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President Robert H. Bruininks

Robert H. Bruininks was appointed the 15th president of the University of Minnesota on November 8, 2002. He has served the University for 39 years, formerly as a professor, dean, and executive vice president and provost.

Transforming the U

For the past three years, Bruininks has overseen a transformative strategic positioning effort at the University that has raised the bar considerably for the University’s academic profile, its service to students and the community, and its stewardship of resources.

Already, the results of this intensive effort are visible. In the past academic year alone, the University has undertaken initiatives including:

• the adoption of aggressive new four-year graduation goals for each
  campus
• the development of student learning and development outcomes that clearly outline what all University students should know and be able to do at graduation, regardless of academic program
• the implementation of tuition reforms enabling many students to save significantly on the total cost of education
• the revision of the faculty tenure and promotion code to better recognize and reward outstanding scholarship in all its forms

“The University has undertaken significant reform in the context of an increasingly competitive global market for resources, talent, and ideas,” Bruininks said. “Our vision is to improve lives through the advancement of knowledge, and our strategic goal is aspirational, audacious, and, I believe, achievable: to become one of the top three public research universities in the world, with a deep and abiding cultural commitment to excellence in everything we do, across all our campuses, research and outreach centers, and offices statewide."

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Student Experience and Affordability

Innovations in the University’s student experience, such as expanded undergraduate research and study abroad opportunities, a campus-wide Honors Program for the Twin Cities campus, and an increased emphasis on enhancing teaching and learning, have helped to fuel high student satisfaction rates, increased applications and enrollment, and significantly improved graduation rates. With more than 65,000 students enrolled system-wide—including more than 50,000 on the Twin Cities campus alone—the University of Minnesota is one of the nation’s largest.

Affordability for students here and at the University’s four coordinate campuses remains a primary concern for the Bruininks administration. Launched in 2005, the Founders Free Tuition Program now covers full cost of tuition and required fees for low-income, Pell-eligible Minnesota students statewide. Once fully implemented, the award is expected to benefit 4,500 undergraduates across the University.

In addition, Bruininks has made student scholarships the University's top fundraising priority. The Promise for Tomorrow scholarship drive reached its initial goal of $150 million in October 2006 and has now raised more than $200 million. Some 6,700 students received privately funded scholarships and fellowships last year; the University’s new goal is to help 10,000 students with privately raised financial assistance.

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Leadership and Experience

Bruininks’s career has centered on child and adolescent development and policy research, and strategic improvement in the fields of pre-kindergarten to grade 12 and higher education. Initially joining the University’s faculty as an assistant professor of educational psychology, he has authored or coauthored nearly 90 journal articles and more than 70 book chapters, as well as training materials and several standardized tests.

Both as a faculty member and as an administrator, Bruininks has worked to advance the public mission and responsibilities of the University. He has been a leading advocate for responsible stewardship and reform in higher education, including the strategic reorganization of University of Minnesota Extension and the colleges of Design; Education and Human Development; and Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Science to better serve the state, its citizens, and students. He has renewed the University's commitment to its responsibilities, fostering new opportunities for public engagement and economic development through initiatives including the Council On Public Engagement (COPE), the Outstanding Community Service Awards, the University Metropolitan Consortium, the College Readiness Consortium, and the Academic Corporate Relations Center (ACRC), as well as enhancing the University's focus on issues of sustainability through research structures including the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE) and Institute on the Environment, as well as through numerous administrative initiatives and reforms.

During his tenure at the University, Bruininks was instrumental in founding the National Center on Educational Outcomes, the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Community Living, and the Institute on Community Integration. He has been honored with numerous awards, including the Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship. He is president emeritus of the American Association on Mental Retardation and has been elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. Nationally, he serves on the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and chairs the board of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges; in Minnesota he serves as a member of the Itasca Project and the Minnesota Business Partnership.

In 2007, Bruininks joined the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. He has also been instrumental in bringing Big Ten football back to the Twin Cities campus with the construction of TCF Bank Stadium, slated to open in Fall 2009. In addition to hosting home football games, the new stadium will provide a permanent home for the marching band, an important new venue for University and community events, and a prominent public gateway to the University’s broader mission of education, research and public engagement.

Named Minnesotan of the Year by Minnesota Monthly in 2004, Bruininks regularly speaks on behalf of the University of Minnesota in its important role as the state’s major research university. After shepherding the University through a nearly 15 percent cut in state funding in 2003, he has helped renew the partnership between the state and the University. With Bruininks as its chief advocate, the University has secured increased state funding for key academic priorities and capital projects each year since 2005.

In November 2005, Bruininks led a group of Minnesota educators to China as part of the governor’s trade delegation. In May 2006, he headed a delegation of University leaders to Norway to renew student exchange agreements and deepen research ties with that country’s leading universities, and in May 2007, he led a delegation to Iceland to renew an historic 25-year agreement with the University of Iceland and expand upon it, particularly in the health sciences.

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Personal Notes

President Bruininks earned his bachelor of arts degree from Western Michigan University, and his master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees from George Peabody College (now Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development). He and his wife, Dr. Susan Hagstrum, have three grown sons and three grandsons. In their free time, they enjoy riding American Saddlebred horses and spending time at their cabin on northern Minnesota’s Gunflint Trail.

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