Welcome to the Provost’s blog.  The goal of the blog is to enhance communication and transparency on campus, offering a central resource for faculty, staff and students.  The blog will also provide an opportunity for questions and answers.  I will make an effort to address issues of critical importance for the campus community, along with providing periodic updates on a range of campus initiatives.  You’ll notice below the blog includes two emails forwarded to all IT staff and business officers in the last few days.  We’re in the midst of reconfiguring the IT division and also exploring how business officers are organized, trained and deployed.  I will continue to provide information as this process moves forward. 

Let me also share some very good news for the University of Memphis.  As you know, we have a range of efforts and initiatives targeting improved retention and graduation.  Given the rising costs of higher education, it’s essential we find ways to help our students complete their degrees in efficient and effective fashion. Timely degree completion is essential to our success as a university. These efforts also have implications for our funding model, in which degree completion is a core variable.  The six-year cohort project targeted the class entering in 2007.  As of May, the six year graduation rate for this group is up to 43.6%. This represents meaningful progress and great improvement.  Our efforts are paying off and we’ll continue to raise the bar for each successive cohort.  This is very much a team effort, one that cuts across the entire campus. Thank you for your hard work.  In particular, I’d like recognize the contributions of those in Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and our Advisors.  Great job! 

 Go Tigers,

 M. David Rudd