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California State University, Chico
Green foliage frames Kendall Hall with a pink sunset sky.

Strategic Plan 2024

The Playbook is our new strategic plan and is designed to be a concise, accessible, and memorable document outlining our priorities, values, and path forward. More importantly, it centers organizational health and drives immediate decision-making.

Chico State Playbook

  • Why do we exist?

    Chico State empowers professional success, meaningful lives, and vibrant communities through immersive learning in a beautiful, globally connected location.

  • How do we behave?

    In all that we do, Chico State reflects the values of connection, excellence, inspiration, and innovation.

    • Connection: We cultivate relationships with one another based on the Chico State Community Agreements of respect, empathy, and integrity. We honor our interdependence with the communities and the land we serve across the North State and beyond.
    • Excellence: We aspire to the highest standards of teaching, learning, research, creativity, and professionalism.
    • Inspiration: We are motivated to build a diverse and inclusive identity that is bigger and more impactful than ourselves.
    • Innovation: We improve our students’ lives, our region, and our world through groundbreaking and innovative teaching, learning, and research and creative activity.

  • What do we do?

    A regional comprehensive university, Chico State is a destination campus in a rural region, providing high-quality, affordable, and accessible academic programs and extracurricular opportunities to serve students’ needs and deliver well-prepared community members, professionals, and leaders for California and beyond.

  • How will we succeed?

    Chico State will:

    • Engage our students in powerful learning experiences that prepare them for successful futures.
    • Produce outstanding scholarship and creative works that improve lives and inspire possibility.
    • Foster an equitable, inclusive, and rewarding environment for all students and employees.
    • Serve as a resource for the North State on the issues that matter most, with emphasis on accessible education, workforce development, sustainable systems, and the cultural and economic enrichment of our communities.
    • Embrace streamlined processes and adaptive ways of working to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.

  • What is most important right now?

    Creating a welcoming and exciting university culture. 

Download the Chico State Playbook

Our Overall Methodology

President Perez presents at the North State Colalboration.

The Playbook was drafted and refined by the Strategic Planning Steering Committee appointed by President Perez in March 2024. The committee was charged with using Patrick Lencioni’s book The Advantage and exploring the book’s model and relevance for an academic organization. The model set forth six questions and the committee answered the first five:

  1. Why do we exist? Answers articulate an organization’s grand, aspirational purpose.
  2. How do we behave? Answers codify the values we hold most dear and that guide our actions.
  3. What do we do? Answers simply describe the nuts and bolts of an organization in clear and simple terms.
  4. How will we succeed? Answers help an organization make intentional and consistent decisions by articulating strategic anchors.
  5. What is most important, right now? Answers communicate the organization’s top priority in a given time-frame.
  6. Who must do what? Answers provide clarity around the division of labor and responsibility.

The sixth question, “Who must do what?” will be considered by the President and Vice Presidents during spring 2025 as the campus enters Phase 4 of the strategic planning timeline. As the focus turns to operationalization, the Playbook will inspire and guide us to evaluate how our individual and collective efforts contribute to these aspirations and establish clear metrics for ongoing success. 

The Strategic Planning Process

The strategic planning process represents deep engagement on the part of the committee with campus stakeholders (employees and students), and the broader community that represents the service region for Chico State.

The committee sought initial feedback by asking each of the 24 committee members to take three questions to their respective units and gather developmental feedback:

  1. How do you want to feel about Chico State?
  2. Imagine five years in the future, what do you want to be proud of about Chico State?
  3. What are we missing at Chico State?

Approximately 100 individuals were engaged during this round. The committee also took advantage of the Community Impact Day in April 2024 to ask stakeholders from the broader North State region to weigh in on the questions. Finally, the committee created a survey and asked campus constituents, alumni and broader North State region stakeholders the same questions. The survey yielded 78 additional individual responses beyond those that participated in the initial feedback sessions.

In summer 2024, the committee gathered all the feedback thus far and engaged in a session focused on qualitative data analysis strategies, including content analysis and line by line coding, and began to articulate answers to the Playbook questions. An assessment was also conducted to determine which campus/off-campus stakeholder groups had been engaged and which still needed to be consulted, and a campus engagement plan for the Fall semester was created.

