Engagement Survey Message from Chancellor Black

Dear Campus Community,

As you know, the University of Minnesota Duluth is in the early stages of a long-term effort to enhance the engagement of faculty and staff. The employee engagement initiative was launched across the University of Minnesota system in 2013 to support the University's commitment to meet its academic and research mission by creating workplaces that energize, empower, and enhance faculty and staff. Engagement profoundly shapes both the quality of the faculty and staff experience, as well as workplace outcomes. It impacts recruiting, retaining, and developing top talent, as well as collaboration and innovation. For individuals, it affects both resilience and wellbeing. One component of this work is an employee engagement survey, which has been administered to faculty and staff annually for the past two years.  For more information visit the University of Minnesota employee engagement website.  

While most of the questions are focused at the department or unit level, it is important for us to look at our overall campus results.  I have attached a copy of the overall UMD faculty and staff engagement survey results.  In the report you will see how each of the metrics compares to the 2013 result and how it compares to the entire university system.  

The survey captured a high level of engagement from faculty and staff in regards to meeting student needs and providing quality services.  For both faculty and staff, there is a high understanding of expected results and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. 

Additionally, faculty report:
●    being student focused
●    having enough authority to do their jobs effectively
●    engaging in open and honest communication within their departments
Staff report:
●    providing quality service
●    feeling encouraged to be innovative to find efficiency
●    being treated with respect 

There are also areas of opportunity in regard to workload distribution, support for scholarly activity, eliminating barriers, professional development and survey follow-up. I am committed to working with my leadership team and others across campus to address and remedy these.

This is an important self-reflection process for the campus community and great feedback for me and the leadership team.  Throughout the course of the last couple years, we have worked together through various obstacles. That is clearly reflected in the survey results. However, I also see our campus community is highly motivated and dedicated.  Many of you go above and beyond your normal job responsibilities and your passion is evident.  Thank you.

After UMD received its results in March, each of the Vice Chancellors and unit directors (with 10 or more survey respondents) was provided the reports for their units.  They have and/or will continue to share and discuss those reports with their teams.  It will be up to each unit to customize and determine the best course of action, with a goal to utilize this information to strengthen engagement levels.

The University of Minnesota employee engagement website has a variety of tools, tips and resources to analyze the results and implement action plans.  As well, UMD staff from the Department of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity are available to meet with departments and offices to help interpret and take action on the survey results.  This fall, staff from the system Office of Human Resources will also be on campus to provide informational sessions.  We will keep you posted on those dates as they are arranged.

I hope that this insightful information will spark a wealth of constructive conversations that further your commitment to UMD and my administrative team’s commitment to you.  We have made great strides but can still do better.  This information prepares us to take that step and positively impact our work environment.  

Thank you again for all you do to advance UMD and to create an outstanding environment for our students, faculty, and staff.  

Sincerely,

Lendley C. Black
Chancellor

________________

Chancellor's Office
University of Minnesota Duluth
515 Darland Administration Building
1049 University Drive
Duluth, MN 55812
218.726.7106
218.726.6535 (fax)
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Link to PowerPoint Presentation 

Campus Announcement - Alumni Director Lisa Pratt Retiring

Dear Campus Community:

Lisa Pratt, Director of UMD’s Office of Alumni Relations, has done an outstanding job advancing the participation and engagement of our alumni over the past several years. Lisa is now starting a new chapter in her life and will be retiring from UMD on August 21 in order to spend more time with her three daughters and her grandchildren, who live in the Twin Cities area. A UMD graduate, Lisa joined the Alumni Office in July of 2004 and has proudly served as director for the past three years.

Under her leadership, she increased alumni participation across generations and established the Young Alumni group. She partnered with the collegiate units on alumni initiatives, and she helped establish the Hospitality Tent at the home football games. Under her guidance, revenue and participation increased through a variety of initiatives, from an Alumni Awards Card to enhanced travel opportunities. She also led the increase in donations for the Alumni Association scholarship, which is awarded to the children and grandchildren of UMD alumni. This included successfully spearheading the Division II Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year campaign on campus, with UMD football coaches Curt Wiese and Bob Nielson winning in 2014 and in 2010. This national honor included $50,000 each year to local charities, as well as $20,000 for alumni programming and scholarship support.

Although I hate to see Lisa leave UMD, I fully support her decision to spend more time with her family. We will miss her outstanding contributions in serving UMD’s 70,000 alumni, but she will be a Bulldog forever. We will begin immediately preparing for the search for a new alumni director, and Tricia Bunten, UMD’s Chief Development Officer, will chair the search. Please join me in thanking Lisa for all she has done for UMD.

