Strategic Plan: Top 5 in 5

Five years. Five priorities. One vision.

In January 2025, we launched a strategic planning process to answer one question: What will Smeal look like in 2030 — and how will we build it together?

Business education faces unprecedented challenges: demographic shifts, AI transformation, evolving credentialing models, and eroding trust in higher education. To compete, Smeal must deliver unmistakable value, relevance, and impact. These pressures united our community around an ambitious vision.

More than 2,500 stakeholders — faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners — participated in this comprehensive, data-informed effort. The result is a focused strategy anchored in a bold vision: to become a top-five U.S. public business school within five years. This plan sets clear priorities and measurable initiatives to empower student success, reimagine teaching and learning, advance research excellence, invest in talent and technology, and expand our impact.

Now the exciting part begins. I invite every member of our community to lean in with ideas, energy, and support as we turn this plan into measurable impact for Smeal, Penn State, and the world.

Corey C. Phelps
John and Karen Arnold Dean
Smeal College of Business