We’re now a year into Boundless Possibility, and it’s totally reasonable for you to wonder if the strategic plan is actually strategic planning. Although the plan only has five goals, they’re big goals—so big that we’ve set a total of 22 objectives to help us reach them, and we’re pursuing them through a lot of different tactics. In our first fiscal year alone, we sought to accomplish 93 tactics. (With a whole new slate of tactics in place for FY25!)

Again, we wouldn’t be surprised if you have questions about what’s happening with the plan. We’re addressing this in a few different ways.

We’ve created an overview of the progress we made in the plan’s first year, and we’ve made it easy to keep tabs on the status of a given tactic. But we understand that you can take all this in and still wonder, “What does it mean?” That’s why we also created a blog: Better Things

You might have some thoughts and questions, such as…

Why “Better Things”?

Asahel Kendrick, a professor of Greek at the University in the 19th century, gets credit for Rochester’s motto, Meliora, and the chosen translation “ever better.” We say “chosen” because it can also mean “always better” or “for the pursuit of the better.” Asahel was likely inspired by lines from Ovid’s Metamorphoses that read “video meliora proboque,” which means, “I see better things, and approve…”

As we continue to carry out the strategic plan, we will continue to see better things, and we want to make sure that you see them too—such as here, the Better Things blog.

So, this is where I come for the latest plan progress?

The latest? No. The blog will highlight progress, but it won’t provide up-to-the-minute reporting. The “Our Progress” page will be your best source for an at-a-glance view of what we’ve accomplished and where we’re still working.

Then what am I getting from the blog?

We hope this provides a heightened understanding of how everything fits together. As the plan continues to gain momentum, you’ll see it namechecked more and more in various University stories. The why may not always be clear. The blog aims to connect the dots, distill and unpack more complicated aspects, and provide the context that answers “So what?”

Give me an example.

A meta example is this conversation. You can expect this kind of lighter, straightforward exploration of plan-related topics and developments. A more concrete example is the transdisciplinary research initiative. We plan to take a closer look at the initiative through a series of posts that explores its roots and highlights the ten projects that recently received seed funding to develop.

A lot has happened in the last 12 months. Some of it has been covered, some of it hasn’t. If we’re covering something that seems like “old news,” it’s because we feel there is more story to be told. There’s also a good chance the story is news to someone. But that doesn’t mean we’ll only be looking backward. We’ll also provide highlights from discussion forums and other Boundless Possibility events.

Why isn’t this a newsletter?

Honestly, we thought we were being kind to your inbox by making this a blog. If you’re worried that you have to keep checking for new posts, make sure you read @Rochester—we know some people who have agreed to let us promote new blog content there.