2023: A NEW PRESIDENT & A NEW STRATEGIC PLAN

Sacramento State's 2023-2028 Strategic Plan launched in spring 2023, just a few months before Dr. Luke Wood became our ninth President. The Strategic Plan outlined six strategic priorities — called "imperatives" — and associated goals. To translate that framework into action, the plan needed defined implementation structures, concrete action items, and methods for assessing progress.

To build those elements through inclusive campus engagement, President Wood launched a 100 Days of Listening tour in fall 2023. Over 92 sessions averaging 75 minutes each, President Wood heard directly from more than 1,500 students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and community members. Participants spoke candidly about Sacramento State's strengths and areas for growth, and their insights became the foundation for 23 strategic action items designed to advance the imperatives of the 2023-2028 Strategic Plan. The listening tour also surfaced something central to Sacramento State's identity: a deep, sustained commitment to serving students who have historically faced systemic barriers to higher education success.

In 2025, following a year of implementation and progress assessment, the university reframed its strategic priorities around four Presidential Imperatives aligned with the updated CSU Strategic Plan. These imperatives focus on learning with academic and community return on investment; financial sustainability and independence; positioning Sacramento State as a national brand that reflects its values and identity; and cultivating a campus environment of hope and dignity. All four imperatives are grounded in an overarching commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and together with the strategic action items, form the university's current roadmap.

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Relationship Between the Two Frameworks

The Presidential Imperatives and the 2023–2028 Strategic Plan are complementary and mutually reinforcing. The strategic plan provides the structural architecture — six imperatives and 23 action items with defined goals and progress metrics. The Presidential Imperatives provide the interpretive framework — a set of priorities that focus institutional energy, guide resource allocation, and communicate the university's direction to internal and external stakeholders. Together, they constitute Sacramento State's roadmap for advancing educational excellence, institutional sustainability, and community impact.

Presidential Imperatives

• Cultivating an Environment of Hope and Dignity
  • Cultivating a campus culture of belonging, respect, and possibility for all students, faculty, and staff.

• Financial Sustainability and Independence
  • Building financial sustainability and diversifying revenue streams to reduce dependence on state funding.
• Learning with an Academic and Community Return on Investment
  • Ensuring students receive a meaningful return on their educational investment through career-ready degrees and high graduation rates.
• Positioning Sacramento State as a National Brand
  • Elevating Sacramento State's profile and reputation as a premier regional university with national distinction.

Strategic Plan Imperatives

• Learning & Student Success
  • Supporting student achievement, retention, and graduation through career-ready programs and targeted resources

• Teaching, Research, Scholarship, & Creative Activity
  • Advancing excellence in teaching, research, and scholarly and creative activity across all disciplines.
• Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
  • Advancing justice, diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence across all aspects of university life.
• Resource Development & Sustainability
  • Diversifying and growing financial resources while advancing environmental and institutional sustainability.
• Dedicated Community Involvement
  • Partnering with local and global communities to improve lives, enrich learning, and address regional needs.
• Wellness & Safety
  • Fostering a campus environment that prioritizes the health, wellbeing, and safety of all community members.

CSU Forward

The California State University's systemwide strategic plan, CSU Forward, was designed and adopted in 2025 as a roadmap for elevating student success and maximizing regional impact. The plan centers four main performance objectives: acting as an economic mobility engine, ensuring sustainable affordability, becoming an employer of choice, and scaling statewide impact. CSU Forward establishes a framework for all 23 CSU campuses to redefine student success beyond graduation rates to include job placement, socioeconomic mobility, and student and employee satisfaction. CSU Forward's four main performance objectives echo the four Presidential Imperatives introduced by President Wood last year.

Economic Mobility Engine ↔ Learning with an ROI

• CSU System Goal: Scale career-integrated learning and guarantee that graduation results in major socioeconomic gains.
• Sac State Implementation: Expanding paid internships, adding AI-focused majors, and offering hands-on experiences through our nationally recognized community engagement hours.

Sustainable Affordability ↔ Financial Sustainability and Independence

• CSU System Goal: Minimize student debt and navigate unpredictable state funding shortages.
• Sac State Implementation: Implementing structural administrative cost corrections and maximizing non-state revenue paths via our Cut the Red Tape Committee, Sponsored Projects Administration, and our Tiger Team for revenue generation.

Employer of Choice ↔ Cultivating an Environment of Hope and Dignity

• CSU System Goal: Improve retention, satisfaction, and support for faculty and staff through purpose-driven culture changes.
• Sac State Implementation: Reducing unnecessary administrative burden for faculty, staff, and students, improving transparency, and simplifying processes; rooting campus culture in justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) frameworks; expanding employee resource groups (ERGs) and cultural and academic resource centers (CARCs).

Statewide Impact ↔ Positioning Sacramento State as a National Brand

• CSU System Goal: Mobilize alumni networks and increase the physical and economic footprint of the CSU system across the state.
• Sac State Implementation: Transitioning away from a standard commuter model into a distinct residential identity, expanding to new downtown and regional locations, and utilizing athletics expansion to broadcast institutional values

View the CSU Forward Strategic Plan Document

Strategic Planning Process

A Strategic Planning Steering Committee of engaged members of the campus and broader Sacramento community worked with MGT Consulting, a firm with extensive experience in higher education strategic planning, through this process. All members of our campus community were invited to participate and have their voice and perspective heard.

2023-2028 Strategic Plan Document

• View the Strategic Plan document

Strategic Action Items

• View the Strategic Action Items for Summer 2026