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Transforming the University of Minnesota
President’s Recommendations to the Board of Regents,
Strategic Positioning and Planning

University of Minnesota
Robert H. Bruininks, President
June 10, 2005

Introduction

There’s a story—probably apocryphal—about the famous English architect, Sir Christopher Wren, whose famous work included St. Paul’s cathedral in London. The story goes that Sir Christopher walked onto the worksite one day, unrecognized, and started talking to the people working there.

"What are you doing?" he asked one of the men, and the man replied, "Cutting a piece of stone."

He put the same question to another man, and the man replied, "Earning five shillings."

A third man had the answer Wren was looking for. When asked what he was doing, he said, “I’m helping to build one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

Clearly, this third man had committed to a vision, one that was larger than himself yet was dependent on his energy, his best efforts and his dedication. Members of the board, what you are considering today is an essential part of a longer-range vision to transform the University of Minnesota.

It’s one that commits the U to more than tinkering around the edges. It’s aspirational, it’s motivational, and it’s a direction for the talented people who work, teach, learn and discover here. We need our people to walk through the doors each morning thinking that they can change the world. Because they can.

U of M Values—Legacy and Transformation

As I mentioned last month, the endorsement of these changes will be a renewal of the values of this administration and this board:

• Values such as Excellence. We are heir to 154 years of innovation at the University, where people of modest means but extraordinary imagination set world-class standards, and achieved world-class results.
• Values such as Access and Diversity to ensure that talented people from every income level, every neighborhood, and every kind of background can find a place at the University...and succeed here.
• Values such as Academic community--that includes responsibilities to renew our sense of community and respect…across disciplines, across employee groups, and across students and teachers. These recommendations set us on that road.
• Values such as a commitment to better outcomes, including better student progress and learning; continued commitment to the enrollment of tens of thousands diverse and talented students who will seek their future here each year; strengthened academic leadership to advance and apply discoveries in areas of strength and comparative advantage on all of our campuses; strengthened faculty and staff culture, one premised on continuous improvement and adequate support; and reduced operating costs, so that we can deploy precious resources in support of our academic mission.
• Values such as Service and Stewardship. This board is likely tiring of my mantra about wanting the U to be known as much for how we manage ourselves as we are for research breakthroughs or high quality education programs. But it’s important, and it dovetails with the vision that the board has identified as priorities, including a viable and ambitious long-term financial strategy.

The vision this Board endorsed, to transform the University’s Twin Cities campus into one of the world’s top public research university systems within a decade, was a bold articulation of our aspirations.

The report you will vote on today is a first essential step toward making that aspiration a reality. And this vision includes equally ambitious aspirations for all parts of the university and its statewide mission—its coordinate campuses, research stations and the 18 offices of our extension service.

These recommended actions are strongly representative of our values, aspirations and the strategies for moving forward that the Board endorsed in March…Let me go through them quickly.

There are three sections to these recommendations. The Board of Regents is being asked to approve the first set of three recommendations as a package.

Academic Recommendations for Regents Action

The College of Human Ecology (CHE) includes some of the very best departments we have. Under the plan we will integrate CHE’s Department of Design, Housing and Apparel with the academic departments of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture to create a new College of Design. This will strengthen our leadership in academic research and education in the area of design. It will open up exciting career and curricular opportunities.

The Department of Food Science and Nutrition is already a joint department between CHE and the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Science (COAFES). The department will be integrated into a new, expanded college that will encompass food production and systems, environmental science, and renewable resources. The department’s link to the School of Public Health and the Medical School will also be strengthened. The move will help the University promote human and animal health and address chronic diseases, which are on the rise and many of which are directly related to diet and food. It will also help us grow our Presidential Initiative on Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives.

The remaining departments, Family Social Science and the School of Social Work, are proposed to be integrated with the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) to create new, expanded college devoted to education, training and human development across the lifespan. This concentrates the University’s human development leadership and strengths, which are now dispersed across three colleges.

By July 1, 2006, the College of Human Ecology will cease to exist as an individual collegiate structure.

The second recommendation for action is to integrate our outstanding College of Natural Resources (CNR) with the academic units of the current College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences to create a new, expanded college devoted to strengths in food production and systems, environment and renewable resources. This will build on Presidential Initiatives on Environment/Renewable Energy; and Healthy Food, Healthy Lives. When you think about how this college will encompass some 20 percent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product-from agriculture to tourism to timber--this makes a lot of sense. It will us to manage more coherently and successfully the University’s extensive network of statewide research centers.

By July 1, 2006, the CNR will cease to exist as an individual collegiate structure.

The third recommendation for action involves the General College, making General College an academic unit of what is currently the CEHD, but which will be undergoing significant changes as part of this process. This plan does not eliminate curriculum, programs or physical location of General College. These changes enhance support services to students across the Twin Cities campus.

