Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost
Provost’s Academic Update
January 16, 2007
E. Thomas Sullivan
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Julius E. Davis
Chair in Law
Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,
As you return to campus, I want to highlight recent milestones in the strategic positioning process and showcase academic achievements here at the University of Minnesota. Additionally, I would like to extend my best wishes for a productive and successful Spring Semester.
Transforming the U: Update on Academic Initiatives
University Honors Program: On January 5, 2007, Professor Serge Rudaz (IT) was named Founding Director of the new, campus-wide University Honors Program. Professor Rudaz will begin working immediately with current collegiate-based honors programs.
Rudaz is a Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Physics and Astronomy. During his twenty years at the University, he designed the undergraduate physics honors sequence, and has won numerous teaching awards.
The Program, which will begin in Fall Semester 2008, will attract the very best students and strengthen, expand and diversify the honors opportunities for all undergraduate students on the Twin Cities campus. As recommended by the strategic positioning task force on undergraduate honors, the campus-wide honors program will replace the current collegiate-based honors programs. Read more here.
Institute on the Environment: Last Friday, Professor and Interim Director Deborah Swackhamer (CFANS and Public Health) and I announced the fifteen Founding Fellows to help conceptualize and create the new Institute on the Environment. Congratulations to: Professor Susan Galatowitsch (CFANS), Professor Sagar Goyal (CVM), Senior Research Associate and Associate Director of the Center for Water and the Environment Lucinda Johnson (UMD), Professor Anne Kapuscinski (CFANS), Professor Brad Karkkainen (Law), Professor David Mulla (CFANS), Professor Lance Neckar (CDes), Associate Professor Paige Novak (IT), Professor Christopher Paola (IT), Professor Stephen Polasky (CFANS and CBS), Regents Professor Lanny Schmidt (IT), Professor Emeritus Richard Skaggs (CLA), and Regents Professor David Tilman (CBS).
The Fellows, working with Interim Director Swackhamer, will meet weekly to establish the governance structure and culture of the Institute, help determine initial research themes of the Institute, and define the role of an External Advisory Board, among other expectations. More information, including the University News Release and details about the appointment, can be found here.
2006 Undergraduate Graduation Rates Announced: I am pleased to report that graduation rates for the Twin Cities campus continue to increase. In 2006 the four-year graduation rate for the Twin Cities campus was 40.7%, the five-year graduation rate 57.9% and the six-year graduation rate was 60.8%. It is especially significant that the four-year graduation rate represents an increase of more than 8 percentage points since 2004, when the four year graduation rate was 32.6%.
At its October 2006 Meeting, the Board of Regents endorsed, on our recommendation as part of the strategic positioning effort, aggressive new graduation rate goals for all campuses of the University. Goals for the Twin Cities campus are a four-year rate of 60%, a five-year rate of 75% and a six-year rate of 80%. These rates are where the University needs to be to be among its aspirational peers. We will need to sustain recent increases if we are to achieve these goals by our target date of 2012. Read more here.
Congratulations to award-winning centers, departments, faculty, staff, and students who have received recognition in the recent month. Noteworthy examples include:
- The University ranks 12th in a recent survey of “Top Wired Colleges” in the United States, according to PC Magazine. Noteworthy examples of the University’s wired technologies include: campus portal, web space for blogs, lifetime access to e-mail, and large storage capacity on University e-mail accounts.
- The School of Architecture in the College of Design tied for 7th nationally among private and public architecture programs and 4th in public programs (with University of California, Berkeley) in the 2007 DesignIntelligence Dean’s Survey of American’s Best Architecture and Design Schools. Over 84 school leaders participated in the survey. The University was the fourth-ranked public research university.
- Dean Brian Atwood (Humphrey Institute) was inducted as a Fellow into the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in Washington, D.C. Fellows address emerging issues, and contribute to the intellectual discourse on government. NAPA and the National Academy of Sciences are the only academies recognized in statute by the U.S. Congress.
- Professor Prisca Cushman (IT) was appointed recently to a three-year appointment on the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel. The Panel advises the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation regarding theoretical, experimental, and accelerator-based physics research and development. Twenty national and international scientists are members of the Panel.
- Professor Ann Markusen (Humphrey Institute) received the 2005-06 William Alonso Memorial Prize from the Regional Science Association International. The prize, awarded biennially, recognizes innovative work that will have an impact on the development of academic studies in the scholar’s field.
- Regents Professor Apostolos Georgopoulos (Medical School) was featured on National Public Radio, with the interview broadcast to more than 100 stations nationwide. One aspect of his research, featured in the interview, “translates” neuron activity in the human brain into music. More about brain sonification.
- Associate Professor Rajesh Chandy (Carlson School) is one of 15 people nominated by U.S. Secretary of Commerce to serve on the newly created Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century Economy Advisory Committee. The Committee is focused on understanding how U.S. innovation contributes to American economic prosperity and high living standards.
- Professor Kumar Belani (Medical School) was recognized by the Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangalore, India for his work in global activities.
- Regents Professor Patricia Hampl (CLA) received the 2006 New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award for Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime.
- Professor Deborah Swackhamer (CFANS and Public Health) was appointed by Governor Pawlenty to the Clean Water Council for the State of Minnesota. The Council advises the governor and legislature on administering the Clean Water Legacy Act. More information here.
- Associate Professor Mike Kilgore (CFANS) was one of eleven public members appointed by Governor Pawlenty to the newly established Conservation Legacy Council. Kilgore has been elected chair of the Council.
- Carlson School of Management ranks number one in total number of scholarly articles published in top management information systems (MIS) journals. This honor was recognized in Communications for the Association for Information Systems.
- Professor Demoz Gebre-Egziabher (IT) was awarded recently a $50,000 grant by the Lockheed Martin Corp. to explore ways to dynamically increase precision and accuracy in aircraft landing systems.
I am delighted with the tremendous amount of academic excellence at the University of Minnesota. I look forward to our continued transformation to become one of the top three research universities.
E. Thomas Sullivan
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Julius E. Davis Chair in Law
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