Welcome!
Under the direction of Senior Vice President Robert Jones, the Office for System Academic Administration is responsible for statewide and systemwide academic programs and initiatives. The office focuses on broad, high-level academic, outreach, and public engagement issues; international programs; system academic administration and policy; strategic planning and analysis; budgeting and legislative matters; and institutional research and academic capital planning.
To learn more or to contact one of the offices that comprise System Academic Administration, please refer to the links in the left margin of this page.
Teacher Fellow Award from NACTA
Dr. Harouna Maiga, associate professor of agriculture at the University of Minnesota, Crookston, has been awarded a Teacher Fellow Award from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA). Dr. Maiga
received this national award in recognition of his commitment to and excellence in college teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
News
UM-Crookston awarded a Service Process and Improvement Fund Grant
The University of Minnesota, Crookston has been awarded one of five annual Service Process and Improvement Fund grants to support initiatives that help drive the University’s aspiration to become a top university. Each project supports the goal of exceptional students, exceptional faculty and staff, exceptional organization, or exceptional innovation. The fund invests in projects that improve service levels, productivity, and cost/revenue streams.
UMC’s winning project – Exceptional Quality and Communication from an Exceptional Organization – will create an electronic process to recruit, market, and communicate to prospective and current online degree-seeking students.
More about these grants and those awarded
2008 Farm Families of the Year
Sixty-four families from around the state, one from each participating county, have been named a “2008 Farm Family of the Year” by the University of Minnesota. The families will be officially recognized in a ceremony Thursday, Aug. 7 at the annual Farmfest near Redwood Falls, Minn. Profiles of the 2008 honorees and information on the recognition event can be found on the university’s farm family website.
“The University of Minnesota is proud to recognize these farm families for their contribution to agriculture and their communities,” said Bev Durgan, dean of University of Minnesota Extension. “Farm families are the foundation of Minnesota agriculture and major contributors to the vitality of our communities.” Families receiving honors were selected by their local county Extension committees and have demonstrated a commitment to enhancing and supporting agriculture and agriculture production.
“This year’s farm families show the broad range of food produced by Minnesota's farmers - - everything from soybeans and hogs to less traditional crops like hybrid poplars and maple syrup,” said Allen Levine, dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. “We’re proud to salute these families and their hard work to put food on our tables.”
Along with Farmfest, University units sponsoring the recognition event include University of Minnesota Extension, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, and the College of Veterinary Medicine.
The University of Minnesota Wants to Keep our Teens, and our Roads, Safe
The Center for Transportation Studies unveiled an invention June 30 that could help parents monitor the driving habits of their teen drivers. The Teen Driver Support System gives drivers a voice warning about excessive speeds and sends a text message to the teens' parents. The system uses global-positioning technology and a database of local speed limits to determine when a vehicle is going too fast. It can even account for weather conditions and impose its own temporary lower limit on the driver. Additional capabilities include keeping track of the number of passengers in the car, whether they're wearing seatbelts and even monitor the volume of the stereo. The cell phone in the car needs to be of the "smart phone" variety, generally with a full keyboard and screen.
DOT Announces New National Clearinghouse to Improve Rural Road Safety (July 2, 2008)
U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary Thomas J. Barrett recently announced that the University of Minnesota will be home to a new national clearinghouse for information about the best way to make rural roads safer. The clearinghouse is part of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters' national strategy to bring new focus, including resources and new technology, to reducing deaths on the nation's rural roads.