Academic Mission Goal

To anchor the University of Minnesota’s new, sustainable community on the UMore Park property in the University’s land grant mission of research, education and public engagement, imbuing it with the spirit of discovery, the rewards of knowledge for daily life and the opportunity to share commitments and talents in a place that meets the needs of tomorrow and the future.

Charge

To develop creative approaches that will ensure that environmental quality – biodiversity, soil, water and air quality, climate change, and other human interactions on the landscape – is incorporated into the core identity of the new UMore Park community  to benefit the University; its faculty, staff and students; and citizens of the new community and the broader region.  Issues of the environment will intersect with education, health, energy, transportation and infrastructure, technology, arts and culture and civic life, among other interdisciplinary and disciplinary pursuits.

Consistent with the Regents’ principles that guide the development of UMore Park, the task force will:

• Vision.  Create a compelling vision for environmental quality that anchors the new community of the 21^st century and is enhanced by the unique characteristics of the University’s academic mission.
• Mechanisms.  Identify mechanisms, processes and infrastructure that will enable research, education and public engagement on the environment to be conducted, applied and incorporated into the new community, ultimately offering distinction in the marketplace and a model for better living.  Opportunities to incorporate cutting-edge research, education and public engagement that continually refresh the community and engage faculty members should be highlighted.
• Collaborations.  Develop strategies for engaging other public and private sector partners and the complementary expertise that will foster creative collaborations and help to ensure public benefits that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
• Actions.  Develop a rationale and action steps that will assist the UMore Park leadership team and its planners and developers in integrating a focus on the environment into the fabric of the new community at the very initial stages of concept master planning.
• Communications.  Recommend strategies to better inform faculty members, in particular, across colleges and departments about the unique research, education and public engagement platform for the environment that UMore Park provides. Create broad awareness and interest in interdisciplinary pursuits and foster commitment to UMore Park as a long-term and unparalleled opportunity to leverage the University’s academic mission as it strives to become among the top three public research institutions in the world.
• Internal and external engagement.  The task force processes and deliberations include the following activities:
  • Inclusive discussions with public and private sector entities that will help to define potential partnerships and joint activities around environmental issues.
  • Broad-based input to the task force via at least one inclusive public forum or “listening session” that encourages ideas and discussion among faculty, staff, students, local jurisdictions and regional interests, other special interest organizations, citizens groups, businesses and other public and private groups.
  • Discussions that cut across the set of six task forces to identify interdisciplinary opportunities that best integrate academic mission into the fabric of the new community, with a focus on the environment.

The final Environment Task Force report will be completed by December 2007 and synthesized with reports from the other five task forces.  The comprehensive academic mission report will be included in the UMore Park concept master planning report that will be submitted to the Board of Regents.

Environment Task Force co-chairs:  Deb Swackhammer and Dewey Thorbeck

UMore Park management team liaison:  Greg Cuomo