Despite the cold, winter at the University of Minnesota Crookston campus has been busy. Our basketball teams have had several games every week and the tennis, softball, and baseball teams have begun playing. The “We are Water,” exhibit has brought many new people to campus, and although it was a cold day, we had a great turnout for the Martin Luther King Unity Walk and the gymnasium was filled to the brim when Temple Grandin came.
After an in-depth examination of student enrollments, current and predicted budget trends, and feedback from faculty, staff, and students, UMN Crookston will transition to a new organizational structure comprised of 6-10 departments organized within two larger academic units effective July 1, 2019. The two new academic units will largely consist of the consolidations of Agriculture and Natural Resources with Math, Science, and Technology of Business with Liberal Arts and Education. Within each unit, there will be 3-5 smaller departmental areas.
Among the intended outcomes are greater budget efficiency, enhanced faculty involvement in shared governance functions related to curriculum, instructional excellence, scholarly and creative activities, and improved student retention and graduation rates. While leadership will continue to work with faculty regarding minor adjustments to this structure, these consolidations involve the least amount of disruption to current structures and will result in two units that are relatively evenly balanced in terms of full-time faculty and the number of student credits generated on an annual basis.
In the long run, these changes will result in significant annual savings. Further, once the new recruitment and retention efforts begin to generate increased student enrollments and new tuition revenues, the reorganization will position UMN Crookston to quickly respond to student and market needs and reinvest in faculty and staff positions on campus.
Did you know?
In 2008 there were less than 150 online students at UMN Crookston and today there are more than 1,000.
In Fall 2018, 47 percent of our first-year students were the first in their families to attend college.
