Dear Colleagues,
We are at the cusp of another academic year and the energy on campus is growing. Thank you for those who were able to join us Monday morning for our faculty and staff welcome breakfast. With your help, we collected 282 lbs of food and $61.50 in support of Champ’s Cupboard. Further donations to Champ’s cupboard, which is our free food shelf for students, can be dropped off in the Student Life office.
This email is intended to recap my speech and provide some updates as we enter the new year.
Land Acknowledgment
I am honored to share UMD’s new land acknowledgment with you:
We are at the cusp of another academic year and the energy on campus is growing. Thank you for those who were able to join us Monday morning for our faculty and staff welcome breakfast. With your help, we collected 282 lbs of food and $61.50 in support of Champ’s Cupboard. Further donations to Champ’s cupboard, which is our free food shelf for students, can be dropped off in the Student Life office.
This email is intended to recap my speech and provide some updates as we enter the new year.
Land Acknowledgment
I am honored to share UMD’s new land acknowledgment with you:
We collectively acknowledge that the University of Minnesota Duluth
is located on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of
Indigenous people. The University resides on land that was cared for and
called home by the Anishinaabe people, and the Dakota people before
them, from time immemorial. Ceded by the Anishinaabe in an 1854 treaty,
this land holds great historical, spiritual, and personal significance
for its original stewards, the Native nations and peoples of this
region. We recognize and continually support and advocate for the
sovereignty of the Native nations in this territory and beyond. By
offering this land acknowledgment, we affirm tribal sovereignty and will
work to hold the University of Minnesota Duluth accountable to American
Indian peoples and nations.
This Land Acknowledgment is a formal statement that recognizes the unique and enduring relationship that exists between American Indians and their territories, and this acknowledgment is an opportunity for the entire University community to increase their awareness of the history of the land on which UMD resides.
The acknowledgment was crafted through collaborative processes with our Department of American Indian Studies, the Campus Climate Leadership Team, Campus Climate Change Team, and participants at the 2019 Summit on Equity, Race, & Ethnicity. The statement was endorsed by the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council on June 4, 2019. You can find more information and context on the UMD About page.
Campus Priorities
1. Assisting President Joan Gabel in her first year as our new president and working with her to find new ways to further strengthen UMD.
2. Continuing to reinforce our commitment to a diverse and inclusive campus climate and building further on the prevention of sexual misconduct initiative that began last year.
About 140 UMD faculty and staff have completed the Diversity and Inclusion module as a pilot project. After we assess their responses to the training, we will determine next steps towards having others at UMD complete it. In addition, this fall all new UMD students will take the Diversity and Inclusion module developed specifically for students.
Each of us is responsible for creating a healthy work environment and for supporting the retention and success of faculty, staff, and students of color, of diverse cultures, women, LGBTQAI, and all members of the UMD community. We also need to call out bullying when we see it and support those who are bullied.
3. Moving our retention and graduation rates to new levels of success.
4. Expanding UMD’s International Education programs with more international students coming to us and sending more UMD students to meaningful learning abroad experiences.
5. Expanding research and doctoral education.
6. Expanded exploration of grant support to help sustain programmatic efforts and student access.
7. We will continue to advocate for capital funding to renovate A. B. Anderson and advocate for Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement funds (HEAPR) to renovate the old Chemistry Building and other key areas.
8. In 2020, we will celebrate UMD’s 125 anniversary.
UMD Highlights
We have a lot to be proud of. This montage of student highlights throughout last year showcases some of the fantastic work from around campus. Swenson College of Science & Engineering, for the second year in a row, earned second place in their division at the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition in New Mexico. Students designed, built and successfully launched their rocket, placing higher than teams who represented entire countries and who had far greater budgets.
The Labovitz School of Business and Economics continues its designation as a 3M Frontline Sales Initiative School, one of only 14 in the country. In June, the Board of Regents approved our new Professional Sales Bachelor of Business Administration program.
Last fall, the School of Fine Arts held its fifth annual Fresh Foundations exhibit at the Tweed Museum of Art. The show is curated by seniors in the Art and Design program and highlights the work of first-year students in the same program.
This summer, 20 undergraduate students from South Korea studied American environmental writing in the College of Liberal Arts for three weeks. This unique program was a collaboration between CLA’s Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies, UMD’s Department of International Partnerships and Outreach, English as a Second Language International, and Kyung Hee University, in Seoul, South Korea.
UMD Athletics enjoyed another great year including men’s hockey capturing a third NCAA national championship, their second in a row. In addition, our scholar-athletes enjoyed success in the classroom with 44 individuals qualifying for a spot on the NSIC All-Academic Team. Each year, the team with the highest cumulative GPA receives the Chancellor’s Cup. Last spring, the 2019 Chancellor’s Cup went to our women’s volleyball team with a cumulative GPA of 3.74.
In Student Life, our Bulldog Welcome Week program has a new look thanks to the hard work of a number of campus units partnering with Kirby Student Center. The new Bulldog Welcome Week focuses on campus traditions and community engagement and provides students with a more customized exposure to campus resources that will help them be successful.
Facilities Update
Earlier this month, the Heikkila Chemistry and Advanced Materials Science building, HCAMS, had its grand opening. Classes will be held there this fall. It’s beautiful and will serve well our students, faculty, and staff.
The Multicultural Center is undergoing a much-needed renovation. It serves many students, and it’s important that it be a welcoming, comfortable, and well-designed space. The grand opening is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, September 18 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. I hope you can attend, and I hope you will visit the Multicultural Center often.
Ordean Court is undergoing a major renovation. The work is being funded by Facilities Management. We believe the space will be much more inviting and useful for students and everyone on campus to enjoy. The project is currently scheduled to be completed in the middle of September.
We will break ground on a new Residence Hall and an additional Dining Center for students in May of 2020. We are excited to have increased capacity for freshmen to live in a residence hall, and to expand our ability to serve our campus community's dining options. The new facilities are anticipated to be open for fall 2021.
The on-campus Ice Rink renovation project consists of a comprehensive replacement of the building's heating, ventilation and air conditioning system to provide a healthier indoor air quality environment for building occupants. The ice-making system is also being replaced. This project is scheduled to be completed in November.
Enrollment
The quality of our new student class this year is excellent, but as sometimes happens within the cycle of undergraduate enrollment, we are experiencing a decline in new student enrollment this fall. This is projected to impact our overall undergraduate enrollment by approximately two percent or 180 students. The decline in new students is due to a number of factors including greater competition from private and public institutions both within and outside Minnesota and fewer transfer students within the community college pipeline.
As we keep our academic standards high and seek to overcome new and recurring enrollment challenges, we need to redouble our efforts on retaining and successfully graduating the nearly 9,000 undergraduate students who are enrolled this fall. We project 674 graduate students this fall and an overall enrollment, which also includes non-degree and professional students, of 10,830. Nothing benefits us more within student recruitment than our positive word-of-mouth reputation. As we welcome over 2,400 first-year and transfer students to campus later this week and welcome back over 6,400 returning undergraduates next Monday, let’s each renew our commitment to supporting their success within this exceptional community of learners, educators, and scholars.
Budget
We have not yet received our budget allocation for this fiscal year. President Gabel told me recently that we will receive it soon. As we have done in the past, I will share the allocation letter with the campus and keep you up-to-date on our budget plans.
See the Google Slides from today’s event if you’d like to see the visual presentation that includes design concepts of Ordean Court and the new Residence Hall.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to another successful year. Each of you contributes to our success and I thank you for your time, commitment, and dedication to our students and UMD.
Sincerely,
Lendley C. Black
Chancellor