Sincerely,


Lendley C. Black
Chancellor


Chancellor's Office
University of Minnesota Duluth
515 Darland Administration Building
1049 University Drive
Duluth, MN  55812
218.726.7106
218.726.6535 (fax)

Campus announcement regarding Linda Kinnear and HR&EO

Dear Campus Community:

For many years, Linda Kinnear has provided excellent service to UMD, particularly in academic human resources.  Linda retired last week as an Interim Co-Director of the UMD Office of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity.  I wish to thank Linda for her dedication to UMD and for her leadership during the transition to the new Enterprise System Upgrade Project/Human Resource Management System.  As the ESUP HR campus project lead and HRMS Key Contact, she worked tirelessly to make sure UMD was well represented during the design and implementation phase.

Mary Cameron will continue as Interim Director during the search for a new director.  The Department of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity has many talented staff, and they are already looking at ways to be as effective as possible and to implement efficiencies that are necessary because of recent system and personnel changes.  In addition, we are receiving assistance from the system Office of Human Resources on the Twin Cities campus.  Additional leadership and oversight is being provided by Elaine Hansen and Wendy Lane, the Office of Human Resources consultant assigned to assist UMD.
Meanwhile, the search for the new HR&EO director is progressing well.  Initial interviews are occurring this week, and campus interviews will begin before the end of June. 

Last week, I sent notes of appreciation to our staff members in HR&EO, our HR Stars, Financial Managers Group, and Collegiate Admin Directors.  Like others on campus, they have been working many long hours and doing their best to handle the complexities and uncertainties of the new ESUP/HRMS system.  Please continue to support our valuable staff colleagues as they help us though this transition.

Sincerely,

Lendley C. Black
Chancellor

Chancellor's Office
University of Minnesota Duluth
515 Darland Administration Building
1049 University Drive
Duluth, MN 55812
218.726.7106
218.726.6535 (fax)
Support the U

Campus Budget Update

Dear Campus Community,

I hope you are enjoying the start to your summer.  I wanted to provide an update on the University of Minnesota budget situation and how it will impact UMD. 

On Friday, May 22, Governor Mark Dayton signed the higher education bill into law.  The law provides $30 million in new funding to the University of Minnesota Medical School, $22.2 million for operating costs to enable some tuition relief and $1 million for Alzheimer's disease research.  View the final comparison of proposals this session for University budget funding.

State funds like these from the Legislature are one of several sources that contribute to building UMD’s budget.  While we have not received the final UMD budget allocation numbers, we do have preliminary numbers.  Once again, we find ourselves in a stronger financial position now than where we were a year ago.  However, we still have work to do in order to clear the deficit and balance our budget. 

A few of the key highlights for the UMD FY16 budget allocation include:

• $500,000 in recurring additional support provided by the system for our campus to use toward the structural imbalance.

• $1.6 million recurring money to fund a partial tuition freeze, meaning UMD can expect to see a 1.5% tuition increase in fall 2015.

• $922,000 in additional recurring funding to fund the job family study, fringe simplification and athletic scholarships.

• $100,000 non-recurring increase in funding for Glensheen Mansion for FY16.

In addition, we received $2.4 million in one-time funding for:

• $1.9 million for the Strategic Enrollment Management initiatives.

• $500,000 in operating budget support to lessen the impact of budget reductions.

In the end, I am very pleased to tell you that we are very close to eliminating our structural budget deficit, which is now down to $3.2 million as we begin FY16.  This is a marked improvement from a $6 million deficit last year and the $12 million deficit we faced two years ago.  This has been achieved through a combination of internal budget reductions, increased revenue and additional support from the system.  We continue to make academic quality a primary focus as we solve our budget challenges. 

I want to thank the campus community for working together to find creative ways to operate more effectively.  This has not been easy and we still have hard work ahead of us, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Early in the fall semester, I will finalize the best strategies for resolving the remainder of our budget structural imbalance.  Before final decisions are made, I will seek advice from the academic deans, my senior leadership team, the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee, and other governance groups.  I also want to thank President Kaler and his staff for engaging our campus community in discussion and partnering with us to address the budget challenges.

The University of Minnesota budget will be discussed in a public forum on June 12 at 12:30 p.m in the McNamara Alumni Center on the Twin Cities campus.  For information on how to submit written comments and watch the livestream, click here.  The budget will then move to the Board of Regents for final approval on June 24.

Sincerely,


Lendley C. Black
Chancellor
________________

Chancellor's Office
University of Minnesota Duluth
515 Darland Administration Building
1049 University Drive
Duluth, MN 55812
218.726.7106
218.726.6535 (fax)

Message from Chancellor Black

Campus Community:

As we round out another academic year, having graduated 2,300 students in an exhilarating commencement program last weekend, I wish to express appreciation to each of you for another successful year.  Our faculty and staff are the most valuable resource we have.  Each of you dedicates your talents and energy to ensure we fulfill our mission and provide our students with a transformational experience.  Thank you. 

I also want to update you in regards to the budget situation.  I wish I could tell you with certainty what UMD’s budget for the upcoming year will look like.  However, due to the continued state budget discussions at the Capitol, our own budget situation is still unclear.  We do know that the state legislature did pass an education bill for Governor Dayton’s approval Sunday night.  The bill includes $53 million for the University of Minnesota System, of which $30 million is for the medical school.  If passed, this budget allocation would not be sufficient to fund a two-year tuition freeze.  

