Progress Updates
UND LEADS Update
February 2024
January 2024
It has been one year since the launch of the UND LEADS strategic plan, an event that capped nine months of campuswide effort devoted to developing a vision for UND’s future that captured the ideas and input of hundreds of individuals. In the same ways that they were integral to its development, collaboration and inclusiveness have been central to the start of the implementation process. By June 2023, the UND LEADS Implementation Team had been formed, bringing together individuals from the University and Staff Senates, Student Government, and various administrative offices. This group has spent the time since June crafting the components necessary to bring UND LEADS to life.
Here at the start of 2024, we offer this update on LEADS implementation activities. The Implementation Team’s work so far has encompassed activities that include:
- Campus outreach, seeking to continue the spirit of collaboration and inclusion that was essential to the plan’s development.
- Storytelling, in an ongoing effort to highlight work that exemplifies the plan’s core values and strategic priorities.
- Metric identification, which will be a component to telling the story of implementation through measures that allow us to set goals and gauge progress.
- Process alignment, by considering the ways UND LEADS can be incorporated into existing processes, such as the service unit allocation requests and the strategic investment process.
- Initiative identification, through which work across campus can be celebrated and supported for the ways it advances the shared vision of UND LEADS.
As a campus, we have made great strides under UND LEADS this past year. Since the plan was launched in January of 2023, we have embraced our institutional vision and mission and celebrated initiatives which have helped us collectively move forward under our core values of Learning, Equity, Affinity, Discovery, and Service. These stories have been inspiring and we have enjoyed sharing them with you through the monthly UND LEADS newsletters. Many of these initiatives were outlined during the 2023 State of the University address in August where we discussed our institutional goals for the year.
UND’s mission centers around providing exceptional educational experiences that enrich the lives of others through our teaching, research, and engagement. The collective work that faculty, staff, and students have put into accomplishing these initiatives has helped UND move forward with our strategic vision. The Implementation Team will continue collaborating across campus to identify existing or new initiatives that advance the UND LEADS strategic priorities. These priorities, articulated within the plan’s five core values show us how we, as a campus, are moving forward under the roadmap of UND LEADS.
The strategic plan webpage has more information on all these activities and will furthermore be a source for updates in the months and years to come. It is also a place for the campus community to connect with the implementation team to submit feedback and highlight the important work being done. Our hope continues to be that everyone will take up the challenge of helping UND live its vision by inspiring a sense of wonder, a love of discovery, and a commitment to serve and that everyone can and will engage directly with the work of UND LEADS.
Launch Event
University Council Update
Ryan Zerr, associate vice president for Strategy & Implementation, provided a UND LEADS update at the University Council meeting in November, 2023.
UND LEADS Newsletters
Special issue of UND Today: President’s address advances UND LEADS Strategic Plan
Each member of campus community can play role in University’s success, President Armacost tells full house
See yourself in the UND LEADS Strategic Plan
And watch for UND Today’s UND LEADS special editions, say President Armacost and Strategic Plan Implementation leader Ryan Zerr.
Each month, we’ll spotlight the UND LEADS Strategic Plan
Special editions of UND Today will highlight plan’s progress and challenges
Welcome Weekend 2023 gives students ‘informal but informative’ introduction to college life
VIDEO: A newcomer’s perspective on North Dakota and UND
President Armacost talks with new faculty member about bus tour, collaboration across campus
Finding your own Northern Lights
Learning begins with a sense of wonder — and that’s what UND is all about, write the University’s provost and VP for Student Affairs
Dressage champion has no time for horsing around
Aspiring Olympian balances heavy demands of sport, study with UND’s flexible Self-Paced Enroll Anytime program
For biomedical engineering students, internships start on Day 1
Each day after class, students’ real-world problem solving with industry partners begins
Sim labs train future doctors and nurses
State-of-the-art simulation labs — some of them unique in the country — help UND health care students hone their skills
Teachers send hopes, dreams afloat with canoes
Project CURRENT offers place-based lessons to connect with natural world
How we’ll track progress on ‘Learning’ at UND
UND will monitor key elements such as ‘experiential learning,’ ‘individualized advising’ and ‘fostering a global perspective’
How ‘Equity’ enhances pathways into higher education
A core value of UND’s strategic plan, ‘Equity’ improves the UND experience for all, write administrators Tamba-Kuii Bailey and Karla Mongeon-Stewart
UND drove down its medical students’ median debt
