Dear friends and colleagues,

I hope you are enjoying your summertime and are able to share memorable moments with loved ones.

Since arriving at UW–Oshkosh on July 1, I have met many of you—individually, in teams, and in larger forums—along with members of our broader community and stakeholder groups. I leave every conversation both inspired and optimistic. Your dedication to our students and the tenacity you demonstrated during the past two challenging years have earned widespread admiration and support.

Thanks to your efforts, we now have a remarkable opportunity: to sustain the momentum you created and position UWO as a model public comprehensive university—one that remains relevant, accessible, and affordable while serving our communities with world-class education. Achieving this goal requires building on our existing strategic plan and mission while adapting to today’s realities: academic and administrative reorganization, financial constraints, a reduced workforce, and recent campus closures.

At the same time, higher education is being reshaped by powerful socio-cultural, political, and economic forces—and by a rapidly accelerating intelligence revolution driven by technological advances in several domains. Over the past month, I have held substantive, focused conversations with shared-governance leaders, several staff and faculty colleagues, Executive Council members, University Cabinet colleagues, and external stakeholders. A broad consensus emerged: now is the right moment to update our strategic plan so it captures shifting external dynamics, supports our ongoing institutional realignment, and provides a roadmap that both preserves our mission-centric focus and builds on the hard-won gains of the past two years.

Reflecting our strong commitment to inclusiveness—and with the support and guidance of shared-governance leaders and the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee—we have created a draft one-year Bridge Plan for 2025-26 that we are presenting for your feedback. I invite you to review the document, which you can access HERE.

Please share your insights and offer recommendations by the end of the day Monday, Aug. 11. You will find the form for sharing input HERE.

We will strive to incorporate as many of our collective voices as possible to arrive at a strategic blueprint for our near-term collaborative action plans.

I want to express my profound gratitude to the Strategic Planning committee, whose hard work produced our current plan. Its core elements remain fundamental to our future success, and we will continue to pursue them with conviction and respect.

The future belongs to us—together. Our shared vision will define, shape, and strengthen UW–Oshkosh for years to come. I am honored to serve as your Chancellor and remain committed to transparent, accountable, and inclusive pursuits toward our shared success.

I wish you all a joyful rest of the summer and look forward to welcoming our entire UWO community back to campus.

With deep gratitude,

Manohar Singh, Ph.D.
Chancellor
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh