June 2012

Greetings,

Across the nation, from the President of the United States to legislators and other public officials, to colleagues in higher education, there is considerable discussion about “raising the bar” on the number of people in the U.S. with a college education – all the way to 60%.

Here at UM-Flint, we’re doing our part!  This year (once again), we graduated the largest number of students ever, and at our two commencement ceremonies, we had a total of 700 participants.  For those of us who take part in both ceremonies and the associated activities related to them, the day is long but the outcome couldn’t be more meaningful… 700 new college graduates, most of whom will live and work in Michigan and contribute to the state’s economic recovery.

Our speakers both challenged graduates to be part of that progress in a meaningful way.  While our speakers’ backgrounds differed widely (Mark Miller a GM executive and Raymond Gist a dentist and leader of the American Dental Association), they both encouraged the audience to “make a difference.”  It was a memorable day!

In Michigan, approximately 25% of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or above.  A combination of associate degree holders and “some college, no degree” individuals equals about 32%.  If I’m doing the math correctly from this census data, Michigan could come very close to reaching the target 60% if we could persuade all of the individuals in that 32% to complete a bachelor’s degree!

Some states or individual institutions have made a “return to college” initiative a high priority.  Having been involved in an initiative of this kind previously, I know firsthand how challenging it is to convince adults who have some college credit to return to school, even if they have a lot of credit, a high GPA, and some scholarship incentives.  The other alternative to generating more college graduates, of course, is to attract and retain high school students in greater numbers.  In states like Michigan, however, where the high school population is declining, that choice presents some clear challenges (as does the increased recruitment of out-of-state students who in all likelihood would not remain in the state after graduation).

Thus, a renewed focus on “returning to learning” would seem to be a good strategy for boosting the college completion rate in our state.  For us at UM-Flint, the objective, at the end of the day, is to produce successful alumni like Mark Miller, whether they start and finish in the

expected time as he did, or whether they stop out and return to finish many years later.  What matters is the outcome – more educated citizens for our state.

Ruth J. Person
Chancellor

Compete

Congratulations to our newly promoted colleagues:  Brian Blume, Constance Creech, Brian DiBlassio, Chris Douglas, Hillary Heinze, Suzanne Knight, Quamrul Mazumder, Marianne McGrath, Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch, Sarah Rosaen, Suleyman Uludag, Hiba Bahaeldine Wehbe-Alamah, Jeannette Stein, Vera Anderson, and Annie Szuch.

Our new dual enrollment program in Livingston County has been launched with 44 students from a number of high schools attending their first orientation in late April.  One of our partners in this endeavor, Chuck Hughes, who is currently the principal at Hartland High School, has been named Michigan Principal of the Year by the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

Every morning when I go to my office the first thing I see is Citizens Bank headquarters across the street.  Now we have an official partnership with our neighbors for a Summer Internship Program.  In a competitive process, ten students (five sophomores and five juniors) from the University of Michigan-Flint School of Management have been accepted into a two-year internship program that partners them with a Citizens Bank Branch Manager who will serve as a mentor.  The summer program began May 14.  Students will first gain front line experience working in a branch setting and will have the opportunity to participate in professional development activities including meeting with the program executive sponsor and other Citizens executives, and will have opportunities for networking with the organization.  Citizens Bank is part of Citizens Republic Bancorp, Inc., a diversified financial service company providing a wide range of commercial, consumer, mortgage banking, trust and financial planning services to a broad client base.  Citizens serves communities in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana with 219 offices and 249 ATMs.  Citizens is the largest bank holding company headquartered in Michigan with roots dating back to 1871 and is the 57th largest bank holding company headquartered in the United States.

In May, three UM-Flint staff members completed their year-long program for Leadership Genesee – Gary Ashley, Andrea Whalen, and Pamela Zemore.  This program provides training to enhance participants’ individual leadership skills; provides a framework for networking among participants, community leaders, alumni, and others in the community; builds awareness among participants of community issues, resources, needs and civic responsibilities; motivates participants to become more active citizens; and exposes participants to new, research-based ideas related to Genesee County’s economic, social, and political future. 

Patrick Prouty, Lecturer I in Music, is the winner of the “Outstanding Jazz Recording” Detroit Music Awards.  Patrick conducts the Chamber Strings and the Jazz Combo on our campus.

Sharman Siebenthal Adams, Department Chair in Education, has been accepted for the 2012-2013 Wellesley Institute for administrators in higher education.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has accepted the Education Department as a formal candidate for accreditation.

Convene

One of the many things we do well at UM-Flint is convening community groups and other stakeholders.  On May 15, we hosted the Center for Michigan’s “Conversation on the Future of Education in Michigan,” and we’re pleased to note participation of about 50 citizens from the community.  Co-hosts for this event were the Community Foundation of Greater Flint and Michigan Public Radio.  Ordinarily, we host an annual Town-Gown dinner for community leaders.  The “Conversation” was a substitute for this year’s dinner, as the focus of this event was similar to our Town-Gown.

Connect

In May we began our series of 20-plus orientation sessions for new students.  I try very hard to attend as many of them as time permits, usually for the parent-student dinner, to provide a “welcome to our family” message.  It’s a great way to connect with the newest members of our campus community.
 
An invitation to speak at the Flushing Rotary at 7:00 a.m. on May 31 turned out to be a really lively morning.  In attendance were lots of very enthusiastic UM-Flint alumni, who were uniformly positive about all that we do for students, alumni, and the region.  Getting up that early was worth it!

On My Calendar