Budget Update, Upcoming Town Halls and Assemblies (sent 3/29/23)

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: Prioritize student success and support Maintain academic excellence Leverage resources and support from the U of M System My leadership team and I have developed near, mid, and long term action steps to help us better align operations with financial resources. To properly introduce these action items and to gather critical feedback from our campus community, I’d like to invite you to join me in conversation. 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: Wednesday, April 19 from 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. in Kirby Ballroom Friday, April 21 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. on zoom (registration link) If you would like to submit questions ahead of time, you can do so through this form. We will also take questions during the town hall. 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,

Dave McMillan   Interim Chancellor

Please Complete the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Campus Climate Survey (sent 2/15/23)

Dear students, faculty, and staff,

You should have received an email from Joshua Patterson at SoundRocket with a link to the 2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Campus Climate Survey. The survey will be open until February 28.

Let your voice be heard by taking 15-20 minutes or less to share your experiences as a member of our UMD community.

It is important that we hear from as many of our staff, students, and faculty as possible as we strive to create a campus climate that is welcoming, safe, inclusive, and equitable. Thank you to those who have already completed the survey. 

The University of Minnesota Duluth is committed to summarizing, sharing, and acting on the survey results so that our campus can recruit, retain, and support a diverse community of students, staff, and faculty.

If you can’t find the email or can’t get the link to work, please contact SoundRocket support at support@srsrv.com and SoundRocket will respond promptly. 

Sincerely,

Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor

Safety and Resources at UMD (sent on 2/14/23)

Dear students, faculty, and staff,

The events of last evening at Michigan State University are horrifying. UMD shares in the sadness and sorrow of the Michigan State University community. We honor the victims of this senseless tragedy, and we extend our hope for the healing of those affected.

Students, please consider talking with a staff or faculty member you trust. Sometimes talking about your feelings with someone who cares can help. A trusted faculty or staff member can also help you connect to others that may be of assistance. “Let’s Talk” offers students a brief, informal, drop-in consultation on Zoom with a counselor. There are several Let’s Talk sessions scheduled for this week and the rest of the semester. You’ll find the details on this website. You may also contact Counseling Services.

Faculty and staff seeking support can find resources through our Employee Assistance Program. 

The University of Minnesota Duluth Police Department receives regular training in active threat and violent event response and is available 24 hours a day, year-round. We rely on the dedicated officers of the UMDPD and our partners, but it is important to prepare yourself for an active threat event, just as you take steps every day to keep yourself safe. Familiarize yourself with the recommended steps to respond to an active threat. We know that the best preparation is an informed community that is ready to respond.

Your safety and the safety of our campus community is our priority. 

Sincerely,

Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor

UMD Budget Update

Dear Colleagues, As the month of January comes to a “frosty” close, the normal biennial U of M budget process is in full swing. The vice chancellors and I are working to develop UMD’s budget compact request for system leadership. Our proposal will overview UMD’s current financial situation and identify several challenges and opportunities we intend to prioritize. We will meet with system leadership in early March to go over our budget compact request letter. Depending on many factors, including the state legislative action on the University’s request, we will likely hear back from system leadership on our budget allocation for the 2023-2024 fiscal year later this summer. After years of good work, we balanced our budget before COVID. During the pandemic, we were able to utilize federal COVID support to manage financial challenges. However, we can expect and should plan for a budget shortfall next fiscal year. While the exact amount is uncertain at this time, actions to address that shortfall will be necessary. Since 2018 when our total enrollment was nearly 11,200, we have witnessed steady enrollment declines. UMD now has just under 9,700 undergraduate, graduate, non-degree, and professional students. While the pandemic played a significant role in these declines, long-term consequential challenges affect the marketplace from which we primarily draw our students. As I told the Board of Regents on December 15, UMD competes for students with other regional public and private universities in a severely oversupplied market. The demographic upon which we have traditionally depended will soon begin an extended, decade-plus decline. While our cost of living and fees are extremely competitive, our tuition is high relative to our primary competitors. In fact, our tuition is closer to the average for Big Ten public flagships than it is to the average for public regional schools in MN, WI, or ND. Developing a path forward that will enable UMD to find long-term stability begins with reversing our enrollment declines, finding additional cost savings and productivity enhancements, and pursuing new revenue streams and growing some existing ones. We will also need to rethink our value proposition, increase our investments in student success, and re-evaluate our longer-term strategic plans. None of this will be easy but we are a strong institution and we have much to build upon, including being part of the University of Minnesota. It is worth noting that in the past six years, UMD has received almost $12 million in new recurring funding and almost $5 million in non-recurring funds from the U of M System. We also benefited greatly from nearly $7 million in one-time funding to retire our sequestered deficit in 2020-21. I am very grateful for this past support. I expect that our budget proposal for fiscal year 2023-2024 will again seek additional system resources while looking internally as well for near-term funding while we work together to address the bigger structural challenges we face as an institution. As a campus we must work together on short-term, intermediate, and long-term strategies to address our deficit and continued enrollment challenges. Our work will be consultative and involve the campus community. Our challenges are not insurmountable rather they are solvable through campus collaboration. To be sustainable over the long run, we need impactful strategic moves to align financial expenditures with available resources and demand. We are in the early stages of this process. As we move forward, we will follow a framework that seeks to ensure minimal impact on student success and support, maintains academic excellence, and leverages resources and support from the U of M System. It is my commitment to be transparent and timely regarding communication about this process. In that spirit, I expect that we will soon schedule several campus forums to discuss the budget and the longer-term initiatives we must embark upon. I am hopeful that we can hold these forums later this spring. We look forward to collaborating with the campus community over the coming months to position our campus for future success and financial viability. Thank you for your support and commitment to UMD. Sincerely,

Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor

Strategic Plan and DEI Updates (sent on 1/18/23)

Greetings Colleagues, I hope your spring semester is off to a good start. As we roll through the midpoint of the academic year, I'd like to update you on a few campus initiatives underway. Strategic Plan We continue to make movement on several priorities within our strategic plan, which you may recall was refreshed in 2022 to align with the U of M MPACT 2025 strategic plan. In our plan, under the public engagement priority, we have an initiative to achieve Carnegie Community Engagement designation by 2025. This designation focuses on mutually beneficial collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities. The application is a comprehensive self-study based on community engagement best practices in higher education. Earning the designation and striving to maintain it will benefit the University and the community. Because the self-study items are updated for each application cycle to reflect current best practices, institutions following the updates will continuously improve their practices. We will analyze and improve aspects of community engagement such as breadth of opportunities, impact of opportunities, and partnership numbers. The Carnegie classification website includes more information, the timeline for application, and shows a map of the 357 currently classified institutions. This is an important and big undertaking. I am grateful to the application writing team working on this. Please support their efforts and provide information they may request from you and your unit. Members are: Lisa Erwin - Student Life, Jen Mencl - Academic Affairs, Jennifer Webb - CAHSS, Jane Carlson - CEHSP, Monica Haynes - LSBE, Amy Kireta - SCSE, Amber Cameron - UMN Office of Public Engagement. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion The search to fill the new executive DEI position continues. We held discovery sessions and received great input from members of our campus community. Thank you for your valuable feedback. That input is being used to design the position profile. As well we have formed the search committee and I want to thank this team for their time and effort on this important search. Search committee members include: Committee Co-chair Jeremy Leiferman - Student Life Committee Co-chair Lin Xiu - LSBE Carl Crawford - City of Duluth Mitra Emad - CAHSS Sean Huls - UMD Police Kayleigh Karppinen - Human Resources Jill Kolodzne - Student Life Johan Lopez - Student Ariri Onchwari - CEHSP Joshua Strong - Student Rebecca Webster - CAHSS Susana Woodward - Student Life  The campus climate response team (CCRT) regularly reviews campus climate data to analyze how incidents are handled on campus and to identify trends and patterns occurring over time. Longitudinal reports are posted to the CCRT website with all identifying data removed from the incidents. The team also makes recommendations for action. The recommendations for this year are found in the 2021-2022 CCRT report. One recommendation from the CCRT last year has been completed. UMD has a new comprehensive reporting website. Please bookmark this site and share it with others. Work continues to make sure the new site is linked in the right places throughout campus websites. UMD is also participating in a systemwide survey on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please watch your email at the end of this month for the survey invitation. Campus and Climate Action Plan Input The UMD campus community is invited to share ideas for the future of campus spaces. Please provide your input through the MyCampus interactive mapping tool. We have a busy semester ahead of us. I will continue to update you as we move ahead. Thanks for your work and dedication to UMD and our students. Sincerely,

Dave McMillan    Interim Chancellor

Last Week's Severe Winter Weather Event

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Last week's severe winter weather event dumped nearly 23" of wet, heavy snow and ice on the Twin Ports. Couple this much snow with gale force winds and we experienced a true blizzard. This event lasted for the better part of three entire days and, most critically, occurred in the middle of final exam week.

We want to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to UMD's students, staff, faculty and leadership teams for responding as you all did during this unprecedented confluence of severe weather and final examinations. We are proud of the people across every department that prioritized the safety and well-being of all our employees and students while planning for and executing the academic, student life and operational activities that must take place here on our campus.

Rescheduling hundreds upon hundreds of final exams and changing modalities impacted everyone. We applaud the patience and understanding along with the extraordinary efforts that you all exhibited during this challenging time.

Thank you for being Bulldogs!

Dave McMillan
Interim Chancellor

Sue Bosell
Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations

Lisa Erwin
Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Dean of Students

Amy Hietapelto
Interim Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Your Input on the Executive DEI Position

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff, Two additional discovery sessions are scheduled to provide you with the opportunity to share your input about the search for UMD’s new diversity, equity, and inclusion executive leader. The information gathered will also inform our position profile and the search process itself. Please join one of the below virtual sessions on Tuesday, December 20 at 9:00 or 10:15 a.m. We realize that this is very short notice but want to begin moving forward with this important effort as soon as we can. UMD Discovery Session December 20, 2022 9:00 a.m. Join Zoom Meeting https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/j/89046707012 Meeting ID: 890 4670 7012 One tap mobile Find your local number: https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/u/kcG3kAeQKN UMD Discovery Session December 20, 2022 10:15 a.m. Join Zoom Meeting https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/j/89417523081 Meeting ID: 894 1752 3081 One tap mobile Find your local number: https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/u/khpMRzpHj If you have other thoughts or input about the search, you can submit them through this general search input form.

Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor