| Dear colleagues, As March comes to a close, we welcome the (eventual) arrival of spring, celebrate the recent Bulldog athletic successes and we begin planning for the end of the academic year. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that the end of my second semester in this leadership role is nearing. Much has happened, I’ve learned a lot, and much remains to be done. Throughout the year in conversations and communications like this January email, I have talked about a combination of macroeconomic and socioeconomic drivers that continue to impact and intensify within higher education. These include changing student demographics, oversupply within our specific sector, rising costs (labor, energy, materials, construction), price sensitivity, and public perception questions around the value of a four-year degree. UMD has faced budget shortfalls before and you have worked through them internally and with support from system leadership. Despite repeatedly finding annual budget solutions, UMD continues to face persistent and ongoing financial challenges, due primarily to enrollment. We must build an action plan for long-term fiscal sustainability. That is my goal as your interim leader. It won’t be easy, but I do believe it is achievable and that in the end, we will be far stronger because of it. We are not alone in this challenge. In recent weeks several other institutions, including some in our region, have announced restructuring, reductions, and even closures due to budget challenges. We are a strong institution - in my opinion far stronger than any of our regional competitors. It is our strengths and our commitment to our core values that we will build upon to achieve fiscal sustainability. As we move through this process, we will use the values framework I introduced in January as a guide to:
The vice chancellors and I will host town halls and we invite you to join us to hear a brief overview of our plan and then engage in discussion and conversation. We will join the already scheduled faculty assembly on April 12, upcoming staff assemblies with dates to be announced next week, and hold these open campus town halls:
While we will get into more detail in these town halls, I do want to preview a bit more of our plan for you. For the two upcoming fiscal years, we need to implement several quick short-term moves while we work on more systemic change. Centralizing resources is key to assessing where and how we can find efficiencies and identify focus areas. Therefore, for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, we will address our projected $16.5 million shortfall (which equates to approximately six percent of our overall operational budget) through support from the U of M System and drawing down carry forward funding. Within this, I must emphasize the importance that state support has on our ultimate budget allocation. Continued advocacy to the state legislature helps us secure what will hopefully be strong state support in the U of M budget request. Related to the budget and running parallel with our fiscal sustainability work is the systemwide PEAK initiative. The purpose of PEAK is to strengthen how we work together and leverage resources across campus and the university system. I recognize that PEAK brings with it many questions and uncertainty. I ask for your patience as we continue to work through the process. I see a lot of opportunity for us to build a more efficient model for delivering financial, HR, IT and marketing/communication support here in Duluth and across the system. PEAK will likely create the potential to redeploy resources and better serve students and their success. Those employees who are directly impacted and their supervisors will continue to receive updates and information from university leadership and the functional team leads. It is important to note that while PEAK has its stops, starts, and milestones as the process moves forward, we will have time to make this transition smoothly. In closing, I ask for you all to keep a longer-term and larger perspective in mind as we consider change and how it impacts each of us individually and this campus collectively. Defining what we want this campus to be and how it can best deploy its strengths and advantages in order to thrive is our shared deliverable. I know that change is difficult, but we will face this together and I am grateful for your continued engagement and dedication to UMD. Sincerely, |
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| Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor |
