Slide 1: UBC Faculty of Arts Strategic Plan 2025–2030 Launch Event
Date: May 14, 2025
Presenters: Clare Haru Crowston, Dean of Arts, and Kamal Al-Solaylee, Director, School of Journalism, Writing, and Media
Slide 2: Web-based presentation deck
Follow along on your device at arts.ubc.ca/launch-event
Slide 3: Land Acknowledgement
The UBC Vancouver-Point Grey campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓-speaking Musqueam peoples.
Unceded means that these lands were never sold, traded, or given up through treaty or other agreement. The University’s location and history requires that we critically reflect on the ongoing effects of settler colonialism and structural racism and question what it means to teach, learn, and conduct research on these lands.
Image: sʔi:ɬqəy̓ qeqən (double-headed serpent post), Brent Sparrow, Musqueam
Slide 4: Submit your questions
Go to slido.com and enter code: 3211605
Slide 5: Agenda
- Land Acknowledgement & Welcome: 5 minutes, Kamal Al-Solaylee
- Opening Remarks: 7 minutes, Dean Clare Crowston
- Overview of Arts Strategic Plan Process: 8 minutes, Dean Clare Crowston
- Highlights of Arts Strategic Plan: 20 minutes, Dean Clare Crowston
- Preview of Plan Implementation and Next Steps: 10 minutes, Dean Clare Crowston
- Community Dialogue Q&A and Prize Draws: 40 minutes, Dean Clare Crowston, Kamal Al-Solaylee
Slide 6: Dean Clare Crowston enters
Image: Martha Piper Plaza at sunset.
Slide 7: How We Got Here
Image: Five Arts community members sitting at a table and chatting with laptops, engaged in a group planning session.
Slide 8: Strategic Planning Process
Ongoing validation and consultation throughout the process.
Phase 1: Planning (November 2023 to February 2024)
Establish the “team”, agree on approach and process.
Phase 2: Listening (February to July 2024)
Facilitate cross-faculty conversations, develop and validate strategic plan framework (includes mission, vision, values, and strategic directions).
Phase 3: Development (August to December 2024)
Facilitate strategic direction-specific discussion, develop and validate goals and actions.
Phase 4: Drafting (January to March 2025)
Develop a compelling narrative, agree on implementation approach and roadmap.
Phase 5: Launch (April to May 2025)
Finalize and launch plan.
Phase 6: Implementation (May 2025 onward)
Implement and sustain.
Slide 9: Strategic Plan Engagement – Listening Phase
- 644 total engaged participants including 270 faculty, 181 staff, 132 students, and 9 community members (total also includes 52 participants who did not specify their affiliations)
- 26 focus groups: 236 participants engaged, 18 general sessions, and 8 for historically and systematically marginalized community members
- 72 participants joined dedicated staff, heads and directors, and faculty council sessions
- 284 responses to the Listening Phase Survey
- 43 students shared priorities in the Arts Undergraduate Society survey
- 9 Musqueam administration staff and community members participated in an engagement session, resulting in a Musqueam Engagement report
Slide 10: Strategic Plan Engagement – Development Phase
- 5 working groups focused on research, teaching and learning, engagement, sustainable futures, and digital innovation
- 98 working group members including 47 faculty, 30 staff, and 21 students
- 22 working group meetings including one joint meeting inviting all members
- 3 advisory committee meetings including 19 members
- 2 engagement sessions with external community members including alumni and prospective employers
- 219 responses to the goals validation survey
Slide 11: Our Plan, Our Shared Future
Image: One faculty member and two students walking and talking on campus.
Slide 12: Arts Strategic Plan Word Cloud
Research, community, digital, commit, sustain, social, within, share, public, space, diverse, equity, group, shape, knowledge, practice, member, critical, culture, foster, systems, inform, excel, value, work, creative, future, challenge, expand, reflect, ethical, impact, academic, justice, land, include, Indigenous, staff, opportunities, innovate, ways, access, engage, collaborate, support, inclusion, develop, teach, process, faculty, create, lead, AI, build, integral, global, active, address, sciences, recognize, technology, learn, student, people, enhance, Musqueam, climate, advance.
Slide 13: Arts Strategic Plan Framework
Values: Integrity, Collaboration, Curiosity, Innovation
Commitments: Academic freedom, Justice, equity, and inclusion, Decolonization, reconciliation, and Indigenous resurgence, Accessibility
Strategic Directions
Vision: Lead, Empower, Thrive
Slide 14: Vision
Lead. Empower. Thrive.
