President Mary Sue Coleman presented a preliminary framework for the strategic direction of the University, and asked faculty, staff and students to use it as the campus constructs a long-range plan for the future. In a presentation to the Board of Regents April 22, Coleman introduced several goals for shaping “The Michigan Difference” over the long haul and advanced four presidential initiatives for immediate action.
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Saying the University has faced some monumental events and issues in her 20-month tenure—the admissions lawsuits, sanctions against the basketball program, restoration of Hill Auditorium and the Horace H. Rackham Building, and the launching of the Life Sciences Initiative—Coleman declared it a time to move forward. She said the need to look ahead is particularly important as U-M deals with increasing budget cuts from the state of Michigan and as it launches a major capital campaign next month.
“In my two presidencies, I have learned that sometimes the issues choose you, but at other times, you get to choose the issues you want to advance,” she said. “It is now my opportunity to turn our energy to the agenda that we choose as leaders of this great institution.”
The four presidential initiatives call for the campus to:
• Establish support for sustained interdisciplinary team-teaching initiatives across departments and colleges with funding that already has been committed to the initiative by the provost’s office;
• Explore the formation of a center for the study of ethical issues in the public domain, to address matters facing business, public policymakers, cultural institutions, the sciences and media. The first step will be an assessment of faculty interest and scholarly expertise that supports development of such a center;
• Create a U-M prototype for new approaches to rational and affordable health care, one that would test “the assumption that it is feasible to promote healthy living, contain health care expenditures, and define optimal insurance coverage for individuals and families”;
• Renovate, reconnect and expand residential life to facilitate collaboration between academic and residential experiences, accommodate current and future technology, and generally create better living environments for students.
With regard to long-range planning, Coleman said her primary goal is to “continue to define the great public university of the world.” She said the University should build upon its academic strengths to reach greater excellence, while “recognizing new areas of opportunity and societal need.” To accomplish this goal, she said U-M must:
• Sustain academic excellence
• Foster active engagement
• Build collaborative learning communities
• Create greater access to Michigan’s academic quality
Coleman said despite budget challenges, the University must continue to recruit and retain top-notch faculty, staff and students in order to preserve academic excellence.
“In previous years this might have been an unspoken compact, but today, we are dealing with external pressures that require us to assert, with determined insistence, our pledge to maintain the highest level of academic quality,” the president said.
To foster engagement, she said the achievement of excellence must be shared with local and global communities to address issues they face.
“Whether we look at our work to develop a nationally prominent Depression Center or our partnership with the state’s life sciences initiatives, we will focus on addressing societal needs and sparking a greater level of connectivity—inside and outside the academy.”
Coleman said engagement also means continuing to increase the University’s role in economic development. She has talked with business leaders who are anxious to have more interaction with academic units.
Collaboration is the key to dealing with social problems and preparing students for the problem-solving, team-based environment they will encounter as workers and citizens in a diverse democracy, Coleman said. To foster collaborative learning, she said the University must:
• Bring interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches into the classroom in much the same way they have been adopted in research areas;
• Focus plans for residence hall renewal on collaborative living and learning environments that are suitable for the digital age;
• Expand the life sciences to include more seamless collaboration between the disciplines of natural science, engineering, social science, humanities and the arts, and explore the option of including neuroscience in the mix.
Coleman said the University must ensure greater access to its “vast intellectual opportunity and knowledge.”
“A public university has little value for our society if its resources are not accessible,” she told regents, deans and other members of the campus community who attended the meeting to hear the president’s vision for the future.
Coleman said the University must address some tough questions about accessibility:
• Are there financial barriers that place a U-M education out of reach for academically qualified students, and, if so, how can they be lowered?
• What efforts are needed to recruit and retain faculty, staff and students who reflect the diversity of the nation, and what must be done to create a campus that is supportive of diversity?
• How can U-M provide more opportunities for area businesses to use its resources, or encourage programming such as the Royal Shakespeare Company residency and its involvement with area schools, in an effort to change the perception that the figurative walls around the University are impenetrable?
The president will appoint teams of faculty, staff and students to address the ideas she advanced and others that may evolve during the next academic year. In addition, she will seek support for the long-range plan from alumni, friends and donors, particularly for funding needs identified by schools and colleges for the upcoming campaign, which will be launched May 14 with the theme “The Michigan Difference.”
Coleman said chancellors Juan Mestas of U-M-Flint and Daniel Little of U-M-Dearborn will pursue initiatives appropriate to their campuses. Mestas and Little both expressed enthusiasm during the board meeting for Coleman’s plan, indicating that they share her goals.
“Every university must be ready to deal with unexpected challenges,” Coleman said, “but today, I am setting this University on a course that will sustain our tradition of being ‘leaders and best.'”
To read Coleman’s entire presentation to regents, visit http://www.umich.edu/pres/speeches/index.html.
