Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost

The University of Minnesota is making enormous strides in the effort to transform itself into one of the top three public research universities in the world. Colleges, programs, and institutes have been launched to create new academic synergies that will lead the way to meet many of the challenges we will face in the 21st century. The results include three new colleges poised for greatness: the College of Design, the College of Education and Human Development, and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences; several new programs to enhance the undergraduate and graduate educational experience, including a new Department of Writing Studies; and four major interdisciplinary institutes positioned to tackle the questions of tomorrow.

Read more about the University's transformation.

Featured Academic Affairs Updates:

New $1.3 million initiative to further arts, humanities and design at U of M

On September 8, University of Minnesota Provost Tom Sullivan announced a new $1.3 million system-wide initiative designed to support a broad range of faculty activities in the arts, humanities and design. The newly created "Imagine Fund" is supported by a major gift from the McKnight Foundation and will begin this fall, with full implementation coming by 2009.

Complete University News Service press release.

Provost’s Academic Update

“Since our community has just finished hosting the Republican National Convention and a presidential election is just two months away, I have been thinking about the connection between democracy and higher education. One of the energizing aspects of working and studying at a major university is being surrounded by students and colleagues with whom creative, thoughtful, and articulate ideas can be shared, debated, and developed.”

Read the Provost's complete Sep. 9, 2008, Academic Update.