The Faculty of Arts, grounded in our connection to Musqueam land and community, will lead in inclusive academic excellence to empower critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration, and to build a thriving future that is more just, sustainable, and full of possibility for all.
Slide 15: Strategic Directions
- Excel in research and creative practice
- Advance transformative education
- Engage communities for greater impact
- Generate sustainable futures
- Integrate digital innovation
Slide 16: Excel in Research and Creative Practice
Goals
- Innovation and excellence
- Knowledge exchange beyond the academy
- Equity-led and equity-based research
- Indigenous research
- Interdisciplinary research
Slide 17: Excel in Research and Creative Practice
ACTION 1.1.2: Support research funding applications and award nominations by addressing gaps and leveraging underutilized funding and development opportunities
ACTION 1.1.3: Enhance and expand opportunities for undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows to develop research skills
Slide 18: Advance Transformative Education
Goals
- Student outcomes
- Interdisciplinarity in teaching and learning
- Decolonization, reconciliation and Indigenous resurgence in teaching and learning
- Inclusive and culturally informed teaching and learning communities
Slide 19: Advance Transformative Education
ACTION 2.2.1: Review and assess interdisciplinary offerings and collaborations within and beyond the Faculty of Arts
ACTION 2.3.2: Enhance community-led learning and recognize Musqueam community members as valued teachers and collaborators
Slide 20: Engage Communities for Greater Impact
Goals
- Value of Faculty of Arts experience and education
- Relationships with communities beyond campus
- Addressing systemic barriers to engagement
- Collaboration within Faculty of Arts and UBC
Slide 21: Engage Communities for Greater Impact
ACTION 3.1.1: Develop a collective understanding of the value of a Faculty of Arts education and communicate a compelling narrative that articulates its value, depth, and relevance
ACTION 3.4.1: Establish and sustain Faculty of Arts communities of practice for staff and faculty working in similar roles to foster collaboration and shared learning
Slide 22: Generate Sustainable Futures
Goals
- Wellbeing, connectivity, equity, and belonging
- Environmental sustainability and climate emergency
- Financial sustainability aligned with Values, Commitments, and Priorities
- Enhanced accessibility
Slide 23: Generate Sustainable Futures
ACTION 4.2.2: Support, recognize, and showcase environmental work across research, teaching and learning, and engagement
ACTION 4.3.4: Expand credit and non-credit programs and increase flexibility in learning pathways to address global challenges, meet market demand, and support long-term financial sustainability.
Slide 24: Integrate Digital Innovation
Goals
- Ethical and empowered digital culture
- Innovative, accessible, practical and sustainable infrastructure
- Digital literacy and technological competencies
- Elevate research with digital methods, modalities, and outputs
- Enable digital collaborations
Slide 25: Integrate Digital Innovation
ACTION 5.1.2: Develop ethical frameworks for the use of AI & emerging technology, informed by Truth and Reconciliation, digital ecology, wellbeing, and accessibility
ACTION 5.3.1: Incentivize the development of digital-focused academic programs and micro-credentials within Faculty of Arts digital scholarship areas
Slide 26: Moving Forward Together
Image: Two groups of students engaged in conversation while descending a staircase in the Audain Art Centre.
Slide 27: Preview of Implementation Planning
Goals
- Implementation process integrated with budget planning and decision-making
- Implementation led by Arts Dean and leadership team, supported by action teams and guided by Advisory Committee
- Regular engagement and communication with Arts community and campus partners to sustain momentum and alignment
- Annual progress report
- Ongoing evolution of plan and actions (“living plan”)
Slide 28: What’s Next
- Preview draft plan: view advance copy at arts.ubc.ca/strategic-plan-2025-2030-advance-draft
- Stay engaged: implementation planning is underway, some actions will be integrated into existing portfolios, while other may require new action teams
- Share your stories: submit community highlights to be featured in the final strategic plan report
- Coming Fall 2025: final strategic plan will be published on the Faculty of Arts website
- Questions or ideas? Contact arts.stratplan@ubc.ca
Slide 29: Community Dialogue Q&A
Go to slido.com and enter code: 3211605
Slide 30: Prizes
Questions or ideas? Contact arts.stratplan@ubc.ca