Dear University of Iowa community,

I am pleased to provide an update on the progress of the University of Iowa’s Strategic Plan 2022-2027, as we are now a little more than six months into its implementation. The Strategic Plan Action and Resource Committee (SPARC) and its workgroups, consisting of members of SPARC and the campus community, have been working hard to advance the five priorities of the plan.

In our first year, we have made significant progress toward our goals. We are building upon our strengths in research, advancing teaching methods that promote fairness, encouraging a more respectful and welcoming campus culture, and enhancing well-being for our students, faculty, and staff. Some notable recent examples include securing $8.2 million for wet lab space, working to improve undergraduate retention rates through the Learning at Iowa student success initiative, and earning a grant to innovate curriculum and support effective teaching practices in undergraduate STEM courses. I encourage you to visit the “Priorities and Goals” pages of the website to see more examples of the strategic plan in action.

We have also taken the opportunity to assess our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and aspirations for each of the five priorities. The SPARC workgroups are continually coming up with, prioritizing, and executing tactics to achieve our objectives using the latest data and feedback from campus stakeholders. 

We appreciate and value the ongoing support and engagement from the entire campus community as we work to implement the strategic plan. Your ideas and input are crucial to our ultimate goal of being a destination university of first choice for talented faculty, staff, and students.

We are excited about the progress we have made and look forward to continuing to work together to achieve our shared vision for the University of Iowa.

Kevin C. Kregel
Executive vice president and provost