Skyline of Los Angeles behind an aerial shot of UCLA campus.

Strategic Priorities

The Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost has identified several strategic priorities to strengthen UCLA’s mission of education, research, and service at the start of its second century.

Creating the Future: UCLA Strategic Plan (2023-28)

Leaders across campus — with the input and support of staff, faculty, students, alumni and community members — have been hard at work developing the strategic framework, overview of campuswide investments and set of guiding principles that will provide high-level institutional direction for the next five years, from 2023 to 2028. 

UCLA’s 2023-28 strategic plan, entitled Creating the Future, addresses how we deepen our impact at a moment of transformation within our broader society, within Los Angeles and within our university — all through the lens of inclusive excellence. 

The following goals have been established as part of the strategic plan, which was announced by Chancellor Block and EVCP Hunt.

Shared Governance

The UC system supports a policy of shared governance, which means that Academic Senate faculty have a voice and responsibility in university operations. The senate faculty role can vary somewhat by program and school, but is primarily focused on conditions for admissions, degree and certificate programs, courses and curricula, as well as participation in various advisory capacities. 

EVCP Hunt values the perspectives and insights that a shared governance system brings to university administration and is committed to its ongoing success.

Campus Expansion & Use of Space

As part of our strategic goal to deepen UCLA’s engagement in Los Angeles and advance our mission to make public higher education more accessible, we have made important investments in new properties across the region.

In late 2022, we announced the acquisition of UCLA South Bay, which includes a 24.5-acre main campus in Rancho Palos Verdes as well as a smaller 11-acre residential campus a few minutes drive away in San Pedro. Situated near one of the largest port complexes in the world, this location creates significant opportunities for education and research relating to sustainability. And in August 2023, a student leadership academy pilot was launched at the new location.

In June 2023, we shared the news about our acquisition of the historic Trust Building in downtown Los Angeles, now known as UCLA Downtown. Trust Building occupants will include UCLA Extension programs and the UCLA real estate department, as well as current tenants Rising Realty, KTGY Architecture + Planning and the corporate offices of the José Andrés restaurant group. This location, in the heart of downtown, expands our ability to serve the community building on our existing presence that includes UCLA Health and its Homeless Healthcare Collaborative, as well as the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center in MacArthur Park. Read more on UCLA Newsroom.

The way we work and how we work has changed over the last several years, so another area the EVCP’s office is considering is the way we use space on campus given opportunities for remote work.

Inclusive Excellence

The concept of “inclusive excellence” challenges us to recognize that the excellence UCLA has achieved thus far has not been shared in equal measure by people of all backgrounds and identities. However, by centering inclusivity, we can more meaningfully serve our communities and more fully meet our university’s public mandate. By championing and protecting diversity in all its forms — including race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, socioeconomic status, geographic origin, and religious and ideological belief — UCLA will achieve greater excellence than ever before.

UCLA continues to make investments in teaching, mentorship and research related to Black life. Faculty, staff and students across the campus are working to ensure UCLA is a welcoming and supportive place for Bruins of all backgrounds.

The Native American and Pacific Islander Bruins Rising Initiative aims to deepen institutional support for UCLA’s Native American and Pacific Islander communities.The initiative’s commitments include advancing our intellectual community devoted to Native American and Pacific Islander peoples scholarship, supporting inclusive and equitable student experiences and providing meaningful support for staff.

Latinx Californians make up nearly 40 percent of the state’s population. As a public university, UCLA has a responsibility to ensure that our institution broadly reflects the diversity of our state and welcomes members of Latinx communities, honors their intellectual and cultural contributions, and empowers them to flourish both at UCLA and well past graduation. These are central components of our goal to achieve and maintain designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).

The Faculty Forward Initiative focuses on recruiting and retaining faculty committed to scholarship, research, mentorship and education related to those who have traditionally been underrepresented in academia. The initiative strengthens our intellectual landscape; attracts individuals with more varied backgrounds and expertise; and reinforces equity, diversity and inclusive excellence. This commitment builds on UCLA’s ongoing efforts to attract accomplished and diverse new faculty members.

The Dialogue across Difference (DaD) Initiative aims to model and promote the values of intellectual engagement, curiosity, empathy, active listening and critical thinking through a series of campus events, classes, informal learning opportunities and social programming. Through its four prongs of campus collaboration, student leadership, teaching programs, and training and workshops, DaD maximizes campus resources and expertise to help build these critical skills in our community.

Strategic Initiatives

Several factors, including changes to our collective bargaining agreements with represented academic student employees and graduate student researchers, have created a need to assess UCLA’s current approach to graduate education. The Joint Administrative and Academic Senate Task Force on the Future of Graduate Education at UCLA has been charged with addressing issues such as: balancing the allocation of resources for our outstanding graduate programs and other campus needs, managing graduate student support in light of the new contract agreements, determining the right size of graduate programs and evaluating how these changes might impact our work as a top public research institution.

To better support instruction, we have combined three centers into one comprehensive teaching and learning center led by Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Erin Sanders O’Leary. The newly established UCLA Teaching and Learning Center serves as a key resource for, and driver of, innovation and collaboration in teaching across UCLA’s broad academic landscape. The center includes three overlapping sections: university-wide services, disciplinary centers, and pedagogical research and innovation.

DataX is a strategic initiative focused on strengthening research and education in data science and critical data studies. It brings together more than 40 schools, divisions, departments, programs, institutes, centers and initiatives to promote cutting-edge scholarship, activities, community engagement, and industry partnerships in data science. Data is transforming the world, and our scholars are producing cutting-edge research and pedagogy that addresses difficult data problems.

A new framework for how we allocate core funds from the central campus to our various academic and administrative units, called the Bruin Budget Model (BBM), has started its phased implementation. The first phase of the implementation focuses on the allocation of General (19900) Funds, which include state appropriations, base tuition and nonresident supplemental tuition. The BBM aims to establish a system of funding that is more transparent, more empowering of our schools and colleges, and more responsive to changing budgetary circumstances than the one UCLA currently has in place. The was chaired by professor and Special Advisor to the EVCP for Academic Planning and Budget Jeff Lewis and tasked with finalizing and preparing the Bruin Budget Model for launch. 

 

Visit the committees page for more efforts organized by EVCP office.