. . . Fall 1996
nterim President Homer A. Neal announced in September the approach he would take to ensure the smoothest possible transition between the administration of President James J. Duderstadt and Duderstadt's successor, who is expected to take office next year.
In a publication called The Interim, a vehicle for communicating with students, staff, faculty and alumni, Neal cited the "challenges facing us in the months ahead." These included the following:
Planning for the recruitment of a new dean of the Medical School and director of University hospitals in an era when "academic health centers are undergoing tremendous strains as they seek to adapt to an environment of managed care and competitive non-teaching hospitals."
"Developing our response to growing pressures on affirmative action, issues of campus climate, addressing the conditions experienced by our primary research faculty, and preparing our faculty for changes in the federal research funding profile."
"Ensuring that we offer every undergraduate a research, scholarly, or service-research opportunity."
Getting the renovation of Hill Auditorium under way "at the earliest opportunity, perhaps in connection with the 'Year of the Humanities and Arts' planned for next year."
Neal restated the U-M's commitment to the Michigan Mandate and the Michigan Agenda for Women. Noting that recent court decisions have caused uncertainty about the stability of the Agenda and the Mandate, he said it was "essential to sustain these programs" because both the Mandate and the Agenda "are as much (perhaps more) about intellectual expansiveness as about social change."
"It is possible," he continued, "to cite numbers documenting the effect of these programs on our campus demography, but far more impressive than any numbers is the testimony of deans and department chairs about the enrichment of many disciplines under the impact of growing diversity. ... These are not programs designed to benefit a few but rather to bring to the University itself and the society it serves the benefits that derive from inclusiveness."
Neal then addressed his desire to see Michigan assume national leadership in undergraduate learning through "research, scholarship and creative activity." "Research experience," he noted, "engages students in the intellectual life of the university; it helps them to develop, through practice, genuine skills of inquiry; it helps them see at first hand what the life of a researcher is like. In my own career, I have been pleased to have a number of undergraduate students work with me on physics projects. I know from them that, in addition to deepening their understanding of physics, of computing, of the engineering of large electronic systems like particle detectors, they found the experience invaluable as well in helping them reach decisions about their own career objectives."
Neal urged the U-M community to realize his vision and "ensure that every student at the University would in fact work at some point in his or her undergraduate education with a member of the faculty on a significant research, scholarly or creative projector for that matter, be engaged in research throughout his or her time here."
"Such a guarantee," he emphasized, "would be unique among research universities in the United States."
Neal welcomed all members of the U-M community to share their thoughts on these and other topics with him during the transition period in the months ahead.
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