Strategic Planning

UMB must comply with a broad range of state, federal, and international requirements as well as terms and conditions required by funding agencies and accrediting bodies. Failure to meet these obligations may negatively affect UMB's ability to attract funding and can lead to financial losses, increased administrative burdens, ineligibility for funding awards, and adverse impacts to the University’s reputation.

UMB is committed to the core values of Equity and Justice by embracing diversity and valuing inclusive and just communities. Prioritizing and implementing these values will position UMB as a leader, both internally and externally, and result in stronger outcomes in improving education, research, and service.

UMB must recognize and respond to external market conditions and competition from the private sector, nonprofits, and other universities in various areas. UMB’s response to such external forces will impact its ability to successfully compete for limited resources, seize new opportunities, and adapt current activities to the changing external situation.

UMB’s capacity to undertake mission-oriented and strategic activities is dependent on securing adequate funding from sources including state support, tuition revenue, awards, philanthropy, and others. Securing such funding, in addition to controlling costs and spending wisely, will allow funds to be maximally applied to achieve strategic goals.

Addressing health and safety concerns is vital to achieving UMB’s mission. Physical, mental, social, and environmental health, plus other health- and safety-related factors, may impact mission activities and may require additional capabilities, such as security or emergency management, or new approaches.

A talented, highly skilled, and motivated workforce is critical to achieving UMB’s strategic goals. Many factors affect UMB’s ability to recruit faculty and staff, ensure they are meeting their full potential, and promote a work environment where faculty and staff are happy, high-achieving, and feel valued.

Contemporary education, research, and community buildings and spaces are important to implementing UMB’s strategic goals and supporting infrastructure — including information technology and data management — are often critical to those aims. Sustaining and upgrading building infrastructure, information technology systems, and knowledge management systems may be needed to keep pace with contemporary needs, which include a commitment to environmental sustainability.

UMB support functions often occurring outside of public or broad view that can involve (but are not limited to) financial management, communications, facilities, award administration, information technology, procurement, insurance, and student-facing services. These functions can be critical to the ultimate success of mission-related activities,

Organizational culture and structure are often key drivers in establishing UMB’s policies and practices. The culture and structure of a school, unit, or program may lead to different approaches to strategy, management, risk taking, stability, and adaptation that foster or impede outcomes.

Formal and informal partnerships occur regularly outside of UMB, across schools and units, and in different functional areas within a school or unit. These joint efforts can often be a critical element in the success or failure of achieving strategic goals.

The public reputation of UMB — as a university, of its schools and units, and of individual programs — may carry great weight in education, research, and other mission activities. An increase or decrease in the influence of that reputation may have a significant impact on those activities.

Student enrollment is a critical component to the University’s education and research missions, and it can be affected by the cost of tuition and fees, demand for graduates in a specific professional discipline, general economic conditions, changing student demographics, and other factors. Once students are enrolled, their level of engagement in a range of activities can impact their trajectory in preparing to be exemplary professionals and leaders in society, fulfilling UMB’s community and social justice mission, and supporting the institution beyond graduation.

The risk category of "other" can be used when an identified emerging risk does not fall into the twelve existing risk categories. When chosen, the UMB community member can give an example of a risk category the emerging risk would represent.