Aligning organizational mission, vision, resources and efforts and focusing them on a plan for a new future is the objective of every strategic planning effort. This definition certainly fits when it comes to the 2026-2031 strategic plan launched by SUNY Old Westbury on October 22, 2025.
Titled “Owning our Future through Community, Excellence, Impact and Distinction,” the plan was developed through a more than two-year process that included input, insights, and ideas from all corners of the campus.
“Not only is our strategic plan designed to continue our 60 years of mission-driven impact,” said President Timothy E. Sams during a celebratory event announcing the plan. “It is also crafted to respond to the current challenges faced by higher education, while at the same time enabling SUNY Old Westbury to maintain its commitment to responding to the pressing needs of our state and our nation.”
Central to the plan are four goals set for the campus:
- Academic Excellence and Research -- Seeking the launch of critical and dynamic new programs, expanding research for both faculty and students, and producing career-ready, globally minded and civically engaged graduates. And we aim to become an employer of choice.
- Innovation and Creativity -- Enhancing campus learning environments and ensuring through interdisciplinary collaboration the development of an ecosystem at the intersection of science, the arts, and entrepreneurship.
- Student and Enrollment Success – Ensuring the experience the university provides to students is of high-impact by expanding pathways to STEM, the arts, and international experiences while attracting an increasing number of students to the campus’ expanding array of offerings.
- Institutional Resilience and External Profile -- Strengthening the university’s financial sustainability and expanding partnerships, in an effort and ensure institutional viability for years to come.
“With this strategic plan in hand, we set a new course,” said Sams. “Because our aspiration is not modest: we intend to be a premiere cosmopolitan public liberal arts university that cultivates growth, success and impact.”
And, while the plan looks forward to a new horizon for the campus, Sams was adamant about upholding the campus’ historic mission related to equity, access and both social and environmental justice.
“From our founding as an experimental college emphasizing academic innovation and social justice, we have always welcomed change and embraced bold, new, ideas and actions,” said Sams. “We now must continue to build upon this foundation and develop new ways to prepare students for careers that do not yet exist, and civic roles that are sorely needed. SUNY Old Westbury will also do its best to ensure that opportunities and prosperity of the present period of innovation and technological revolution do not bypass our students and the communities they hail from.”
Following Sams’ remarks, the event’s attendees participated in an interactive “thought development” process to jump start the campus’ Performance Planning to Budget process. This process will be an annual effort to solicit proposals in support of the strategic plan from all corners of campus and, after a review that includes campus-wide feedback, several will be selected to receive funding in the 2026-2027 year for implementation.
“Anyone -- faculty, staff, students, or teams -- can propose initiatives that align with the plan’s metrics and, one or more of, the six institutional priorities we’ve set for this year’s edition,” said Sams.
Projects that earn funding will be those that best address one or more of the institution’s priorities for the year, which are:
- Engagement and belonging –strengthen affinity and connection across campus
- Student & Enrollment Success - advance recruitment, persistence, retention, graduation, post-graduation outcomes
- Signature programs - establish or elevate distinctive academic and co-curricular programs
- Revenue Generation - diversifying revenue streams
- Strengthening Processes & Infrastructure - invest in resilient systems, modern technologies, sustainable practices, and support for scholarship and teaching
- A.I. at OW - promote the ethical, technological, and environmentally sustainable use of artificial intelligence as a transformative tool.
New institutional priorities will be set each year to ensure flexibility and renewed activity around the execution of the overall strategic plan.
“Today, we mark not just the end of the planning process, but the beginning of the next leg of our university’s unique and remarkable journey," said Sams. "We will meet the moment and the needs facing society. We will not compete with trends but instead will lead through purpose. Higher education done right does more than confer credentials - it builds capacity, drives change and facilitates equity. We will produce graduates who are not only ready for jobs — but ones who are changemakers, ready for leadership and citizenship."