Interim President University and Faculty Senate remarks

February 22, 2024

Hello everyone. It’s my pleasure to be with you today. 

These are important times for the University of Minnesota, as we choose a new leader and attempt to secure funding for the future. 

I’ll begin by talking about the University of Minnesota’s requests to the Minnesota Legislature, which opened its 2024 session last Monday, Feb. 12. 

Already, we’ve been busy at the Capitol, with University leaders testifying in front various committees, including: 

•  The House Capital Investment Committee on Monday of this week,
•  The Senate Higher Education Committee Hearing on Tuesday, and
  
•  The House Higher Education, this morning. 
  
  

Today is also U of M Day at the Capitol, an event for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to show their support for the University of Minnesota. The day included a rally at 10 a.m. on the front steps of the Capitol, and a showcase this afternoon in the “Vault” at the Capitol.

In even years for the Minnesota Legislature, the work is focused around capital improvement projects around the state.

Correspondingly, a primary focus for the U of M is our capital budget request, which is entirely devoted to “HEAPR,” or Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement. 

Our HEAPR request, for $500 million, would allow for the renewal of more than 150 buildings to support education, research, and outreach across the state of Minnesota. 

The funding would help address a large and growing backlog of facility needs on all of our campuses.

We are also advancing a supplemental budget request, which includes $45 million in recurring operational funds. This would allow the University to keep costs lower for students by minimizing tuition increases; retaining talented faculty and staff through increased compensation; investing in more student support services; and addressing a portion of expected cost increases. 

In addition, the Board of Regents passed an amendment to the supplemental request based on the University’s Vision for an Academic Health System as presented to the Governor’s Task Force on Academic Health. 

This addition requests $80 million annually to improve health care by:

•  Expanding and enhancing training opportunities to grow the pool of health professionals in Minnesota,
  
  
•  Improving equity and access to clinical care for underserved population, and 
  
  
• Enhancing research to improve health outcomes.

Regents also approved a non-binding Letter of Intent (or LOI) that will establish a new path forward for the University of Minnesota in our relationship with Fairview Health Services. 

We have been engaged in conversations with Fairview for months about refining the terms of our relationship.  

The LOI signals an agreement to advance discussions towards creating a new relationship with Fairview.

The path forward includes the University potentially purchasing the four academic health facilities on and around the Twin Cities campus—M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center (East and West Bank), Masonic Children’s Hospital, and the Clinics and Surgery Center. 

We anticipate no changes for patients, care teams, or employees as we work toward definitive agreements. 

In addition, the University’s Vision for Academic Health foresees a new hospital as part of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, or UMMC. 

The Letter of Intent was also approved by the governing boards of Fairview Health Services and University of Minnesota Physicians.

It allows the parties to begin the next steps of due diligence around creating such a relationship.

The LOI leaves much for future consideration as we work in the coming months—along with Fairview and UMP—to develop a new definitive agreement. 

I was glad to have the opportunity to speak with legislators at a special breakfast prior to the Regents meetings, and I’ll continue to be engaged with state and federal legislative leaders throughout the session. 

Executive Director for Government and Community Relations 
Melisa López Franzen and I were in southern Minnesota recently— along with Minnesota State Chancellor Scott Olson. 

We met with editorial and news writers from Rochester and Winona publications to discuss the role our systems play for all Minnesotans—and stressed the importance of state investment in our capital requests. 

Again this year, we’ll be counting on strong engagement from our many advocates around the state and beyond, including students, faculty and staff, and the U of M system’s 600,000-plus alumni. 

Executive Director Franzen and her office will be active in coordinating these activities. I’d also like to recognize and thank our two faculty legislative liaisons for this year— Donna Spannaus-Martin and Robert Blair. 

We need everyone’s voice as we speak on behalf of a stronger and better University of Minnesota.

Of course, our outreach efforts extend beyond our elected officials. I recently conducted interviews covering many University of Minnesota topics with the Minnesota Daily and with the Star Tribune editorial board. I also had the chance to talk  with the Minnesota State Chamber of Commerce board of directors, and the Twin Cities Communications Council.

Anti-semitism and freedom of speech

I’d like to briefly address the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and some of its ramifications on our campuses. 

Let me first say that I understand the human toll that this conflict has taken on people connected to the U. Every day there are students and employees, some of whom I have met with, that wake up not knowing if their relatives and friends are OK. 

