of working in teams of individuals with diverse skills — both diverse professional skills and diverse ways of thinking. In this regard, the University must examine closely how to produce more opportunity through synergies among existing programs, centers and institutes. To this end, I suggest that UND find ways to create “superclusters” among our academic programs, centers and institutes, so our students and faculty can apply their collective intellectual power to solving the “big questions”: sustainable energy, biocomplexity, strategies for international diplomacy, human ecology, global environments, and so on. We must also continue to explore learning opportunities for our students through increased collaboration among institutions of higher learning: UND, NDSU, the tribal colleges, the colleges and universities in the state university system, and indeed institutions across the nation and world. Of equal importance for the future of our students is the breadth and depth of the learning available to them at UND. The quality of UND’s academic curriculum is founded in our faculty and the leadership they provide for UND’s essential liberal arts core: excellence in humanities, arts,
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and the natural and social sciences. In addition, UND’s faculty bring their passion for excellence in the professions as well as in the specialized sciences, technologies, engineering and mathematics so prevalent and economically productive in today’s contemporary society. UND’s faculty must continue to push the boundaries of knowledge and learning in all disciplines through published research and scholarship. This is a responsibility for all of us, and one to which we must continue to affirm our commitment. And in return, the University must continue to meet the challenge of providing competitive compensation at national market levels to permit continued hiring of the best and brightest faculty to lead UND’s future. This is an ongoing initiative that will require commitment to partnerships among the state, the Legislature, the Board of Higher Education, the North Dakota University System, and friends of UND who wish to promote excellence through their philanthropy and gifts. Furthermore, UND must continue to commit to facilities and support services that add value to our students and to the quality of the academic curriculum. We must continue to keep up with advances
in instructional technology. UND must continue to be both creative and fiscally responsible as we set our priorities for capital construction. We must provide state-of-the-art facilities for activities as widely varied as creative scholarship in the arts and humanities and applied research in human athletic training; space flight training simulators and health care delivery simulators; laboratories for behavioral research and laboratories for biofuel research.
As I look forward, I am confident that together we will succeed. The spirit of North Dakota is embedded in the heart of this great University and will serve us well in the years ahead. That spirit expresses itself in being creative, innovative and entrepreneurial. We must continue to embrace these values as a university and as individual participants in meeting the mission of the University. These are not only values, but aspirations for us all.