The proposal will align General College faculty with other faculty who are very interested in related educational issues, research and outreach, allowing increased peer interaction, and enhanced collaborations.

In my judgement, this recommendation seeks to accomplish serious academic reform and improved results for students across the University. One thing I did change from the original recommendations I received from the Strategic positioning task force was the timeline for implementation. I want to be sure that this implementation is done effectively.

Under this plan, students will enter degree-granting colleges, the academic mainstream of the U, with academic support as needed from General College and other resources of the University. I believe this will help address the challenge of student, where today far too few General College students end up transferring to degree granting programs.

This recommendation has much to do with addressing the growing achievement gap we see in Minnesota public schools today. This academic unit would also plan an expanded leadership role with other academic units to improve preparation for postsecondary education of high school students from low income and culturally diverse backgrounds.

Under these recommendations, General College will cease to be an independent collegiate structure after July 1, 2006.

Allow me to address some of the facts related to this recommendation. First, the University is maintaining, not reducing enrollment. I expect that some 5,000 students out of our applicant pool of more than 20,000 will begin here in the fall as undergraduates. Second, the University is increasing rather than diminishing its commitment to diversity.

Should you approve this plan, we at the University plan to undertake the following reforms:

We will strengthen recruitment, and build bridges to communities of color and low income families.

We will continue to make progress in maintaining access for families of low and moderate means through scholarship strategies, such Founders Opportunity Scholarship, which essentially offer free tuition to students eligible for federal Pell Grants.

We will also continue to raise private scholarship dollars through our scholarship campaign, dubbed the Promise of Tomorrow. We will seek increased transfers from MnSCU institutions and better assistance for all transfers through a new transfer support center. (Students who begin their work at a two-year community college have virtually the same completion rates as those who start as freshmen here.)

We will strengthen leadership by creating a Vice President VP for Multicultural Affairs position, upgrading an existing Associate Vice President leadership position. This person would oversee admissions pathways, student support, and provide extensive community leadership.

Our PreK-12 strategy is multifaceted and it anticipates the changing demographics of our school age population, setting the stage for postsecondary participation. It will be based, in large part, on our newly proposed Consortium for Postsecondary Academic Success, which will pull together several hundred new and pre-existing University programs that work in the schools in order to provide support to young people. We want better coordination in this work, and we want to deepen our collaborations, focusing on children who are at an educational and economic disadvantage. In partnership, this initiative seeks to strengthen preparation of our youth for postsecondary success.

I’d like to add that universities have existed since the Middle Ages, and are slow to change. I want to recognize the strong leadership shown by the deans and administration of these colleges.

Academic Recommendations for Information

As you heard last month, these academic recommendations touch every aspect of academic life, but do not require BOR action. They include:

• Comprehensive reforms in undergraduate admissions, educational enrichment, academic support and career services, and financial support. I believe these will result in improved student learning, progress, graduation rates and student satisfaction.
• Faculty culture, including the need for continued attention to lagging compensation levels
• Future design of the University. We will be addressing thedesign or architecture of the university in many areas, including in the biological and natural sciences, the Institute of Technology, Medical School, and the College of Liberal Arts at UMTC.
• We will take steps to forge an international University.
• Academic Health Center (AHC), which will involve strategic positioning, responsibilities, relationships, and investments.
• Coordinate campuses: We will address quality and productivity in an increasingly challenging environment, including those with declining populations.

Administrative Recommendations for BOR Information

Management Strategies: Of course, reform must also take place on the administrative side of the University, and the Task Force that worked on these issues laid a great foundation that will help us move forward. Lower administrative costs and better service are key to reaching our aspirations, and we remain committed to stewardship and accountability in areas such as these:

• Better Purchasing Standards and Decisions
• Improved Internal Budget Model
• Strengthened Information Technology Standards and Investment
• Better Utility cost control
• Expanded Health initiatives and incentives

Steadfast in Values

These recommendations are necessary to achieve our aspiration of becoming one of the top public research universities in the world, and the parallel aspirations of our coordinate campuses. They reflect the values of this administration and this board and this institution through the 154 years of distinguished history.

Great organizations do not retreat from their values, but they express the courage and actions to embrace change and achieve better results. In many ways, we are already a leading research and educational university system, but unless we create a working framework for planning and continuous improvement, our ability to address the future and to take best advantage of future opportunities will be limited.

The title of these recommendations says it all—We are seeking a transformation of the University of Minnesota, a transformation that will allow us to better serve the state of Minnesota in a highly competitive, global environment for higher education. This is but a first step in a much longer journey.

I strongly urge your support for these recommended actions and support for the next steps in our efforts to transform and improve the University of Minnesota.

On June 10, 2005, the board of regents approved President Bruininks’s strategic planning recommendations. for more information see the Strategic Positioning Process Web site.

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