Proposed Academic Affairs Five-Year Strategic Plan Title:

Vision 2029: Racing Toward a Distinctive, Effective, Sustainable, and Impactful (DESI) Academic Enterprise

[Note: Desi is defined as Indigenous, unadulterated or pure. Endnote]

University Mission Statement:

Kentucky State University is a public, comprehensive, historically Black land-grant university committed to advancing the Commonwealth of Kentucky, enhancing society, and impacting individuals by providing quality teaching with a foundation in liberal studies, scholarly research, and public service to enable productive lives within the diverse global economy.

Mission Statement for the Office of Academic Affairs:

Academic Affairs -- at the heart of our academic enterprise -- is an inclusive community ardently committed to the promotion of excellence. We promote a resilient intellectual and creative environment built on preserving culturally responsive assessment and evaluation of academic programs as well as the formation of knowledge. We support the University's Mission by advancing academic freedom, intellectual and creative discovery for students, faculty, and staff through transformative academic programs, curricular experiences, and professional development that broaden participation, disseminate knowledge, and positively impact communities within the Commonwealth and beyond including our lives as global citizens.

Academic Vision:

Our academic community will be a historically black college and university model of scholarship and advocacy by fostering high-quality educational programming that combines the best qualities of liberal studies and the arts, integrates discovery-based research and innovative practices, and prepares our graduates for lifelong learning, successful careers, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Academic Values:

To achieve our mission, we pursue goals and activities within a framework of shared values that serve as a touchstone for our decision-making and form the foundation for culturally responsive evaluation, measurement, and assessment of our effectiveness in achieving our goals. We value:

• Academic Freedom and Tenure;
• Academic Excellence;
• Accountability for our actions and adherence to the highest ethical standards in all our professional obligations and personal responsibilities;
• Equitable Collaboration and Partnerships that adds Value to advance goal achievement and reinforce our mission;
• Faculty and Staff Development for continuous improvement;
• Evidence-based culturally responsive assessment and evaluation;
• Personal responsibility for assisted independent learning in an inclusive and safe learning environment;
• Recognition and reward for outstanding accomplishments;
• Effective use of technology to support integrated discovery-based research into the curriculum and to enhance the learning environment;
• Culturally Responsive strategies to ensure our stakeholders are accurately and visibly represented.