When the recommendations are received on October 16, they are not expected to provide a single or overarching vision for the entire University. Instead, each college and unit involved will be submitting local recommendations based on local knowledge and leadership. Insofar as a university is its people – a broad and diverse collection of individuals – a university’s vision is collective.

The challenge, then, will be to find ways to unify these visions around common values and shared goals. As we work toward sculpting the University in ways that maximize efficiency and effectiveness, we will continue to use a common set of tools, the design principles – one overarching set, and a number of specific sets for focus areas for change – to guide our work.

Like President Simon, I have used the word messy to describe the process we have undertaken. It may have been less messy – not to mention easier – to put eight people in a room and tell them to draft a singular vision for the entire University. But that’s not what we’re doing. And that’s not what we want to do. While the current waiting period may cause a degree of anxiety, it’s actually a relatively short time frame to draft some serious long-term recommendations.

Some of you may have recently heard me say that a nearly anyone can balance a budget, but thoughtful long-term planning involves a great deal more work. Each of us is going to need to find ways to adopt a thoughtful and long-term perspective as we go about our everyday work. We’re all going to have to work differently. As President Simon, recently said in the Detroit News column “MSU sets example in how to lead,” by Daniel Howes, “Everybody’s got to be part of the solution.”

Michigan State University has a strong history of leadership, and of finding creative solutions to challenging problems. We will continue to innovate, to grow, and to invest in areas that we’ve identified as strategically valuable for the future of the University. Indeed, there is already much good news to share from the start of the academic year.

• The College of Osteopathic Medicine recently celebrated the grand opening of its new campus site at the Detroit Medical Center.
• The latest study of University Research Corridor impact shows a rise in URC rankings and a $14.5 billion impact on Michigan’s economy.
• MSU has received $26.6 million in stimulus funding grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and has submitted nearly 200 grant proposals that will be considered over the coming months.
• The College of Engineering has secured three grants for alternative energy research.
• Cornerstone Engineering, the new academic program for freshman engineers, and the Residential Experience for Spartan Engineering, a new residential program for engineering, were featured in a recent story in the Lansing State Journal.
• A team of MSU researchers and archaeology students found a 16,000-year-old sand dune beneath a grove of pine trees between Dem Hall and Munn Ice Arena.
• We celebrated the grand opening of MSU’s new Surplus Store and Recycling Center.
• MSU hosted the opening of the new MSU Detroit Center, which represents our expanding commitment to partnerships that promote the prosperity of Southeast Michigan.
• A date has been set to break ground on the Broad Art Museum and a museum advisory board has been named.

Finally, I would like to extend my deep appreciation to all of you for helping to make Fall Welcome’s Fill-the-Bus initiative an outstanding success. As many of you know, we welcomed the academic year with Fill-the-Bus, our first university-wide service learning event. The purpose of the event was to introduce newly admitted students to an important MSU value - Spartans giving of themselves, to others, in community, for the public good. I’m pleased to report that the MSU community filled four buses and one van with school supplies, non-perishable food items, recreational equipment, pet supplies, and health and hygiene supplies that were delivered to various charitable organizations around the Lansing and East Lansing area. Your active participation helped us both exceed our expectations and demonstrate MSU’s continuing commitment to enriching our community. Collectively, your individual contributions made a significant difference in the lives of many.

Michigan State University is, and will remain, one of the top universities in the world. It will continue to innovate and move forward. In doing so, it will emerge from the current challenges it faces more efficient and more effective, while remaining firmly committed to its core values and mission. To expect anything less would run counter to who we are, to what we do, and to that which we aspire to become.

In an era of significantly reduced state funding and increasing expenses, MSU is working to change how we work while holding true to our core values and commitments. This process is aimed at building value and ensuring quality. It seeks to build a new model that will transform the way we work on behalf of our students, stakeholders, and the communities we serve both locally and globally. Background information related to that process, along with planning initiatives and communications to campus related to that process, may be found on the Shaping the Future Web site.

