University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, Provost John Zumbrunnen and Interim Chancellor-designate Eric Wilcots announced a new strategic framework, the Badger Way, in a campus-wide email Tuesday. The framework aims to help UW-Madison’s administration identify shared goals, address challenges and define the university’s mission.
UW leadership described the Badger Way as a guide for the university’s work moving forward, rather than a specific plan, and features four priorities: to “deliver unrivaled educational experiences to prepare students for their future,” “discover, create, and innovate to change lives,” “convene and collaborate for the public good” and “cultivate a culture of excellence to ensure a resilient future.”
According to the email, the framework will be implemented through strategic plans within schools, colleges and divisions, along with campuswide initiatives and collaborative work with UW-Madison students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners.
The Badger Way is grounded in the Wisconsin Idea, a philosophy that education should influence people’s lives throughout the state beyond the classroom, according to the announcement. The framework describes the Wisconsin Idea as the “why” — benefitting the public globally beyond the university — and the Badger Way as the “how,” outlining ways to approach teaching, learning, collaboration and conflict.
Work on the Badger Way began early last year. In a January 2025 letter to campus, Mnookin said the current strategic framework, which has been in place since 2009 and updated roughly every five years, would run through 2025, at which point the university would issue a new framework.
Following the letter, the university created a Visioning Committee — described in the email as a space to foster a collaborative design process, featuring 30 students, staff, faculty and alumni — last spring.
In April 2025, the committee held 40 campus conversations open to the campus community to gain input on their draft. The four key themes were student experience, the Wisconsin Idea, research and innovation and administrative excellence. Campus leaders reviewed the framework draft last fall, and the Visioning Committee reconvened this spring to consider feedback and incorporate suggestions, according to the framework website.
“The strategic framework would not have been possible without the substantial and deeply thoughtful engagement of the Visioning Committee, a group of faculty, staff, students, alumni and campus partners who helped shape a vision defined by the collective aspirations and needs of UW-Madison now and into the future,” Mnookin, Zumbrunnen and Wilcots said in the email.
The leaders also said the framework includes a set of “community commitments” created to help “operationalize one key aspect of the Badger Way: how we show up for one another as members of the UW-Madison community.”
When enacting the framework, each school, college, division and major administrative unit is responsible for interpreting the framework and developing metrics to achieve it, and campus leaders are encouraged to establish their own initiatives. Additionally, a set of university-wide goal setting and tracking will be initiated and reported on regularly.
