PRIDE 2020: Personal Responsibility in Delivering Excellence
It is with tremendous pride and pleasure that I present to you the Strategic Plan for Delaware State University — Personal Responsibility in Delivering Excellence — or PRIDE 2020.
Delaware State University is a public, comprehensive 1890 land-grant university established by the Delaware General Assembly on May 15, 1891. In these 123 years, DSU has gone from being a State College offering five courses of study in agriculture, chemistry, the classics, engineering and science to a University offering its 4,505 students 52 baccalaureate, 25 master’s and five doctoral degree programs through 21 academic departments. The University has an Honors Program and a number of strategic international partnerships. In addition to its 356-acre main campus with 50 buildings, DSU also has two farm properties, locations in Wilmington and Georgetown, and a fleet of planes for the Aviation Program with a base of operations at the Delaware Air Park in Cheswold.
It has been quite a journey from our humble beginnings. DSU has made significant strides along the way to the year 2014. But that was then, and this is now. PRIDE 2020 outlines for you the steps we will collectively take as we begin our journey toward the next decade — a journey that insures we are a University that prepares tomorrow’s leaders, invests in the community’s well-being and meets global challenges.
I charged the University Strategic Planning Council with delivering a plan that was comprehensive, challenging and concise. That committee, under the leadership of Provost Alton Thompson, spent two years meeting with members of our Board of Trustees; faculty, staff and students; community members; University supporters; and local, state and national leaders. They listened to all of your thoughts and ideas; they picked the best you had to offer and paired it with state and national priorities and best practices in higher education. With the plan now in place, the University Strategic Planning Implementation Committee will be responsible for implementing, monitoring and tracking the achievement of its goals and objectives.
PRIDE 2020 will become the launching pad for what Delaware State University is to become.
- President Harry L. Williams, Ed.D.