Learning Matters: UMR National Coverage
Chancellor Carrell
The UMR story of innovation and inspiration has recently been told in the Washington Post and the Hechinger Report. I’m grateful to students, faculty, staff and industry partners for sharing their part of the UMR journey with storyteller Mikhail Zinshteyn who spent several days with us here in the city of care and innovation.
The national coverage reveals that we have closed the achievement gap at the Rochester campus of the University of Minnesota. Going forward, our most important calling is to sustain that equity and excellence for our wonderfully diverse student body and those they will serve as health professionals. We’re also seeking to gather evidence so that we may contribute with others to the transformation of higher education.
Many are asking if the lessons learned at UMR can work on other campuses. My answer is an unequivocal “Yes!” At UMR, we have had the enviable privilege of starting a campus from scratch. We’re grateful – and we accept the responsibility that privilege brings.
The UMR community is driven to discover transferable, equity-fueling principles and practices. The evidence collected by our faculty thus far reveals that relationships matter. While that may seem like common sense, it is no simple task to ensure that each college student has healthy relationships in place with multiple faculty, a consistent advisor and a cohort of peers.
Learning matters, for the students – yes, of course, but also for all of us who have devoted our lives to higher education. We know that educators in our region and across Minnesota already hold deep commitments to student success. I welcome the opportunity to share what we’re learning and to engage in dialogue about how to enact systemic change. Please join us at UMR’s second Higher Education Innovation Summit in June 2020. More info to follow.
If we commit together to discovering and doing what works, Minnesota could see the extinction of exclusion in higher education within our lifetimes.
