2025-2026 Sub-Deliverables
Our five-year plan outlines five outstanding success possibilities (OSPs) that, when accomplished, will represent a true measure of exemplary achievement, promising to have a far-reaching impact on the future of the University and the educational experience of our students.
OSP 1: Market-responsive Education
The University of New Haven was founded to meet the workforce needs of the region. During its hundred-year history it has often been one of the first educational institutions in the Northeast, and at times in the nation to respond to new economic needs, having, for example, the first online MS Esports Business program in the world, the second oldest EMBA in the Northeast, among the first programs in Forensic Science in the U.S., and establishing immediately after 9/11 the second graduate program in National Security.
Building on this proud history, we strive to be a leader in the swift development of programs that meet emergent economic challenges and opportunities in Connecticut, our nation and beyond.
OSP Leader
Shaily Menon
Sub-Deliverable Leaders
Michele Polak
Nancy Savage
Christine Shakespeare
Outcomes
Outcome 1
Support or change existing programs and design new demand-driven and market-responsive programs based on robust metrics and program assessment.
Outcome 2
Secure resources to create, staff, and support interdisciplinary structures and program development.
Outcome 3
Revise the Core Curriculum to prepare all students for success in the new economy with emerging technologies.
Outcome 4
Develop micro-credentials and stackable credentials that are responsive to local, regional and national corporate and community organizations need.
Outcome 5
Implement the AI literacy framework in the areas of pedagogy & curriculum, student persistence & success, professional development for faculty & Staff, governance & policies, and resources for teaching & learning.
Deliverables
1.1: Support or change existing programs and design new demand-driven and market-responsive programs based on robust metrics and program assessment
- 1.1.01: Refine college and program metrics to identify academic programs for reimagining, additional investment or decommissioning.
- 1.1.02: Implement a robust program assessment plan.
- 1.1.03: Use metrics and program assessment outcomes to establish program enrollment goals.
- 1.1.04: Use metrics and program assessment outcomes to allocate funds for new and existing programs.
- 1.1.05: Disaggregate NPS data by program and use for program improvement.
1.2: Program review and assessment of student outcomes
- 1.2.01: Continue to create new collaborative and interdiscipliary programs that are market-responsive
- 1.2.02: Continue to support existing interdisciplinary programs
1.3: Revise the Core Curriculum to prepare all students for success in the new economy with emerging technologies
- 1.3.01: Continue to implement findings from core assessment to improve core curriculum
- 1.3.02: Facilitate interdisciplinary working group to create and revise humanities courses to attract and engage all students on campus
- 1.3.03: Expand on-boarding process to support existing and additional faculty teaching in The Connected Core
1.4: Develop micro-credentials and stackable credentials that are responsive to local, regional and national corporate and community organizations need
- 1.4.01: Develop market-responsive micro-credentials
- 1.4.02: Develop market-responsive stackable credentials
1.5: Implement the AI literacy framework in the areas of pedagogy & curriculum, student persistence & success, professional development for faculty & Staff, governance & policies, and resources for teaching & learning
- 1.5.01: Develop curriculum proposals to integrates AI literacy into undergraduate programs
- 1.5.02: Add AI literacy to core (CC5.1) and/or offer micro-credentials
- 1.5.03: Create systematic faculty training programs for AI integration into classrooms focused on student career readiness (discipline dependent)
- 1.5.04: Develop standards connected to AI literacy framework and share resources
OSP 2: Transformative Student Experience
We will be a leader in comprehensive, and transformative experiences that empower all our students and foster their sense of belonging, personal wellness, and lifelong learning. Students of all backgrounds will benefit from the academic, social, and cultural richness of the Charger community.
OSP Leader
Ophelie Rowe-Allen
Sub-Deliverable Leaders
Matt Caporale
Curtis Clark
Devin Crosby
Tiffany Hesser
Nick LaMendola
Greg Overend
Cindy Sanders
Nancy Savage
Sheila Smith
Joe Scollo
Christine Shakespeare
Outcomes
Outcome 1
Achieve an 85% retention rate from the first to second year and 80% retention from the first to third year, while raising the four-year graduation rate to 65%.
