Strategic Plan (2026-2030)

1A) Strategy: Incorporate AI concepts and tools from the PSU AI Framework into all undergraduate and graduate programs, preparing students for new workforce expectations in an AI era, including knowledge of AI, skill with AI tools, and ethical understandings.

• KPI 1.1.1: Beginning with the fall 2026 incoming cohort of undergraduate students, contribute to the provost’s AI awareness goal by engaging 100% of first-year College of IST students in an AI experience (likely the PSU 17 first-year seminar course) that aligns with the PSU AI Framework and associated student learning objectives for students.
• KPI 1.1.2: By 2027 and using the PSU AI Framework and associated student learning objectives for students, develop plans for 100% of academic programs to teach how and when to use AI, so that 100% of students in College of IST majors learn about AI in their major course of study.
• KPI 1.1.3: Educate AI professionals and researchers at the graduate level, with 25% of placements by 2028 in firms that develop rather than merely use AI.

1B) Strategy: Increase experiential learning opportunities across curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular domains.

• KPI 1.2.1: Scale the Nittany AI Alliance program to serve Penn State students: 150 Penn State students by 2026, 250 Penn State students by 2028, and 350 Penn State students by 2030.
• KPI 1.2.2: Use the Suitable student engagement app (IST Engage) to create digital badges or micro-credentials for the Learning Assistant (LA) and Peer Tutoring programs to help students codify what they learn from these experiential learning activities, with at least 90% of LAs and tutors making use of them by 2030.
• KPI 1.2.3: Increase paid internship opportunities through strengthened employer and community partnerships—including those in the growing field of artificial intelligence—increasing by 20% by 2030 the number of employers engaging with the College of IST through job postings, career fairs, workshops, and classroom presentations (in-person and virtual).
• KPI 1.2.4: Expand our undergraduate research program (in addition to the Schreyer Honors program) to attract 20 students by December 2026 with 10 more students per year until 2030.
• KPI 1.2.5: Establish and provide four sessions per year by 2030 of a program to train our master’s degree students (many of whom have constraints with international-worker visa needs) on job search and professional engagement strategies.
• KPI 1.2.6: Establish a well-supported, robust preparation program focused on pedagogical professionalism for graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and instructional assistants (IAs), such that 100% of new TAs and IAs would earn the Teaching Development Provost Endorsement, should they be interested in applying for this endorsement.

2A) Strategy: Lead development of a modernized international iSchool quality metric that begins to be adopted for national ratings and recruits students to Penn State.

• KPI 2.1.1: College committee plans modernized iSchool measures of success based on faculty research, degree programs portfolio, and experiential learning opportunities.
• KPI 2.1.2: IST dean leads revision and acceptance of the metric among iSchools through the national organization.
• KPI 2.1.3: Encourage distinction between iSchools and computer science programs on at least one national hiring platform and within at least one national rating system by 2030.
• KPI 2.1.4: Rank as a top five iSchool program by 2030.

2B) Strategy: Using 2024-2025 Academic Portfolio and Program Review (APPR) analysis of labor market needs, attract larger enrollments through marketing initiatives and greater participation among faculty, students, and prospective students in College of IST recruiting events.

• KPI 2.2.1: Meet target of 3,000 residential undergraduate students who major in the college’s bachelor’s degree programs by 2030.
• KPI 2.2.2: Maintain target of 50 residential master’s students through 2030.
• KPI 2.2.3: Maintain an overall average of 3 Ph.D. students per tenure-line professor in the college through 2030, consistent with labor market needs. (The total number of Ph.D. students is scaled to faculty size, with not too many to advise well and not too few such that research is diminished.)

2C) Strategy: Informed by the University’s new APPR process, develop minors in new and growing areas of information sciences to increase student credit hours to the college.

• KPI 2.3.1: Develop three undergraduate minors by 2030: serving 100 CYBER minor students annually; serving 100 AIMA minor students annually; serving 50 Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor-Enterprise AI Cluster students annually.
• KPI 2.3.2: Create a graduate student minor with 50 students enrolled by 2030.

2D) Strategy: Maximize enrollment capacities through large enrollment classes.

