Planning Process

The strategic planning process for UCI began in fall 2014, coordinated by the Office of Academic Planning and the Academic Planning Group.

The APG focused on setting a foundation for the strategic plan by reviewing various rankings, including those from Academic Analytics; revisiting AAU institutions’ strategic plans; collecting and examining data on about 80 items from the last strategic plan; consulting with management professor Philip Bromiley about best practices for strategic planning; meeting with Assistant Vice Chancellor Victoria Jones on types of possible engagement abroad; and developing and administering a survey on unit objectives. The group assessed responses from 31 academic and administrative units campuswide, and also considered UCI’s long-range enrollment plan and other major goals communicated by the chancellor.

In March 2015, based on input from the APG and Chancellor’s Cabinet, Chancellor Gillman announced four overarching pillars for our strategic plan, now called:

We established four highly representative workgroups of more than 60 faculty, administrators, staff and students in spring 2015, each focused on a pillar. As one of their first tasks, the groups reviewed a wide range of data and drafted survey questions. In June 2015, the Office of Academic Planning distributed an open-ended survey asking faculty, staff and graduate students to comment on the plan’s major goals and objectives. Over 1,000 people provided in excess of 9,500 individual responses. With support from the Office of Institutional Research, the work groups analyzed survey results, refined goals and strategies, began to identify assessment metrics and created narratives.

The Office of Academic Planning crafted a cohesive working document from the workgroups' draft narratives. The Chancellor’s Advisory Council offered feedback on the working document, and through a highly collaborative effort with the Chancellor’s Cabinet, the plan arrived at its current form.

During October 2015, the provost’s office shared the strategic plan working document. We invited anonymous input – through open-ended comments and four successive wiki surveys – from faculty, students, staff, alumni and community supporters. Judith Stepan-Norris, vice provost for academic planning, considered new ideas and added them to the wiki surveys as deemed appropriate and implementable. More than 1,500 unique sessions were logged, and there were over 40,000 clicks on the wiki surveys. The campus community shared valuable insights and actively engaged in our process. The Academic Planning Group and the Chancellor’s Cabinet reviewed that input for incorporation into an updated strategic plan draft.

Additionally, the provost hosted a town hall meeting on Monday, Nov. 16, 2015 in the Student Center’s Crystal Cove Auditorium to give everyone an opportunity to discuss the plan and ask questions.

Chancellor Gillman released the final strategic plan in February 2016.