Initiative Areas

Taking advantage of our unique place in Austin and Texas, we will focus on multiple initiative areas:

Partnership for impact

2.1. Partner With Communities

Work hand-in-hand with communities to improve lives

UT sits at the center of a network of relationships and collaborations that drive the direction of our city and state. As a result of our place and reach, we are uniquely positioned to have a positive impact in the communities we serve locally, across Texas, and beyond.

To increase, strengthen, and amplify our community partnerships, we will:

• Work closely with and listen to community and government leaders to find mutually beneficial solutions to common challenges including affordable housing and homelessness, transportation, education, health and mental health care, and access to technology.
• Showcase our campus and support Austin as a vibrant, accessible destination for the arts, music, innovation, research, and scholarship.
• Build and expand upon existing relationships to increase community participation in campus life and events.
• Build strong relationships and engagement with the community and Texas through athletics.
• Ensure that our outstanding cultural assets, scholarly collections, and world-class athletics venues are clearly linked to our overall university mission.
• Go beyond Austin to inspire and empower students and alumni to impact their hometowns and communities throughout Texas and across the globe.

2.2. Partner With Government

Partner with government agencies to increase impact in Austin and Texas

Our location creates tremendous potential to partner with the public sector to expand opportunities for all Texans, develop effective public policy, and implement solutions to the challenges of growth and change in our city and state.

To better partner with government for impact, we will:

• Collaborate with the State of Texas, City of Austin, Travis County, Central Health, and other partners to pioneer scalable models for growth and development that improve quality of life and position Austin as an attractive “city of the future.”
• Strengthen our relationships with federal agencies to advance learning, scholarship, research, and employment opportunities, and advance our mission and impact.
• Work closely with and listen to government and community leaders to develop mutually beneficial solutions to common challenges including affordable housing and homelessness, transportation, education, health and mental health care, and access to technology.
• Facilitate pathways that help faculty and staff members engage with policymakers and impact policy development.
• Use UT’s strengths to support state workforce strategies that help fuel growth and opportunity.
• Encourage, support, and provide recognition for students, staff, and faculty to engage in research, learning, and service in partnership with the public sector.

2.3. Partner With Business

Team with business for innovation and opportunity

When UT helps drive a robust and growing economy, we expand opportunities for our students, employees, and alumni and for communities throughout the state and beyond.

To create opportunities and impact in partnership with business, we will:

• Strengthen our role as an engine for outstanding talent by collaborating with the private sector to provide learning, mentorship, and career opportunities for students.
• Enhance our university’s corporate relations capabilities with organizations of all sizes to identify and create mutually beneficial opportunities for growth and innovation.
• Enhance our partnership model to better connect companies and other interested organizations to UT’s talent, ideas, and opportunities.
• Refresh the university’s Technology and Research Commercialization strategy to advance the outstanding innovations developed by our faculty, staff, and students so they generate even more economic impact and social value.
• Through strong private sector partnerships, advance philanthropy that imagines and invests in the future of the university.
• Provide lifelong learning opportunities and valuable credentials to UT graduates and to mid-career employees from our partners in business, government, and the community.

Campus-focused Initiative Areas

2.4. Drive Austin as an Innovation Hub

Propel UT Austin as an epicenter for innovation

From Silicon Valley to Cambridge, the most impactful universities are intertwined with off-campus space where researchers and entrepreneurs develop bold ideas in a continuous cycle of innovation. Here in Austin, innovation is at the core of our city and our university. UT has nurtured new ideas and practices by supporting our multiple centers, institutes, and incubators, fostering the creativity and inventions of our outstanding faculty members, students, and staff, and recognizing that innovation can happen everywhere from the classroom and creative space to the research lab.

To further advance and accelerate entrepreneurship and strengthen UT Austin’s position as a leading entrepreneurship university, we will:

• Strengthen the development and collaboration of existing UT and affiliated centers and organizations advancing education, entrepreneurship, and research innovation and creativity.
• Nurture and develop creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs from any field, inside and outside the university, including our students, faculty, and staff, so they can collaborate to drive impact and opportunity.
• Develop one or more innovation districts adjacent to campus and position each as a point of collaboration for UT and other organizations that support innovation.

2.5. Create Inspiring Space

Create an innovative and robust Campus Master Plan

We aspire for the Forty Acres and our other public spaces to advance our mission and values, promote and inspire our sense of community and Longhorn identity, and embrace and enrich the spirit and potential of Texas and Austin.

