The Opportunity The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM), located in Morris, MN, seeks outstanding faculty scholars for its Distinguished Visiting Professorship in the Liberal Arts. As one of only thirty-one members of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC), UMM is an undergraduate-focused residential liberal arts community that provides a rigorous undergraduate liberal arts education, preparing its students to be global citizens who value and pursue intellectual growth, civic engagement, intercultural competence, and environmental stewardship. As a public university, UMM subscribes to the value of public education for all citizens and promises accountability to the people it serves. A distinct liberal arts campus within the larger University of Minnesota system, UMM combines the benefits of an intimate, student-centered community with many of the resources and opportunities of one of the nation s largest universities. UMM culture is characterized by an unwavering commitment to the liberal arts and undergraduate education, but also by the particular traditions it has developed in pursuing that mission. UMM opened our doors as a public liberal arts college of the University of Minnesota in 1960. We are located on the site of the former West Central School of Agriculture (1910-1960), a residential high school, and before that, the Morris Indian Industrial School (1896-1910). In recognition of our campus history, qualified students of Native American heritage attend UMM tuition-free. UMM is one of the greenest campuses in the nation we currently produce more energy than we consume, thanks to local natural resources like wind and corn stalks and is attended by a significant proportion of first-generation (36%), American Indian and students of color (28%), and students from throughout the United States (91%) and the world (9%). With a vibrant sense of community in and out of the classroom, UMM aims to integrate curricular, cocurricular, and extra-curricular aspects of the student experience, and it reaches outward to the broader local community with collaborative enterprises and service-learning initiatives. Morris serves a diverse community of approximately 1,800 students who are supported by 125 faculty and benefit from a student to teacher ratio of 14:1. The position of Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Liberal Arts is offered annually to an established, internationally recognized faculty member in one of the liberal arts disciplines. Prior Distinguished Visiting Professors have included Bernice Johnson Reagon, historian and civil rights activist; Gloria Ladson-Billings, path breaking author in the field of culturally relevant pedagogy; Peter Agre, Nobel Laureate in chemistry and leading global health researcher; and Gary Nabhan, ethnobiologist and internationally celebrated nature writer and agrarian activist. 2
The professorship is funded through a philanthropic endowment fund created and held at the University of Minnesota Foundation. The endowment creates ample resources to provide the honorarium, reimburse the recipient for all costs, and fund appropriate programming during the visit. The visiting professor is expected to spend one semester in residence on the University of Minnesota, Morris campus. The professorship includes a substantial stipend, reimbursement for travel, and housing near the campus. During his/her time on campus, the visiting professor is expected to teach a course and deliver at least two public lectures. Other obligations while in residence can be negotiated and may consist of classroom visits, participation in scheduled colloquia, and mentoring faculty and students. We currently are scheduling for spring 2019 and the 2019-20 academic year. University Highlights For the 18th consecutive year, U.S. News and World Report has named UMM among the nation s Top 10 Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Kiplinger s Personal Finance listed Morris as one of its 100 Best Values in Public Colleges, UMM has been honored on the website Colleges of Distinction. UMM was the only public institution in Minnesota included in 2016. Washington Monthly has named UMM one of its Best-Bang-for-Buck-Midwest schools. UMM has been repeatedly named a Military Friendly School by Victory Media. Winds of Change magazine has repeatedly named UMM one of the top 200 colleges for American Indian students. UMM is one of Sierra magazine s top 40 Cool Schools for sustainability initiatives. UMM has been repeatedly included in Forbes magazine s listing of America s Top Colleges. UMM has been named one of the country s best and most interesting colleges and universities by Fiske Guide to Colleges. 3
UMM, a model of excellence for United States higher education is: Excellent - Students work one-on-one with high-caliber faculty. UMM has the highest percentage of Horace T. Morse-Alumni Association Award-winning faculty within the University of Minnesota system. Affordable - On average, UMM students have the lowest debt load in the University of Minnesota System. Accessible - UMM tuition is one-fourth the cost of the most expensive private school in the state. Transformative - Ninety-five percent of respondents to a recent survey were employed or enrolled in graduate or professional school within one year of graduating. Effective - UMM earned a Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) institutional effectiveness score of 13.01 for its four-year graduation rate. Efficient - UMM earned an MHEC institutional efficiency score of 1.76 for its four-year graduation rate. Diverse - Twenty-eight percent of UMM students are American Indian and students of color; 9 percent of students are of international origin. Forty-one percent are first-generation college students. At UMM, American Indian students comprise 19 percent of the student body. 4