Since October 7, we have focused our efforts on supporting members of our community with all available University resources and we will continue to do so. 

I’d also like to clearly state that this University will not tolerate calls for genocide for any class of people at the University. To be clear, calls for genocide, and other forms of misconduct, discrimination, and harassment, have no place at the University of Minnesota. 

This University has a strong record of responding to and acting against misconduct in all of its forms no matter who is the perpetrator and who is the victim. 

On the issue of speech, I’ve held several listening sessions with students, faculty, and alumni, and I’ve taken the opportunity to reiterate that the University needs to remain a place where people can express their opinions—whether they’re students, staff, or faculty. 

As a public research university, we must provide a place for the expression of diverse views and opinions. It’s not just required by the U.S. Constitution; it’s a core part of our mission. 

The University supports the rights of all members of our community to speak and peacefully demonstrate about ideas they support or to protest against ideas they find unjust or offensive. 

The Board of Regents Policy on Academic Freedom and Responsibility states that faculty and academic staff have the freedom to speak and write on matters of public concern… but also the responsibility to ensure that when they speak, they make it clear they are not speaking for the institution. 

This administration has been working with individual faculty and departments to ensure that we uphold this policy, including disclaimers that academic departmental  statements do not represent the views of the University. 

We continue to work with University governance, and especially with the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Consultative Committee, and the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, to consider how to provide guidance for members of our University community on statements on matters of public concern. 

As is the case with many issues of public significance, full engagement from all quarters of the University in this policy development, and a corresponding respect for hearing out all points of view, is itself part of the educational mission of the University. 

We want to take the time to do this right, which will involve the new President of the University once they are named.

Other Updates 

Turning to other updates, last month, our Crookston, Duluth, and Rochester campuses were awarded the “Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement,” joining the Twin Cities and Morris campuses. 

This makes the U of M the country's first and only university system at which every individual campus has received this selective designation.

At last February’s Board of Regents meeting, the University announced its intention to return the land on which the Cloquet Forestry Center resides to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Related conversations and discussions have continued and progressed since that time. 

As a next step in that process, the University hosted a public engagement session earlier this month at the Cloquet Forestry Center. It was a welcome opportunity to engage with members of the Fond du Lac Band, local community members in the broader Cloquet area, as well as our forestry program alumni and others in the forestry industry. 

The overall tone of the session was respectful, providing space for a number of different speakers to express a diverse range of opinions. 

There was an overarching sentiment of optimism that, with the land under the care of the Fond du Lac Band, close collaboration between the U of M and the Band will allow mutually beneficial research, education and outreach to continue on the land going forward.

I recently attended an event to celebrate the launch of CLA’s George Morrison Center for Indigenous Arts. 

This new Center is a great example of the type of interdisciplinary, publicly-engaged work that the University is known for – involving partners from multiple CLA departments and community organizations.

It honors the late George Morrison—a member of the Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe who was a renowned painter and sculptor.

Morrison taught American Indian Studies and art at the University of Minnesota from 1970 to 1983. 

February is Black History Month, and events and celebrations are taking place across our campuses. I attended the 43rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert at the Ted Mann Concert Hall on January 14th, and I really appreciated both the poignant stories and impressive artistic talent that were part of that event.

And University Relations is featuring the annual “Where It Starts” series of stories of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni on the U of M website. They highlight individuals and communities who continue to make Black history at the University of Minnesota and beyond. 

Lastly, a quick word about the search for new leaders. 

UMD Chancellor Search

Our search for UMD’s next chancellor is well underway. The committee has completed first-round interviews and  forwarded three recommended finalists, who have been invited to participate in campus interviews at UMD in March. 

And the search for the next President of the University of Minnesota System is on a fast track. 

The three finalists traveled to each of our System campuses over the last two weeks for a series of public forums. 

The Board of Regents will be interviewing the finalists in a public meeting next Monday. It is anticipated that the Board will select a president-designate immediately following the public interviews. 

If you haven’t already done so, please consider providing feedback on the three finalists on the Presidential Search website. I know that the Regents greatly appreciate the input they have received throughout the search process.

Conclusion & Questions to the president 

That concludes my report and we can turn to questions to the president. 

There were none submitted in advance, but we have time to take a couple questions from the floor.