DEI Position Discovery Opportunities (sent on 12/7/22)

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff, I hope you are all well as we head into finals week of the Fall Semester. As my November 15, 2022 email noted, the next steps for the DEI position include discovery listening sessions. These sessions provide you with the opportunity to share your input about this important position and its priorities. The information gathered will also inform our position profile and the search process itself. Please join one of the below virtual sessions this Friday as you are able. We realize that this is very short notice but want to begin moving forward with this important effort as soon as we can. We are expecting to add additional sessions yet in December and January. Thank you to Dr. Lin Xiu and Jeremy Leiferman for serving as co-chairs of the search committee. We received many nominations for participation on the search committee and are in the final stages of confirming committee membership. If you have other thoughts or input about the search, you can submit them through this general search input form.

Dave McMillan Interim Chancellor

Topic: UMD Focus Group Time: Dec 9, 2022 09:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/j/81359000753 Meeting ID: 813 5900 0753 One tap mobile Find your local number: https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/u/kbyHQPj9kA Topic: UMD Focus Group Time: Dec 9, 2022 11:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/j/83129351075 Meeting ID: 831 2935 1075 One tap mobile Find your local number: https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/u/kegC1Ni3zz   Topic: UMD Focus Group Time: Dec 9, 2022 01:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/j/81109501033 Meeting ID: 811 0950 1033 One tap mobile Find your local number: https://interactiontraction.zoom.us/u/kccu3Hucw

Requesting Your Input About the UMD Campus

What does the future of the UMD campus look like to you? How will UMD best adapt to changes in our climate and environment? We want to know what you think.

The Duluth campus is developing a Campus and Climate Action Plan, which will guide the evolution of the campus environment for the next thirty years. This plan will address natural resources, open space, land use, facilities, space planning, and future infrastructure. Climate action can be defined as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening resilience to climate change impacts.

Please follow this link to provide your input through the MyCampus interactive mapping tool. The survey will take about 5-10 minutes. Your responses will be kept confidential and only reported in aggregate.

After you submit your response, you can enter the prize raffle for one of ten $25 Visa gift cards.

This work is part of the systemwide MPact 2025 strategic plan. Visit the UMN systemwide campus and climate action plan website for more information. Your time and feedback are very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Lisa Erwin, Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Dean of Students
Sue Bosell, Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations 
John Rashid, Facilities Management Director

Update on DEI Search; Search Committee Nominations (sent on 11/15/22)

Dear faculty, staff, and students,

I hope that you are all well and keeping energized as we get close to the final leg of the semester. 

As my October 18 email to faculty and staff noted, we are moving ahead with a search to hire an executive leader who is responsible for executing strategic and impactful work to support campus diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. I am pleased to announce that LSBE Professor of Human Resource Management Dr. Lin Xiu and Director of Housing and Residence Life Jeremy Leiferman have agreed to serve as the search committee co-chairs. I sincerely thank them for their time and leadership in this important effort. 

We invite your nominations for additional members of the search committee by Monday, November 21. 

Our next steps include scheduling listening sessions with the campus community to gather your insight and perspective on this critical leadership position. The information gathered from these sessions will inform our position profile and the search process itself. There will be more to come about those listening sessions soon. If you have other thoughts or input about the search, you can submit them through this general search input form. 

With the Thanksgiving break next week, I hope you all get some time to relax and refresh with family and friends. 

Sincerely,

Dave McMillan
UMD Interim Chancellor

Welcome to the Start of the Semsester (sent 8/29/22)

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff - I hope you are all having a great first day of classes as we kick off the 2022-2023 academic year. It was great to feel the energy of move-in and welcome week. You may enjoy this fun video recap of move-in, which includes a scene where I also had a chance to find the room that I moved into on my first day at UMD. All these years later, I was able to reconnect with my college roommate and it was fun to be reminded of our days together at UMD. I look forward to all of you making new friends and lifelong connections here at UMD too. Best wishes for a smooth and successful start of the school year. Please know that we are here to help you and have many resources available to help support your academic success. Please be sure to save some time and energy to attend campus events, get to know each other, and explore our beautiful campus and community. If you see me out and about around campus, please stop to say hello. I look forward to the year and am glad you are all here with me. Go Bulldogs! Sincerely,

c Dave McMillan UMD Interim Chancellor

Diversity and Inclusion at UMD

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,

c Dave McMillan UMD Interim Chancellor

Looking Forward to the Year Ahead

Hello UMD Faculty and Staff - I’ll begin my first communication to all of you with a big heartfelt thank you to the chancellor’s search committee who found themselves working beyond the original schedule with tight timeframes and busy calendars. Thank you for your support, time, and your commitment to UMD. When I first ventured onto this campus as an incoming student in August of 1979, I could not possibly have imagined how consequential the next four years of my life would be and where my UMD experience would lead me. When I walked across the stage in Romano Gym during Commencement in May of 1983, I still had no real idea about the long-term plan for utilizing my UMD degree. I do know I was very grateful to several economics professors who helped me secure a one-year appointment as a research fellow with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) but beyond that, I wasn’t sure what opportunities my UMD degree would ultimately create. So, almost four decades later, it is with the deepest sense of gratitude and the greatest honor that I now find myself sending this note to all of you as UMD’s interim chancellor. Since I finished my time with BBER back in 1984 and headed to the Twin Cities to pursue my law degree, I have never drifted far from UMD, Duluth, and Northeast Minnesota. During my years in business and governance service (including many experiences that are part of or in close partnership with UMD), I’ve had the good fortune to see this fantastic campus grow and change physically and as an academic institution. And, until mid-June, I had the privilege and honor of serving on the U of M Board of Regents — where my understanding of, and passion for, this campus deepened immeasurably. As I begin my first week, I am getting up to speed with the leadership team and campus initiatives. Despite my familiarity with UMD, I have a tremendous amount to learn to successfully lead us into, and through, this transitional period. Learning starts with listening and I want to take time to listen and learn more before setting the agenda and priorities for the year. I look forward to learning about our campus through my new lens and building upon the great work that is already underway. I am confident in saying that we will continue to focus our energy on ensuring student success and supporting our students through their academic journey. As new students make their way to campus over the next few weeks, I am looking forward to meeting them and experiencing that contagious start-of-the-school-year energy. Our colleagues in Student Life have a wonderful Bulldog Welcome Week planned to help get our students connected and off to a strong start. Please mark your calendars and join me for the welcome breakfast held in the Ward Wells Field House on Monday, August 22 at 10:00 a.m. Most importantly, I want to say that I look forward to working closely with our tremendous and talented team here at UMD! I’m excited to meet and work with you over the next two years. I know enough of you and your work to confidently state that it is our faculty and staff that make UMD the world-class place it is today. Thanks to Chancellor Black, we have a talented and experienced team of senior leaders in place. I’m grateful for the expertise they will bring to me and thankful that Chancellor Black is so committed to making this transition a good one for all of us who work, learn, teach, and live here. I also look forward to being part of President Gabel’s senior leadership team and working closely with her administration as we all move forward in advancing UMD and the University’s interests. I am looking forward to this new role and the academic year ahead. I hope to see you around campus soon. Sincerely,

c Dave McMillan UMD Interim Chancellor