President's Letter

The 2005-2006 academic year is a very important benchmark year for Iowa State University. With our new five-year Strategic Plan taking effect July 1, 2005, and the Higher Learning Commission accreditation review taking place in March of 2006, Iowa State has the rare opportunity to significantly refocus itself as an institution of higher learning and service based on the current issues and challenges we see as being critical to our mission as a land-grant university serving Iowa, the nation and the world. We quite literally view this period in our history as an opportunity to change the culture of the institution—to focus our attention clearly on the future and to become more responsive, more interdisciplinary, more collaborative and more efficient in our approach to educating students, conducting research, and extending the knowledge resources of the University to help people improve their lives.

Iowa State is extremely proud of its leadership role in shaping the land-grant mission over the past 143 years, and we are committed to continuing that leadership well into the future. The title of our new Strategic Plan is “Forward thinking” and its vision is clear and concise: “Iowa State University will be the best at advancing the land-grant ideals and putting science and technology to work.” This vision, and our mission—to create, share and apply knowledge to make Iowa and the world a better place—guide our every effort as a leading international land-grant university, and they formed the framework of the self-study for the HLC accreditation review that follows.

This self-study is an introduction to and a broad overview of Iowa State University to help the members of the Accreditation Team and the people we serve better understand the University—who we are and where we are going. It was created using the same highly collaborative, open and inclusive process that guided the development of our new Strategic Plan. It is web-based to allow for the widest and easiest possible access and input, and it has been shared within the University Community and with the broader community and society we serve. Developing this self study in close conjunction with our new Strategic Plan also gave us the opportunity to know ourselves and our institution better—our strengths and our weaknesses—and to better understand where we need to concentrate our efforts for continued improvement and to better fulfill our mission.