Temple University’s strategic plan represents a bold and innovative vision for our future. The planning process began in 2020 and in spring 2022, Provost Gregory Mandel was tasked with leading the final stages of the process and implementation of the plan. This process involved collaboration across the university community to ask the difficult questions, understand our challenges and leverage our opportunities.
Gregory N. Mandel is the provost of Temple University and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law at the Beasley School of Law. Prior to serving as provost, he was dean of the Law School for five years.
Learn more about Provost MandelWhat did the strategic planning process look like?
Designing our future was a universitywide effort. The process was stewarded by three committees. The 42-member Strategic Planning Steering Committee, a diverse group of representatives from a broad range of schools and colleges, administrative units, alumni, and community members, led the introspection and assessment phase of the process. The Futures Committee, a group of senior university leaders, focused on our vision for the university. The Executive Committee oversaw and facilitated the strategic planning process.
In the first phase of the process, we engaged in assessment, evaluation and research, with a critical eye on who we are as a higher education institution, how we operate in this space and in the world, our capabilities, and our points of growth. From there, we articulated our values, crafted our aspiration statement and defined our strategic priorities.
Phase 1: Assessment and Research
The Steering Committee led assessment and research in the first phase. It objectively assessed the university’s role in the changing higher education landscape, allowing us to identify and address our strengths, capabilities and points of growth. It delved into a period of research and discovery to determine and catalog Temple’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as the university’s core values, within the context of the dynamic nature of higher education in the U.S.
Phase 2: Aspiration Statement and Strategic Priorities
With a clear understanding of the university’s strengths and core values established in Phase 1, Phase 2 focused on developing the Flying Further aspiration statement and strategic priorities.
The aspiration statement is the foundation of our work at Temple. It articulates our shared purpose—what makes our community unique and why what we do is important. Once the statement was developed, the focus shifted to the future and the development of comprehensive strategic priorities to realize that collective vision.
The university’s strategic priorities guide the strategic plan and how we engage in meaningful change for the future. Our efforts focus on five strategic priorities: We will facilitate boundless access for future generations of learners, providing exceptional educational excellence by aligning the future of learning with the future of work; we will build on and support the strength of our faculty to provide extraordinary thought leadership in research, scholarship and creative expression and enhance our efforts in community engagement, from our neighbors in North Philadelphia to global communities impacted by our campuses around the world; and, we will be intentional in elevating our foundation for tomorrow so that our standing reflects the remarkable quality of our special university.
Phase 3: Action Plan
Phase 3 focused on the university’s action plan to develop initiatives with measurable outcomes that would guide us toward achieving our strategic priorities. Faculty, staff and students provided ideas for initiatives to help us reach our goals. We constructed an internal universitywide structure to support further strategic plan development and execution. Finally, we prioritized the most promising initiatives and are helping stakeholders to develop detailed implementation plans.