Outcome 2
Create transformative co-curricular opportunities to increase student engagement and retention
Outcome 3
Build a campus “Candidate Pool” program in Handshake to positively impact the internship attainment and career outcomes rates
Outcome 4
Develop a distinctive student-athlete experience that improves student recruitment and retention
Outcome 5
Enhance campus spaces that serve students by ensuring they are welcoming, accessible, and culturally affirming environments. These spaces should promote collaboration, foter communit, and provide resources that encourage student success and well-being.
Deliverables
2.1: Achieve an 85% retention rate from the first to second year and 80% retention from the first to third year, while raising the four-year graduation rate to 65%.
- 2.1.01: Implement a team-based advising model that provides both early intervention for at-risk students and timely assistance for emerging issues (CASA and Faculty).
- 2.1.02: Implement an intervention-based model that provides both early intervention for at-risk students and timely assistance for emerging issues (CASA and CARE) including the “starting-line” program.
- 2.1.03: Student Affairs and Academic Affairs should engage in annual audit of policies to be more student-centered and supportive of academic success.
- 2.1.04: Monitor and share retention and 4-year graduation rates through data tracking, analysis, and reporting to inform strategic decisions.
- 2.1.05: Work in partnership with the Family Council to strengthen communication with families about academic alerts concerning students.
- 2.1.06: Create a targeted student engagement program designed to help students stay engaged and motivated, reducing the risk of drop-off during the sophomore year.
2.2: Create transformative co-curricular opportunities to increase student engagement and retention
- 2.2.01: Strengthen and diversify co-curricular initiatives to foster meaningful student engagement with the wider University community and increase utilization of campus resources.
- 2.2.02: Annual audit of peer-to-peer and group mentoring curriculums and opportunities where experienced students can mentor others (RA, DREAM Ambassadors, CA, APM, OTL, Campus Connectors, DPEs, RSOs, etc.).
- 2.2.03: Improve the use of Charger Connection to track and monitor student participation in co-curricular opportunities.
- 2.2.04: Identify and track students’ persistence in the following cohorts, FIRST, Men’s Collective, DREAM, ELCs and Athletics.
2.3: Enhance campus spaces that serve students by ensuring they are welcoming, accessible, and culturally affirming environments. These spaces should promote collaboration, foster community, and provice resources that encourange student success and well-being.
- 2.3.01: Increase attendance by students in student recognition programs
- 2.3.02: Continued assessment of the diversity of Recognized Student Organizations on an annual basis.
- 2.3.03: Increase participation in existing student advocacy programs, such as the USGA Advocacy Board, Student Town Forums, etc.
- 2.3.04: Utilize the Student Experience, and Campus Climate surveys to assess participation in campus-wide activities, identify barriers to engagement, and evaluate the impact on community belonging.
2.4: Integrate career readiness programming across curricular and co-curricular experiences to enhance students’ internship attainment and post-graduation career outcomes.
- 2.4.01: Increase direct full-time placements of graduating students: Develop candidate pools of application ready students across campus for direct submission to employers and corporate partners to ensure talent placement
- 2.4.02: Deliver quality candidates, quickly: Create a brand for the University as a responsive partner who delivers qualified candidates for specified roles in a timely manner
- 2.4.03: Build Corporate Partnerships: Collaborate with Corporate Partners Team and other stakeholders to increase the number of corporate partners engaging with the University for talent acquisition, research, continued education, capstone projects, and other alternate revenue streams
- 2.4.04: Increase undergraduate student internships: Educate, inspire, and prepare students to complete multiple internship opportunities through integrated programs, partnerships, talent placement, and alumni connections.
- 2.4.05: Track post-graduation outcomes using the overall “knowledge rate”
2.5: Develop a distinctive student-athlete experience that improves student recruitment and retention.
- 2.5.01: Financial Support: Identify financial support to renovate the Jeffery P. Hazell Athletic Center to better accommodate the student-athletes and coaching staff.
