UNCSA Forward

Dear UNCSA Community,

Thank you to all of you who attended this morning’s installation event, either in person or virtually. It was such an honor to have this wonderful community present as I was officially installed as your ninth chancellor, and especially to have the talent of our amazing student- and faculty-artists on display. As I said in my remarks, the event was not really about me, it was a celebration of the remarkable, unique and magical place that is UNCSA, and it was a moment I will never forget.

As many of you heard, at today’s event I was excited to share with UNCSA friends and family the vision for our next strategic plan for the coming five years and beyond — UNCSA Forward. We are sharing this vision today to engage all of you in the important discussions that will help us finalize the plan to present it for approval by the Board of Trustees in December.

Over the past year I have been working with academic and staff leaders to workshop this plan and create the draft being shared. Another critical part of this process was the important work that our campuswide Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) task force did last year. The recommendations and vision statement that they generated has become a core component of UNCSA Forward. I want to again commend the more than 50 people across our campus that did this important work.

UNCSA Forward is designed around five core strategies that represent areas of strength to reinforce, challenges that we need to meet head-on, and tremendous opportunities to seize. Those strategies are:

• Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB)
• Health and Wellness
• Interdisciplinary Work in the Arts
• Maintaining and Expanding Industry Relevance
• Institutional Sustainability

You can find the entire draft of the plan on our website, and if you would like to listen to the remarks I delivered this morning with further details, you can listen here.

I will be providing additional context about UNCSA Forward in a series of emails — of which this is the first — around each of the core strategies, over the coming months. I hope you will find this series of communications informational and inspirational as we plan for our future.

Additionally, throughout this semester we will be providing opportunities for feedback on the plan through forums with students, faculty, staff and alumni. Stay tuned for more information about how you can make your voice heard. 

The work ahead for UNCSA is urgent, it is important, it is exciting, and it will be impactful. As your chancellor, I am committed to giving my best every day, to serving the people of UNCSA, and doing everything in my power to help this institution achieve its mission and vision. I hope you will join me as we move UNCSA forward!

Sincerely,


Brian Cole 
Chancellor