College of Agricultural Sciences Strategic Roadmap
2026-2035
Leading the National Model Modern Land-Grant’s Flagship College
The College of Agricultural Sciences (CAS) sits at the heart of Colorado State University’s identity as a national model modern land-grant. We’re not chasing the future — we’re creating it.
CAS advances foundational, curiosity-driven discovery as the engine that makes application, innovation, and impact possible. From fundamental discovery to applied solutions, we integrate research, teaching, Extension, and engagement to sustain food, water, land, and community for everyone. This Roadmap advances CSU’s Strategic Roadmap 2035 by positioning CAS as a driver of student success, research impact, and statewide engagement.
Our Strategic Priorities
Student Success, Social and Economic Mobility
Every CAS student will graduate career-ready, grounded in learning, and prepared for meaningful lives and leadership across agriculture, food, and natural resources.
Research and Academic Excellence
CAS advances hypothesis-driven, foundational, and applied research across biological, physical, social, and design sciences — from soil to satellites and barns to biotech — translating discovery into public good, policy insight, and innovation.
Institutional Competitiveness
We strengthen trust, transparency, and effectiveness by aligning recognition, workload, and resources with strategy and by investing in people, leadership, and shared governance.
Rural, Statewide, and Global Engagement
CAS integrates research, teaching, and Extension and engagement as co-equal pathways for discovery and impact, serving Colorado communities while addressing global challenges in semi-arid and working-lands systems.
Democracy and Civic Engagement
CAS prepares students to engage thoughtfully with food, land, and policy issues, convening evidence-based, nonpartisan dialogue and advancing interdisciplinary research at the intersection of democracy and agricultural systems.
Built on Momentum, Not Expansion
This Roadmap does not introduce a wave of new work. It aligns and accelerates work already underway across the College. Enrollment growth, research expansion, student career outcomes, interdisciplinary collaboration, and rural and global engagement are established trajectories in CAS. Alignment allows these parallel efforts to compound rather than compete.
Focus, Sequencing, and Stopping
CAS will sequence attention over time, focusing leadership energy and coordination on a small number of priorities each year while maintaining momentum across all five strategic areas. The priorities themselves remain constant; sequencing affects emphasis, not direction.
Alignment also requires stopping. As priorities are sequenced, CAS will sunset, consolidate, or redesign activities and processes that are no longer aligned, effective, or high-impact, creating space for work that matters most. Growth in one area will often require simplification or contraction in another.
Resources and Realignment
The primary resource for this Roadmap is time — the time of faculty, staff, students, and leadership. CAS already has this resource. Most financial resources are committed; progress will come through intentional realignment, coordination, and strategic tradeoffs, not by simply adding funding or expectations.
A Living Roadmap
This Roadmap will be reviewed annually by the CAS Leadership Team, informed by departments, centers, and shared governance. Units will identify a small number of aligned contributions, ensuring clarity and line of sight without new reporting burdens.
Our promise is simple
CAS is career-connected, Colorado-grown, and globally engaged. We’re building a model for how modern agriculture advances discovery, serves society, and inspires progress.