The University of Minnesota, Morris an Overview History The University of Minnesota, Morris makes its home on a more than 125-year-old campus. The first buildings housed an American Indian students boarding school, first administered by the Sisters of Mercy order of the Catholic Church and later by the United States Government. The school closed in 1909, and the campus was transferred to the State of Minnesota with the stipulation that qualified American Indian students shall at all times be admitted to such school free of charge for tuition and according to the same standards of admission as all students--a policy still proudly honored. In 1910, the University of Minnesota established the West Central School of Agriculture (WCSA) on the UMM campus, which educated area high school students in a boarding school environment until 1963. It is this time period that garnered the campus its recognition on the National Register of Historic Places as the West Central School of Agriculture and Experiment Station Historic District. Handsome Prairie School structures, such as Behmler Hall and the Education building, built during the WCSA years and designed by well-known state architect Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., continue to serve the campus well. In the late 1950s, when the University of Minnesota announced that agricultural schools would be phased out, a grassroots citizens movement convinced the Minnesota Legislature that creating a distinct public liberal arts college within the University of Minnesota system in Morris would be a good investment for the state. In September 1960, the University of Minnesota, Morris opened its doors and began fulfilling its institutional vision to be an affordable, undergraduate, intentionally small, residential, public liberal arts college. With an enrollment of more than 1,800 students and approximately 120 teaching faculty, the campus has students from 32 other states and 24 countries. The UMM experience emphasizes faculty/student collaborative research, study abroad opportunities, and service learning. UMM is a national leader in green initiatives: wind energy, biomass energy, and sustainable local food projects. Its goal is to educate students in interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability so that they may become responsible citizens and future leaders on sustainability issues. UMM has itself successfully taken steps toward becoming a carbon-neutral campus, and has been recognized nationally as an innovator in such efforts. 5
In 2010, the University of Minnesota, Morris celebrated its 50-year anniversary and marked the 100-year anniversary of the opening of the West Central School of Agriculture. Today, the University of Minnesota, Morris is a vibrant and distinctive campus, one of only 31 Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. It fosters a student-centered educational environment, and provides an engaging, challenging undergraduate experience that prepares graduates for tomorrow s careers, for advanced degrees, for lifelong learning, and for citizenship in communities throughout the globe. As a public college, UMM benefits from its relationship to the University of Minnesota, a major top-10 research university, and extends its commitment to accessibility. UMM serves as an educational and cultural center for residents of west-central Minnesota. Mission The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) provides a rigorous undergraduate liberal arts education, preparing its students to be global citizens who value and pursue intellectual growth, civic engagement, intercultural competence, and environmental stewardship. As a public land-grant institution, UMM is a center for education, culture, and research for the region, nation, and world. UMM is committed to outstanding teaching, dynamic learning, innovative faculty and student scholarship and creative activity, and public outreach. Our residential academic setting fosters collaboration, diversity, and a deep sense of community. Morris by the Numbers Doors Opened Student Population Town Population Student/Faculty Ratio Faculty with highest degree in their field Students who seek advanced degrees after UMM Average Class Size Average ACT In-State & Out-of-State Students International Students American Indian Students 1960 Approximately 1,800 5,000 14:1 99 percent 47 percent 16 students 25 81 percent & 10 percent 9 percent 19 percent 6
Academics True to its liberal arts mission, the University of Minnesota, Morris provides outstanding academic programs. UMM students choose from 35 majors and 32 minors, 13 licensure areas, and nine pre-professional programs in the divisions of Education, the Humanities, Science and Mathematics, the Social Sciences, and in Interdisciplinary Studies. Division of Education Education Elementary Education Secondary Education Sport Studies & Athletics Division of the Humanities the Arts (Art History, Studio Art, Music, and Theatre Arts) Communication, Media, and Rhetoric English (including Creative Writing) Medieval Studies Philosophy World Languages (Anishinaabe, Chinese, Dakota, French, German, Italian, Latin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish) Division of Science and Mathematics Biology Chemistry Computer Science Environmental Science Geology Mathematics Physics Statistics 7
Division of the Social Sciences Anthropology Economics History Human Services Management Political Science Psychology Sociology Interdisciplinary Studies and Programs African and Black American Studies Native American and Indigenous Studies Environmental Studies Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Latin American Area Studies Application Ideal candidates have a demonstrated passion for the liberal arts and are a recognized authority in a liberal arts field within the arts, humanities, mathematical sciences, natural sciences, education, or social sciences. Candidates should be able to enhance the already rich intellectual life of the campus. Inquiries, nominations and applications are invited for the Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Liberal Arts at any time. Potential candidates should provide a curriculum vitae and a letter of interest to Janet Schrunk Ericksen, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean, at ericksja@morris.umn.edu by April 15, 2018. The University of Minnesota, Morris shall provide equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin gender, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. 8