University of South Florida (Tampa)
PAE-2: Strategic Plan

Sustainability has been incorporated into the university’s Strategic Plan, where “social, economic, and environmental sustainability” figures prominently as a core value of the new University System Strategic Plan, Please see http://www.ods.usf.edu/Plans/Strategic/docs/USF-Strategic-Plan-2013-2018.pdf Sustainablity is central to the four critical goals in the Tampa Campus Master Plan outlined below to create: 1) Well-educated and highly skilled global citizens through our continuing commitment to student success, 2) High-impact research and innovation to change lives, improve health, and foster sustainable development and positive societal change, 3) A highly effective, major economic engine, creating new partnerships to build a strong and sustainable future for Florida in the global economy, 4) Sound financial management to establish a strong and sustainable economic base in support of USF’s continued academic advancement. And the institutional policy, remarks: http://generalcounsel.usf.edu/policies-and-procedures/pdfs/policy-10-051.pdf “The mission of the University of South Florida - Tampa (hereafter USF) is to educate, research, design, and build sustainable, healthy communities and to create a community of learners together with significant and sustainable University-community partnerships and collaborations. The guiding values that empower this mission include social, economic, and environmental sustainability, which promote conserving resources, reducing waste, recycling and reusing materials, finding new sources of clean energy, increasing energy efficiency, and diminishing life-cycle impacts and our consumption of greenhouse gas producing materials.” The policy provides a formal definition of sustainability for the university: “the term sustainability refers to the capacity to meet the social, economic, and environmental needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

USF's priorities have been set: USF will, through a continued commitment to student success, produce well educated global citizens USF will, through its high-impact research and innovation, change lives for the better, improve health, and foster sustainable development and positive societal change USF will, as a highly effective major economic engine, create new partnerships to build a strong and sustainable future for Florida in the global economy USF will pursue a more secure economic base, greater operational and resource efficiencies, and increased transparency in its business practices

The new plan adopts a laser-like focus on USF's academic investment and performance, refining institutional priorities and measuring outcomes as depicted in the updated planning and performance matrix and online dashboard (please see http://www.ods.usf.edu/Plans/PPA/dashboards/dashboard-system.htm). The plan underscores the pressing need to provide broad access to higher education while maintaining affordability and high quality within a changing economic reality brought on by significantly reduced state support. While honoring the accomplishments produced from previous plans and recommitting the institution to the hallmarks of student success and top-tier research and innovation, the new plan also differs from its predecessors by way of its fresh emphasis on developing active public-private partnerships designed to increase economic and employment opportunities within a global context that recognizes the significance of international relations in an interconnected world.