In the same way that a set of design principles are guiding our thinking in key focus areas for change across the University, a set of design principles specific to MSUE has been drafted to guide their redesign. While the urgency of this redesign has been hastened by the current budget situation, it is a necessary action for MSUE to remain relevant, responsive, and a leader in realizing MSU’s land-grant mission.

Five key principles will guide MSUE’s redesign.

• Focus MSU Extension programs on key needs, and feature a more specialized role of educators.
• Be accountable for fundamental indicators of impacts statewide.
• Ensure delivery of programs and outcomes in communities across the state.
• Reduce administrative overhead to ensure a greater proportion of budget is dedicated to programs and outcomes.
• Ensure ability to adapt and respond quickly to emerging needs, challenges, and opportunities.

Using these design principles, MSUE Director Tom Coon and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Dean Jeff Armstrong created two task forces in early August, one charged with identifying statewide programmatic areas for MSUE, the other with developing an organizational structure to best carry out this programming. Task forces were chaired by MSUE regional directors, comprised of MSU faculty and MSUE community-based academic staff, and included at least one department chair from CANR.

As the redesign process continues, MSUE is communicating to its employees the need to fundamentally evolve their organization to best serve Michigan residents and communities. In late August and early September, seven regional town hall meetings were held, one in each of the MSUE regions, and two on campus. At these meetings, to which all MSUE personnel were invited, MSUE leadership

• shared information about current and future funding;
• discussed statewide programming priorities and the concept of a specialized staff;
• discussed restructuring in MSUE community-based offices and on campus; and
• answered key questions regarding both programmatic and structural changes to the organization.

MSUE leadership has begun discussing the organizational redesign with key stakeholders across the state and will continue these discussions through November 2009. I expect MSUE to share their thinking with me later this fall.

Please check the Shaping the Future Web site regularly for additional MSU budget-related communications. The better informed we all are, the better we will be able to engage in the challenges we collectively face.

As part of this year’s Fall Welcome, new undergraduate students took part in the University-wide service and civic engagement Fill-the-Bus event, and students were encouraged to donate school supplies, non-perishable food, or personal care items for 13 campus and community partnering organizations. Fill-the-Bus provided a hands-on introduction to MSU’s commitment to Spartans giving of themselves, to others, in the community, for the public good.

Since its founding in 1855, MSU has been dedicated to giving back to the community. Throughout the building of that legacy of service and engagement, our collective character has come to be defined more by self-satisfaction than by arrogance. For over 150 years, our students, faculty, and staff have constantly raised the bar, both for themselves and for others, making MSU the great University that it is today.

Many of you have heard me say before that at its core, a university is its people – not its buildings, its campus, or its programs, but its people. As we begin this academic year, I ask you all to think of MSU – and your role at MSU – in that way. You are MSU. What you do here defines who we are, and who we will become. As with the start of every fall semester, we are pleased to welcome your individual energies as part of our collective effort.

At the three Provost Forums I held spring semester, many of you shared your concerns and questions about what the current economic downturn may mean for our University. This year we face an especially challenging budget situation of decreased state funding and increased health care and energy costs. We must meet this challenge while maintaining our responsibility to build a sustainable future for our University. 

As we plan for the next academic year, and the two years beyond that, I remain committed to processes that focus on strategic thinking and planning. I also continue to support multi-year, long-term planning. Rather than shift quickly into crisis mode, I want us all to be deliberate and strategic about our changes. To that end, I have asked Deans to think about change over a three-year period. This approach will allow us to review our decisions over time, and to use short-term cash management options as we make longer-term base budget reductions.

It is difficult to assess the degree of differentiation in our planning based on initial information for a single year. A long-term planning framework – along with University-wide reduction planning of 4%-4%-2% over the next three years – provides planning parameters, just as a 3% increase in other years has provided a planning parameter. As with any long-term planning framework, there is always room for variation around the proposed averages. Our deliberate intent is to work through this period using the longer-term timeline, with the expectation that it will allow for a series of more focused discussions as the process moves into years Two and Three.

