People. Purpose. Action. Georgia Southern Announces Five-Year Strategic Plan

After a yearlong effort, with multi-stakeholder collaboration across three campuses and communities, Georgia Southern University announced its Strategic Plan for 2019 – 2024. The plan articulates the mission and vision, defines the core values of the University and establishes clear, measurable goals to meet its objectives.

The Strategic Plan centers around five main pillars: student success; teaching and research; equity, diversity and inclusion; operational efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability; and community engagement.

“This is an exceptional time to be part of the Georgia Southern University community, as we collectively envision the future with optimism, passion and determination,” said Georgia Southern President Kyle Marerro. “Our new Strategic Plan offers a bold, comprehensive roadmap designed to unite students, faculty and staff as one Eagle Nation as we work toward a shared set of goals and elevate our sense of common purpose.”

The Strategic Plan aims to align academic programs with the talent and economic development needs of southeast Georgia, with student success as the foundation and first pillar. The plan also places an additional focus on expanding partnerships such as the existing collaboration with the Department of Defense, regional military installations and area businesses and industries.

In addition to its academic and research goals, the Strategic Plan strives to create an even more inclusive community, deepen the University’s impact across the region and create a culture of operational efficiency and effectiveness.

“The real power of a strategic plan lies in its successful execution, so it is critical that we use key performance indicators to hold ourselves accountable and monitor goal attainment over the next five years,” added Marrero.

Included in this plan is a new vision statement for the institution: “People. Purpose. Action: Growing ourselves to grow others!” The statement calls for investment in the university’s people – its faculty and staff – to create a culture where each employee is focused on performance excellence and understands the critical role they play in achieving the goals set forth in this plan – all to have the greatest impact on Georgia Southern’s students and the communities it serves.  

Marrero also says that while we elevate our distinctives, the plan is all about the unified vision of one Georgia Southern, one Eagle Nation. 

“That vision is inspired and directed by our Strategic Plan — discovering and obtaining knowledge, developing talent and serving a region. In other words, ‘People…Purpose…Action — Growing ourselves to grow others!’”