Exceptional Students | Exceptional Faculty & Staff

Exceptional Organization | Exceptional Innovation

Exceptional Students

• Baccalaureate Writing Initiative
  The University of Minnesota will provide world-class, comprehensive writing instruction throughout the undergraduate years. The Initiative begins in Fall Semester 2007.

• Campus-wide honors program
  Beginning in Fall Semester 2008, the University will inaugurate a Twin Cities campus-wide University Honors Program that integrates the current collegiate-based honors program into an exciting, unified program.

• New Colleges
  On July 1, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, went from 20 colleges to 17. It welcomed three newly created colleges---the College of Food, Agricultural and natural Resource Sciences (CFANS); the College of Design; and the College od Education and Human Development (CEHD) to campus, signaling its determination to ensure a brighter future for itself.

• Summary of undergraduate initiatives (PDF 11.7 MB) 
  This presentation was given at the March 2007 Board of Regents Meeting during the Educational Planning and Policy Committee report.

• Undergraduate research program (PDF 10.1 MB) 
  Expansion of undergraduate research opportunities is a key element in a broader strategy to insure that all undergraduate students will have a mentored scholarly, creative, professional, or research experience.

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Exceptional Faculty and Staff

• Culture Task Force Report Summary (PDF 224 KB) 
  The Culture Task Force defined the culture of the University of Minnesota in the context of strategic positioning and identified effective ways to communicate and facilitate adoption of that culture throughout the University.

• Faculty Orientation (PDF 194 KB)  
  The new Faculty Orientation Program introduces faculty to key information critical to their early success, helps lay the groundwork for faculty socialization to the University culture, and builds important faculty networks across and within disciplines.

• Manager’s Toolkit
  The Manager's Toolkit is designed to help managers do their job more easily by providing a specific site containing the human resources information, guidelines, and forms they need.

• New faculty recruiting brochure
  The “Wish You Were Here”-themed colorful brochure and accompanying Web site to recruit top faculty stems from a recommendation by the Faculty Culture Task Force.

• P&A Classification Study
  The Professional and Administrative (P&A) Classification Study seeks to improve classification and compensation systems, tools, and processes for P&A employees.

• Provost’s Department Chairs Leadership Program
  The Provost’s Department Chairs Leadership Program has been designed to support department chairs’ leadership and to provide critical information and resources to chairs and heads. 

• Revised Faculty Tenure Code
  An important goal of strategic positioning is to focus on recruiting, mentoring, retaining, and rewarding excellent faculty. The Faculty Culture Task Force recommended the revision of the criteria and standards for tenure and promotion to increase their rigor, consistent with the goal of becoming one of the top three public research universities. They also recommended changing tenure and promotion policy to reflect modern work-life issues, increasing the University's competitiveness in faculty recruitment. The new faculty tenure code was approved unanimously (108-0) by the Faculty Senate on April 5, 2007, and the Board of Regents voted on the code in June 2007.

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Exceptional Organization

• Transforming Administrative Operations at the U
  Achievement of the University’s overarching goal to be a top public research university means that we must transform all segments of our institution, including administrative processes and cultural expectations.  An aggressive agenda to achieve this transformation has been developed and is being implemented under the direction of the University Administrative Team.

• Administrative Policy Re-Design (PDF 92 KB)  
  The Policy Improvement Project seeks to enhance the University policy framework to better support the U mission and strategic direction, meet the needs of the U community, and minimize risk to the U and its employees.

• Enterprise Financial System
  The Enterprise Financial System (EFS) is a new financial system for the University of Minnesota. The system will affect virtually all of the University’s financial processes, from establishing accounts, to reimbursing employees, to purchasing.

• Facilities Management Transformation
  Facilities Management is transforming into a more customer-focused, accountable culture which delivers services in a cost effective and efficient manner.  The visioning phase of the project is complete and implementation has begun.

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Exceptional Innovation

• Biomedical Sciences Research Facilities Authority (PDF 2.2 MB) 
  The University has asked the state Legislature to create the Biomedical Facilities Authority to provide a predictable mechanism for building research facilities that will advance the biomedical sciences in Minnesota.

• Build the Clinical Sciences (PDF 50.1 MB) 
  The research, education and service missions of the Academic Health Center converge in the clinical sciences. The attached slides were used as part of the March 2007 Board of Regents work session on 'The Role of the Clinical Sciences for the University.'

• Corridors of Discovery (PDF 360 KB) 
  The corridors are conceptual passageways along which biomedical and health research takes place, moving a idea or knowledge to its end either as a new way to prevent a disease, a new treatment or product, or even a new industry for Minnesota. The goal for the corridor concept is to enable the interaction of multiple disciplines so that promising scientific discoveries can more efficiently and effectively developed into promising new treatments.

• Institute on the Environment
  Now launched, and under the direction of Interim Director Deb Swackhamer, the impetus for a world-class, system-wide Institute on the Environment originally arose from a recommendation made by one of the strategic positioning task forces.

• Institute for the Advancement of Science and Engineering
  The idea for this Institute stems from a strategic positioning recommendation made by the Science and Engineering Task Force.  An Advisory Committee currently is formulating recommendations regarding the new Institute’s design.

• Institute for Advanced Study
  This Institute facilitates exciting new interdisciplinary work across the University in the humanities and social sciences and features presentations, concerts, and conversations.

• Interdisciplinary research initiatives (PDF 52 KB) 
  This presentation on interdisciplinary research and education was given at the December Board of Regents Meeting.

• Sustain and Build Vital Partnerships: University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services and University of Minnesota Physicians
  Partnerships are critical to the health sciences at the University, and especially in the clinical sciences. More information is available in the article 'Ten Years Together' from the Winter 2007 Medical Bulletin.

• Technology Commercialization Enhancements
  Technology commercialization – the process of bringing our discoveries and technologies to the public – is a fundamental part of the University of Minnesota’s land grant mission.

• Urban Agenda
  As one of the few large, land-grant research universities in the country located in a major metropolitan area, the University of Minnesota is working to leverage our academic resources, in partnership with local communities, governments, and the business sector, to resolve complex contemporary issues of the urban age.