And all North Dakota benefits as a result, explains Dr. Joshua Wynne, dean of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences
Project makes dream of ‘Promoting diverse perspectives’ come true
When the Unify Challenge College Bowl pairs students of differing views, the result is — gasp! — not conflict but conversation
UND event celebrates, advances diversity in aviation
Hundreds attend Faces of the Industry summit, which draws top speakers and panelists from across aviation
UND to establish Global Center for Indigenous energy sovereignty
NSF’s Global Centers Competition award helps build sustainable energy infrastructure for Indigenous peoples
How we'll track progress on ‘Equity’ at UND
Watch this space as UND finds ways to track barrier reduction, relationships with Indigenous communities and other elements of ‘Equity’
Affinity at UND: A sense of belonging
Through its core value of Affinity, UND strives to improve the quality of University life, write campus leaders DeAnna Carlson Zink and Bill Chaves
President's video: On speech, rights and safety
In his latest message and video, President Armacost talks about how the conflict in Israel and Gaza affects life on campus
New UND softball complex will have players swinging for fences
Facility will be ‘beacon for youth softball in Grand Forks,’ says Dave Albrecht, co-namesake of field
Fighting Hawks get giant new nest
UND celebrates grand opening of University’s most recent improvements to student living
Feeling hungry? Kiwibots are at your service
Some like it hot; some like it cold. Some like it via Kiwibot as robotic rovers roll
International Education Week showcases UND’s global outreach
Events highlight international exchange and scholarship opportunities available to students, faculty
The University seeks to discover and share knowledge, with the goal of solving problems in our state, nation and world, the deans of three UND colleges say.
Three UND researchers spend a day in an underwater habitat near Key Largo, Fla., to learn more about space.
UND receives $7.6 million Army contract for revolutionary sanitation technology
Hand-held inspection scanners will detect contamination invisible to the human eye
UND, Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake Reservation partner to design lunar boot outsole for NASA
Early Career Awards highlight research of budding scholars
At inaugural event, Early Career Scholars unveil especially promising research
UND puts Humvee through its paces, assisted by minivan mom: Me
The University’s research could change the engineering of frontline military vehicles, as I can explain (if I survive)
In Service, addressing North Dakota’s workforce needs
By inspiring students from middle school through graduate school, UND strives to produce the health professionals North Dakota needs, say deans of College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines and School of Medicine & Health Sciences
Porcelain exhibition at UND delves into ‘DNA’ of ceramic bowls
‘Service’ strategic priority: ‘Promote the arts and humanities, which contribute to the cultural vibrancy of the state and help attract and retain talent in our communities’
Start the presses: UND to bring back journalism major
‘Service’ strategic priority: ‘Address the health, educational, safety, cultural, economic, and workforce needs of our community, state and region via research and educational collaborations’
UND researchers hit milestone in rare-earth minerals production
‘Service’ strategic priority: ‘Expand innovation and entrepreneurship to bring about the creation of new jobs and economic opportunities’
From Grand Forks to the White House: Mark Pfeifle returns to UND
‘Service’ strategic priority: ‘Engage UND alumni as community ambassadors, guest lecturers and thought leaders’
‘Service’ strategic priority: ‘Strengthen services and cultivate programs for recruiting, mentoring and advancing historically underserved and marginalized students and employees’
From ‘We will succeed’ to ‘We have succeeded’
UND LEADS dashboards will help campus community track progress of UND LEADS Strategic Plan
UND’s ‘Learning’ core value helps students unlock the vast power of experiences, say deans of School of Graduate Studies and Nistler College of Business & Public Administration
UND poised to help fill shortage of air traffic controllers
‘LEARNING’ strategic priority: ‘Cultivate experiential learning opportunities with real-world applications, rewarding collaborations that are built on applied learning’
UND delegation travels to Thailand for Global Peace Summit
‘LEARNING’ strategic priority: ‘Foster a global perspective to prepare students for engagement and leadership, by promoting experiences that expand horizons even as they build skills’
Five UND students advance in startup funding, support program
‘LEARNING’ strategic priority: ‘Expand individualized advising and mentoring. ... Provide opportunities for students to document learning, showcase their work and disseminate research and ideas’
UND professors partner with Humanities North Dakota
‘LEARNING’ strategic priority: ‘Provide credit and non-credit learning opportunities ... through innovative programming, rural and urban community outreach, and cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations’
GGs (good games) by the hundreds as UND hosts Esports tournament
‘LEARNING’ strategic priority: ‘Promote digital technologies for engaged learning and value-added opportunities for students, faculty, staff, alumni and collaborators’
Promoting equity through startup support and digital course packs? You bet.
