On April 26, 2026, I began my fifth year as president of Cleveland State University. When I reflect on the past four years and my presidency overall, I am proud of what we have accomplished together since 2022. 

While the majority of this report is focused on the 2025-26 academic year, the work we did this past year is, by design and intent, built on the framework we've been building since 2022. To that end, I'd first like to offer a brief summary of key strategies deployed leading up to now.

In the fall of 2022, we finalized a comprehensive college realignment, first identified as an academic priority in CSU’s prior strategic plan, CSU 2.0. We restructured nine colleges and a standalone school into eight colleges, concurrently reducing the total number of dean positions from 10 to eight. This academic structure has served us well over the past four years. It has enabled us to streamline our academic offerings and amplified areas for greater collaboration across colleges and amongst our faculty. 

At the start of that spring semester, guided by marketing analyses indicating that too many people in Northeast Ohio simply didn't know who or what we were (e.g., a community college, a commuter school only?), we launched a brand identity campaign with the simple tagline: “We are Cleveland State University.” In addition, we unveiled an official logo for CSU, creating brand awareness and affirming our place physically and culturally within the city. The campaign has reached millions of prospective students, family members and communities through billboards, digital ads, direct marketing and television and radio commercials.

The following academic year, just as students were preparing to begin their fall classes, we announced the formation of the Division of Student Belonging and Success. Planning and strategizing for this new division began the prior year, assessing the structure of student life programming throughout the University. This newly configured division was designed based on the substantial body of research showing that students excel most when they have personal connection and feel a strong sense of belonging to their institution. 

As a result, many programs in the former Division of Campus Engagement, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (as well as academic advising and residential life, detailed below) were reorganized into one division under the leadership of our newly appointed Vice President, Dr. Tachelle Banks. For implementation guidance, we entered into a partnership with the National Institute of Student Success (NISS) and modeled our work after Georgia State University, which has seen tremendous student success with a similar approach. Together, the units now within Student Belonging and Success approach their work with a shared mission: to ensure that all students — on campus or online, commuter or residential — feel engaged at CSU from their first semester through Commencement. 

During the 23-24 academic year, we also underwent an introspective review of our financial circumstances in anticipation of enrollment and affiliated fiscal challenges in the years ahead. The Organizational Resilience and Financial Stability (OR/FS) process included a clear-eyed analysis of college enrollment trends in our region and nationwide to identify how CSU should adapt. A committee of senior leaders, faculty and staff members collected data, conducted a thorough assessment informed by campus and community input, and ultimately developed an implementation plan that included a painful but necessary reduction in force.

In 2024-25, as we celebrated the 60th anniversary of CSU’s founding and its legacy as Cleveland’s public research university, we sunsetted the CSU 2.0 strategic plan and launched a comprehensive strategic planning process to assess the landscape of higher education as well as CSU’s successes, challenges and identity. We were guided by our Board of Trustees who spent extensive planning time together grappling with the questions: Who/what is CSU at this point in our history, and what must CSU prioritize in the years ahead? 

Our purpose became clear: Even as we welcome and serve students from across the world, we are in and of the city of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. By leveraging our urban location, we amplify our capacity to offer infinite opportunity to our students. 

This gave rise to months of campuswide strategy discussions, and by January, we announced Cleveland State United, our 2025-2030 strategic plan. Since then, all major new initiatives have been grounded in the three core priorities of this new plan.

We designed and launched new innovative academic programs, developed by members of our faculty in coordination with the Provost’s Office. Our integrated undergraduate degrees are designed for students seeking to gain skills and knowledge at the intersection of two academic fields. These initial 11 degree offerings include specially designed curricula to blend two subjects into one wholistic program. 

Soon after these programs were announced, both current and prospective students expressed interest in integrated degrees that were not (and are still not) offered anywhere else in the state. Our slate of 11 integrated degrees at launch has since grown to 15 successful degree programs today. 

In the fall of 2024, we also began the early implementation phase of our Unified Academic Coaching model. This new model fundamentally changes CSU’s approach to academic advising. Every one of our advisors underwent extensive training to become Academic Coaches, who monitor student academic success and persistence toward a degree on a weekly basis and are empowered to address or identify support for any factors that could impede a student’s success, including financial aid, housing or mental health challenges. Unified Academic Coaching has since launched in all colleges across the University, and early student persistence and retention data indicate that students are benefitting from this relational and holistic approach.  

