President's Message

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TO: Members of the Strategic Planning Committee

FROM: Timothy C. Caboni

DATE: January 16, 2026

RE: Strategic Planning Charge

 

In 2017, we undertook a comprehensive, community-engaged strategic planning effort to define our institution’s roadmap and articulate where we aspired to go as a university. That work culminated in the development of Climbing to Greater Heights, our decade-long strategic plan spanning 2018 through 2028, with ambitious goals and objectives requiring sustained commitment and collaboration.

 

Guided by a unified vision and strengthened by tremendous campus-wide collaboration, WKU has achieved extraordinary accomplishments during the past seven years, including the highest first-to-second-year retention rate and the highest graduation rate in university history.

 

While we continue to celebrate these and numerous other remarkable successes, we also recognize that much has changed since we created our decade-long strategic plan. Therefore, it is both prudent and necessary that we pause, recalibrate and revise our course ahead.

 

To that end, thank you for accepting your role as a member of the WKU Strategic Planning Committee. I am grateful for your willingness to serve and for the expertise and perspective you bring to this important endeavor. As you consider your charge and your service – whether on the Executive Steering Committee or a designated subgroup – I ask that you set aside departmental, academic unit and role-specific affiliations and focus instead on advancing WKU as a whole. Our shared goal is to elevate the WKU Experience for our Hilltoppers and ensure a vibrant future for our university for generations to come.

 

Your charge is as follows:  

Conduct a thorough review of Climbing to Greater Heights, carefully determining which components should remain unchanged, which should be removed and which require revision, while also determining what new goals and/or strategies should be added. To support this work, we have established subgroups to focus on three key areas of our strategic plan: Our Students, Our Hill and Our Community.

 

While not exhaustive, I ask that your deliberations consider the following areas:

• Utilization of AI by our students and across our Hill
• Economic development within our community and throughout our region
• Maximization of our regional campuses
• Strategic outcomes of investment in new residential facilities
• Extending the success of the current LLC model to increase student participation and expansion to a second year
• Achievement of R2 status
• Development of additional PhD programs

I ask that you commence this important work the week of January 20, 2026, and submit recommendations for my review by the end of the Spring 2026 semester. My hope is to roll out any changes to our strategic plan during this fall’s Faculty and Staff Convocation. With this amendment, we will extend Climbing to Greater Heights by three years, concluding in 2031 - coinciding with WKU’s 125th anniversary.

 

This strategic planning effort is critical to the future of our institution and to the success of our students. You have been intentionally selected to serve as a valued and contributing member of this committee, and I look forward to reviewing your thoughtful, cohesive recommendations. Together, we will continue to advance WKU; elevate our community, region and state; and transform the lives of our Hilltoppers – one student at a time.

 

Thank you for your service and commitment to WKU. Go Tops!

Best,

Timothy C. Caboni

President