Reaching Higher: U of A Fully Activates 150 Forward with Transformational Goals

The University of Arkansas officially launched the third phase of its 150 Forward Reaching Higher Strategic Plan this week, setting transformational goals for increasing graduation rates and research expenditures while also sharing a roadmap for achieving those goals, and details about a new transformation management team to support the effort.

Chancellor Charles Robinson led a group of university leaders in introducing the activation plan to campus at a kickoff event at the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Center for the Performing Arts. Provost Indrajeet Chaubey, Margaret Sova McCabe, vice chancellor for research and innovation, Amy Ochoa, senior vice chancellor for human resources and Kevin Hall, director of the newly created Transformation Management Office, joined the chancellor in presenting portions of the plan to a full house of faculty, staff and students. Chancellor Robinson also thanked the university community for the record-breaking progress set in motion by the earlier phases of the strategic plan.

“You can achieve far beyond what you might imagine if you can just see it and believe it and are willing work towards it,” Robinson said. “Our success is the success of our entire Razorback family, the community of people working together. We’re moving in the right direction.”

The 150 Forward Reaching Higher  activation is a continuation of the 150 Forward Strategic Plan to advance the U of A’s land-grant mission by increasing student success including growing support for students across Arkansas, expanding the university’s impact by increasing the annual research expenditures  and working to enhance the university’s status as an employer of choice.

“We’re building on the foundations that we’ve established,” Robinson told the crowd. “These records didn’t happen without each and every one of you contributing to making the University of Arkansas better.”

This new phase of the campuswide plan brings refined goals to drive initiatives, a clear roadmap to reach those goals, and the newly formed Transformation Management Office that will help accelerate progress, support the campus and maximize the university’s impact.

Transformational Goals

• Achieving an 80% graduation rate
• Reaching $500 million in annual research conducted by 2032

Refined Initiatives

• Growing graduate student enrollment by 2,000
• Providing experiential learning for all undergraduate students
• Ensuring AI literacy for all undergraduate students

Roadmap to Success

The roadmap for achieving the goals includes implementing an integrated approach to student success, growing research in five priority areas and optimizing the use of data on campus to better support strategic decision-making.

Integrate Student Success 

An integrated approach to student success includes targeted financial assistance, increased academic support, opportunities aligned with the state's workforce needs, and comprehensive wrap-around student services.

“We are going to be following these students through their journey,” Chaubey said, “and proactively identifying where are the stumbling blocks, where are some of the challenges.”

From L to R: Kevin Hall, Amy Ochoa, Provost Indrajeet Chaubey, Margaret Sova McCabe, and Chancellor Charles Robinson.

If a student is having difficulty in a class, is it because they are working two jobs to pay for school? Is the subject matter overwhelming but the student isn’t sure whom to ask for help? Chaubey said the integrated approach would look at the variety of potential pitfalls and “intentionally remove those challenges.”

Chaubey said that the university’s priorities would be retention, graduation, literacy in artificial intelligence and providing each undergraduate with at least one immersive experience to help ensure that students are well prepared to succeed in the workforce after graduation.

Grow Research in Priority Areas  

This includes college and unit-level plans, disciplined investment and the growth of priority research areas while supporting all of the university’s research, scholarship and creative endeavors.

McCabe said that the university would pursue annual research expenditures of $500 million by 2032, nearly double current  expenditures of $252.9 million (FY25).

“Doubling it will take focus; it will take strategic investment; it will take disciplined execution,” McCabe said. “It will also require us to optimize the resources that we have, whether that’s through strategic hiring, alignment with federal and industry opportunities, the best use of our space, our core facilities and our shared research infrastructure.”

Getting to $500 million is based on increases in four areas: growth of $125 million in college and division productivity; growth of $75 million through expansion of faculty; activation of institutes and centers at the university worth $30 million; and an increase in university-wide research support of $50 million.

In trying to identify priority areas of research, the university looked for opportunities “where urgent [state and] national needs and existing strengths converge to create unique opportunity for us,” she said, “because we actually align with the funders.”

Priority Growth Areas for Research

• Materials, semiconductors and power electronics
• Food systems and nutrition
• Metabolic health
• Contested logistics and supply chain
• Lithium and critical minerals

Support Data-Enabled Decisions 

A truly transformational shift focused on continuous improvement by embracing data-enabled decision-making, using shared dashboards, allowing better visibility into performance, faster risk assessment and timely adjustments. 

How the plan is activated is key to its success. To coordinate the campuswide effort, executive sponsors and a newly created Transformation Management Office are supporting multiple initiative leads and teams as they advance university and unit level goals.

“The administration has made a commitment to take and plan and put boots on the ground,” Hall said. “How do you accelerate work? You do it by removing obstacles.  Tracking and reporting milestones are all about the data.”

In addition, eight Employer of Choice initiatives are planned or underway, with three already implemented. As one of the three key pillars of the strategic plan, the U of A is committed to fostering a work environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging, works toward a meaningful purpose, and has the data, resources, connections and foundation of support to be most effective, grow and advance their careers, and thrive in their personal and professional lives.

“Great outcomes require great people,” Ochoa said. “If we want to get to 80 percent (in graduation rate) and $500 million in research, we need the people who can come here, stay here, grow here and develop here. Employer of choice remains that strategic third pillar that enables the university to attract, engage, retain and develop that talent.”

Achieving the transformational goals of the current phase of the plan won’t be easy, but Chancellor Robinson believes reaching the goals is not only possible but necessary if the university is to maximize its impact on the education of students, the growth of Arkansas’ economy and service across the state.

“As a historian, I’ve always loved reading about history and understanding what has happened in the American past,” Robinson said. “But as a chancellor, I don’t want to just read about history. I want to be part of making it. And when we come together, working as one Razorback family, when we’re organized, when we’re determined, we know that we can do things that have never been done before.”

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas’ economy  through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.