October 21, 2016
Dear Colleagues and Students at the University of Minnesota Duluth:
As you may know, President Kaler has asked us to initiate conversations with students, faculty,staff, and leaders from across the system to help us recognize our commonalities and ourunique strengths. We want to find ways to strengthen a system mindset to enrich what theUniversity of Minnesota offers to the State of Minnesota, to our region, and to the world. Ourgoal is to create a document that the Board of Regents and leaders across the system can useto guide the University into the future. As faculty, staff, and students at the University ofMinnesota, your participation in this work is crucial.
How can you be involved?
Throughout this System-Wide Strategic Planning process, we will focus on the following:
● What are our collective strengths and commitments as a University system?
● What are the unique strengths of individual campuses?
● How can we create a system mindset based on a sense of collective abundance?
● How can we maximize the accessibility of our collective andunique strengths to the State?
● What strategic intentions should guide both short- and long-term planning,decision making and resource allocation?
Please reflect on these questions, talk with your colleagues, and review relevant planningdocuments so that you can tell us about the exceptional aspects of your campus, as well ashow your campus contributes to and is strengthened by the system.
We are seeking informationabout what already exists as well as what could exist in an ideal future.
Please attend the upcoming forums held at your campus on October 26. We have worked withChancellor Black to organize forums so that all campus constituents have an opportunity toengage in this process.
1:15-2:00 p.m. Student Association/Congress and Multicultural Student Leaders - Kirby Ballroom
2:00- 3:00 p.m. Staff Assembly - Kirby Ballroom
3:00-4:00 p.m. Faculty Assembly - Kirby Ballroom
If you are not able to attend the forums, we will soon provide you with information on how toprovide input electronically throughout this process.
Additionally, in the spring, we will return toDuluth to talk with you about emerging ideas so that you have an opportunity to focus and refinethose ideas.
Thank you for your participation in this important effort to create a robust future for the Universityof Minnesota. We look forward to interacting with and learning from you.
Chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle, University of Minnesota Rochester ViceProvost Rebecca Ropers-Huilman, Faculty and Academic Affairs
