A House United

On a freezing cold evening in January, MLK Day to be exact, about one hundred students, staff and community members gathered in Flint to dedicate a very special Habitat for Humanity house.  Remodeling this house was a joint effort of our men of Kappa Sigma fraternity, our Student Veterans Association, and Habitat for Humanity.  The house is now occupied by a U.S. Navy veteran who is currently a nursing student on our campus.

What a great project and an even better story which so dramatically emphasizes the results of coordination, cooperation, and synergy.  It is truly a "house united" -- united to continue the restoration of a neighborhood, to serve a deserving veteran, to provide a vehicle for student community service, and to bring our campus together with the community.

Habitat for Humanity Dedication

This combined effort demonstrates what can happen when an organization develops a "culture of coordination."  If we can move swiftly in this direction as a campus, we can become even more successful at leveraging our resources (whether they are financial or human) to accomplish much more than we could independently.  We'll also be able to make an even bigger impact on the community and the region if we join forces with one another to effect change.

A letter from a grateful community partner, Whaley Children's Center, sums up what coordination can do for us all:

"One of the happiest days I have spent at Whaley was the day the University of  Michigan - Flint called to see if we would host a service site for MLKing day. The communication, follow-up and coordination I received from Jessie Hurse was second to none.  It was such a pleasure to work with him and be able to make something  so amazing happen inside the wall at Whaley.  I have been doing non-profit collaborative events for 30 years and NEVER have a seen such a well run, high spirited and effective event.  We had over 50 U of M - Flint Staff and students working in three buildings, five different areas.  Together your amazing team did the work that I calculated would have taken me almost two year to do alone a few hours extra a week.  The teams worked so very hard for over 7 hours and had the same positive spirit and energy at 4pm as they did at 9am... There are no words to say that can express our gratitude, but I can say that I am proud to be an alumni of the University of Michigan - Flint, proud to have my children attend and proud to be a part of a community where a University doesn't just say they want to make a difference....but they REALLY DO!" 

Ruth J. Person
Chancellor

Compete

On January 10, 2011, we held a press conference to announce a new special designation from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as an "engaged campus." The Carnegie Foundation is the organization that classifies American colleges and universities using available national data. Below is a snapshot of our former classification and its revisions. Most notably, we moved to "postbaccalaureate comprehensive" and to the top tier of Master's programs.

In 2005, the Foundation introduced a new elective classification category, "Community Engagement." Application for this classification is completely voluntary, and highly competitive. Of the more than 4,000 institutions Carnegie classifies, only 311 now have this classification. We are in very good company! My thanks to the individuals who worked on our application. It is a daunting task to compile information about the extent of our community engagement. I know that we will continue to find more and more ways to be engaged not just locally, but regionally as well.
 

Recieving recognition from Congressman Kildee's Office

Convene

On January 27, 2011, the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Budget and Strategic Planning held its annual campus Budget Forum.

It is important for all of us to understand where our revenue comes from and where it goes, as well as to know as much as we can about each of our units and the functions they serve. Why? In the words of one state official when addressing the need for knowledge in addressing potential budget cuts, "The easiest cut to make is the one you don't understand."

My initial presentation addressed the all-important question: "Where does the money come from (slide 1) and where does it go? (slides 2 and 3)"

Slide 1
 

Slide 2

Slide 3
 

1. The previous Strategic Plan experienced a resounding success. In this context, please describe your unit's three most significant achievements in recent years.
2. Where do you see your unit in five years? What particular budgetary challenges will you face in this process?
3. How do you plan to address these budgetary challenges?

Connect

It goes without saying that the single most important thing we do at UM-Flint is to offer academic degree programs. We continue to add degrees as the need and demand arise; one of our more recent is the Ed Specialist program. I had the opportunity to speak to the Ed Specialist class on Saturday and the chance to connect with Peter Rosenkrands, CEO of A.B. Heller and UM-Ann Arbor grad in engineering. While we did not know one another in school, we both have a deep Michigan connection, and it is always great to hear about "Leaders and Best," whether you know them or not! It was an interesting class session and the students were all engaged in developing a deeper understanding of leadership. That's what we're about!

On My Calendar