• KPI 2.3.3: Create four regularly offered, large-enrollment, general education courses (i.e., A-I 100, CYBER 001, IST 110, and IST 130) that also provide entry to College of IST majors, with each course serving 250-500 students annually.
• KPI 2.3.4: Review, refine, and promote at least three key tools (AI or other) that support faculty for large class management to balance gaining efficiencies with quality teaching and learning.

3A) Strategy: Broaden development and shared offerings of IST courses and programs across the commonwealth.

• KPI 3.1.1: Develop serviceable 2+2 plans for all IST degree programs, making use of Digital Learning Cooperative (DLC) courses where necessary, to assist campuses in enabling students to make progress toward majors offered at University Park.
• KPI 3.1.2: Increase impact of IST teaching on Pennsylvania residents by having all IST degree programs include a fully templated (“specified”) course from which campus faculty may teach each majors’ introductory material.
• KPI 3.1.3: Determine the approximate number of graduates of IST degree programs who are working in Pennsylvania.

3B) Strategy: Increase our numbers of Pennsylvania-based academic collaborators, subjects, firms, nonprofits, and individual collaborators and beneficiaries of our research.

• KPI 3.2.1: Create a college-wide database of Pennsylvania-based research connections (collaborators, subjects, beneficiaries) by 2027.
• KPI 3.2.2: Increase local, regional, and state-wide connections with firms and nonprofits through our research program by 10% by 2030.
• KPI 3.2.3: Increase the number of research proposals submitted with Pennsylvania-based University and campus scholars by 20% by 2030.
• KPI 3.2.4: Increase the number of research projects that integrate Pennsylvania residents into subject pools (persons, data) by 10% by 2030.

3C) Strategy: Diversify and expand our experiential learning, for IST’s and other colleges’ students, and public information disseminated to local and regional audiences.

• KPI 3.3.1: Create a database of the college’s local, regional, and state-wide experiential learning and public information efforts by 2027.
• KPI 3.3.2: Increase local-, regional-, and state-focused experiential learning activities by 10% by 2030.
• KPI 3.3.3: Increase relationships with local media outlets (recognizing changes to the local media landscape) to carry IST stories by 10% by 2030.

4A) Strategy: Build breadth of domain experiences into courses.

• KPI 4.1.1: The majority of faculty will teach IST topics in individual courses using examples from three or more disciplines.
• KPI 4.1.2: Undergraduate students in IST bachelor of science majors learn about multiple disciplines working together to create IST-related knowledge or applications in four or more advanced courses.
• KPI 4.1.3: Half of Informatics Ph.D. student research experiences include applications of their work in other disciplines’ domains.

4B) Strategy: Emphasize and build on interdisciplinary success in IST through faculty hiring.

• KPI 4.2.1: Identify interdisciplinary research emphases and organize the college’s public-facing research webpages with those phrases (rather than listing research by department).
• KPI 4.2.2: Use the IST research webpages to continually highlight interdisciplinary combinations of professors working together on the emphases that span the whole college (versus by department), as well as with colleagues in other colleges and at other universities, as well as stakeholders outside academia. Update the public-facing interdisciplinary links at least once each fall.
• KPI 4.2.3: Build on current interdisciplinary strengths in IST by hiring exceptional faculty to increase these emphases for IST core areas that the college wants to grow (such as critical infrastructure, health, climate modeling, and children’s privacy). Employ at least three professors with these shared research emphases from different fields of origin (for example, Ph.D.s from biology, statistics, and computer science).
• KPI 4.2.4: Build on university-wide and nationally significant interdisciplinary areas by leveraging institute hires (such as with the Social Science Research Institute, the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, and the Institute of Energy and the Environment) to add six new faculty to IST departments.

5A) Strategy: Implement the student engagement app (IST Engage), accessibility technologies, and user survey processes.

