New five-year strategic plan unveiled at 2023 State of the University address

Chapman’s new five-year strategic plan, known as “Our Path to Greatness,” includes five strategic priorities to promote the university’s success even further into the future. Photo by EMILY PARIS, photo editor

Chapman University president Daniele Struppa celebrated milestones from the university’s previous five-year strategic plan and introduced the new strategic plan — coined “Our Path to Greatness” — to the campus community at the annual 2023 State of the University address Feb. 10.

The annual State of the University address serves as an update to the campus community on Chapman’s achievements thus far and what is in store for its future.

The 2023 address emphasized the success of the 2018 to 2022 strategic plan, the university’s new 2023 to 2028 strategic plan, Chapman’s top employers for 2023 and information regarding the school’s new comprehensive giving campaign, INSPIRE.

In covering Chapman’s 2018 to 2022 strategic plan, Struppa highlighted notable changes across the campus community, including a 52% increase in net assets, a 25% increase and a 39% increase in Latinx student and Black student enrollment, respectively, and a current endowment of over $600 million.

“What we have done is demonstrated that we took the right direction, and we can continue the way,” Struppa said during the address. “And when I say continue the way, I think it’s obvious at this point one could say, ‘Hey, things are going so well, we can kind of chill now,’ but I say no. This is the moment where we make the next jump.”

In his speech, Struppa also went over the 2022 national rankings for Chapman, which placed the school at No. 121, according to the U.S. News and World Report. He also highlighted the Argyros School of Business and Economics at No. 72, Chapman’s Fowler School of Law at No. 118 and Dodge College of Film and Media Arts maintaining its position as the No. 4 film school in the nation. 

Struppa announced the 2023 to 2028 strategic plan, called “Our Path to Greatness,” which includes five key components to have Chapman continue to rise even further as a prestigious institution. 

These components, known as strategic priorities, consist of academic excellence, expanding graduate health science programs at the Rinker campus, organizational excellence, campus projects enhancing community-building and the introduction of a new comprehensive fundraising campaign. 

“We have to be unapologetic in remembering that the greatness of the university is its academics,” Struppa explained. “There is nothing more important than what goes on in the classrooms, in the library (and) in the research labs. That is what makes a university great, and so that’s where the attention has to be as we aspire to our next step.”

These strategic priorities, according to Struppa, will help to enhance overall campus culture and push Chapman further up the national college rankings. For the academic excellence strategic priority, this will include creating a germinal faculty, cluster and target of opportunities hiring program, which is a program that will help to advance academic learning through the process of germinal knowledge-creation and dissemination. 

The priority also includes increasing retention and graduation rates for undergraduate and graduate students and pursuing the Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) recognition.

To work on expanding graduate health science programs, Struppa announced plans to strengthen mental and behavioral health and rehabilitation programs at Rinker and create a main center on campus to foster community among students.

For the organizational excellence priority, Struppa explained his hopes to further develop space and facilities on campus and in academic affairs, IS&T and the Office of Human Resources to give faculty and staff the tools they need to deliver a “consistently outstanding Chapman experience.”

In building upon the fourth strategic priority — campus projects enhancing community-building — Struppa directed faculty and staff attention to three main projects in the works: the purchase of the new residence hall Chapman Court, a student success center at the Orange campus and development at Killefer School, a previously elementary school that was purchased by Chapman to support quantum studies and optics lab research.

Struppa and Matt Parlow, Chapman’s executive vice president and chief advancement officer, also discussed Chapman’s new comprehensive giving campaign, INSPIRE, which is part of the new 2023 to 2028 strategic plan. The goal of the campaign is to raise $500 million by 2028. 

The first gift of the campaign — $5 million from Jim and Kay Burra — will create the Burra School of Accounting and Finance within Argyros School of Business and Economics. 

“Our donors are at the heart of our progress as a business school,” Henrik Cronqvist, dean of Chapman's business school, said in a statement sent to The Panther. “Their support allows us to create new and innovative programs and strengthen existing ones. The generosity of the Burras will allow us to prepare students for the dynamic fields of accounting and finance.”  

The campaign was publicly announced on Feb. 11 and will help Chapman strive to provide more programs and ideas to the campus community, as well as increase the school’s endowment to $2 billion. According to Struppa, it is an ambitious goal that they hope to achieve by the year 2037.

“The word ‘inspire’ is appropriate for how we all feel about Chapman,” Parlow said during the address. “It is the inspiration that all of us provide by what we do that draws supporters to us, that they feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves and they feel that their time and energy spent here at Chapman really makes an impact.”

To view this year’s State of the University address, a link to the full presentation can be found online.