List the U of M among your assets

By Robert H. Bruininks
This article appeared in the Star Tribune on October 31, 2004

Visionary leaders in Minnesota's business community have for years known this truth: The University of Minnesota's ability to attract the best minds available is a critical asset in assuring a robust economic future for the state in general and for their companies in particular.

Within a global, knowledge-based economy, the University of Minnesota, as the state's only major research university, is the foundry for new ideas and innovations that help drive our economy. But in addition to that intellectual capital, the university is an important source of human capital, the skilled and knowledgeable graduates whose productivity makes our state and regional economy competitive.

Economist Richard Florida's work mapping the geography of talent in today's economy indicates that businesses increasingly seek locations where they can hire creative and skilled employees and that major research institutions play a starring role in attracting and retaining such talent within a region.

In our region, prominent business and community leaders associated with the Itasca Project have identified the university's role as a "talent magnet" that is essential to the state's future economy and quality of life.

Over the past decade, the university has improved central elements of student life and learning. By class rank and test scores, the academic quality of our student body has never been higher at the University of Minnesota.

Attraction and retention

But I believe much more must be done to retain Minnesota's best students and to attract more from elsewhere. Although the university offers nearly unparalleled opportunities for its students, we are uncompetitive for some top prospects because we lack sufficient scholarships.

The University of Minnesota ranks at the very bottom of the Big Ten in the percentage of freshmen being awarded merit scholarships. That simply isn't a rank we can maintain and also continue to compete for top students, the kind that will provide the innovations and the workforce for Minnesota companies in the future.

College graduates tend to take up permanent residence near where they went to school. At the university, we know that most of the 11,000 students who graduate annually stay in Minnesota to live and work and contribute to the state's economy, culture and quality of life.

We also know that high school students admitted to the university who decide to go elsewhere -- most of them in the top 25 percent of their high school class -- choose out-of-state schools. When we lose them, Minnesota loses many of them for good.

Building scholarships

What's to be done? At the university, we've launched a multi-year scholarship drive to raise $150 million in new gifts, the biggest such effort in our history. I've made scholarships the top fund-raising priority across the university by pledging a university match to major scholarship endowments and designating October, a month when many of our alumni reconnect with our campuses, as Scholarship Month to focus attention on the drive.

Our fund-raising encompasses both merit and need-based scholarships. Severe budget cuts by the Legislature and governor have produced back-to-back double-digit tuition increases, meaning that while students might be better-prepared academically than ever, many of them also are more financially challenged than ever.

If the University of Minnesota is to meet its promise of being the talent magnet for the knowledge economy, business leaders must help make it happen. We need their help in persuading the Legislature and the governor that adequate support for the University of Minnesota is critical to the quality that allows a research university to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive grants and contracts, as well as top scholars and students.

By the way, we're still awaiting action on a modest package of capital projects laid over from the 2004 session.

Case in point

But we also need the help of business leaders in creating scholarships. Let me describe how one visionary company, 3M Co., has done just that.

At 3M, a $1 million challenge grant was established by the company to match, on a 3-to-1 basis, scholarship gifts to the university from employees and retirees. As a result of the generosity of the company and its scientists, managers, sales representatives and workers at every level, a scholarship for top students majoring in business, engineering and science-related disciplines was created three years ago.

Nathan Olson is a freshman at the University of Minnesota this fall majoring in civil engineering. He was co-valedictorian of his class at Duluth's Marshall School, where he was captain of the cross-country team and a member of the student council. He competed in math league and mock trial and was named to the tri-state honor band.

Nathan is one of three National Merit Scholars that the university attracted this year with the help of the 3M/Alumni Undergraduate Merit Scholarships. So far, 56 students have received the 3M scholarships. They all have academic profiles similar to Nathan's (this year's contingent has an average 4.09 GPA), and like Nathan, they were recruited by Ivy League schools and other Big Ten universities. The 3M scholarship helped make the difference.

Nathan and students like him represent a big part of Minnesota's future. They might represent a big part of the future of your companies. They might be the doctors who care for your children and grandchildren. They might lead our classrooms and labs or our courthouses and capitol. And it might be your vision of the future that we all have to thank for helping to make it happen.

Robert H. Bruininks is president of the University of Minnesota.
This article appeared in the Star Tribune on October 31, 2004

Posted by mpdean at November 1, 2004 05:20 PM