At this point, it is still unclear exactly what our level of state funding will be or how that will impact UMD and our campus community.  As this continues to unfold I will keep you apprised.  Thank you again for a great academic year.  I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.  

Sincerely,

Lendley C. Black
Chancellor

Those Who Can Duluth Update

Campus Community:

I would like to provide you an update on our institutional branding campaign and the tagline, Those Who Can Duluth (TWCD), which was launched in September 2012.  You may recall that the campus community was surveyed in February-March about the campaign, after I received a number of comments and concerns about TWCD.  The recent survey included valuable feedback, and I thank those who participated. 

We recently received the survey results and I have asked Lynne Williams, our new director of external affairs, and her team to review the information.  While nearly everyone on campus who completed the survey was aware of the TWCD campaign, the perception and understanding of the campaign was mixed, with more negative than positive results.  Feedback has identified that while weaknesses exist with the tagline, strong attributes of the TWCD campaign are the concepts and stories it tells, which serve to differentiate UMD from the other UM campuses.  I have clearly heard your concerns, and we will address them.

How we communicate about UMD is vitally important, and it is critical for that message to resonate with our external audiences and be endorsed by our internal community.  Moving forward, Lynne Williams and her team will analyze the results and look at the various audiences individually.  Over the summer, the External Affairs team will make recommendations, which may include further creation and testing of revised and new messaging.  We will discuss this with the campus community in the fall, with a goal of having a clear direction by the end of the calendar year.  In the meantime, we will diminish the use of TWCD until a new direction forward is determined.  

Please contact Lynne at lwilliam@d.umn.edu if you have any questions about this important project.

Sincerely,

Lendley C. Black
Chancellor

Spring Budget Message

 Dear Campus Community,

 

Since our Town Hall meeting in January, we have presented our budget request (budget compact) to the University of Minnesota system, and there has been much planning and collaboration in the development of our budget for fiscal year 2016. We appreciate your ideas and participation, which had a direct impact on the process.

 

The plan that is described below allows us to meet our FY16 budget resolution goals without cutting any academic programs and does not include any across the board cuts. Instead, we’re being very strategic and ensuring that our core academic mission drives the decisions. In fact, cuts to the colleges and schools are much less than we anticipated. You may remember that the deans submitted a 3% reduction plan. Instead of 3%, the collegiate units will only see a 0.9% reduction at this time. The deans and department heads are now developing a specific reduction plan.

 

Although we don't intend to eliminate any academic programs, the tough fiscal situation will impact our campus. The reverberations will be felt through a reduction in term faculty, support of our lab services, some student services, and some part-time staff positions. Every single college and school at UMD is taking a cut.

 

This plan also focuses on reducing open staff and faculty positions. While there are still uncertainties and this may change, please know that I’m hopeful that we can utilize recently opened positions to make reductions. I’ll know more when we receive our final budget allocation from the system leadership the end of May.

   

In the meantime, here’s where we plan to reduce expenses in the major areas of our campus:

 

Chancellor’s Unit (which includes Athletics)

·         An open position was eliminated and other positions were realigned.

Total reduction in the Chancellor’s Unit: $233,334, 3%

 

Finance and Operations

·         Human Resources and Equal Opportunity implemented a shared services model in FY14, reduced services, and switched oversight to other funds.

·         Some open positions in Facilities Management will not be filled and management positions may be realigned.

·         During FY15, Business Services adopted a shared services model, which allowed for the elimination of an open position.

Total reduction in Finance and Operations: $748,521, 3.3%

 

Student Life

·         The operational budgets in two Student Life units are being reduced.

·         Enrollment marketing initiatives will be paid, in part, with auxiliary funds.

·         Other O&M expenses will be absorbed by fee-funded units.

·         Shifting funding of one Student Life unit to collegiate unit fees, which better aligns with the Twin Cities campus funding model.

Total reduction in Student Life: $586,310, 23%

 

Academic Affairs

Reductions in the Academic Affairs units (non-collegiate):

·         Reduction of financial support for honors courses, students in transition activities, registrar and graduate education.

·         Reduction in support of one-stop and recruitment.

·         Reduction in library e-resources.

·         Reduction in support for one-time initiatives/requests.

·         Reduction in staffing for ITSS, assessment, instructional development (will develop new model with faculty input), writing center, tutoring center, NRRI.

·         Reduced travel and professional development.

·         Reduced student scholarships for study abroad.

Reductions in collegiate units:

·         Reductions in instructional funds, staffing, and instructional lab resources.

Total reduction in Academic Affairs:

Non-collegiate units - $624,300, 2%

Collegiate units - $526,000, 0.9%

 

While nothing will be definitive until we receive our budget allocation from the system leadership, I want to make sure that you’re updated on the process as we continue solving our financial challenges.

 

I sincerely appreciate your participation and your help in positioning UMD for the new realities in higher education.

 

Sincerely,

 

Lendley C. Black

Chancellor