As a Catholic university rooted in the liberal arts, we are a welcoming community of learners challenged by Franciscan values and charism, engaged in a continuous pursuit of knowledge, faith, wisdom, and justice, and ever mindful of a tradition that emphasizes reverence for creation, compassion and peacemaking. We strive for academic excellence in all programs, preparing students to contribute to the world through service and leadership.
Transform students into leaders inspired by Franciscan values and tradition to serve and shape our world.
Respect
We are a welcoming community of learners.
Integrity
We manifest an ethic of care.
Service
We are a campus of doers.
Compassion
We serve those who serve others.
In order to ensure that, in its second century, the University of St. Francis (USF) continues to deliver on its promise to prepare students to build a Franciscan future through service and leadership, the university’s 2024-29 strategic plan has identified five key objectives that will focus the university’s continuous improvement efforts.
Objective 1
First, and most importantly, USF will leverage its Catholic heritage and Franciscan identity (of a values-oriented institutional culture) to create a welcoming community of learners so that our students, lead, succeed, and graduate in order to contribute positively to their communities. This includes ensuring that our student body embraces a global world. As importantly, USF will increase students and employees’ understanding of Catholic, Franciscan values and Catholic Social Teaching so USF exceeds national averages for student and alumni satisfaction and learning outcomes. A strengthening of our “communities of learning” will provide all members a sense of belonging. Finally, we will maintain a persistence and completion rate higher than our peer institutions in each of our student populations, and for specific vulnerable populations.
Objective 2
Second, in order to ensure that USF is among the “survivors” of the current shakeout in private higher education, the university will strive to increase its reputation and awareness as a leading Catholic, Franciscan university with excellent student educational outcomes to increase the size of the student population. This includes increasing undergraduate and graduate applications, improving rankings in key national and international college reviews and quality listings (like Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report) and increasing the percentage of alumni who philanthropically support USF.
Objective 3
Third, USF will increase the quality of its academic and co-curricular programs so that graduates of USF are prepared to contribute to the world through service and leadership. USF will manage a broad portfolio of specialized accreditations (when accreditation is advantageous and validates the program quality), demonstrate consistent or increased student performance on key GenEd outcomes, demonstrate consistent or increased quality of academic and co-curricular programs, and provide high quality academic programs and co-curricular learning opportunities.
Objective 4
Fourth, USF will strengthen its financial capacity and long-term sustainability through enrolment growth, strategic investments, securing major grants and donations, and effective stewardship of resources. This will happen by allocating resources to ensure academic program viability and quality of mission-essential and market-driven programs, ensuring acceptable contribution margin across the four colleges. The university will also increase the scale and scope of revenue beyond traditional tuition sources, and strengthen the balance sheet while constraining expense growth.
Objective 5
Finally, USF is committed to cultivating an environment that attracts, develops and retains faculty, staff and administrators who embrace a culture of continuous improvement along with USF’s mission and values. This will require developing a “strengths-based” culture across all divisions by focusing on employee engagement, attracting new employees, retaining and developing employees who exhibit a commitment to continuous improvement and our mission, and establishing policies and procedures to ensure the safety of all personnel.