- 2.5.02: Partnerships: Increase corporate relationships to enhance student-athletes and campus athletic experience
- 2.5.03: Enhance Support Services in academic, mental health, and career development for student-athletes.
- 2.5.04: Strengthen campus integration of student participation with the athletic department
- 2.5.05: Elevate Branding and Visibility: Launch a targeted marketing campaign highlighting the unique student-athlete experience to prospective students and families.
- 2.5.06: Collect and Use Data to Drive Improvements:Conduct annual satisfaction surveys and exit interviews with student-athletes to identify and address areas for improvement in the overall experience.
2.6: Develop a Career and Life Readiness Framework to track students’ development along several career and professional skill dimensions for graduate and undergraduate students.
- 2.6.01: Working with a group of faculty, continue to refine the 11 competencies and the beginner/intermediate/advanced levels and the rubric for evaluating the competency level of students.
- 2.6.02: Promote the Charger 11 to staff, faculty, and students by providing stamps to proposers for Charger 11 events. Track submissions.
- 2.6.03: Acquire a tracking system to document student engagements and track skill development. (see above mention of software necessary)
- 2.6.04: Develop assessment instruments to quantify student skill development along chosen essential skills in partnership with Director of Assessment
- 2.6.05: Connect with Deans and faculty to fully understand the curriculum, student experiences, and competency focus areas for communication with employer partners and making appropriate connections as needed or required
2.7: Increase public service, service learning,and study abroad and provide financial, career, and academic support to students
- 2.7.01: Community Service: Continue to coordinate data collection for all experiential education across the University in order to establish a baseline and measure year-to-year experiential education
- 2.7.02: Ensure that all University community service has coordination through occasional meetings of functional community service coordinators (start with 2/year)
- 2.7.03: Develop a cohesive University student study abroad strategy with the goal to increase the participation of undergraduates in a study abroad experience by 2% per year
- 2.7.04: Explore an incentive from academic affairs for academic service learning
2.8: Reinvision and reorganize the library to emulate the “academic library of the future” in line with leading institutions of higher education
- 2.8.01: Build assessment benchmarks for key areas of performance and make available and accessible to decision makers through dashboards.
- 2.8.02: Create a cohesive library space plan with campus partners including targeted fundraising/capital goals and projected timelines for work
- 2.8.03: Perform library needs assessment reviewing staffing, physical space, digital environment, and collections, including review of trends and benchmarking against peer institutions
- 2.8.04: Audit and evaluate librarian involvement/information literacy program to determine successes and expore areas for improvement. This includes both physical and online involvement
OSP 3: Institutional Innovation and Global Impact
We will meet the needs of educators and learners by expanding beyond the traditional bounds of academia and deliver learning experiences that strengthen career and workforce outcomes, increase delivery of education abroad, pilot new educational delivery models, and expand industry partnership programs within the research and innovation center.
OSP Leader
Brian Otis
Sub-Deliverable Leaders
James Barone
Tim Butler
Matt Caporale
Deb Flonc
Mario Gaboury
Ron Harichandran
Brian Kench
Paul Lavoie
Shaily Menon
Nancy Savage
Chris Standish
Outcomes
Outcome 1
Increase new and sustain existing global industry partnerships through the President’s Preferred Partnership Committee.
Outcome 2
Increase non-traditional net revenue by leveraging existing partnerships and create new partnerships with local, regional, national and international corporate and community organizations that lead to customized program delivery, workforce development, student and faculty engagement, and innovation
Outcome 3
Develop the research and innovation center using private funding and align its programs with our strengths in manufacturing, cyber security, business and data analytics and leadership development
Outcome 4
Increase external funding through grants & contracts by 10% each year with a focus on funding research and projects that complement market-responsive degree programs and provide students with opportunities for competency acquisition in these areas
Deliverables
3.1: Use the bi-weekly President’s Partnership Committee to track the progress on existing and new partnerships
- 3.1.01: Restructure the internal working team to establish accountability for partnerships activity.
- 3.1.02: Add liasion for Outcome 4 (State, Federal and Private grant funding to this committee)
- 3.1.03: Coordinate KPI for internships and job placement with OSP 2
3.2: Increase non-traditional net revenue by leveraging existing partnerships and create new partnerships with local, regional, national and international corporate and community organizations that lead to customized program delivery, workforce development, student and faculty engagement, and innovation
- 3.2.01: Secure 12 new coporate programsponsorships that increase programatic revenue by $600,000 ($50K avg.)
- 3.2.02: Secure $200,000 in sponsorship revenue for Hackathon, Capture the Flag programs
- 3.2.03: Determine a the base-line net revenue for non-traditional learners in AY25 and increase this revenue source by 10% in AY26 (include all international revenue, conference services, youth camps, corporate training programs, micro credentials, CEA-CAPA, VERTO, and other similar programs)
3.3: Develop the research and innovation center using private funding and align its programs with our strengths in manufacturing, cyber security, business and data analytics and leadership development
- 3.3.01: Acquire 15 corporate partners from 30 campus visits to sign master research agreement
- 3.3.02: Secure $50 million in funding by 2027 for capital build out of the innovation and applied technology research center. The fundraising goal for this FY is $25 million.
3.4: Enhance external funding at the university with a focus on funding research and projects that complement market-responsive degree programs and provide students with opportunities for competency acquisition in these areas
- 3.4.01: Determine the AY25 level of research expenditures through grants & contracts and increase it by 10% in AY26
- 3.4.02: Develop a framework for a Center of Research Excellence to support faculty scholarly activity growth
- 3.4.03: Evaluate effectiveness of the Grant Incentive program (IDC return).
- 3.4.04: Develop a plan that connects University investment in the research infrastructure (reassigned time, summer compensations, startup funding, space), research expenditures and growth of grant activity (ROI)
3.5: Expand the Global Impact of the University of New Haven
- 3.5.01: Develop and implement new articulation agreements with international colleges and universities
- 3.5.02: Develop and implement non-credit programming for delivery overseas
- 3.5.03: Plan for launch of UNH-Riyadh campus for Fall 2026 start
- 3.5.04: Explore opportunities for academic program delivery in India
- 3.5.05: Implement MOUs with international institutions in Ukraine, Bangladesh, India, South Korea, China
OSP 4: People First and Operational Excellence
We will be an employer of choice that attracts, cultivates, and retains talent by fostering a great work environment, and a culture that focuses on supporting people while recognizing and rewarding effective performance. As an organization, we aspire to operational excellence, effectively and creatively using our available resources to maximize the achievement of University objectives.
OSP Leader
Jennifer Cinque
Sub-Deliverable Leaders
Ric Baker
Brown & Brown – Broker Services
Iris Calovine
Clear Company
Andrea Doody
Houssein El Turkey
Betsy Francis-Connolly
Gallagher Broker Services
Patrick Gourley
Vin Mangiacapra
Todd McInerney
Robin Salters
Shipman & Goodman
Chuck Skipton
Patrick Torre
Outcomes
Outcome 1
Create a strategically focused HR organization that is proactively aligned to deliver best-in-class service to the academy, focusing on both strategic and functional excellence
Outcome 2
Build an interactive and engaging learning experience that gives managerial talent the confidence and skills needed to be successful in a frontline leadership role, increasing effectiveness and building relationships to get work done
Outcome 3
Build partnerships across the university in support of engagement, leading to the enhanced sharing of ideas, better collaboration, productivity, and retention between all faculty by focusing on core professional development opportunities to advance our mission and goals in teaching, research, and service
Outcome 4
Evolve the organization structure and refine internal processes and responsibilities to allow staff to focus on work that aligns to their core strengths, that best helps departments, students, and colleagues to maximize achievement of the University objectives
Outcome 5
Create and support a performance-based culture where values, behaviors, and expectations are linked to the University’s mission of meeting the needs of higher education, and employees are assessed and rewarded on their effectiveness in meeting agreed upon goals
Outcome 6
Reinforce a culture that recognizes creation/increase of value and engagement, leading to the enhanced sharing of ideas, better collaboration, productivity, and retention of employees
Outcome 7
Ensure, for each fiscal year, that incremental net student and fee revenue exceeds incremental increases in annual operating expenses, and results in an unrestricted increase in net assets from operations of at least 4%
Deliverables
4.1: Create a competitively focused HR organization that is proactively aligned to deliver best-in-class service to the academy, focusing on both strategic and functional excellence
- 4.1.01: Implement new partnership with Brown & Brown health & welfare brokerage service provider and enhanced offerings, reporting, and technologies.