To achieve our aspirations for our campus, we will:

• Develop a Campus Master Plan for the Forty Acres and UT’s other spaces with a bold and comprehensive vision that inspires and welcomes all who come here.
• Build new spaces and transform existing spaces to support a vibrant Longhorn culture; foster outstanding learning, research, creativity, and scholarship; inspire students, faculty, and staff; and draw in alumni and neighbors.
• Reimagine residential communities so all students feel more connected to academic and campus life.
• Create modern, sustainable buildings, spaces, and landscapes that will inspire and enable our pursuits for years to come.
• Work collaboratively with the UT community and the communities around us as we reimagine, develop, and implement plans for the future.
• Ensure our campuses continue to be safe and accessible.
• Explore and experiment with technology and architectural innovations using the Forty Acres and other sites as testbeds that redefine the residential university campus of the future.

2.6. Increase Housing Access and Affordability

Recognize and help mitigate the consequences of increasing housing costs in Austin

We recognize that the economic growth of Austin brings along some challenges, including increased cost of living. As a response, we will look to expand our university affiliated housing options. Housing availability and cost pressures are not unique to Austin or UT, but as a public and residential university, we have an opportunity to provide more options for affordable, transformative experiences on and around our campus.

To help reduce the impact of rising housing costs in Austin, we will:

• Create additional undergraduate and graduate housing that is affordable, attractive, and promotes a sense of belonging.
• Explore ways to provide faculty and staff with options to make transportation and housing more affordable, including through innovative remote work opportunities while remaining a premier, high-engagement residential university.
• Provide students and their families with easy-to-find tools and information to understand and plan for overall costs of housing, transportation, and attendance, and to make fully informed decisions.

Health-focused Initiative Areas

2.7. Improve Health and Well-being

Establish UT and Austin as a premier destination for health care, education, and innovation

With generous support from Travis County residents, UT’s Dell Medical School has become an innovator in medical education and health care delivery, and it complements the health-related strengths of our schools of Pharmacy, Nursing, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Social Work, and other UT colleges and schools.  As a result, UT Austin has emerged as a leader in health and well-being. We will move toward a bold vision to become an academic medical center that dramatically improves public health in ways that support and reinforce our education and research missions.

To enhance health and well-being, we will:

• Partner with outstanding health care organizations to significantly scale distinctive health care delivery capabilities in Austin, pioneer new approaches to health care delivery and health care equity, and create a robust model for related research, innovation, education, and training.
• Promote collaboration across campus and with partners in critical areas of health-related expertise including neuroscience, aging, infectious diseases, oncology, cardiology, children’s health, women’s health, public health, and health economics.
• Continue to attract top students from Texas and across the country to Dell Medical School and support their development to become physician leaders of the future by continuing to innovate the curriculum, including by expanding interdisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities.
• Expand and enrich residency and fellowship programs to offer high-quality, in-demand training opportunities across the full scope of clinical specialties and environments.
• Position UT Austin as the heart of a vibrant clinical, training, and research center of excellence, with strong community partnerships and comprehensive education and scholarship that elevate Austin as an innovation hub for health and well-being.

How we will measure our success

To accomplish our initiative area objectives and leverage our unique place in Austin and Texas, we will focus on a series of specific goals:

Partner with community, government, industry

• Increase the number and diversity of high-impact partnerships with the community, the City of Austin, state and federal government, the private sector, philanthropic foundations, and global organizations
• Develop university-wide strategies that enable a campus-wide approach to relationships, opportunities, and messages for community, government, and private sector organizations in coordination with college and school outreach
• Refresh our partnership model to provide unified access to campus support and connections for private sector partners; local, state, and federal government agencies; and community organizations
• Increase and diversify overall funding from government, foundations, and industry partners
• Increase the share of public and private sector entities that recommend UT as a preferred higher education partner for learning, research, and service, and as a source for outstanding talent
• Establish one or more innovation districts to catalyze collaboration across all UT organizations that support entrepreneurship and to propel external partnerships
• Bring more UT innovations to market through technology and research commercialization

Create sustainable next-generation university environments

• Develop a new Campus Master Plan and create a related funding strategy
• Increase housing capacity through university-owned housing or private partnerships
• Design and implement an affordable housing strategy
• Invest in new facilities or facility upgrades that are responsive to the needs of teaching, learning, researching, living, connecting, and thriving at UT Austin

Scale and innovate health delivery

• In collaboration with key community partners, achieve national ranking for Dell Med-partner and affiliated hospitals in one or more specialties per U.S. News & World Report
• Increase our share of patients served annually by Dell Medical and its clinical partners