Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost
Preliminary Task Force Recommendations
Dear University Faculty, Staff, and Students, We are pleased to announce that preliminary recommendations from 11 of the 34 strategic positioning task forces are now available for public review and comment on the Transforming the U web page at http://www.umn.edu/transforming_the_u through January 27, 2006. We encourage you to comment on any of the 11 preliminary recommendations by submitting feedback via the online comment form on this site. The preliminary recommendations are thoughtful and visionary in scope, and present an excellent foundation for decisions about the next steps toward the overarching goal of becoming one of the top three public research universities in the world, and for our coordinate campuses, an equivalent standard of excellence. The broad feedback from public review will serve to strengthen these recommendations all the more. The strongest, most creative and effective plans will result from a constructive consideration of a diversity of opinions and ideas. Each of us is an important resource for this review. These 11 task forces have been asked to submit their final recommendations by February 3rd, 2006. The remaining 23 task forces, including the strategic positioning task forces on the coordinate campuses, will follow a similar process of public review as they complete their work throughout the spring semester. As the final recommendations are submitted, they will be carefully reviewed and discussed to determine next steps. This is an important milestone on a journey that began in February 2005 with the release of the report of the Strategic Positioning Work Group, and the Board of Regents overwhelming approval in June of the presidents recommendations to transform the University of Minnesota. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to personally participate in this historic effort that is Transforming the U. Sincerely, E. Thomas Sullivan Robert J. Jones |