In the summer of 2024, the 2030 Action & Strategic Framework was refreshed with four new commitments. Since that time, leaders across campus have continued to move toward the 2030 goals, defining their strategies, tactics and metrics to ensure success in each of these critical areas. Below is a representative sample of that work.
Note: For each of the UWM 2030 Commitments, the goals listed below represent institutional priorities. The accompanying strategies and sample tactics are illustrative and are intended to highlight potential campus-level approaches to advancing these goals. They are not comprehensive and do not capture the full range of activities occurring across the university. Colleges, schools, and divisions may develop and supplement strategies that align with and contribute to these goals. The example metrics and targets reflect ways progress around these goals may be monitored and are under consideration for possible inclusion in a public-facing dashboard to support continuous improvement and enhance accountability.
COMMITMENT: STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC AND PERSONAL JOURNEY
| Goal: Advance Student Success and Close Equity Gaps | |
| Strategy | Improve student access to equitable, coordinated, holistic support services and resources. |
| Sample Tactics: | Strengthen collaborative networks that support prospective students through pre-college pathways and partnerships with families, K-12 schools, community-based organizations, and the greater Milwaukee community (e.g., through M-Cubed, Panther Pathway Scholars Program) Standardize an integrated student support structure and practices across campus Revise and standardize institutional policies and practices related to student support and resources, using a student-centric approach Enhance student engagement, well-being, and sense of belonging |
| Example Metrics: | NSSE “Supportive Environment” mean score for first year and senior students, disaggregated by key student populations (including underrepresented minority-status, first-generation status, Pell eligibility, and Milwaukee high school graduate status) Number of students served through pre-college pathways, including dual enrollment, M-Cubed Percentage of students with first-time GPA below 2.0 Term-to-term re-enrollment rates |
| Target: | Increase NSSE “supportive environment” score to 35.3% by 2029 Expand the number of students served through pre-college pathways over the next five years Reduce the percentage of students with first semester GPA below 2.0 by 2030. Improve the fall-to-spring re-enrollment rate for all students from 88.4% over the next five years |
| Contact Person: | Kay Eilers, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management |
| Goal: Develop students academically and professionally | |
| Strategy | Create innovative curriculum, pedagogy, and learning opportunities in alignment with workforce needs. |
| Sample Tactics: | Advance a student-centered academic experience through general education reform, academic maps, and experiential learning. Elevate first-year undergraduate retention initiatives. Structure and sequence learning and development opportunities. |
| Example Metrics: | DFW rates New freshmen retention rate Four and six-year graduation rates First Destination Survey responses |
| Target: | Decrease DFW rates from 12.4% (Fall 2024) by Fall 2030 Increase new freshmen retention rate over the next five years Increase four-year and six-year graduation rates over the next five years Increase the percentage of undergraduates who strongly agree that UWM helped them create a plan from 51% (2023-24) by 2029-30 |
| Contact Person: | Kay Eilers, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management |
| Goal: Grow Enrollment Through Coordinated Recruitment and Retention | |
| Strategy | Increase overall enrollment by at least 1.5% year-over-year for the next five years across all degree and non-degree educational segments. |
| Sample Tactics: | Improve retention and graduation rates by implementing coordinated, student-centric practices and policies, while prioritizing the attainment of equitable outcomes. Target recruitment efforts to maximize resources in high potential areas, aligned with UWM’s access, research and community-engaged mission. |
| Example Metrics: | Metrics as defined in SEM Plan (uwm.edu/sem-plan) |
| Target: | Achieve 1.5% enrollment growth year over year for the next five years |
| Contact Person: | Kay Eilers, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management |
COMMITMENT: POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
| Goal: Support employee success – A | |
| Strategy | Expand opportunities for and engagement with professional development. |
| Sample Tactics: | Expand internal marketing of available professional development opportunities. Develop new training sessions based on employee demand. Provide in-person training for supervisors on supporting employee professional development plans. Offer in-person employee training on developing and using professional development plans. Collaborate with Universities of Wisconsin System Administration and University of Wisconsin-Madison to host Principles of Supervisory Management training for supervisors. |
| Example Metrics: | Number of professional development trainings offered Participation rates and total attendance Participant feedback and satisfaction with training sessions |
| Target: | To be determined based on the baselines established for the selected metrics. |
| Contact Person: | Makda Fessahaye, associate vice chancellor and chief human resources officer |
| Goal: Support employee success – B | |
| Strategy | Increase staff retention. |
| Sample Tactics: | Provide supervisor training to help identify and mitigate employee dissatisfaction. Conduct consistent exit surveys across all divisions and departments. Use nimble initiatives, such as Campus CARES and New Employee orientation, to address needs identified through staff feedback and surveys. |
