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Alumni Association Home > Past Issues > 2003 > January-February 2003   Print View Campus: In Brief 1/23/2003 By Pauline Oo Bob Bruininks is the new University of Minnesota president. The Board of Regents announced his appointment November 8, one day after naming Bruininks sole finalist following a nearly six-month nationwide search. Bruininks, whose contract will run through June 30, 2005, has been with the University for 35 years in various positions: interim president, executive vice president and provost, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, and professor of educational psychology. The University is part of the solution to the state’s economic challenges, said President Bruininks, but the state must be a partner in funding the University to ensure that it continues to develop strengths that can enhance the state. "The University is a revenue generator, attracting more than $525 million in research funding to Minnesota each year and creating new knowledge and technology that fuel the economy over the long term," he said. In light of the state’s $4.5 billion deficit, administrators have prepared the University’s smallest new funding request in 10 years, which includes a 50-50 funding responsibility. The University would fund its share through a 4.5 percent annual tuition increase and reallocations totaling 2.5 percent of its $1.8 billion operating budget. The University is requesting $96 million to support academic initiatives and infrastructure, faculty and staff compensation, and student experience improvements. For more information, visit www.umn.edu/govrel. The University will explore an on-campus, Gopher-only facility, President Bruininks told the Board of Regents December 13. "We have serious reservations about whether a joint stadium would yield our desired outcomes," he said, noting that the University wants to create a collegiate game-day experience that would increase student attendance and bring alumni back to campus. The University’s Metrodome lease expires in 2011. Bruininks said the University will remain open to other ideas and has no plans to advance a stadium proposal in the 2003 legislative session. Regents expressed support for exploring a Gopher-only facility; the University will outline its plans in a letter to the state legislature that will also include a summary of work it completed on a joint-facility study with the Vikings. Post-9/11 federal legislation addressing national security has "real and potential effects" on the University, and the University is taking steps to ensure compliance, Interim Vice President for Research David Hamilton told the Regents Educational Planning and Policy Committee November 7. He cited three provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act with immediate impact on the University and its research activities: Select Agents and Restricted Persons (the University has inventoried and secured certain biological substances and is developing a policy to define roles of those who handle them); Collecting and Reporting Information on Foreign Students and Faculty (the University is modifying its admissions system); and Surveillance and Disclosure of Records (federal officials would have access to all student records). In addition to new federal laws, Hamilton said, some government agencies are imposing publication restrictions in research contracts or requiring prior approval of non–U.S. citizens working on research projects. University contract officials have been screening federal award agreements for any restrictions on the right to publish. University policy prohibits research secrecy. New University international student enrollment is down by 180 students, or 18 percent, over fall 2001. The drop, according to International Programs Executive Director C. Eugene Allen, is attributed to post-9/11 federal regulations that have increased security clearances for students from certain countries and in certain academic fields. He said if numbers continue to drop, the University will see "significant adverse effects" in some academic programs, especially science and engineering, where the largest percentage of international graduate students is concentrated and where there is an inadequate pool of domestic students. The University currently has 3,400 students and 1,000 scholars from 130 countries. Pauline Oo is a writer in the Office of University Relations.

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