Pres. Mortensen Recaps Town Hall, Provides Strategic Reinvestment Plan Update

Editor’s note: This message from USU President Brad L. Mortensen was sent to all USU employees on Tuesday afternoon.

Dear USU community,

Thank you very much to those who could join me for the town hall yesterday afternoon. As promised in that meeting, and for those who couldn’t attend, I am following up with a brief summary of what we discussed and an update on our strategic reinvestment plan.

Strategic Reinvestment Plan Update

This afternoon, I briefed the Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee on our revised strategic reinvestment plan. I appreciated the opportunity to walk through the updates we’ve made, answer questions, and reinforce how the plan strengthens our land grant and research mission and our ability to serve students and communities across the state. While the committee gave preliminary support for our plan, they expressed a desire to review the legislative audit before providing the additional 70% of the $12.6 million from our initial disinvestment. For now, we will receive 30% of the $12.6 million. However, this critical approval is what we need to move forward with our reinvestment plan. We will present our response to the legislative audit after it is issued at the end of January and anticipate hearing more then.

You can learn more about USU’s revised plan and see the changes at usu.edu/president/reinvestment.

Town Hall

We had over 1,000 employees join the town hall, either in person or online. I know everyone is extremely busy right now, and I’m honored so many took time out of their busy schedules to share your questions and engage with me.

During my presentation, I gave an overview of the student and employee surveys I emailed out on my first day at USU. More than 1,300 students and nearly 1,400 employees responded, representing our entire statewide system. Your feedback makes clear what matters most to you, and I’m grateful to everyone who took the time to participate. I look forward to meeting with many of you in the months ahead to continue listening and learning together. You can find summary reports for both surveys at usu.edu/president/survey.

For those of you who were unable to attend or who want to review the slides I shared during the presentation, please download the slide deck.

Thank you for the thoughtful questions shared during the Q and A. We weren’t able to get to all of them during the time we had, so if you didn’t hear a response to yours (or if other questions come up), please feel free to reach out at president@usu.edu or online at usu.edu/president/contact. Your questions reflect how deeply you care about USU and how our decisions shape the work you do for your programs and your students. I’m committed to communicating openly and regularly as we move forward together.

Thank you again for your dedication to Utah State. Go Aggies!

Best,

brad