Strategic Re-Envisioning Update — July 17

July 17, 2024 Strategic re-envisioning

Dear University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias colleagues,

Thank you to the Strategic Re-envisioning (SRE) leadership for continuing to advance the SRE initiative. As Sabrina and James shared last week, the opportunity to confront unprecedented changes in higher education and creatively envision the future of UMaine lies with each of us: those committed to the success of the university in serving our learners, the state, and beyond.

To encourage community collaboration and feedback, I will include a flash survey in some of my weekly communications moving forward. These brief surveys will inform the work of the SRE group. 

This week’s question is: What is the most pressing question or concern for SRE leadership to be considering? You can answer that question here. 

We look forward to sharing a summary of the results in our communication at the end of July via email and on the SRE website. 

The SRE group is currently refining initial project themes that will be assigned to the Provost’s Fellows as we begin phase two of this initiative. We will plan to share those themes soon. In the meantime, the group will emphasize information gathering and analysis that will prepare us for a campus-wide discussion at the start of the semester.

Project Director Sabrina DeTurk, Associate Director James Beaupré, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs John Volin, and Vice President for Finance and Chief Business Officer Kelly Sparks will hold their first weekly office hours for the SRE initiative from 11:45-12:45 on Thursday, July 25. I encourage our community to use the first office hours as an opportunity to meet SRE leadership, ask questions and provide feedback. You can sign up to meet in-person at 207 Shibles Hall or via Zoom. 

I am pleased by the spirit of openness, community engagement, and transparency that has characterized this process so far. I look forward to sharing more with you as the SRE group progresses. Please feel free to contact me directly at umpresident@maine.edu, and use the subject line “SRE comment.”

Sincerely,

Joan Ferrini-Mundy
President