Broadly expanding access to academic and professional resources is key, say UND’s dean of Libraries and director of Center for Innovation.
‘EQUITY’ strategic priority: Reduce barriers to higher education ‘by investing in support services with the aim of boosting retention and degree completion’
N.D. first lady: ‘Never give up hope for recovery’
'EQUITY’ strategic priority: Show ‘a commitment to access and inclusion,’ in part by raising awareness of first lady Kathryn Burgum’s topic: addiction.
Delegation of young Southeast Asian leaders visits UND
'EQUITY’ strategic priority: ‘Promote diverse perspectives and inclusive worldviews’ by offering ‘opportunities to understand diverse populations and meet their changing needs.’
‘EQUITY’ strategic priority: ‘Invest in diverse area studies, programs and initiatives that will help faculty, staff and departments enhance DEIA efforts.’
UND, N.D. Tribal College System receive $1 million Mellon Foundation grant
‘EQUITY’ strategic priority: ‘Establish cooperative relationships with the surrounding communities and Indigenous nations.’
Inaugural Disability Awareness Day is for learning
‘EQUITY’ strategic priority: ‘Implement flexible working and learning options that make UND more accessible to a broader, more diverse population’
Affinity at UND: Building a sense of community
Two former Student Body presidents describe ways students and alumni work together to improve the student experience at UND
Southeast Asian Leadership fellows enjoy Western N.D.
'AFFINITY’ strategic priority: ‘Globalize our campus community’ by boosting ‘support for international students studying at UND’
UND Vets2Wings students honored as program set to expand nationwide
‘AFFINITY’strategic priority: ‘Enhance UND’s military-friendly environment’ in which we welcome ‘military-affiliated students and families’
VIDEO: Commemorating the ultimate sacrifice
‘AFFINITY’ strategic priority: ‘Enhance programs for all faculty and staff that will cultivate a sense of belonging at the University of North Dakota’
North Dakota Champions Ball shatters record
‘AFFINITY’ strategic priority: ‘Strengthen athletic excellence at UND by supporting our student athletes and enhancing our athletic facilities’
Campus continues to blossom at annual Arbor Day celebration
‘AFFINITY’ strategic priority: ‘Promote sustainable practices critical to the long-term health, well-being and success of the University community’
Discovery’s power to transform
Real improvements in our quality of life are being made possible by UND, top University research execs Charles Gorecki and Scott Snyder say
‘Ye Olde Tailor Shop,’ but in space: Professor patents 3D printing of spacesuits
‘DISCOVERY’ strategic priority: Foster ‘transformative research that exemplifies discovery’
Remembering NASA’s Pearl Young, UND ’19 — 1919, that is
‘DISCOVERY’ strategic priority: ‘Facilitate connections,’ where partners including government ‘can easily engage’
UND helps establish North Dakota Fulbright Chapter
‘DISCOVERY’ strategic priority: ‘Strengthen service units that support creativity, research and innovation in all stages’
Medicine, music and more at UNDergraduate Showcase
‘DISCOVERY’ strategic priority: ‘Infuse creative expression, critical inquiry and innovation’ by supporting courses that include research
Water goes in. Engineers come out.
‘DISCOVERY’ strategic priority: ‘Foster and sustain cross-disciplinary teams dedicated to identifying solutions to pressing challenges’
UND celebrates opening of Experiential Learning Center
‘DISCOVERY’ strategic priority: ‘Support the breadth and depth of research, creative activity and scholarship happening across campus’
In Service, UND plays role as leading economic engine
To extend its Service commitment even further, UND is pursuing a special designation from the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities, key administrators say
SafeUND: The right spot right away
‘SERVICE’ strategic priority: ‘Create front doors to UND, helping streamline ways for people and partners to engage and collaborate’
UND Alumni Association & Foundation wins 2024 CASE Circle of Excellence Award
‘SERVICE’ strategic priority: ‘Engage UND alumni as community ambassadors, guest lecturers and thought leaders’
From the clinic to the doorstep: grant aims to deliver supplies by drone
‘SERVICE’ strategic priority: ‘Cultivate programs for recruiting, mentoring and advancing historically underserved and marginalized students and employees’
The sound of music — up close and personal
‘SERVICE’ strategic priority: ‘Promote the arts and humanities, which contribute to the cultural vibrancy of the state’
For a healthier state, build a strong health workforce
‘SERVICE’ strategic priority: Address the health ‘and workforce needs of our community, state and region via research and educational collaborations’
Strategic Plan News
