Approvals:
11/28/05
USF-SM Campus Board

2/20/06 ACE Work Group

3/2/06
USF Board of Trustees

INTRODUCTION

Strategic planning is a continuing process permitting the campus community to examine past performance, identify current trends and needs, and set goals for future development. Strategic planning challenges the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to fulfill its legislatively mandated role as the public’s first provider of upper-division and graduate education in the region it serves.  That community has an earned national reputation for superior levels of cultural and educational development. The USF Sarasota-Manatee campus will have an important role in maintaining and enhancing the region’s reputation as one of America’s most progressive places with a high quality of life. Therefore, our strategic planning is part of the greater regional planning for superior growth management and quality of life enhancement.

The State of Florida established the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus in 1975 in response to public demand for greater access to higher education. USF Sarasota-Manatee is an integral part of the larger USF system, one of America’s largest and most dynamic research universities.

The capacity of the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to effectively serve the communities it is charged to support, notably Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto Counties, depends on effective use of resources allocated to clearly defined goals and objectives. For that to occur, intentional and on-going strategic planning must be based on comprehensive assessment of the community interests and needs, capacity to increase the required resource base, attention to operational costs and ability to put in place the infrastructure required for academic programs characterized by excellence in learning and potential for research.