University of Hawaiʻi President Wendy Hensel presented a coordinated effort to better align strategy and budgeting across the 10-campus system to the 糖心Vlog官方 Board of Regents on April 16.
Hensel framed alignment as a core governance issue, emphasizing that strategic priorities must be consistently reflected in how resources are allocated in the budget, how campuses are evaluated and how leaders are reviewed.
A structured approach
Hensel highlighted challenges that are common in multi-campus systems, where individual campuses tend to operate separately. When alignment is weak, she said, strategic plans often sit on the shelf.
The result can be a system that underperforms despite strong individual efforts. Leadership, she noted, must regularly navigate tensions between aligning the 10 campuses while still allowing for individual campus missions to be pursued.
“We want an aligned system where we’re all moving in the same direction, but there are differentiated missions on each campus and specific priorities on each campus,” Hensel said. “We, as a group of 10 [campuses], have agreed on the major objectives that have let us have significant impact over time.”
To address those issues, the university is implementing a coordinated process centered on key areas:
- Strategic action plans: annual plans tied directly to system and campus priorities, with defined outcomes, teams and resources.
- Budget transparency: a clearer, multi-year budgeting process aligned with strategic goals rather than historical funding patterns.
- Incentives: performance-based funding and stipends to encourage innovation, collaboration and student success.
- Accountability: a standardized set of performance metrics and regular campus reviews to track progress and inform leadership evaluations.
The system also plans to expand leadership evaluations for officers, chancellors and administrators, including potential 360-degree reviews, and increase transparency through regular performance reporting.
Continuous improvement
Hensel concluded by emphasizing that alignment is not a one-time effort but an ongoing cycle of planning, measurement and adjustment.
“In order to move from a very decentralized approach to strategy across the 10 [campuses]; by setting alignment as a goal up front, it really enables the entire strategic plan to be executed,” she said.
The goal, she noted, is a more cohesive system that better serves students and the state.