Academic Roadmap
The purpose of the Cal Poly Humboldt Academic Roadmap is to provide recommendations for advancing academic excellence and access. The Humboldt Academic Roadmap promotes distinctive, innovative academic programs and ways of instruction centered on student need, including our support and development of programs that assist Humboldt in achieving the polytechnic designation. Equity, diversity, and social and environmental justice are key principles that will underpin every aspect of academic programs at Humboldt. This Roadmap is a guide for advancing Humboldt’s academic vision.
Statement of Academic Vision
Cal Poly Humboldt is a future-oriented university that focuses on academic excellence and access by providing rich hand-on learning, and developing sustainability-focused, socially and environmentally just, and workforce-ready graduates.
Goals Corresponding to the Academic Roadmap Theme
1 Leveraging Unique Strengths Rooted In Place
Advance academic excellence that leverages the unique strengths of Humboldt including sense of place, people, and planet. This includes: relationships with indigenous communities to address the legacy of colonialism and to co-develop knowledge; integration of the study of the dependence of economies and societies on the resilience and sustainability of ecological systems; place-based teaching and learning that features the social, cultural, and natural environments of the North Coast; experiential and real-world problem-based learning; engagement with larger communities through the arts; and full integration of the concepts of justice and equity.
2 Advance Academic Access And Inclusive Student Success
Imagine and create a comprehensive polytechnic university where diverse students thrive through hands-on and interdisciplinary- and equity-informed teaching and learning to which students contribute the knowledge and skill born of their lived experience and rooted in their cultures.
This includes: deploying online and other alternative approaches to teaching and learning for greater access and scheduling flexibility for working students; strategic summer offerings and the use of intersession; strengthened partnerships with community colleges toward smooth pathways for transfer students; flexibility in credentialing; decolonizing knowledge systems and integrating traditional ecological knowledge; continuing our movement toward a Hispanic-Thriving Institution; common creative and intellectual experiences and projects involving undergraduate and graduate students; student leadership development opportunities; applied learning directly connected to pre-professional or career preparation; recognition of and response to the impact of dominant systems of power and privilege on our students pre-college and college experiences.
3 Retain Faculty And Staff
Support the success, advancement, and retention of all faculty and staff.
This includes: providing faculty and staff opportunities to serve as members of meaningful work teams and co-creators of programs and activities that promote diverse perspectives; fully supporting free inquiry honoring diversity across all dimensions; incentivizing interdisciplinary collaboration; modeling and promoting human dignity in all interactions and organizational culture.
4 Align Academics With Greater Needs
Increase academic alignment with the workforce and other needs of the community, industry, California, and the world.
This includes: preparing students to take on the commitments of communication, critical inquiry, social responsibility, equity, and ethical civic engagement necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century; emphasizing diverse and inclusive team approaches to learning and leadership development in students; real-world application of theory; and experiential learning.
5 Engage More Globally
Increase student and faculty critical understanding of and engagement with global communities and cultures.
This includes: education in languages, cultures, and histories; transnational analysis of the roots and impact of global inequities; and supporting international exchange, partnerships, service-learning, and study.