• KPI 5.1.1: Develop engagement app modules on college-specific advising resources, belongingness activities, career solutions, and student engagement opportunities.
• KPI 5.1.2: Achieve adoption targets among IST students with a goal of 90% of IST students using the engagement app by 2030.
• KPI 5.1.3: Integrate the engagement app into all IST first-year seminars.
• KPI 5.1.4: Assess satisfaction with and the learning from the app biennially through the climate survey, with the goal of increasing satisfaction each year by 5%.
• KPI 5.1.5: Achieve full compliance with ADA Title II web accessibility standards across all IST digital platforms, instructional materials, and student-facing technologies, and maintain annual accessibility improvements of at least 10% through systematic audits, faculty/staff training, and inclusive course design practices by 2026.

5B) Strategy: Increase student satisfaction with wellness, safety, and inclusion through assessment and new programming.

• KPI 5.2.1: Assess undergraduate and graduate students’ sense of belonging and safety through climate surveys that show overall 10% increases in two-year increments.
• KPI 5.2.2: Sponsor a minimum of four belongingness and wellness events annually, spanning undergraduate and graduate student populations.
• KPI 5.2.3: Assess satisfaction with and the learning from these events biennially through the climate surveys, with the goal of increasing satisfaction each year by 5%.
• KPI 5.2.4: Implement a faculty development initiative that equips at least 75% of IST faculty with human-centered pedagogical skills, including inclusive teaching, and student wellness support to impact student-reported perceptions of faculty support, and inclusion in biennial climate surveys by 2027.

5C) Strategy: Establish and monitor measures of student success to be better than University averages.

• KPI 5.3.1: Develop and implement the IST mission and vision of student success by June 2026.
• KPI 5.3.2: Annually monitor University Park campus first-year retention to maintain an attrition rate below the University average of 12%.
• KPI 5.3.3: Annually decrease time to graduation from six years to four years by 3%.
• KPI 5.3.4: Annually close the graduation equity gap for first-generation and underrepresented student populations by 3%.
• KPI 5.3.5: Annually collect placement data using the student engagement app and the career services data management system with the goal of maintaining at least 80% placement in jobs (or post-graduate studies) for graduates of IST undergraduate bachelor’s degree programs.

6A) Strategy: Create structured opportunities for staff and faculty to build confidence and fluency in artificial intelligence and related technologies, and to share their expertise in shaping how the college adopts and applies these tools.

• KPI 6.1.1: By September 2026, 100% of staff participate in at least one AI learning opportunity, whether within the college or through external courses, workshops, or other relevant programs.
• KPI 6.1.2: Develop a recurring “AI for IST” professional development series by the end of 2026, led by IST faculty and staff experts, and evaluate participation and satisfaction annually.

6B) Strategy: Align staff hiring and structure with the college’s expected enrollment and faculty growth, and IST’s new departmental structure, to ensure sustainable support for teaching, research, and operations, and ensure staff expertise informs the design of new processes, systems, and reimagined college operations.

• KPI 6.2.1: Conduct an annual staffing needs assessment beginning in 2026 to ensure staffing levels are commensurate with college growth and projected faculty hiring.
• KPI 6.2.2: Increase total staff numbers by at least 20% by 2030 to match projected student and faculty growth.

6C) Strategy: Foster a positive, inclusive, and empowering environment through intentional investment in development, recognition, and wellness.

• KPI 6.3.1: Expand staff professional development funding and participation so that, by 2028, at least 80% of staff engage in at least one professional growth activity annually.
• KPI 6.3.2: Develop and pilot at least two wellness or community-building programs annually, beginning in 2026, in collaboration with the Staff Advisory Council.

6D) Strategy: Build faculty knowledge of HR processes to improve confidence about their career trajectories.

• KPI 6.3.3: Improve the existing faculty mentor pairing process in the college so that 90% of early career professors for both tenure-line (TL) and non-tenure line (NTL) professors at assistant rank (and lecturer) interact monthly with their mentor(s) in the college during the fall and spring semesters as reported in annual Faculty Activity Reports.
• KPI 6.3.4: Foster gatherings for within-rank peer mentoring that encourage faculty to share knowledge and best practices among colleagues, with meetings for each rank (four groupings: assistant TL, assistant and lecturer NTL, associate TL, associate NTL) at least once a year.
• KPI 6.3.5: Distribute annual communications about reappointment processes for non-tenure-line professors, including information about steps directed by HR and related college policy.