By MCKAYL BARROWS/Murphy News Service
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Dean John Coleman discussed Tuesday morning his vision for CLA and the recent progress of the college at “The Road Ahead” event held at the Coffman Memorial Union.
Coleman and Boua Xiong, KARE11-TV reporter and University of Minnesota CLA graduate, conducted a Q&A session that allowed Coleman to talk about the the status of CLA and his vision for the college.
“You won’t ever hear me [. . .] speaking in a defensive way about the liberal arts, or being in a position of apologizing for what we do or how we do it, or the kinds of things that we study,” Coleman said, when asked by Xiong about a statement he made earlier this year about keeping CLA on the “offense”.
The “roadmap” Coleman implemented last year continues to serve as a guideline to achieve excellence of CLA in the areas of readiness, research, diversity and community engagement.
Coleman in January created five teams of faculty, staff, alumni and students to work with one segment of the “road map” to identify emerging needs in CLA and forming goals to address those needs.
Actions CLA has taken to support the “road map” include:
- implementation of significant resources to career advising
- addition of internship coordinators to develop relationships with businesses in the Twin Cities to connect students and better prepare them to face life after graduation
- an increase in the recruitment of underrepresented graduate students
- the launch of a “faculty cluster hire
- revamp of the CLA website to create transparency and better connect with the Twin Cities community
- creation of a new fund to provide research grants of up to $50,000 for associated professors in their first four years after receiving tenure.
“I see research, in some ways, as the glue that holds together all that we do within the college,” said Mark Snyder, U faculty member and chair of the roadmap’s research global team. “We often think of the missions of college to be the missions of teaching, research and service and it seems to me that research connects all of the missions.”
Coleman said plans for “the road ahead” include:
- continuing to provide students with “career bundles”
- more structure for career initiative plans
- creation of a better sense of community through potential welcoming events for new faculty who arrive at the University
- to remain as “friendly open door”, welcoming surrounding communities
- creation of environments that will allow students and faculty to flourish
“The liberal arts was uniquely poised to provide me with flexibility and guidance in making my college experience and education fit all of my needs,”Joelle Stangler, student body president, CLA student and member of Coleman’s readiness team, said on the topic of readiness.
The “road map” will be funded through the reallocation of CLA funds, support from the U, a hoped-for increase in enrollment of liberal arts courses, and donors, Coleman said.
“It [a CLA education] is this way of understanding, it’s this way of analyzing, and it’s this way of thinking about the world. That’s what has been successful,” Coleman said.
Reporter McKayl Barrows is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.