Strategic Plan Implementation

January 2022 marks the start of the fourth of five years under SP4.0. Action leaders provide qualitative assessments of progress on each project and those are used to calculate a simple summary measure of the completion status of each of the 20 actions. Recognizing that timelines and priorities for each action (and their associated tactics and projects) fluctuate and will not proceed uniformly, the 20 actions are on track overall. New projects may be added, or projects may be reprioritized and/or rescheduled as conditions continue to change.

Despite the continuing challenges of the pandemic over the past year, OSU has made good progress on many actions. Where progress has slowed, it has not stopped; and where projects have been delayed, they have not been abandoned. As of November 2021, average completion progress across the 20 actions is 60%, which is generally where we expect to be at this point in the plan timeline. Fourteen (14) of the 20 actions are at least halfway finished. Importantly, 94% of projects that had a planned start date prior to November have been started – which confirms that the planning and launch of expected deliverables is appropriately tracked. Most actions fall within the expected range at this point in the plan.

For some actions a large number of priority projects were completed in the past year, such as Action 4 (retool the OSU experience for the 21st century learner), due to necessary prioritization of key projects in response to pandemic conditions. Other actions, such as Action 11 (increase student retention and graduation), remain a priority but some of the projects that make up the action had to be delayed. Given the engagement and commitment of the action leaders, priority projects are frequently evaluated to ensure progress on implementation goals.