Everything we do grows from one commitment: every mind that dreams of becoming a planner, a designer, or an artist should find a place at Iowa State, and every community and every organization working to improve life for its people should find a partner in the College of Design.
That commitment is where the work begins, not where it ends. Seen from that perspective, prosperity is something a person or a community builds, and our part is to put the means to build it within reach: the tools, knowledge, and connections that let our students, and the communities we serve, shape their own futures.
That principle is already at work across the college, and it is now taking shape as a family of initiatives at every scale, some new and some well underway, each with its own plan, timeline, and goals:
- Prosperity, by Design – investing in our students and the faculty and staff who support them, and connecting their work with Iowa’s communities, organizations, and businesses to build lasting opportunity across the state
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship – strengthening the I+E Fellows program, one of our most successful, as a source of the new ideas and programs that keep the college at the forefront of design education
- Global Practice – expanding our Rome program, international studios, student travel, and bringing leading practitioners and critics into our studios
- Beyond AI – rethinking how we teach and how our graduates practice as artificial intelligence reshapes the design fields
Much of what these initiatives support is work many of you already do: with towns, nonprofits, and businesses, and in your classrooms and studios. What changes is that the college can now support that work deliberately, rather than only when resources happen to allow it. These initiatives are an invitation. We have always had the commitment; now we have the means.
Each new program will run as a pilot in its first year. Drawing on our experiences, the college will refine each program in the years that follow, keeping it true to the initiative’s purpose and the ambitions of the college’s strategic plan.