By: Alexi Gusso

University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler assured students and faculty Thursday the University has made progress and will continue to do so in his State of the University address while he announced increased funding for graduate school students and his launch of personal office hours. 

In his speech to an audience of roughly 250, Kaler noted the University’s past challenges and outlined the next steps in embracing new changes and ideas.   

“I know we’re not perfect, but our flaws are not fatal," Kaler said, "and the state of the University is strong."

Kaler wants to strengthen the University’s graduate programs and medical school, he said Thursday afternoon in Coffman Memorial Union, emphasizing the importance of attracting the nation’s top graduate and professional students. 

“I came here as a graduate student and I am not about to let our graduate programs slip in terms of national reputation,” he said, noting that Provost Karen Hanson would partner with deans and faculty leaders to create a long-term and sustainable plan for graduate student recruitment.

He said the first step to what he called “Graduate School 2.0” would be to increase funding to Ph.D. fellowship programs by more than $750,000.

The president announced that he would begin holding monthly office hours on the Twin Cities campus to increase interaction with students.

He said he will also travel to the University’s Duluth, Crookston, and Morris campuses in the coming months to meet with students.

“I miss being around students, I get great energy from their enthusiasm and their curiosity,” Kaler said.

Kaler mentioned the budgetary limitations to interdisciplinary work and research that “defines the cutting edge in most fields and that is critical to solving most of today’s problems.”

He called on Provost Hanson and Vice President for Research Brian Herman to develop recommendations to strengthen interdisciplinary teaching and research.

Some students initially had mixed reactions to his address.

Cate Brumm, a third year dentistry student, said that she would have liked to hear professional programs mentioned more in Kaler’s speech.

“It’s interesting because the professional schools aren’t really mentioned in the push for an increase in graduate funding,” she said.

Brumm said that the cost of professional education has increased exponentially, with some dentistry students facing $400,000 in debt. 

“Proportionally that’s a little out of the same league as undergrads, so we’d like to see the president really increase affordability to professional schools,” she said.

“I think it’s in the works, maybe.”

On Kaler’s office hours, some were excited.

Freshmen Joelle Stanger and Valkyrie Jensen attended the event and said they would definitely take advantage of the office hours.

“We were sitting next to each other and when we heard him announce that he would be doing office hours, we were like ‘we’re going to go every single time and talk to him,” said Stanger, a political science major.

Both Jensen and Stanger are members of the Minnesota Student Association. Jensen said she would like to talk to Kaler about the role he thinks student government should play on campus. 

“[I’d ask him] ‘what do you want to see from student government?’” she said. “Because I don’t feel like they have as large of a presence as they should.”

In addition, Kaler outlined other priorities for the next year including increasing campus diversity, improving faculty recruitment and retention, and expanding the University’s eLearning strategies ­— including further testing of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) — among others.