How Legalized Marijuana Impacts Your Job at the University of Minnesota

Dear Faculty and Staff,

As you may have read or seen in the news, Governor Walz recently signed a bill into law legalizing the use of marijuana for recreational purposes by adults age 21 and over, as well as the right to grow up to eight plants for personal use. The new law will also decriminalize its possession and expunge misdemeanor marijuana offenses from criminal records.

While the new law may begin to shift societal norms outside the workplace,  University employees will still be expected to follow the University’s Drug-Free policy, Smoke- and Tobacco-Free policy, and Code of Conduct, which outlines the responsibilities of employees to “act according to the highest ethical and professional standards of conduct” and “be personally accountable for individual actions.”

As has been the standard procedure in the past, employees who violate these policies and perform work while impaired due to the use of controlled substances are subject to disciplinary action, including termination. Additionally, while the new law allows for the growing of cannabis plants at home, no such plants grown for personal use are allowed on any University property nor should such plants be visible on camera during remote work. Please also note that the legalization of marijuana at the state level does not change the Federal DOT Drug policy for drivers, of which the University has about 100 employees. All members of our University community are responsible for encouraging compliance with these policies.

If you, or someone you are concerned about, need help with substance misuse, the University has resources available to you, including confidential counseling and chemical health consultation through the Employee Assistance Program and mental health resources for University employees and their dependents enrolled in the medical plan.

We appreciate your awareness and compliance with this issue in support of protecting the health of our entire community.

Sincerely,

Mark Yuran
Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources

This email was sent to UMD Faculty and Staff on behalf of the Department of Human Resources by UMD Office of the Chancellor, Darland Administration Building 515, 1049 University Drive, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. Read our privacy statement.

Drug-Free Policy Update

Dear Bulldogs, I’m writing to give you an update about recreational cannabis at UMD, as the state of Minnesota’s recreational cannabis law has recently changed. It’s important for you to know that the University is required to follow federal cannabis laws. This means it is still illegal to possess, use, distribute, or grow cannabis on campus. Additionally, the University’s Drug-Free policy, Smoke- and Tobacco-Free policy, and Student Conduct Code have not changed and still prohibit these behaviors on campus. If you, or someone you are concerned about, need help with substance misuse, the University has resources available to you: UMD Health Services Cannabis Resources Sober Champs - a student substance recovery group that meets during the academic year UMD Counseling Services (mental health resources) I hope you have a great summer no matter where your plans take you. Sincerely, Lisa Ann Erwin, PhD Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Dean of Students

This email was sent to all students on behalf of the Vice Chancellor for Student Life by UMD Office of the Chancellor, Darland Administration Building 515, 1049 University Drive, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. Read our privacy statement.

End of Academic Year Updates

Dear colleagues, It’s here - spring semester finals week. I want to start by thanking all of you for a great academic year. I sure learned a lot this last year and was consistently inspired by our students, faculty, and staff. The energy, passion, and pure brilliance of this campus community is captivating. This Saturday, I am looking forward to presiding over my first commencement as UMD’s interim chancellor. We have over 2,000 students graduating this academic year and each of you helped play a role in supporting them in their success. Thank you. I am looking forward to an enjoyable, but busy summer as we continue to move important initiatives forward. I’ll take this time to note a few updates. Leadership Searches After careful consideration and in consultation with the search committee and consultant, I have decided to pause the search for UMD’s senior level culture and inclusion officer. A lot of great groundwork has been done and I plan to circle back to this process at the beginning of the fall semester when the campus can be fully involved. I want to thank search committee co-chairs Jeremy Leiferman and Lin Xiu for their leadership and I extend my gratitude to the search committee members. In late April, four strong finalists for the associate vice chancellor for enrollment management position visited campus. I’d like to thank search committee chair Praveen Aggarwal, members of the search committee, and the campus community for their active participation in this process. This is an important leadership role for campus and I know EVCAA Amy Hietapelto hopes to extend an offer to a finalist in the next month. In other leadership transition news, Mark Yuran, associate vice chancellor for human resources, has accepted the senior associate vice president of human resources and chief human resources officer position at the University of Toledo and will be leaving UMD around the middle of June. Mark has provided solid leadership to our Office of Human Resources since November 2018. Mark brought strategic insight to me and my leadership team and has been a strong UMD advocate with the U of M System. I wish Mark the best in his new role and I am grateful to him for all he’s done as a senior leader for this campus. I will provide more information on next steps as we work to ensure a smooth transition in this important role. Budget and Strategic Planning Over the summer, we will continue to move ahead with the budget and structural review plan as discussed in the town halls a couple of weeks ago. This will include implementing our near-term action items along with creating work groups to further design frameworks for the mid and long term plans. This summer, these groups will gather information and conduct analytical assessments which will then be shared with the campus community for input and further action in the fall semester. To help guide this work, we will continue to refer back to both the UMD strategic plan and the systemwide MPact 2025 plan. I am pleased to share our recently completed UMD strategic plan performance update which provides highlights and accomplishments towards our plan goals and initiatives. Please take some time to review the strategic plan performance update. While this plan is still a work in progress, we have made important progress and this update does a great job at highlighting a variety of them. Thanks to Jen Mencl, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, for her leadership with our strategic plan and the performance update. While the to-do list is never done, this week let’s enjoy the conclusion of the academic year and celebrate the success of our students. I hope you have a good end to the academic year. Thanks for all you do for UMD and our students. Sincerely,

Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor

Thanks for a Great Year

Dear students, This first week of May brings longer (and hopefully sunnier) days and finals week at UMD. This is just a quick note to wish you all well as you wrap up the semester and to thank you for a great academic year. This last year, my first as your interim chancellor, I was inspired almost every day in one way or another by the creativity, talent, energy and commitment of our UMD students!! Thank you for that inspiration. To our graduating students, congratulations! You are (almost) done with this part of your education journey. I look forward to seeing you cross the stage at commencement this Saturday. Your hard work and determination will continue to serve you well and I hope you will stay connected to UMD in the future. For our returning students, also congratulations on a successful year. We look forward to welcoming you back in the fall. Have a great summer and again, congratulations! Sincerely,

Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor