Mission, Vision & Values

by Emily Slater

The College of Engineering revealed a new mission and bold vision for the future in December 2022 that honors Cal Poly’s lineage of greatness and propels the college into the future on the strength of its core values and key priorities.

A 15-member committee of students, faculty and staff members across the college met from January to June 2022 then collected the input and gathered for a series of Zoom meetings where they identified the foundational elements to serve as the cornerstone of the five-year plan. A draft version was presented to the college in September and final version in December 2022.

“We had one foot in the past while we looked forward to the future,” said Hans Mayer, a mechanical engineering assistant professor who served on the committee. “We wanted to honor what Cal Poly has always been while moving forward to make our college even stronger.”

College of Engineering Dean Amy S. Fleischer believes a shared mission and vision gives the college a road map as it provides unique, inclusive, educational and applied research experiences for a rapidly diversifying student population.

“We are empowering our engineering students to change the world through their innovative and sustainable solutions to challenges,” Fleischer said. “Conveying such an important mission unites us all in our pursuit of excellence.”

The process of drafting a strategic plan started with surveying students, faculty and staff members about the college’s mission and values, vision for the future, areas of distinction and learning opportunities.

Over 1,400 students and 129 faculty and staff members responded to the strategic plan survey or participated in focus groups, while another 80 college leaders attended a kickoff workshop.

“The number of student responses, in particular, tell me that people care about what we’re doing,” said Chris Lupo, committee member and computer science and software engineering chair. “It was refreshing to see how many students wanted their voices to be heard.”

After the input collection phase, the Strategic Planning Committee began meeting every two or three weeks starting in January 2022 to craft the foundational elements of the plan under the guidance of consulting firm Blue Beyond.

The first step, Lupo said, was looking for trends in the data so members could categorize the responses that would shape the mission. “We wanted to hit the key points,” he explained.

The committee included college leaders who shared a range of opinions about the path forward and the meaning of success during discussions held in breakout rooms and as a larger group.

Paige Ross, the president of the Cal Poly chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, represented the student perspective she called critical to any strategic planning.

“We are the ones who will be going into the industry and implementing these ideas,” said Ross, who is in her fifth year of a blended master’s program for mechanical engineering.

The Simi Valley, California, resident believes that engineers coming out of Cal Poly will have a vital role in developing sustainable solutions to real-world problems through designs that impact their communities.

“As a college, we have to center our identity and reflect how more diverse perspectives and identities can lead to better solutions for all communities,” Ross said. “If we don’t change, we’ll be left behind integrating into the greater community.”

The plan’s guiding principles should be a part of classroom discussions that extend to school projects and out into the field, she said.

Biomedical engineering Professor Kristen O’Halloran Cardinal said the committee’s work to determine where the college’s compass should point was challenging but invigorating.

She joined the committee to learn about the strategic planning process but also to speak for her department and the priorities of its students.

“There are so many unique perspectives between staff, faculty and students, but there are also so many commonalities in why people love Cal Poly,” she said. “At the end of the day, we all have the same goals.”

With a mission in place, the Strategic Planning Committee worked to formulate a vision and identify key priorities and specific goals to make that vision a reality.

Lupo said that while the college had a prior mission statement in place, there was not a clearly defined vision.

The survey data provided the key to creating the vision, said Mayer, who noted students, staff and faculty all aligned on the importance of Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing approach, affordable education and academic reputation.

There was also a stated desire to raise the national prominence of the college’s hands-on education and its rapidly diversifying student population, internal and external collaborations, and commitment to the growth of students, faculty and staff.

“We all have a similar purpose, which brings up morale and brings clarity about what our purpose is in any setting, whether big or small,” said Katie Jennings, committee member and retention specialist with Engineering Student Services.

Articulating a vision also guided the committee in identifying the core values of the strategic plan: collaboration, growth, excellence, and a diverse, equitable, just and inclusive community.

“We need collaboration and growth along with diversity, equity and inclusion to make excellent people,” Jennings said. “They all tie into each other.”

Tangible ways to achieve the vision could include increasing support for multicultural programs, promoting professional development and dedicating class time to open dialogue through which students can learn more about themselves and each other, Jennings said.

What’s Next?

The full 2022-2027 College of Engineering

Strategic plan which includes not only the mission, vision and values but also four strategic priorities, two goals for each priority, metrics and actions can be found on the college website.

“This is the starting point,” said Professor Kristen O’Halloran Cardinal. “All the actions we take now will stem from the mission and vision.”

The next steps, according to college Dean Amy S. Fleischer, are to set yearly actions and transparently track and communicate progress on strategic priorities and vision.

Making programs, such as computing, more accessible to constituencies and creating more collaborative curriculum are other concrete steps, according to Lupo.

Elevating the work and missions of campus clubs, including the Society of Women Engineers chapter, is another step forward, Ross said.

Community building is critical too after a pandemic that isolated so many, said Cardinal, who added that college support for the development of health-care technology, for example, can lead to expanded outreach to marginalized groups.

“Learn by Doing is in our DNA, but now we have a mission, vision, values and priorities that honor that,” Mayer said. ■