Overall, I will continue to encourage planning that enables us to re-invest in areas that allow us to grow in distinction and excellence. We will not stop moving forward as an institution because we are called on to contract in size. Universities all over the country are retrenching and retreating. We cannot afford to retreat, or to allow ourselves to believe that innovation or creativity is tied to size. We may need to reduce our overall budget, but we cannot afford to sacrifice our goals or aspirations.

As we move through this process, we need to work cooperatively across units to see where there are opportunities to share, or to understand where our planned reductions will impact others. President Simon often refers to “Team MSU.” There has never been a more important time than now for us to work together for the greater good of the University.

This year, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the featured speaker at our spring undergraduate convocation. A South African activist who served as an opponent of apartheid during the 1980s and winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, Tutu is a champion of civil rights and advocate for the transformative power of reconciliation. His work toward advancing the greater good serves as an inspiration for us all.

As Archbishop Tutu once said, “do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Wherever you are this summer, may you find a way to make a positive difference in the world. Best wishes for a rewarding summer.

Please share this information with those in your colleges, departments, and units. Those serving on search committees or involved in the hiring process are especially encouraged to attend. 

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

I could cite multiple other examples of recent success stories – from the accomplishments of our work in the bioeconomy, to the outstanding new hires in many of our departments, to the aspirations of our ADVANCE grant project. Some of those stories took root at the unit level; some of them were guided by institutional aspirations. Regardless of their origins, our success stories share one common element:  a commitment to excellence.

Ultimately, each success story bolsters our institutional reputation. Each instance of someone doing his or her part to make a positive difference contributes to the collective positive difference that the University makes, world-wide. By building this reputation we continue to be recognized and rewarded as excellent – positioning us as a leader.

Excellence demands an openness to flexibility and a willingness to stretch. To do something new, one often has to let go of something old, or at least loosen one’s grip. While agricultural sciences are still concerned with crops, they’re making a rapid shift to research on plants as fuel and plastics, rather than food. Departments, colleges, and other higher education institutions once seen as “competitors” are now “collaborators.” Undergraduate students, the traditional recipients of information, are increasingly expected to become generators of knowledge. Fundamental assumptions about what constitutes a classroom, an academic semester, and definitions of scholarship continue to be challenged. The contours of the institution that claimed leadership in defining higher education in the nineteenth century are changing as fast as the science and technology on its campus.

As we leave campus for the holiday season and look toward the year ahead, I want to thank the members of the MSU community for all they have done this past year to make the University a better place. At the same time, I encourage us all to take a moment and reflect on the ways in which we can continue to contribute to MSU’s tradition of excellence – from the seemingly insignificant gestures of our everyday workplace practices, to the career-shaping decisions that can forever change our life paths. As evidenced by MSU’s longstanding commitment to excellence, our attitudes, our energies, and our willingness to explore new opportunities can indeed make a world of positive difference.

While it was an exciting and enriching experience to work alongside our international partners in both Tanzania and Dubai, it’s good to be home. The start of classes each fall on the beautiful MSU campus remains a special time for many of us, for many significant reasons. Chief among those reasons is the sense of meaning and purpose that many of us find affirmed as we return to work each academic year. I hope the start of fall semester holds some of this sense of homecoming for each and every member of the MSU community.

MSU has a long and highly respected history of engagement with Africa. Our African Studies Center is one of nine Title VI National Resource Centers on Africa designated by the U.S. Department of Education. Our faculty and graduate students conduct research and work on development initiatives in many countries across the continent , addressing the real needs of real people in real communities. From health and food safety to education and sustainable agriculture, a diverse range of long-term initiatives have characterized MSU’s engagement with the continent.

The pilot projects in the Monduli District and Lindi region are characterized by that same kind of engagement. In both cases, projects will rely on existing structures, with a focus on improving practices, not on creating new programs. In the coming months and years, I hope to visit other parts of Africa, as MSU works toward its world-grant aspirations.

After leaving Tanzania, I head to Dubai, where the first MSU classes will begin, in late August. This will be my first visit to MSU Dubai, and I’m eager to meet with our faculty and first class of students. I’m also looking forward to talking with those on the ground and hearing what they have to say about the range of opportunities and challenges associated with MSU’s programs in Dubai.

