Through the 100 Talents initiative, part of the Roadmap to Our New Century, the University of Miami seeks to increase the number of endowed faculty positions with individuals who enhance the creative talent already enriching the U.

Led by Dr. David Birnbach, vice provost for faculty affairs, the 100 Talents action team has focused on developing the processes that will allow the University to create 100 new endowed positions by its centennial in 2025. These positions will include new and existing faculty, as well as rotating and visiting appointments.

Following input from the University community, the team already helped organize four Distinguished Presidential Scholars and Fellows during the 2016 – 2017 academic year. They included two eminent figures from the arts, flautist Sir James Galway and photographer Susan Meiselas; acclaimed Cuban journalist Yoani Sanchez; and prominent geneticist and biologist Carlos Bustamante.

Each of these renowned talents participated in the University’s intellectual life during their visits by interacting with faculty, students, and the greater community through lectures, teaching, special performances, and other gatherings that generated dialogue and engagement. In bringing their diverse perspectives to our campuses, the scholars and fellows also provided mentorship, encouraged collaboration, and enhanced research and scholarship.

The action team is continuing to create initiatives to identify existing talents on our campuses and to attract distinguished visiting scholars and practitioners from a variety of fields and communities around the globe.

Through the initiative on Problem-Based Interdisciplinary Inquiry, part of the Roadmap to Our New Century, the University of Miami is developing new structures, systems, and programs to expand multidisciplinary collaborations across the U to continue addressing the increasingly complex problems faced by our society in the 21st century.

Led by John Bixby, vice provost for research, the Problem-Based Interdisciplinary Inquiry action team initially has focused on planning the UM Laboratory for Integrative Knowledge (U-LINK), a university-wide platform for incubating ideas, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and providing funding to facilitate new approaches to difficult problems. Currently, the action team is designing U-LINK’s inaugural grant competition, which, set to launch later this year, will invite interdisciplinary groups to seek funding for novel, solution-oriented projects. In the longer term, U-LINK is envisioned as not only a funding source, but also a physical space where scholars from disparate disciplines can productively “collide” in an inspirational setting conducive to developing and pursuing their projects.

To further support the initiative, action team member Susan Morgan, the associate dean for research and former director of the Center for Communication, Culture and Change at the School of Communication, has been appointed associate provost for research development and strategy. In this new role, Morgan will serve as an integral component of the U’s research infrastructure and will play an important part in the development of U-LINK.

The action team is also planning an August retreat to further the initiative’s implementation and identify members of an advisory group who can counsel the action team on U-LINK’s structure and assist in the proposal review process for the grant competition.

Through the Hemispheric Innovation Hub initiative, part of the Roadmap to Our New Century, the University of Miami is advancing its role as a catalyst for innovation and new ventures that encourage entrepreneurship, enable collaboration and spur product development.

Led by Norma Kenyon, vice provost for innovation, the Hemispheric Innovation Hub action team—composed of faculty, staff and students—is working to further develop the University’s infrastructure for innovation. Among its key first steps, the action team reviewed the U’s current innovation activities and identified priorities for innovation hires and investments.

Also key to the initiative is the University’s new partnership with the Cambridge Innovation Center and the creation of Converge Miami, located just east of the medical campus. Originally developed as UM’s Life Science and Technology Park, the six-story, 252,000-square-foot building provides a space where innovators and entrepreneurs, health care experts, investors and established companies can converge in a dense cluster of talent to fuel commercialization through strategic capital investments, scale great ideas regionally and globally, and facilitate connections throughout the Americas.

By providing a welcoming entry point for entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean, Converge Miami will help the University build alliances with leading institutions throughout our hemisphere, and position the U as the hemisphere’s innovation hub.

As higher education enables social mobility and successful professional careers, the University of Miami is committed to providing all students the opportunity to achieve their hopes and dreams through an outstanding educational experience regardless of their financial need.

Through the Access to Excellence initiative on the Roadmap to Our New Century, the University has made significant progress on its goal of meeting the demonstrated financial need of undergraduate students admitted on merit by its 2025 centennial.

Led by John Haller, vice president of enrollment management, the Access to Excellence action team allocated more of the financial aid budget to need-based aid to ensure that nearly all of the entire 2017 freshman class’s demonstrated need is met. Now, the team is expanding that effort to ensure the University can do the same for successive freshman classes, and for sophomores and upperclassmen.

“Continuing to attract the most talented students to our diverse institution, regardless of socioeconomics, will significantly improve our ability to produce knowledgeable graduates with exceptional global leadership skills,” Haller said.

Composed of faculty, staff, and students, the action team also has taken steps to ensure the continuation of a pilot program for the need-based support of international students—a move that helps the U maintain its appeal to outstanding students from around the world.

In furtherance of its goal to provide every student the opportunity to take full advantage of all UM has to offer, the action team also is developing plans for need-based grants for unpaid internships, increasing undergraduate student participation in research, and expanding student participation in service learning activities. Future plans include creating emergency funds for students facing hardship and establishing graduate fellowships tied to the creation of specific centers of excellence within schools and colleges.

Educational Innovation, one of the initiatives of the Roadmap to Our New Century, is designed to foster innovation and experimentation in teaching and learning amid advances in technology and learning science research.

Led by William Green, senior vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, the Educational Innovation action team meets regularly to plan and execute the first steps of the roadmap initiative. The action team includes nine faculty and six students, who represent diverse disciplines and perspectives on our teaching practice, learning science, and a collaborative vision for the next century.

As its first step, the action team is developing and implementing the University’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), an essential component of reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The QEP will focus on forms of discussion-based learning, such as, among others, the Harkness Table method. Discussion-based learning promotes content retention, student engagement, deeper understanding and enhances communication and research skills.

To inform the QEP, the action team is designing and conducting faculty and student surveys to understand current experience with and interest in discussion-based learning methods. The team is also examining how classrooms need to change to support discussion-based learning, communicating with other educational institutions that use discussion-based methods, reviewing existing research and planning a faculty development program.

To help advance the QEP and the Educational Innovation initiative, Allan Gyorke, the University’s chief academic technology officer, has been named assistant provost for educational innovation. In this new role, Gyorke will work with the action team to execute the QEP and develop future Roadmap steps, such as the analysis of the faculty and student surveys, the identification and management of faculty resources for teaching and learning, and the coordination of the action team’s work with such University partners as the Office of Classroom Management and the University Libraries.