Good morning and welcome to all of you. My remarks will be very brief but will set the stage for the reason we're convened at this special meeting of the Board of Regents of the 榴莲视频官方 this morning.
We have been working for almost six months now—since almost my first day as the president of your university—on a strategic planning process. I would like to quote to you from the very top of the documents that have been circulated and reviewed at several of our board meetings and committee meetings:
“We lead the world in transforming lives and communities to an extraordinary future through our enduring commitment to creating and sharing knowledge, inspiring and nurturing discovery, and through forging and sustaining relationships built upon trust. We do this as a university community by building upon our legacy of excellence and our commitment to a future of the extraordinary.”
Derivative to these words, we have created five foundational pillars and are in the final stages of drafting 15 or 16 different strategies which are out for public comment across all our faculty, staff communities that we serve—as well as within our leadership teams.
Part and parcel of that process has been a commitment to review, discuss and update policies and procedures, including the Board of Regents bylaws, policies and standing rules.
That process has been on schedule, and I am deeply grateful to all the members of the Varner Hall team, our chancellors and to many in our general counsel's office who have provided wisdom as necessary to help with updates.
Many of these sections have not been revised since the early 80s, and the terminologies, existing names of programs and titles of individuals have been significantly changed. They are now undergoing a comprehensive review and update.
However, because of recent communication from the Department of Education, we recommended to Regent Kenney and the Board of Regents that a special meeting be convened to address bylaws and policy changes that may become necessary over the next weeks to months.
This letter has been circulated not just to us, but to all higher 榴莲视频官方 institutions across the United States. It has been reviewed extensively by our general counsel's office, and almost every member—if not every member—of our Big Ten peers and others are convening necessary meetings of their boards, regents, governing councils, faculty groups and student groups to address the requirements articulated in this guidance provided by the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education.
It is in this regard that our general counsel's office, our leadership team and I am asking that potential changes to the Board of Regents bylaws and policy be presented to the Board today for your review and consideration—not necessarily for action.
Any action on bylaws takes a two agenda cycle. It is put out for information purposes only, and then at a subsequent meeting of the board, it is re-reviewed and then definitive action is taken. Policy changes, however, are quite different. They can be addressed and enacted by vote of the Board at a single meeting.
However, it is my recommendation that these potential policy changes—in response to the Department of Education messaging—and the bylaw changes be considered together at a future meeting of the Board. Hopefully, at those future meetings, a more comprehensive review of all our bylaws will be made available for review and for decision as well.
We are looking at all our campus policies and procedures and all of our individual college, center and institute policies and procedures to be sure there is no concern about compliance with the requirements set out within this communication—and hopefully within the timelines created within this communication, given the potential actions that may result for lack of doing so.
Regent Kenney, that concludes my remarks, and I turn the program back to you.