News

A project in the honors college that will  help to inform UA Strategic Initiative 1.1B5 Design a new Gen Ed curriculum is underway. The project is part of the university-wide CUES (Center for University Education Scholarship) Program. In this pilot, professors from three different disciplines are cooperatively teaching a diverse group of mainly freshmen students who, like their professors, come from across the intellectual spectrum.

According to UA policy, every employee traveling more than 35 miles from their “duty post” needs a travel authorization to get reimbursed for costs. As many as 4,000 travel authorizations are approved each year by the university. Until recently, that meant pushing a whole lot of paper. But in December 2018, things changed thanks to the UA's adoption of electronic travel authorization forms. The new system is part of the UA Strategic Plan Initiative 5.2A Optimize business process and ways of working.  

The UA GlobalReach magazine, 2019, Vol 17, outlines UA Global's vision for the future. UA Global serves as a central hub for global engagement - the result of a university-wide planning process. Working with partners in Arizona and across the world, UA Global aims to set the standard for a global university.  The vision centers around the many key commitments and initiatives including: Global Citizens, Global Presence, Global Pathways, Global Skills Provider, Global Student Body and Global Impact.

The UA Alumni Association recently introduced the Bear Down Network, a new online community exclusive to Wildcats. The Bear Down Network promotes alumni's lifelong connections to the UA by strengthening the alumni network through increased communication, targeted, meaningful programming and valuable experiences which build life long affinity to the UA. Through the Bear Down Network, alumni have networking and career development opportunities at their fingertips.

The University of Arizona has launched a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) initiative, a key component of the UA Strategic Plan, which will enable the university to achieve its bold vision and goals for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The UA-branded CRM program, Trellis, aims to support and strengthen the university’s relationships by providing a 360-degree comprehensive view of constituents to deliver a modern, more personalized digital experience.  

A series of Campus Climate Praxis Workshops were conducted in March - May 2019 with sessions on main campus, in Phoenix and at the UA South campus in Sierra Vista. The workshops served as a follow-up to the Occupational Health Index survey conducted last fall, and were organized by Andrea Romero and Sara Knepper, Co-Owners for the Reinforcing Our Cultural Aspirations initiative which is part of Pillar 5: Institutional Excellence.

In Spring 2019, the Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) offered project management workshops. The purpose of the workshops was to educate the campus community about best practices as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI). A series of workshops with the Office of Instruction and Assessment (OIA) included an overview of the fundamentals of project management while other workshops were  designed for Initiative Owners and their teams. Additional project management workshops will be offered in Fall, 2019.

As part of a program known as the UA design lab, a dozen enterprising undergraduate students are taking part in an internship that seeks to bridge the gaps among students, faculty and staff with one of campus's most valuable resources – rich, detailed and authentic student feedback. One of the groups of interns, called La Mariposa, or "the butterfly" in Spanish – is looking at how UA Global can more effectively reach all student populations, while understanding the unique experiences of international and study abroad students.

With funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the University of Arizona's Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry will launch a program focused on exploring the narratives of those who live at and journey across the U.S.-Mexico border. Fronteridades is part of the UA's aim to become the leading institution for borderlands scholarship, referred to as the Border Lab Initiative. The goal of this initiative is to make the UA the leader in the field of border studies. This grant is one important first step in that direction.

This morning, I was honored to represent the collective voice of the University of Arizona as I presented our new strategic plan to the Arizona Board of Regents. Now, I want to take a moment to say THANK YOU, because this plan would not exist without you.