A draft Playbook was written and shared with the broader campus community in a second survey. A total of 221 individuals (faculty, staff, students, alumni, and donors) responded to the survey. To provide individuals with an in-person opportunity to share feedback on the draft, the committee hosted a campus-wide Open House in November and nearly 100 campus constituents provided feedback.

The committee then analyzed the survey data as well as the data captured at the Open House. The committee recognized tensions and themes in the feedback provided and the draft Playbook was revised to incorporate the feedback received. The final draft was shared with the President,

Frequently Asked Questions

Phase 1 - Defining the Process (Complete)

Spring 2024

  • Convene the Strategic Planning Steering Committee
  • Draft answers to questions 1-4 defining who we are, why we exist, and how we behave
  • Gather initial feedback from select campus and community stakeholders

Phase 2 - Feedback Analysis and Sense Making (Complete)

Summer 2024

  • Analyze feedback and ideas from stakeholder groups
  • Use results to further develop and refine answers to questions 1-5 of The Advantage for a Chico State Playbook
  • Identify additional constituent groups for engagement and feedback
  • Prepare draft Playbook

Phase 3 - Campus-wide Engagement and Writing (Complete)

Fall 2024

  • Present draft of Chico State Playbook to entire campus community for feedback
  • Conduct campus roadshow of Playbook to encourage awareness and feedback
  • Strategic Planning Steering Committee reviews and incorporates feedback
  • Committee writes final draft of the Chico State Playbook

Phase 4 - Campuswide Engagement and Writing of Action Plan (In progress)

Spring 2025

  • President and Cabinet will engage with campus to focus on #5-What is most important, right now?-"Creating a welcoming and exciting university culture." That will be the primary action item for 2025-26 and will require participation and engagement from the entire campus community.

  1. Angela Trethewey, Dean College of Education and Communication (Co-Chair)
  2. Cirilo Cortez, AVP of Student Engagement (Co-Chair)
  3. Tasha Alexander, Coordinator for International Education and Global Engagement
  4. Stacie Corona, AVP Financial Services
  5. Teresita Curiel, Director for Latinx Equity and Success
  6. Tricia Douthit, Senior Director for Institutional Research and Strategic Analytics
  7. Ashley Gebb, Executive Director for University Communications
  8. Zach Justus, Director for Faculty Development
  9. Yvonne Martini, Associate Director for IT Support Services
  10. Rachel McBride, Director of Tribal Relations
  11. Kate McCarthy, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Academic Success
  12. Lori Miller, Special Assistant to the President
  13. Matthew Teague Miller, Associate Chair of Music, Theatre and Dance Department
  14. Joseph Morales, Chief Diversity Officer
  15. Juanita Mottley, AVP for Student Affairs
  16. Patrick Newell, Librarian
  17. Sonia S Quintero, Graduate Student MPA program
  18. Daniel Sargent, Assistant Professor in Music, Theatre and Dance Department
  19. Seema Sehrawat, Chief of Staff
  20. Randy Southall, AVP for Facilities Management and Planning
  21. Jennifer Trujillo, Graduate Student
  22. Jennifer Underwood, Vice Chair Computer Animation and Game Development Program
  23. Chong Yang, Director of Enrollment Management Data Analytics and Operations

Administrative Support - Lisa James, Executive Assistant to Chief of Staff

Is this a new Strategic Plan?

Yes, in a new form. Our current Strategic Plan sunsetted in spring 2024. The President opted for the alternative form of a Playbook. A Playbook is designed to be memorable and concise, but more importantly it centers organizational health and drives immediate decision-making.

What happened to our strategic priorities and enduring communitites?

They are reflected throughout the Playbook in terms of both articulated values (how do we behave?) and priorities and decision-making (how will we succeed?).

Will the Playbook function like past Strategic Plans for employee evaluations, program reviews, and grant writing?

Yes.

What happens next?

Your feedback was shared with the steering committee and was used to prepare a final draft to be delivered to President Perez by mid-December

In spring, the President and Cabinet will lead the development of an action plan that will answer the final questions: “Who must do what?” This is where we will build out the specifics in alignment with our values and purpose. Planning will take place at the university level and in divisions, colleges, departments, and units.

The 2019-2024 strategic plan sunsetted in 2024. While it has been replaced by the Chico State Playbook, you can still view the previous strategic plan.