Strategic Plan: What we Accomplished
The first phase of We Rise We Defy: Transcending Borders, Transforming Lives (2020-2025) established and ambitious set of goals and related activities. The strategic plan, in its first phase, resulted in transformative outcomes benefiting students, faculty, staff and the many other communities Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» serves, presenting the university community as a beacon of knowledge and action for the San Diego region, the state of California and the world.
Here are some of our accomplishments.
Student Success on the Rise
Since the strategic plan’s launch, and for first-time freshmen, the four-year graduation rate is 57.9% and the six-year graduation rate — the highest ever — is nearly 80%.
In 2024, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» reached nearly $230 million in grants and contracts, a historic high.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» now has nine resource centers, several task force groups, dozens of diversity liaisons and nearly 20 ERGs.
Nearly 160 graduate degrees conferred in 2023, with more graduate-level degree offerings.
Saw a more than 40% increase in student participation in the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» Student Symposium since 2017.
More than 70% of students now complete their degrees without taking student loans and more than 60% receive some form of aid.
Driving Research and Innovation
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» has, for the first time, been designated an R1 university, a category historically reserved for top-tier, research-intensive doctoral degree-granting universities.
Record enrollment and new academic programs, support services and a STEM building opening in 2025 in Imperial Valley.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» partners include the Center for Mesoamerican Studies in Oaxaca, the Archivo General del Estado de Oaxaca and Municipio de Tijuana.
Since the start of the strategic plan, 19 faculty have received the nationally-competitive NSF Career Award (33 total in the history of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»).
OneIT launched to align help desks and my.Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» launched to align student information systems.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» Mission Valley is one of the most important hubs in the San Diego region, with a stadium and river park with research and housing on the horizon.
Launch of Techstarts San Diego, an accelerator for startups in all industries, is one of the fastest growing and collaborative startup ecosystems in the world
Diversity and Global Recognition
The university has expanded research, projects, community-based efforts and arts initiatives in support of the diverse community we serve.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» received the Seal of Excelencia and was named an Asian American and NativeAmerican Pacific Islander Institution (AANAPISI).
Recognized as a Diversity Champion in Higher Education HEED (Higher Education Excellence in Diversity) award recipient
Success on the Field
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» student-athletes regularly receive recognition for their athletic and academic performance and other successes thanks also to the investments made by athletic leadership, staff and coaches
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» will host the Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion team at Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» Mission Valley's Snapdragon Stadium, where its inaugural season will begin at Snapdragon Stadium in 2025.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» accepted an invitation to join the Pac-12 Conference, which will drive new opportunities and possibilities. The Aztecs will officially become a member of the Pac-12 on July 1, 2026.
Driving a Sustainable Future
The Office of Energy and Sustainability, the annual campus-wide sustainability summit and other new sustainability efforts established.
The university established the Sustainability Summit as an annual effort to highlight sustainability efforts through presentations from students, faculty, staff and community leaders.
A strengthened communications ecosystem drives record-levels of visibility for university programs and successes.