Message from the Interim Associate Provost

Laurie Van Egeren, Interim Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement

MSU's 2030 Strategic Plan Strengthens Commitment to Community Engagement

Dear Engaged Spartans and our partners in Michigan and around the world,

At the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year, Michigan State University unveiled a bold new vision in the MSU 2030 Strategic Plan.

Twenty months in the making, the ambitious plan launches MSU on a trajectory that will expand opportunity, advance equity, elevate excellence, strengthen community, and foster stewardship. Far from mere visionary rhetoric, the MSU 2030 Strategic Plan, conceived by a diverse group of faculty, staff, students, administrators, and trustees, lays out specific, tangible ways in which MSU will enact these qualities across its mission.

The MSU 2030 Strategic Plan identifies six themes: student success; staff and faculty success; innovation for global impact; sustainable health; stewardship and sustainability; and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Notably, outreach and engagement is not a separate theme. Instead, engaged scholarship - engaged research, creative activity, teaching, and service – cuts across every theme, affirming MSU's deep and integral commitment to our local and global partners. Objectives and indicators of community engagement highlighted in the Plan include:

• Increasing student participation in high-impact and international activities
• Adopting promotion and tenure frameworks to align with MSU's commitment to publicly engaged participatory research
• Forging new partnerships with industry, health care, and local and national businesses to enhance economic development
• Partnering with communities and organizations to reduce health disparities
• Enhancing sustainability-focused outreach and engagement by expanding volunteer opportunities for faculty, staff, and students in support of local, state, regional, national, and global partnerships
• Encouraging colleges with existing outreach and engagement activities to further incorporate DEI into planning and activities and deepen our partnerships with communities based on mutual commitment to shared goals

An important part of enacting these goals is recognizing the exemplary engagement of MSU faculty, staff, and students in partnership with community. At the annual University Outreach and Engagement Awards Ceremony, held February 24, it was our distinct pleasure to celebrate partnerships whose excellence in engagement upholds the bold vision of the MSU 2030 Strategic Plan. The people and projects highlighted at the event truly represent what it means to fulfill MSU's land-grant mission.

With congratulations and gratitude for your community-engaged commitment,

Laurie Van Egeren,

Interim Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement