We are pleased to share Forward. – our shared strategic plan to create public good. This is a targeted and intentional plan, with four strategic and foundational objectives, each with four initiatives. Because of the input of our community, Forward. belongs to each of us.

We are not losing sight of our goal to redefine student success, and to elevate our commitment to research, creative activities, partnerships and external engagement. To accomplish these objectives, we must be efficient and effective and, above all, it is our people – our students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends, parents, families and community members – that power our University and help us achieve excellence.

Forward. demonstrates our commitment to embrace our role as a 21st-century public university for the public good. While this plan builds off our momentum and will serve as our University's guiding strategy, it is not defined just by goals and metrics. It is defined by your actions. It is defined by our collective aspirations and limitless potential. It is defined by our journey, forward.

Regards,

Rodney Rogers Signature Transparent
Rodney K. Rogers, Ph.D.
President

Strategic Objective 

I.

Driving Public Good Through Redefining Student Success

We aspire to redefine student success because while receiving a degree is important, we do not believe it is sufficient to live a productive and meaningful life. We will provide an educational experience that meets our students where they are and inspires them to be prepared for opportunities and life after graduation. In this way, we drive public good through our graduates who make a difference in their families, communities and professions.  

Initiative 1: Relevant and sustainable programs for the 21st century

We will continue to evaluate our undergraduate and graduate academic programs to ensure we are providing opportunities for our students which meet their needs, as well as society’s needs. We will continue to support our strong existing programs and develop new programs that are in great demand by society and students and have significant impact to increase net tuition revenue in areas such as healthcare, applied sciences and engineering. We will continue to evaluate and suspend as appropriate, low-performing academic programs.

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Initiative 2: Intensive focus on career and student success outcomes

We will ensure each student receives a transformative educational experience which prepares them for timely graduation, post-graduation opportunities, and life-long skills needed to be successful in an ever-changing world. This should result in an increase in four-year graduation rates, increased participation in experiential opportunities, reduced time-to-degree completion and reduction of average student debt. We will focus on eliminating gaps in graduation rates in challenged populations. We will increase our focus on career-outcomes, ensuring every student has career experiences to position them for success and will maximize their earnings potential.

Initiative 3: Differentiate the Bowling Green experience

We will leverage our position as a comprehensive, residential university, and we will intentionally provide each student with the tools and methodology to be empowered to be self-directed designers of their educational experience to meet their needs and to be successful in college and life. In addition, beyond our life design work, we will intentionally develop each graduate with the outcomes-based skills, knowledge, problem-solving abilities, resilience and confidence to be successful in their lives and careers in an AI-enhanced world.

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Initiative 4: Serve new student populations

We will develop pathways, programs and innovative delivery modalities to enhance our ability to meet the needs of student populations that Bowling Green has not served at scale before. We will fully leverage the core strengths of Firelands College and other external educational partners, and we will expand our strategic reach to traditional high schools, joint vocational schools and community colleges to enroll and education new students populations.

Strategic Objective 

II.

Creating Public Good Through Research, Creative Activities, Partnerships and Engagement

We aspire to be relevant to our communities to support their social, economic, educational and cultural vitality. We create public good through the relevance and significance of our research, scholarship and creative activities. We enhance our communities through engagement, service and partnership.

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Initiative 5: Relevant and meaningful research and creative activities

We will, as an anchor institution of our region, focus our research, scholarship and creative activities to support the vitality of our communities by demonstrating relevancy of these activities to Ohio and the world. We will continue to enhance the support and infrastructure needed to identify new sources of funding to achieve stability in funding from governmental and non-governmental grants and contracts.  

Initiative 6: Partnerships that enhance resources

We will grow and create industry and corporate partnerships to provide additional resources, gains in efficiencies, accelerate the careers of our students and increase capabilities to support our objectives and create public good.

Initiative 7: Advocacy that enhances resources

We will creatively engage our extended community of alumni, friends, government officials, families, partners, fans and others to demonstrate the importance of Bowling Green to our region, state and world to increase philanthropic fundraising, athletic revenues and state/federal support.

Initiative 8: Telling our story

We will implement a sharpened and aligned strategic marketing and communications plan that demonstrates the relevance and importance of Bowling Green to all constituencies (e.g., current and future students, faculty, staff, alumni, government officials, K-12, external communities, families, partners, etc.). This will position the institution to build upon our brand and thrive in a hyper-competitive recruitment market, which will highlight our current exemplars of excellence as well as leverage our athletic and arts assets.

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Foundational Objective 

III.

Powering Public Good Through Our People and Community

We aspire to be an engaged learning community where each member belongs and is inspired to achieve excellence. Additionally, we aspire to be a student-centered learning community and are guided by this focus in our decision-making.

Initiative 9: Culture of community, respect and curiosity

We will ensure we are able to recruit and retain students, faculty and staff and, we will model a culture that supports each member of our community in reaching their potential. We must continue to position Bowling Green to value curiosity and be a place where debate is encouraged and approached with kindness and empathy.

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Initiative 10: Holistic well-being

We will support the success of our community by coordinating and enhancing systems and programs that focus on holistic well-being of our students, faculty and staff.

Initiative 11: Empowering Through Innovation and Technology

We will support faculty and staff in achieving excellence by investing in professional development, promoting a culture of innovation, and embracing transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence. By fostering a growth mindset rooted in design thinking, we will enable creative problem-solving and expand the impact of our people. We will also equip our workforce to adopt current and emerging technologies to drive efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation across all areas of the University.

Foundational Objective 

IV.

Supporting Public Good Through Efficient and Effective Processes, Structures and Technologies

We aspire to be an organization that achieves excellence and provides our students with an educational experience that is of great value professionally and personally.

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Initiative 12: Delivering High-Value, Affordable Education

We will significantly enhance the value of a Bowling Green degree by focusing on both affordability for students and operational efficiency of the institution. We will improve the affordability for students by streamlining curriculum and pathways for timely degree completion and implementing innovative scholarship and affordability programs. We will become more efficient as a university by ensuring equitable workloads, aligning people and process to reduce institutional costs. These actions will allow us to reinvest strategically and ensure BGSU continues to thrive in a competitive higher education landscape.

Initiative 13: AI, technology and physical plant alignment

We will continuously enhance our infrastructure (e.g., facilities, artificial intelligence, technology and operations) to elevate student learning, research, productivity, impact and sustainability including the implementation of the Campus Master Plan.

Initiative 14: Monetize underutilized assets

We will continuously find ways to monetize physical and non-physical assets to support the core educational mission of the University. This includes summer activities, land-lease, fee for services, etc.

BGSU Seal | A Public University for the Public Good

Updated: 10/07/2025 12:23PM