| Dear Colleagues, As a Duluthian, I have always felt the excitement that the start of the school year brings to our city, but this year, I have seen a whole new side of it. In my first two months on the job, I have learned a lot and I’m grateful to the campus community for extending a warm welcome to me and for all the wonderful ways in which I have seen this campus support our students. As I dig in and focus on developing and refining our near-term priorities, I feel more certain about several of them while still working to gather informed perspectives about others. Clearly, enrollment is one of the very highest priorities here at UMD as we are again seeing a decrease in enrollment this fall. Our enrollment challenges are two-fold and many of you have heard me describe the situation as “one part recruitment and two parts retention.” Said differently, while getting new students to campus must be a critical focus for us, retaining students here throughout their entire undergraduate journey is at least as critical to UMD’s long term success. Our senior leadership team and I will have much more to say about enrollment in the months ahead, but please know that conversations and engagement around recruitment and retention will continue. Making sure our current students succeed and persist to graduation is an early and high priority for me. I am very encouraged by the creativity and effort I see from staff and faculty who are looking for new and innovative ways to improve retention. UMD’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) priorities are a second and equally critical imperative for this campus. Goal 2 of the UMD strategic plan is clear and straightforward: “to advance equity, diversity, inclusiveness, and social justice within the campus community.” Among the many things I count as blessings early in my tenure here is the fact that a tremendous amount of DEI related work has been done and more is actively underway. My predecessor, Lendley Black and the special assistant to the chancellor for inclusive excellence Susana Pelayo-Woodward, deserve a great deal of recognition for helping to effectuate much change and many important outcomes already. Thus far, I have met with Susana Pelayo-Woodward, the ARLC, EOCAI, Staff Senate and a range of individuals at all levels of the organization to learn about progress made and to better understand the challenges that remain ahead. I realize that these are but a few of the many groups and shared governance entities around campus that are helping to drive action in this space. The entire campus climate organizational structure along with the four chancellor-sponsored commissions are among those groups advancing these efforts and I have opportunities scheduled to meet with many of them this coming week. Before the end of October, I will also meet with the campus climate leadership team (CCLT). I am encouraged by evidence of progress being made in many places. For example, next fall, UMD will be requiring all new students to enroll in a course within the new Theorizing Race, Power, and Justice category. And last Friday, SCSE Dean Wendy Reed shared her summary of several key equity and inclusion initiatives now underway with the Board of Regents. While progress has been made, an organizational commitment is needed to assure that we are structurally set up to keep this important work moving ahead. I intend to create a new campus-wide position to lead our DEI work. With that, I am committed to hiring an executive leader, reporting directly to me, who is responsible for executing strategic and impactful work in support of UMD’s Goal 2. To inform what this position looks like, what type of leader is needed, and other details about the position, I will work initially with the CCLT and continue to gather input from across campus, from groups I’ve already met with, and U of M System colleagues. That process will help inform the position description and help guide our approach to forming the search committee. Then we will embark upon a search for this important new leadership role at UMD. As we move ahead with this process leading up to a search and with the search itself, I will keep you informed. Thanks for your help and support in making UMD a welcoming and inclusive place. Sincerely, |
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c Dave McMillan UMD Interim Chancellor |
