Purpose

Letter from Chancellor Charles L. Isbell, Jr.

Dear students, staff, faculty, alumni, community leaders, and friends:

We want to be good ancestors. As such, this plan is all about how we will lead in shaping a better future.

It came together after an extensive listening process, during which we heard from more than 5,000 of you. We heard about your aspirations, needs, and challenges. We heard about what you need to build an environment where everyone can contribute their talents, pursue their goals, and make a meaningful impact so everyone feels valued and proud to be a part of the university.

The strategic priorities in this plan are the ideas you have identified to help us meet this moment. Some are ambitious, high-reaching goals that will have global impact. Others are more practical and operational, but no less important to building an organization that is nimble, adaptable, and ready to seize opportunities. Illinois is uniquely positioned to be among the most influential institutions in higher education. A shifting landscape requires innovation that is responsive to the changing needs of our society and those who benefit from our work.

As a public-serving institution and the state’s flagship university, we are aligned with our missions of serving students; global impact in research; economic prosperity for Illinois; and shaping a better future.

Illinois will lead by influencing every major social, political, technological, and educational decision in the world. We owe our descendants nothing less.

I-L-L,

Charles L. Isbell, Jr.

Chancellor

Purpose

As one of the nation’s leading research universities and the state’s flagship land-grant institution, we have a responsibility to lead at the highest level, affecting every major decision in government, education, technology, society, and more. The purpose of this plan is to allow us to match the resources with which we have been entrusted to our shared vision for the next five years and beyond, as strategically and impactfully as possible.

History

The advantages we enjoy today are because we had good ancestors who were willing to commit themselves to the idea that higher education fundamentally makes the world a better place.

Founded in 1867, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a public land-grant institution with a long-standing history of creating life-changing innovations. Our mission is rooted in the idea that education should be accessible, and research should address the practical needs of society.

From our beginnings as Illinois Industrial University, the first Illinois students charted the course to become builders, innovators, and problem-solvers by studying agriculture and engineering. In 1885, we became the University of Illinois, marking the transition from a regional school to a world-class public university. We added new disciplines including law, library science, liberal arts, and medicine. Illinois is home to the first graduate in architecture; the world’s oldest crop rotation study and the second-oldest continuous agricultural experiment in the world; resources and support for students, veterans, and people with disabilities; countless Pulitzer Prizes, Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, Nobel Prizes, Olympic and Paralympic medals; innovations in semiconductors, high-speed computing, the World Wide Web, LED, MRI, and the third branch of the Tree of Life; and the nation’s largest public university library that attracts scholars across the world. Our storied history is a legacy defined not only by passion, but practicality, hard work, and great expectations.

From laying the foundation of today’s public broadcasting system, becoming the birthplace of accessibility and the field of special education, and establishing the world’s first engineering-based medical school, Illinois is known for being a place where projects succeed because people work together. We achieve excellence at scale through an unparalleled ecosystem of world-class colleges, interdisciplinary research institutes, and distinctive centers and programs — all guided by a commitment to reaching the people and places where our work can make the greatest difference.

This can be seen through not just our many innovations, but our new ways of educating students, our renowned arts, and our storied athletics history. Where some universities can rise in the ranks within a few areas, Illinois has consistent leadership across many. Our university culture of collaboration, inclusion, and empowerment is our strength. And our perspective is as comprehensive and applicable as the accomplishments of our students, faculty, staff, and more than half a million alumni in over 160 countries who use their knowledge to change the world for the better. We set a standard for the rest of the world to follow. 

Why Now?

The Illinois Leads Strategic Plan comes at a consequential moment. Changing student demographics, evolving expectations for teaching and learning, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, and declining public trust are reshaping higher education and the needs of the people we serve. For generations, the world treated higher education as a shared investment that strengthened innovation, civic leadership, and economic success across communities, the nation, and the world. While our mission has not changed, the world around us demands more accountability and evidence that we believe in and deliver on that mission.

Illinois Leads is our commitment to build on our strengths and to improve where it is needed. Doing so requires that we meet this moment with purpose and ambition to positively impact the world and reinforce trust with the people we serve. We know that we can do so: Our university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic leveraged our profound interdisciplinary strengths in innovation that spanned our research, teaching, infrastructure, and technological ecosystem to not only keep our university and greater community safe, but to provide communities around the state, nation, and world with the tools to do the same. Make no mistake: the moment we are in today is a true challenge, but, at Illinois, every challenge is an opportunity to deliver new ideas to old approaches that benefit the public.

Our current moment demands a sense of urgency to push forward with signature Illinois innovations and ideas that reshape lives, transform communities, and better understand how we thrive in this time of great and rapidly evolving change. Situated within one of the nation’s most economically and demographically diverse states, we are an established proving ground that positively impacts every industry, from dense urban centers to rural communities.

To reinforce trust and the value of public higher education, we will build on our strengths in teaching, learning, research, discovery, engagement, and economic development; bring those strengths together across disciplines and boundaries to enhance the lives of people in our central Illinois community, Chicago, the state of Illinois, the nation, and the world; and champion ideas into valuable societal outcomes that people can see, use, and most importantly, trust. Additionally, we will be good stewards of our resources and set the direction of university priorities within the financial constraints we face to respond to a changing environment.

Illinois Leads is not an end to itself; it is how we help people, strengthen communities, and shape a better future. In a society searching for answers, we want Illinois to provide the practical tools people need to thrive.