Until classes begin, MSU Dubai is just a building. Not until students start to study and learn, will it truly become MSU. Regardless of distance, and regardless of cultural differences, MSU’s core values and mission will continue to guide our presence in Dubai. Programs offered in Dubai are the same MSU programs offered in East Lansing, relying on the same MSU faculty, and the same standards and expectations for students. 

Overall, it’s an exciting time for the University. The start of classes in Dubai marks a watershed moment for MSU. It’s amazing what we’ve achieved in only one year’s time, so many miles away from our home in East Lansing. I’d like to extend my thanks to the many individuals and units that have worked together with diligence and dedication to bring us to this point. Like them, I look forward to the positive growth of MSU Dubai in the years ahead.

When I return from Tanzania and Dubai, I plan to share some of my travel experiences here, in another post. I’m sure there will be many interesting and valuable stories to pass along. Until then, best wishes to the MSU community, as we all gear up for the start of fall classes. 

As the feature story notes, Michigan State’s project is part of the AAC&U’s Core Commitments initiative and makes MSU a Core Commitments Leadership Consortium school. We’re pleased to be part of the project’s Leadership Consortium and to join with other institutions of higher education across the country in finding innovative ways to integrate educating students for personal and social responsibility into the undergraduate learning experience.

Certain quantitative outcomes are easy to measure. Accomplishments such as meeting our capital campaign goals, increasing research productivity, and expanding our international reach and local outreach are all central to the mission and success of Michigan State – and are all things we take account of on a regular basis. But equally central is the way in which we fulfill our mission and define our success. Reaching goals is one thing. Reaching goals while holding true to one’s core values is another thing entirely.

Recent conversations about accountability in higher education have focused heavily on tangible or quantitative outcomes, but failed to thoroughly explore the value of less tangible or qualitative outcomes. I would argue that one of MSU’s most impressive achievements over the past year has been qualitative: our ability to more deeply integrate, and thus embed, a culture of change across the entire University community. That’s a change that’s difficult to measure. Guided largely by our strategic positioning process, Boldness by Design, we have thought about and actively explored how personal, unit, and college goals align in support of institutional goals and aspirations. We’ve changed the way our culture works so we work better together.

I am not suggesting that people have simply “fallen in step.” I would, in fact, argue the exact opposite. We’ve found ways to coordinate and complement our individual strengths to better capitalize on our shared assets to help our decentralized and diverse community create a clearer unified identity.

The culture change going on here at MSU hinges largely on a shift toward local leadership paired with local accountability. We are expecting strong leadership at the unit level. Part of the responsibility associated with that strong leadership is being accountable for the unit’s success.

I’ve encouraged this shift toward local leadership and local accountability and watched it take shape. With the hiring of several new deans, the development of institutional and unit-level metrics, the implementation of Academic Program Review, the revision of planning and budget processes, and the establishment of undergraduate outcomes for liberal learning and global competencies – we’re already doing a great deal to establish and maintain a culture of accountability at MSU. And all of our internal efforts, of course, take place within the larger, ongoing context of national accreditations and evaluations by a diverse range of assessment organizations.

In addition to ongoing participation in external assessment and accreditation, MSU continues to develop rigorous internal measures that are deliberately linked to the student learning outcomes that we value. We’re currently exploring how to most effectively measure outcomes in quantitative literacy and writing. The University Committee on Liberal Learning is wrestling with the question of how students might best demonstrate accomplishments related to our Outcomes of Liberal Learning.

As the national conversation related to accountability continues, it’s important to take frequent note of these local conversations taking place on our own campus. We should remind ourselves and others of the broad range of accountability tools that are in place across campus – and of how each recognizes a nuanced area of strength or expertise that deserves singular acknowledgement.

Throughout this entire process, we will continue to participate in the national conversation in ways that maintain MSU’s unique identity and aspirations while working to effectively respond to our stakeholders. We also will continue to find ways to engage in the national conversation that add value to the diverse range of local accountability measures already in place. In doing so, we will work to account for the standardized and the specialized, the quantitative and the qualitative, the glaringly large and the humbly small. Because ultimately, it all counts.