university—whether reflecting on our past, contemplating the present, or ruminating about the future—one sentiment was consistent: UMass is here for the common good. We educate for the common good. We innovate for the common good. We engage for the common good. We connect for the common good. We steward for the common good.

I would like to thank the steering committee co-chairs Dean Anne Massey and Professor MJ Peterson for their outstanding leadership in bringing our strategic plan to fruition. I also thank the members of the strategic planning steering committee, the co-chairs and members of each of the six strategic planning working groups and the many members of our community who submitted their ideas, suggestions, and feedback throughout the strategic planning process. Their tagline, “There’s a U in UMass,” clearly shines through.

For the Common Good provides the foundation for UMass Amherst’s next ten years. The roadmap for getting there, including both strategies and the metrics that will be used to measure our success, is our ongoing work.

As a living document, our strategies and metrics must continuously evolve to advance our research and scholarship, foster engagement, and meet the changing needs of our students. During the strategic planning process, dozens of faculty, staff, and students suggested possible strategies and opportunities that could be explored as we work together to reach our goals to educate, innovate, engage, connect, and steward for the common good. This fall, Nandita Mani, deputy chancellor for institutional effectiveness, will facilitate a university-wide process to begin this work. I encourage all members of our community—faculty, students, staff, and alumni—to engage in this process when opportunities are presented. Your input is valued.

Thank you, everyone, for your dedication to making UMass Amherst the very best that it can be, today, tomorrow, and for years to come.

I look forward to our work together in support of the common good.

Sincerely,

Javier A. Reyes
Chancellor