Three times each year, following the September, December and April Board of Trustees meetings, the university will release via Marquette Today a status update on implementation of the university’s Marquette 2031 strategic plan, “Guided by Mission, Inspired to Change.” All strategic plan implementation updates and information are housed on the Marquette 2031 Strategic Plan Teams site. (The Teams site and its files are restricted to those with Marquette email addresses.)
The status update features the initiative description, a list of implementation team members and a set of updates for each of the 10 active strategic initiatives across the plan’s three themes: Thriving Students, Healthy Campus and Care for the World. Additionally, the December progress reports will include a metrics dashboard.
Following are some recent highlights of strategic plan implementation progress. The full April 2026 status update is available on the Teams site.
THRIVING STUDENTS
- Student Belonging and Well-Being — The National College Health Assessment was administered to more than 1,000 students. Results will be available this summer with benchmarks released in early fall. SPARK and new student orientation planning is underway, with new wellness content and integrated offerings across campus partners for coming this fall.
- Advancement of Teaching and Learning — An AJCU Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm cohort for Marquette faculty was launched with 34 participants to date. Eighteen campuswide outreach sessions on the Teaching Quality Framework have been completed. Finalized recommendations on the Marquette Core Curriculum Examen will be presented to University Academic Senate in August.
HEALTHY CAMPUS
- Securing Our Future — A series of Securing Our Future priority areas have been tasked with exploring additional cost-saving measures to help the university achieve its goal of improving the annual operating budget by $31 million by 2031. By the end of FY26, we expect to achieve approximately $7 million towards the Securing Our Future goal.
- Undergraduate Enrollment Strategy — For the second year in a row, Marquette received more than 20,000 applications for fall undergraduate admission. The university hosted a record number of senior visitors this year, including the largest ever admissions event on Saturday, March 21, with Admitted Student Day.
CARE FOR THE WORLD
- Community Partnership Development — The university was awarded the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement in January. Carnegie will provide feedback to the university this semester regarding opportunities to strengthen community engagement efforts. Based on this, the core team will provide an initial recommendation to campus stakeholders and an updated timeline for implementing priorities. It is anticipated that a report summary with recommendations will be available for campus in late summer.
- Enhancement of Research Infrastructure — New training and support materials are now available on the MU POST website. New documents and videos will be added.
