Portland State University
FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN
APPROACH
Get Clear: Insights
Interviews, town hall meetings, online forums
Visited classrooms, produced videos, and held events with rewards for providing input
This balanced input from official committees, more than 4,000 members of the community, and an advisory group
Get Moving: Planning
The Strategic Plan Development Team represented a diverse cross-section of students, faculty, staff, alumni, Board of Trustees, Foundation Board members, and PSU Alumni Association Board members
Topic teams worked with relevant university committees and units familiar with best practices and research in each area
Historical inequities around race, sex, income, and more were considered for each imperative
A communications team helped foster outreach, engagement, and feedback channels throughout the planning process
OVERVIEW
Like many institutions nationwide, Portland State University (PSU) has felt rising tensions and vigorous debate on campus about resources and culture. Rather than trying to silo those
passions, PSU courageously folded them into their work to create a more robust campus and community. They contracted with Coraggio to facilitate an updated Strategic Plan. This 30,000-student campus community needed an intelligent, strategic planning process that was a step toward narrowing achievement and opportunity gaps. We worked with PSU to gather input from various stakeholders, centering equity and transparency. We took what we learned and created a clear, actionable path to their ideal vision of the university and its place in the community, a forward-facing manifesto they called Let Knowledge Serve the City. Our relationship with PSU has continued as we have collaborated on strategic plans for various colleges within Oregon’s University system.
OUTCOMES
Coraggio successfully used an equity lens to chart an innovative, people-focused strategic planning process for Portland State University.
The project brought together the perspectives of more than 4,000 community members.
The strategic plan inspired university leadership and improved relationships between the administration, students, and faculty.
