Achieving Our Aspirations

The realization of our ambitious strategic goals will require careful, phased academic and resource planning over several years. To support the plan’s proposed initiatives, the School will chart “milestone maps” that set clear implementation timelines, assess existing resources and identify incremental needs, and orchestrate funding strategies. Mere implementation, however, will be only one marker of success. We must also conduct ongoing assessment to evaluate the outcomes and impact of our activities, how they advance excellence in our research and teaching missions, how they foster cross-campus collaboration, and how the knowledge and learning that result make a difference in the world around us.

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This plan reflects the high aspirations of the School at a particular moment in time, under a unique set of SAS, Penn, and external circumstances. An important dimension of any long-range planning effort is flexibility: we will monitor closely not simply our progress toward our goals but their ongoing alignment and compatibility with their broader setting, and make adjustments as needed. As the academic heart of Penn, our aspirations are not only for ourselves but for the entire university, and we seek to use our goals as a means for advancing the very best scholarship and teaching across the campus and for making a positive impact on society at large.