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The Academic Futures initiative has successfully moved from last year’s campus visioning stage into the implementation stage—in other words, from the “what” to the “how.”

In October, Provost Russ Moore and Senior Vice Chancellor Kelly Fox accepted the report of the Academic Futures Committee (PDF), which recommended the campus undertake four lead transformative projects to implement the campus’s vision: a common, student-centered approach to learning; interdisciplinary teaching, research and creative works; internationalizing our campus and teaching; and technology, online and distance education. The committee also outlined ways to support, sustain, and inspire our community in order to move forward on these projects.

In mid-November, Moore and Fox announced two lead projects for the campus—immersing our campus community in a common student-centered approach to learning and committing to new levels of Interdisciplinary Teaching, Research and Creative Work.

On Dec. 3, the two announced an initial pathway forward on implementing the two lead projects and some initial committee work in preparing the campus for priority project four—teaching and technology, online and distance education.

As progress is made on these projects and with the start of the new semester in January, Academic Futures will again engage students, staff��and faculty to think about how these projects support our mission as a public research and teaching university. Everyone should look for opportunities to participate, from attending open town halls to participating in focused conversations to serving on a committee.

While different projects will have different timelines, concrete steps forward on Academic Futures will be shared with the campus in the spring in ��ƷSM����ӰƬ Today and across other campus channels.