| Example Metrics: | Annual staff turnover rate (percentage of staff leaving UWM in each fiscal year) |
| Target: | To be determined based on turnover rate. |
| Contact Person: | Makda Fessahaye, associate vice chancellor and chief human resources officer |
COMMITMENT: RESEARCH, INNOVATION & COMMUNITY IMPACT
| Goal: Strengthen Partnerships with Community Organizations & Community Members as an Urban-Serving Institution | |
| Strategy: | Increase recognition and storytelling around UWM’s community impact. |
| Sample Tactics: | Showcase UWM-community partnerships through regular inclusion in UWM’s marketing and communication editorial calendar. Develop a centralized community impact dashboard on the UWM website. Provide regular updates on community impact projects to support government relations outreach. Share information on UWM-community partnerships with board members and volunteers to support advocacy and message amplification. |
| Example Metrics: | Volume and tone of media coverage related to UWM’s community impact |
| Target: | Increase |
| Contact Person: | Deanna Alba, acting vice chancellor of marketing, communications & university relations |
| Goal: Advance Impactful Research and Innovation – A | |
| Strategy: | Promote and support team science, community-engaged research, and translational research activities. |
| Sample Tactics: | Expand support for community-based and large-scale interdisciplinary research initiatives, such as federally funded centers. Ensure tenure and promotion (T&P) criteria value and account for collaborative and community-engaged research. |
| Example Metrics: | Number of multiple-PI and center grant proposals submitted, Number of faculty engaged in community-based research, Number of intellectual property (IP) disclosures |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Ali Abedi, vice provost for research |
| Goal: Advance Impactful Research and Innovation – B | |
| Strategy: | Align campus resources to optimally support identified high-impact research and cultural production areas. |
| Sample Tactics: | Build upon the 2024 High-Impact Research Areas report by identifying specific strategies to enhance impact in each of the five identified areas. Utilize cluster hires to build critical mass in high-impact areas. Align campus SEED funding resources to support research growth in these areas. |
| Example Metrics: | Number of faculty aligned with five high-impact areas Number of research proposals, awards, and expenditures aligned with high-impact areas |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Ali Abedi, vice provost for research |
| Goal: Advance Impactful Research and Innovation – C | |
| Strategy: | Strengthen infrastructure to better support UWM’s role as the only R1 in the industrial and economic hub of the State. |
| Sample Tactics: | Improve accounting practices to better capture internally funded research expenditures. Expand proposal development support to improve both the volume and competitiveness of proposals. Enhance research infrastructure to better support PIs with award management. Identify and deliver a future cyberinfrastructure (research IT) environment required to grow the research enterprise to extend its impact. |
| Example Metrics: | Institutional, federal, and total research expenditures as reported in the HERD survey Number of proposals submitted Number of awards and proposal success rate (hit rate) Number of projects with no-cost extensions |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Ali Abedi, vice provost for research |
| Goal: Strengthen Partnerships with Community Organizations & Community Members as an Urban-Serving Institution – A | |
| Strategy: | Inventory and align campus-level and college-level community engagement. |
| Sample Tactics: | Strategic Partnering. Hold monthly partnering meetings with campus stakeholders; inventory key university contact points and community connections. Student Experience and Talent (SET) programming, including centralized coordination of experiential and service learning opportunities and Community of Practice (CoP) to foster community engagement. University Advancement (UA) and Strategic Partnering (SP) monthly meetings to coordinate on connections and prospects and quarterly meetings with UWM leadership. UA and SP quarterly “deep dive” meetings initiated in 2024 for inventory key contacts for high profile partners. Inventory/assessment compiled in 2025 for reclassification as a Carnegie Community Engagement University. Inventory/Assessment compiled in 2023 for APLU Recognition through the Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) program and annual reflection memos. |
| Example Metrics: | Number of monthly and quarterly meetings held Number of common contact points identified Explore campus shared contact database after UA implementation of Sales Force Completed “deep dive” meetings with campus partners Universities of Wisconsin – Accountability Dashboard metrics Categorization and inventory of community partnerships (via UWM Office of Assessment & Institutional Research) |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Brian Thompson, chief innovation and partnership officer |
| Goal: Strengthen Partnerships with Community Organizations & Community Members as an Urban-Serving Institution – B | |
| Strategy: | Strengthen relationships and collaboration with the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County and other government organizations. |
| Sample Tactics: | Strengthen relationships and collaboration with the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, and other government organizations. |
| Example Metrics: | Metrics included in the Universities of Wisconsin – Accountability Dashboard (https://www.wisconsin.edu/accountability/economic-development/) Categorization and inventory of community partnerships (via UWM Office of Assessment & Institutional Research) |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Brian Thompson, chief innovation and partnership officer |
