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Goal #4: Enhance the University’s Partnerships with the Community

Connection with our community is vital to the success of our institution and students.

Goal #4: Enhance the University’s Partnerships with the Community

  1. Enhance community engagement (two-way)
  2. External community: Increase community impact
  3. Support regional economic growth
  4. Cultural community engagement

Below are the strategies and targets the university will employ to achieve this goal. 

Key:

Completed = ✅

In Progress = ðŸ»À

Pending = 🔴

Why ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½
Why ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½

Strategies:

  1. Develop a Center for NW Louisiana Regional Impact, connecting community needs with faculty and student expertise and appoint an Interim Director (who will facilitate connections between community and campus) by April 1, 2025
    1. Develop opportunities to leverage existing entities such as the Collaboratory, SOC, CBER, INAR, HPL, Archives, Business Engagement Center, Red River Watershed Management Institute, Spring Street Museum, Pioneer Heritage Center, Pilot’s Pitch Competition
    2. Increase collaboration with Barksdale AFB
    3. Develop an arts and lecture series
      1. Bring national thought leaders to campus
      2. Based on community interest
      3. Increase attendance at university events
      4. Upload lectures to YT, live-stream
    4. Communicate areas of faculty expertise to community
      1. PR quantified (e.g., Social Media campaigns, news/media)
  2. Workforce development; meet student and community workforce needs
    1. Determine how businesses and the community feel about workforce readiness. (See Federal reporting guidelines – 6 months)
  3. Further develop pipeline…summer camps…K-12 engagement
    1. Increase number and quality of events
    2. Track engaged students; if student showed interest in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ or attended ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ or another institution of higher learning

Targets:

  1. ðŸ»À Establish baseline for community and faculty/student interactions by June 30, 2026
  2. ðŸ»À Increase community and faculty/student interactions by 10% by May 31, 2026
  3. ✅ Establish baseline number of contracts, events, jobs and job fairs by June 30, 2025
  4. ðŸ»À Increase number of contracts, events, jobs and job fairs by 10% each by May 31, 2027
  5. ðŸ»À Add 3 new partnerships to the Collaboratory, SOC, CBER, INAR, HPL, Archives, Red River Watershed Management Institute, Spring Street Museum, Pioneer Heritage Center, by December 31, 2026
  6. ðŸ»À Add at least one additional partnership with Barksdale AFB by December 31, 2026.
  7. ðŸ»À Determine community interest in and a baseline for an arts and lecture series by May 31, 2026
  8. ✅ Host one additional event by May 31, 2026 - Measure the number of attendees through registration
  9. ðŸ»À Live-stream events and increase number of online viewers by 10% May 31, 2027
  10. ✅ Communicate areas of faculty expertise to community by May 31, 2027
  11. ðŸ»À PR quantified (e.g., Social Media campaigns, news/media):
    1. ✅ Establish "Speaker List" by Summer 2026.
    2. ✅ Increase budget for advertising on social media and webpage by FY 2028
  12. ðŸ»À Create Workforce Development Committee Advisement Board by May 31, 2027
  13. ðŸ»À Increase number of programs from 15 to 24 (60%) by June 30, 2027
  14. ðŸ»À Expand student activity support to student interest / affinities beyond Greek/social/academic organizations/Athletics
    1. ✅ Evaluate the events students want by May 31, 2025
    2. ðŸ»À Increase capacity needs by evaluating the additional space on campus by May 31, 2026.
    3. ðŸ»À Increase outward-facing events by June 30, 2027
    4. ðŸ»À Currently 36% of events on campus are External Events. Increase external events on campus by 10% by May 31, 2027.
  15. ðŸ»À Pipeline…summer camps…K-12 engagement
    1. ðŸ»À Increase # and quality of events
    2. 🔴 Track engaged students; if student showed interest in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ or attended ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ or another institution of higher learning
    3. ðŸ»À Create K-12 education advisement committee by May 31, 2026
    4. ✅ Create 3 new programs by May 31, 2026 and 2 more by May 31, 2027
    5. ðŸ»À Increase # of students engaged/attending by 22% by May 31, 2027 (currently 820 students engaged and increase to 1007)
    6. ✅ Track student engagement through registrations, survey forms, post-event analysis to continually assess and improve programs
    7. ðŸ»À Starting in January 2026, the Office of Media and Public Relations will increase its coverage of faculty-related stories sent to the media by 30%, resulting in 20 additional faculty stories each calendar year
    8. ðŸ»À Media and PR will begin internally tagging social media posts in academic year 2025-2026 and develop a baseline percentage of faculty-related posts by June 30, 2026
    9. ðŸ»À Media and PR will increase the percentage of faculty social media posts by 5% annually beginning in July 2026 and continuing for subsequent calendar years