We are living in turbulent and unpredictable times. Futurists point out the massive and unprecedented technological and societal transformations on the horizon that will change our lives. Like all organizations, universities must anticipate and ride these tides of change. Rapid advances in technologies and tools for education, new forms of educational accreditation, and unprecedented shifts in the nature of work will transform what we do and how we do it.
This is why I believe we need to start thinking about the future of Long Beach State University beginning today.
A challenge is that universities are notoriously slow to change. In many ways, that is as it should be. Universities are the holders of history, culture, and knowledge. We’re supposed to be able to tell the difference between fads and credible trends. We’re charged with conveying thousands of years of wisdom from across the globe and universe to our students and the public. Universities have to look back, evaluate, and disseminate a complete record.
At the same time, superior universities are hotbeds of innovation, creativity, discovery, and evidence-based revisions of prevailing orthodoxies. The great ones imagine what has not yet been substantiated. It is the job of a university to continually evaluate how we teach, research, and offer public service to changing disciplinary landscapes, student populations and regional needs.
So, while universities change slowly for some very good reasons, Long Beach State University is ready to adapt and reinvent for other equally important reasons. Our campus is preparing for the world of tomorrow with a commitment to taking charge of our fate. To succeed, we first have to imagine the future we want that best serves our students and our region and then intentionally move toward it.
Imagining Long Beach State as a university that continues to excel over the next 10 years is part of our strategic planning effort — an initiative we are calling BEACH 2030.
BEACH 2030 is a two-year, long-term visioning process for the campus and our community that seeks to embody our key goals of intellectual achievement, inclusive excellence, innovation and serving the public good. The initiative will include students, staff, faculty, alumni and community partners. It is designed to be participatory, inclusive, engaging and transparent.
To embark on this journey of becoming a more future-forward university, we’ve partnered with Institute for the Future, a 50-year-old strategic advisory and research organization that specializes in thinking about the future. They excel in cutting edge futures research and convene, educate, and support diverse voices in strategic conversations.
Part of BEACH 2030 is a completely open and public campaign inviting the most imaginative ideas from inside and outside the university community. The campaign, called Imagine BEACH 2030, will use a collaborative forecasting platform Foresight Engine™to spark and harness creativity, encourage collaboration and facilitate community empathy for each other’s hopes, concerns, and questions about the future.
Everyone is invited to participate in Imagine BEACH 2030. Everything you share will be available to others to elaborate on and build ideas together. Indeed, the best ideas from this online conversation may just shape the future of our campus and our community for decades to come.
RSVP for Imagine BEACH 2030 is open! Visit imaginebeach2030.org. You can find out more about the two-year BEACH 2030 process at www.csulb.edu/beach2030
Go Beach! Go BEACH 2030!
Jane Close Conoley, Ph.D., president, Long Beach State University