COMMITMENT: FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY & ECONOMICALLY ANCHORING SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN
| Goal: Optimize Philanthropy | |
| Strategy: | Grow the proportion of charitable giving designated for endowment. |
| Sample Tactics: | Emphasize the importance of endowment gifts with UWMF board members and encourage them to share endowment messaging in their networks. Use dedicated communications channels (such as social media, electronic pubs) to highlight endowment gift promotion. |
| Example Metrics: | Percentage of giving designated for endowment |
| Target: | 40% |
| Contact Person: | Joan Nesbitt, vice chancellor for university advancement |
| Goal: Create Sustainable and Engaging Physical Spaces | |
| Strategy | Update UWM’s long‐range facilities plan to optimize space to strengthen student success, instructional, and research goals. |
| Sample Tactics: | Complete RFP and execute contract for Long Range Campus Plan (LRCP) consultant(s) by August 2025. Conduct Facility Condition Assessments by July 2027. Finalize and publish the LRCP report by December 2027. |
| Example Metrics: | Public release of the LRCP in Winter 2027/2028 |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Melissa Spadanuda, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management |
| Goal: Create Sustainable and Engaging Physical Spaces | |
| Strategy: | Plan and coordinate strong advocacy for UWM’s major capital project needs. |
| Sample Tactics: | Submit a robust portfolio of capital project requests. Advocate for funding from the State of Wisconsin’s Capital Budget. |
| Example Metrics: | Number, type, budget of approved capital projects Number and type of advocacy actions by audience (e.g. tours, presentations, videos, handouts, emails) Proportion of requested funds allocated in the final budget |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Melissa Spadanuda, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management |
| Goal: Raise the institution’s long-term financial sustainability and capacity to invest in strategic priorities | |
| Strategy | Strengthen institutional financial health through multi-year financial planning. |
| Sample Tactics: | Balance operating budgets, targeting a 1% ($5M) unrestricted operating margin annually from FY26 to FY30 Achieve 1.5% annual enrollment growth through enrollment and retention initiatives described in the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan (SEM), including financial aid tactics. Increase five-year fundraising and external contract and grant expenditures. Improve multiyear financial planning across campus and divisions. |
| Example Metrics: | Composite Financial Index (CFI) Annual enrollment growth, fundraising, and contract & grant expenditures |
| Target: | Balance operating budgets, targeting a 1% ($5M) unrestricted operating margin annually from FY26 to FY30 Achieve 1.5% annual enrollment growth through enrollment and retention initiatives described in the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan (SEM), including financial aid tactics. Increase five-year fundraising and external contract and grant expenditures. Improve multi-year financial planning across campus and divisions. |
| Contact Person: | Drew Knab, chief finance officer |
| Goal: Leverage IT and Data as Strategic Assets to Deliver Digital Transformation Outcomes – A | |
| Strategy | Harness innovation and data to optimize and transform university capabilities. |
| Sample Tactics: | Create an innovation pipeline and form partnerships to identify, prototype, and adopt and share new technologies and data capabilities. Utilize AI technologies throughout the university to personalize, optimize, and elevate human experiences. Enhance research cyberinfrastructure to boost competitiveness and enable secure, scalable research. Develop and oversee ROI-based proposals to deliver, optimize, and retire technology and data services through ITD governance. |
| Example Metrics: | Percentage of projects in innovation pipeline reaching adoption phase. Number of AI-enabled projects implemented across instruction, research, and operations. Quantified impact (efficiency, satisfaction, revenue) of emerging technology and data capabilities. |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Scott Genung, associate vice chancellor and chief information officer |
| Goal: Leverage IT and Data as Strategic Assets to Deliver Digital Transformation Outcomes – B | |
| Strategy | Streamline activities through technology to reduce workloads and increase focus on value-added efforts. |
| Sample Tactics: | Establish a shared technology and data ecosystem at UWM to unify system and operational planning Leverage AI and analytics; optimize operational processes. Establish self-service capabilities to reduce wait times and increase customer satisfaction. |
| Example Metrics: | Number of operational, customer-facing, and strategic workloads. Reduction in manual intervention required for recurring IT operations. Cost savings from vendor optimization and contract consolidation. Employee satisfaction with workload balance through annual pulse surveys. |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Scott Genung, associate vice chancellor and chief information officer |
| Goal: Leverage IT and Data as Strategic Assets to Deliver Digital Transformation Outcomes – C | |
| Strategy | Simplify and enhance human experience through technology to extend UWM’s impact. |
| Sample Tactics: | Deliver immersive, accessible, personalized experiences through technology and data to save time and elevate impact. Enable greater student success outcomes through the implementation of new technologies and practices to support the SEM Plan. |
| Example Metrics: | Accessibility compliance scores for key campus systems, websites, and content. Utilization rates and trends of platforms which elevate human experiences. |
| Target: | TBD |
| Contact Person: | Scott Genung, associate vice chancellor and chief information officer |