ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½

ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½
Apply

Office of the President

Growing for Toledo

September 24, 2026

Dear Rocket Family,

Last October, at my inauguration, I shared three launchpads for our future: Advantage Toledo, Innovate Toledo and Healthy Toledo. In the months since, I have spent a great deal of time listening to our students, faculty and staff, and healthcare providers as well as our trustees, alumni, community partners and elected leaders, about where The University of Toledo is headed and what our region needs from us.

Today, I am proud to share the result of that work. Growing for Toledo, our strategic plan through 2031.

The name is intentional.

We are not simply a university in Toledo. We are the University for Toledo.

That idea reaches back to our founding in 1872 and our commitment to the success of this city and its people. Growing for Toledo carries that promise forward with a clear focus on purposeful growth and the impact that growth can have on our students, our patients and our region.

At the heart of the plan is the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Advantage. We want every graduate to leave here with knowledge, real-world experience, confidence and a clear path forward. Through ASCEND, co-ops, clinical experiences, internships, research and other opportunities, experiential learning will become a defining part of every bachelor's degree we award.

Growing for Toledo is built on five pillars:

  • Realize the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Advantage: Grow enrollment and strengthen student success.
  • Drive Research and Innovation: Expand our research enterprise and put discovery to work for our region.
  • Build for a Healthy Toledo: Expand ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Health to new communities and grow the number of people who count on us for their care.
  • Engage Our Partners: Deepen our connections with schools, employers, alumni, donors and our community.
  • Optimize Our Institutional Systems: Invest in our people, our facilities and the systems that make growth possible.

We begin this work at a challenging time for higher education and healthcare, and we have challenges of our own to address. This plan does not shy away from them. It gives us a path forward.

Growth is not the goal for its own sake. It is how we create opportunities for more students, generate more knowledge, care for more patients and deliver greater value to Northwest Ohio.

And this work belongs to all of us.

I invite you to join me for the annual State of the University address on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 3 p.m. in Doermann Theatre. I will reflect on the progress we have made over the past year, talk more about Growing for Toledo and share the measures we will use to hold ourselves accountable for our progress.

In the coming months, we will share more about how the work in your area connects to the plan. We also will report our progress to the Board of Trustees and to our community regularly.

Thank you for everything you do for our students, our patients, our University and our region. I am excited about where we are headed and what we will build together. 

Go Rockets!

ÌýÌýSignature of James Holloway

James Paul Holloway, Ph.D.
President
The University of Toledo