- 4.1.02: Build a prototype workflow to replace a PDF-based personnel change (e.g., one-time faculty payment).
- 4.1.03: Implement Banner SS9 allowing for employee self-service access and change requests, timesheet entry and vacation requests, along with supervisory access to team detail and approvals
- 4.1.04: Conduct six-month pulse surveys to measure organizational effectiveness and employee engagement. Create trend reporting. Evaluate insights with leadership team to prioritize emerging trends and prioritize key focus areas.
- 4.1.05: Conduct medical plan vendor RFP process. Determine estimated probability for implementation considering requirements needed for OE period. Determine other cost saving opportunities for employees and the university for FY27.
- 4.1.06: Conduct retirement plan vendor RFP process and ensure university is meeting fiduciary responsibilities, offering best services to employees, benchmarking costs against market standards, and ensuring the university is meeting regulatory compliance & risk mitigation requirements.
- 4.1.07: Examine the technological capabilities for developing an AI-enabled “Ask HR” application that employees can use to ask their most frequently asked questions.
4.2: Build an interactive and engaging learning experience that gives managerial talent the confidence and skills needed to be successful in a frontline leadership role, increasing effectiveness and building relationships to get work done
- 4.2.01: Launch minimum of two leadership lab sessions supporting topics identified from prospective P2 managerial curriculum.
- 4.2.02: Build sustainability plan for managerial phase I curriculum for newly hired managers
- 4.2.03: Modify and launch the professional development website for university employees.
- 4.2.04: Create and implement a quarterly employee professional development resource which targets the advancement of specific competencies, inclusive of the AI focused prompt-a-thons sponsored through Microsoft.
- 4.2.05: Develop and publish a campus-wide Accept AI Usage Policy.
4.3: Build partnerships across the university in support of engagement, leading to the enhanced sharing of ideas, better collaboration, productivity, and retention between all faculty by focusing on core professional development opportunities to advance our mission and goals in teaching, research, and service
- 4.3.01: Develop a method to assess reach and impact of facutlty development opportunities
- 4.3.02: Develop a Department Chair Council in order to expand professional development and community among Department Chairs.
- 4.3.03: Develop an incentive program that supports a culture of high performance in academic advising with the goal of improving retention and graduation rates and decreasing advising errors]
4.4: Create and support a performance-based culture where values, behaviors, and expectations are linked to the University’s mission of meeting the needs of higher education, and employees are assessed and rewarded on their effectiveness in meeting agreed upon goals
- 4.4.01: Simplify staff performance evaluations to capture full scope of employee deliverables and outcomes, providing ease of use and increasing online adoption and completion rates.
- 4.4.02: Explore and evaluate the university’s enthusiasm for a structured talent planning approach, prospectively including tools for assessing workforce capabilities, identifying future talent needs, and best practices for succession planning, development, and retention strategies.
- 4.4.03: Draft Faculty Handbook Changes for Sections 2.11 and 2.13 regarding the Faculty Activity Revew and process for faculty performance appraisal
- 4.4.04: Update and share timeline for approval and implementation of the revised FAR
4.5: Reinforce a culture that recognizes creation/increase of value and engagement, leading to the enhanced sharing of ideas, better collaboration, productivity, and retention of employees
- 4.5.01: Create program, tools, and training that propagates a customer-centric culture, capitalizing on university brand and values. Implement standalone program and/or implement within existing programs (faculty, staff, student).
- 4.5.02: Develop and implement programs and initiatives to engage and retain employees.
- 4.5.03: Identify and implement 2-3 process optimization opportunities that enhance student recruitment and retention efforts, improving overall student experience.