University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham officially began her role on July 1, and the Board retreat on July 10-12 was her first during her presidential tenure. 

To kick off the three-day retreat, Cunningham shared her goals with the Board and observations from the hiring process. Cunningham framed “five buckets of University aspirations” during her presidency.

Strategic planning, workforce reinvestment, campus safety, marketing engagement and legislature and University relations were all listed as top priorities for the year and immediate future.

Communication engagement and marketing were clear themes of the retreat. Throughout her list of priorities, Cunningham said University sustainability efforts should be addressed as a louder selling point, in addition to University research priorities with AI.

Cunningham said she is considering a new study on the University’s economic impact on the state of Minnesota to replace an older study from 2018 that said the economic impact was approximately $8.6 billion.

“Our government relations colleagues care a lot about our economic impact across our state,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham also said she discussed with campus leaders about the path forward for balancing academic freedom and safety on campus.

“Every leader across the country needs to be doing planning for how we actively manage unrest in a way that keeps our community safe,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said many of her colleagues across the Big Ten have active plans already out for how they will manage their campuses in the fall.

“Two weeks ago we had a vote of no confidence for our administration,” Cunningham said. “Therefore, part of my work going forward is to rebuild that trust and academic freedom across the campus.”

Shared understanding across the University community on academic freedom is going to be a key objective moving forward, Cunningham said.

Quick Hits

• The Board discussed a variety of potential objectives for the next MPact plan and the future direction of the University and its communication strategy.
• The University’s Executive Director of Government and Community Relations Melisa López Franzen gave a presentation updating University progress with the legislature to the Board as state support for the University continues its downward trend.
• Cunningham spoke about the critical importance of M-Fairview and discussed its assets and University Health Systems.
• The Board listened to a presentation from Julie Peterson of the Peterson Rudgers Group on University strategic planning, focusing on analysis of other universities’ plans.