‘Onward’ offers four sessions for community input this month

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The series of UO Onward: Strategic Engagement listening sessions continues at a brisk pace through the coming weeks as organizers field ideas and perspectives from all corners of the University of Oregon community as part of the process of forging strategic priorities.

Any member of the UO community can attend one of four upcoming sessions: in-person Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. in the Ford Alumni Center, Nov. 20 at 3:30 p.m. in the Erb Memorial Union and again at 6 p.m. in the EMU. A virtual session takes place Nov. 15 at 10 a.m.

To date, more than 420 people have taken part in 12 sessions, with input from more than 260 via an online survey. Including upcoming public and audience-specific events, a total of 21 listening sessions will have taken place by Nov. 21 in the first phase of community engagement. 

Participants are asked to reflect upon key priorities: student learning and achievement, campus belonging, and elevating the UO’s outstanding scholarship and service.

Each of the priorities has a set of working goals, with the sessions focused on gathering reactions to them and collecting suggestions for strategies, metrics, activities and other ideas for reaching those goals.

The organizers are pleased with the turnout and the engagement of the participants.

“The energy at our first public sessions has been encouraging,” said Kassy Fisher, the UO president’s chief of staff and one of the project team leaders. “The process so far has been productive, and it’s great to have people giving their time to reflect thoughtfully about the UO’s mission and offering up observations and ideas from their individual vantage points. There is still time to participate by signing up to attend one of the sessions or by completing the survey, which is designed to gather similar input.”

The next phase is compilation of the contributed comments and ideas, followed by analysis, a draft plan, review of the plan, and then adoption by university leaders.

For more information about the project and a link to the online survey, see the UO Onward website.