The fall semester of the 2025-26 year began with the launch of the new Inquiry Core Curriculum, the culmination of intense work by our faculty to develop a core curriculum with fewer but more carefully designed required courses and expanded freedom for students in selecting additional complementary core classes. The Inquiry Core emphasizes curiosity, encouraging students to explore the topics and enduring questions that spark their academic interests. As part of the new core curriculum, students are encouraged to complete one of five Inquiry Pathways to explore topics that impact our world. 

In the fall, we also shifted our “We are Cleveland State” brand campaign to its next phase, where we integrate our mission(“Cleveland’s University. Infinite Opportunity.”) into a new tagline: “At Cleveland State, You Can.” This approach centers on student stories of academic excellence, real-world experiences and success in their chosen fields. These messages will appear on billboards, print ads and digital communications to promote these unique opportunities to prospective students and their families. 

From its inception, a core priority of Cleveland State United is a comprehensive technology transformation to update our substantially outdated campus systems and better connect offices at CSU. To that end, we kicked off CSU Compass, our strategy to inform, train and gather feedback from the CSU community as we implement this new system. CSU Compass will be a multi-year, phased transformation impacting systems in financial and human resources, student support services and academic affairs.

With the Division of Student Belonging and Success now in its third year, we are exploring how that division’s approach to student services and support could extend to other aspects of the student experience. We began to envision a new model for student housing where our residence halls created yet another opportunity for our students to deepen their sense of belonging and engagement. This year, we are creating a Department of Residence Life and Housing within Student Belonging and Success. 

Moving forward, all our residential spaces — Euclid Commons, The Edge, The Langston and the newly renovated Fenn Tower — will operate with an approach to building community that is aligned with other support services within Student Belonging and Success. The model will adapt to the developmental needs and increasing independence of students, from their first year in college to students who live on campus through graduate school. 

Another strategic priority of Cleveland State United focuses on enhancing relationships with community partners to both serve the community and expand experiential learning for students. Following a year of planning and study, this spring we presented our model for the CSU Talent Hub to make this strategic priority a reality. We have received start-up funding from an external funder and launched a national search for our inaugural executive director (staff) and director (faculty) as we prepare for the public launch of the Talent Hub in the fall of 2026.

As we near the close of the 2025-26 academic year, we set our sights on the next phase of Cleveland State United priorities… 

The historic Fenn Tower has been under significant renovation for the past year. Due to the building’s age, we needed to close the building, which houses over 400 students a year, to complete structural repairs. At the same time, we have been updating its living and gathering spaces to reopen the space prior to fall semester of 2026 as a beautiful and unique residence hall for incoming first-year students. Students will enjoy views of the city and Lake Erie from newly renovated living spaces that celebrate the culture and history of Cleveland. 

Along similar lines of making new from old, we are creating new spaces that enhance and celebrate our academic success. Across from Fenn Tower, we have embarked on the extensive lab renovation phase of developing our Biomedical Discovery Complex. When completed, this renovated and expanded space will include classrooms, seminar rooms and state-of-the-art research labs to showcase the biomedical research and discoveries of our students and faculty members in the sciences.

On the other end of campus, our Theatre and Arts Building will become home to our new art gallery. We will redevelop a portion of an existing parking garage into a downtown destination for everyone interested in the arts. The Galleries at East 13th Street, curated by CSU, will be located around the corner from the "front doors" of Playhouse Square with space for art exhibitions, as well as a small stage for live performances. 

This fall, we will highlight CSU as a catalyst for innovative ideas, creative problem solving and community convening when we re-launch TEDxClevelandStateUniversity. We expect to draw hundreds to campus as an array of speakers from inside and outside the University explore the theme of “Untangling Wonder.” In addition, all TEDx talks will be made available online for viewers across the globe to discover, enjoy and be inspired by. 

This brief summary of key milestones — including those that are further detailed in this report — reflect the spirit of innovation, data-informed decision making and teamwork we are cultivating at CSU. I am daily grateful for my colleagues who look clear eyed at the challenges facing higher education and then channel their time and energy to advancing strategic efforts that build resilience in the institution, serve our students and achieve our mission.

Laura Bloomberg, PhD
President