As the fall semester rolls along, I have been enjoying the change of seasons. We have a lot going on this year and the days seem to fly by too quickly. Time sure doesn’t slow down and I often wish it would.
I’ve been in Weber Music Hall, Amsoil Arena, Marshall Performing Arts Center, Tweed Museum, Malosky Stadium, Romano Gym, Heller Hall, Cina, Kirby, Humanities, the dining center and most places in between already this semester. While I realize that my experiences reflect only a tiny slice of what happens at this place everyday, all of it reminds me how impactful the UMD experience is and the lifelong connections that stem from it.
Several updates follow:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In their Mission Fulfillment Committee meeting this week, the Board of Regents will review the systemwide results of the campus climate survey. This survey was conducted last academic year and we expect to get results for the UMD campus in the very near future.
At this point in my interim leadership role, I will leave in place the current structure that supports our campus work in diversity, equity, and inclusion. My thanks go to members of the unit change teams, commissions, and other informal structures that strive for the achievement of UMD’s Goal 2. Along with student success and financial sustainability, our culture is one of my three critical leadership priorities.
Given that we will soon have UMD results of our campus climate survey, I will focus our efforts this year on reviewing those results and recommending actions from them. I am in the process of creating the Chancellor’s Council for Campus Culture (4C). This task force will include students, faculty, and staff currently serving on campus climate teams and commissions. They will be charged with reviewing our survey results and making recommendations that will advance our work in diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as position UMD effectively for a leadership transition.
In addition to the 4C task force review of the campus climate survey results, I will be charging each campus leader who receives unit-level results with developing actions that support DEI work at the local level. We will welcome VP Mercedes Ramirez Fernandez and AVP Keisha Varma to campus next week as well to help us advance this critical work.
Budget and Structural Review
Leadership continues to move ahead with our budget and structural review plan. On the chancellor’s website, you will find more budget review information including updates on the initiatives, the timeline and data collection plan for the academic program array analysis, and links to resources like presentations, communications, and related websites.
My leadership team and I will host two campus town hall meetings in November to provide further updates on these efforts and collect continued feedback from the campus community. Please mark your calendars and join me as you are able:
- Monday, November 13:
- 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. - Kirby Ballroom; in person town hall
- 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. - virtual town hall; please sign up on this registration link
I look forward to continued engagement with you on these and other initiatives. Thanks for all you do for UMD and for our students.
