Editor’s Note: Madi Shafman uses she/they pronouns, but she/her pronouns will be used in this article for clarity.
Every five years, UW-Eau Claire develops and sets forth a strategic plan containing pillars and change strategies the university wishes to see accomplished in the following five years. The plan’s development derives from the contributions of hundreds of students, faculty and staff.
With the 2020-2025 plan wrapping up, the university began the process of developing the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan during the fall 2024 semester. The plan takes inspiration from the 2010-2030 Master Plan, which outlines in greater detail the long-term goals of the university.
The strategic plan takes the “pillars,” or goals, of the master plan and selects a handful of them that the university wants to achieve in the next five years.
Developed by the University Planning Committee (UPC) and overseen by former chief of staff MJ Burkardt, the 2025-2030 plan includes three pillars to achieve, all of which encompass the goal of national distinction. The pillars were selected by a number of vision teams.
“There were six different vision teams, all of which were tasked to come up with kind of a top three … big projects or big ideas that our campus wants to tackle,” Student Body President Sam Consiglio said. “From that, we pulled anything that was overlapping and put that into the pillars.”
The first pillar is to achieve national distinction for “programmatic leadership in health and well-being.”
Priority actions include strengthening collaborations across disciplines like the sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences, as well as developing new, nationally competitive academic and co-curricular programs.
The second pillar is to achieve national distinction by “leadership in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.”
Priority actions include implementing practices that will eliminate the opportunity gap as well as recruiting and retaining a more diverse student body and workforce.
Pillar three is to achieve national distinction by “integrating undergraduate research and creative activity across all disciplines.”
Priority actions include supporting departments in determining the best way to integrate research and creative activity into curriculum and workloads, as well as expanding research opportunities with national partners.
Following the creation of the newest plan, a number of students and faculty noticed that sustainability, which the university has been called a “living lab” for developing, was not a set goal in the plan.
Madi Shafman, Student Senate director for the Student Office of Sustainability (SOS), said that while sustainability isn’t mentioned as a pillar, it is in the master plan.
“In our 20-30 year plan, we do have a pillar of sustainability that we want to stay sustainable as a school and make those initiatives to stay sustainable,” Shafman said. “But in the 2025-2030 plan, it’s kind of not really talked about, which was our ‘issue’ with it.”
Lily Strehlow, sustainability coordinator, addressed the issue during the open forum at the Feb. 10 Student Senate meeting. Strehlow encouraged senators and students to be a voice for continuing sustainability on campus.
“As students, you have a really powerful voice on campus,” Strehlow said. “I think that the strategic plan right now really reflects the process and the goals that the chancellor set. And I want to remind you that you all can set goals, too, and you can advocate for the things you want to see happen on campus.”
Strehlow, along with members of SOS, put together a written response in reaction to the goals for leaders of the strategic plan to consider.
At the Feb. 19 SOS meeting, Dean of Students and Student Affairs Greg Heinselman, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of Graduate Studies Mary Hoffman and Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Tracy Drier each gave presentations providing explanations for the creation of the newest strategic plan.
Heinselman, who helped put the strategic plan together, said the plan was really more of an action plan for the next five years that centers around increasing attendance and retention rates.
“Part of the dynamics of that were looking at where our enrollment is at and what’s happening with enrollment,” Heinselman said. “We want to be an institution of 12,000 students. We were very close to achieving that goal before the pandemic … Now we’re sitting around 9,000 students.”
Heinselman said their directive was achieving an institution of 12,000 students, and the strategic plan was created to consider what it’s “going to take” to achieve that goal. Heinselman explained that, by increasing enrollment, funding could go toward things like The Green Fund, which funds SOS initiatives.
The Green Fund is an annual student-segregated fee allocation. It was created in 2008 through a student referendum, where students voted to invest approximately $8 per semester into an environmental responsibility account.
Other goals include having 100% student participation in at least two active learning experiences, a 90% first- to second-year retention rate and a 60% four-year graduation rate. Heinselman said that while not every value of the university is explicitly stated, they are still important.
“When you look at the plan, it’s important to remember that everything we do as an institution isn’t baked into that plan,” Heinselman said. “But everything we do as an institution has to contribute.”
Hoffman then spoke about places where she sees sustainability in the plan despite it not being exclusively mentioned, specifically in pillar two.
“It’s impossible to think about improving healthcare in this country or in the world without also talking about specifically environmental sustainability,” Hoffman said. “Sustainability and conversations about environmental health have to be a piece of that if we’re really going to accomplish those goals.”
Drier, who explained that finance administration is also not mentioned in the new strategic plan, said the finance division will be doing non-academic program reviews.
“We’re going to be identifying how we in every single department, including sustainability, can see ourselves in the new plan,” Drier said.
Drier also explained that there are conversations to get started with the new campus master plan earlier than usual to ensure that all areas’ needs are expressed.
Hoffman then addressed that the strategic plan has gone through a few language changes to give more emphasis to sustainability.
What initially read, “What you will find is a disciplined blueprint tailored for these challenging times — a plan designed to fortify our university’s strengths, celebrate our heritage and accelerate strategic changes that will propel us into a brighter future,” now additionally mentions a “commitment to sustainability.”
Following the faculty’s presentations, members of SOS expressed their fear that the lack of sustainability in the specific goals of the strategic plan gives potential for it to be put on the backburner.
“I think we all understand the value that institution has placed on sustainability,” Heinselman said. “We’re hoping this is the right formula. We don’t feel like sustainability is broken, but that there are some other things that we need to have our eyes on.”
Jake Hicks, SOS student director, gave his thoughts on the updates to the plan.
“While I would like to see more in the plan regarding environmental considerations, I’m also grateful that there is now something rather than nothing,” Hicks said.
Hicks asked if, because the emphasis of the strategic plan was on aiding the enrollment crisis and lack of state funding, the university’s administration or the UW System is putting in any effort to get more state funding.
“I don’t think that students, regardless, should be responsible for advocating for the financial well being of the university,” Hicks said.
In 2000, state taxes covered approximately 33.5% of the annual UW System expenditures. In the 2025 fiscal year, the UW System received approximately 17.5% of its funding from state general purpose revenue (GPR).
On Feb. 18, Governor Tony Evers called for a record-breaking $119 billion budget proposal for public education. While decisions have yet to be made following the proposal, Hoffman noted that things like this are one of the actions being taken to lessen the financial burden on students.
With varying perceptions of how sustainability and the financial functions of UW-Eau Claire will play out in the future, Heiselman closed the meeting by leaving students with something to consider.
“Don’t underestimate the impact and the value that a busload of students can have on the state capital,” Heiselman said. “That’s a voice that resonates beyond campus in a different way.”
With the 2025-2030 strategic plan in its final drafting stages, students seem curious as to how sustainability will be represented at UW-Eau Claire the next five years. For now, all they can do is wait.
Braun can be reached at braunee6220@uwec.edu.
