Updating UMD's Strategic Pathway
This academic year, the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is creating a pathway that will align with UMD’s mission, vision, and values and the five imperatives of the University of Minnesota strategic roadmap, Elevate Extraordinary 2030.
Throughout the year, we have been collecting many different perspectives about how best to enact our mission and live into our vision. We invite you to continue sharing your thoughts about our current strengths and opportunities.
The remaining feedback sessions are:
- Faculty Assembly on March 24, from 12:30–2:00 p.m. in Griggs
- Staff feedback session on March 30, from 10:00–11:30 a.m. in the Library Rotunda
- Campuswide town hall for faculty, staff, and students on April 2, from 2:00–3:30 p.m. in the Library Rotunda
- Bulletin boards with the Vision, Mission, and Values will be available for perusal and comment at drop-by spots during the week of March 23. Visit one of our four drop-by spots to review the draft pathway and provide comments:
- Kirby tables
- Bulldog Resource Center
- The Library
- The Multicultural Center
We will present the penultimate University of Minnesota Duluth Strategic Pathway on May 4, from 1:00–2:30 a.m. in the Kirby Ballroom. We enthusiastically invite the whole UMD community to this celebration of our plan and our future.
Process for updating UMD’s Strategic Pathway
A Strategic Pathway Committee of UMD students, staff, and faculty from many campus locations is guiding our efforts. This committee gathers and analyzes feedback to inform a new strategic pathway.
The anticipated timeline for this project is as follows:
- October 2024: Campus conversation on mission, values, and vision
- Spring/May Forum/Summer, 2025: Revisit mission, values, and vision
- October:
- UMN strategic roadmap finalized, Elevate Extraordinary 2030
- Select UMD Strategic Pathway Committee
- UCC endorsement of mission, values, and vision
- November and December: Solicit stakeholder feedback
- January and February: Compile feedback and draft pathway
- March: Solicit feedback on draft and finalize pathway
- April/May: Present final pathway to campus
From whom are we collecting insights?
We invite everyone in our campus community to contribute their views and offer advice on key pathway ideas. We will invite many of our external stakeholders in the Duluth community and region to provide their insights and suggestions as well.
Other useful information for this process
For your reference, we include here both UMD’s draft mission, vision, and values and the University of Minnesota’s new strategic roadmap, Elevate Extraordinary 2030.
UMD’s Draft Mission, Values, and Vision
During the 2024-25 academic year, Chancellor Nies and Provost Ropers participated in discussions to learn about the values, mission, and vision of UMD’s community. As a result of these conversations, they presented a revised mission, vision, and values statement to the University Coordinating Council on October 28, 2025. The revised mission, vision, and values statement has been endorsed by the UCC for use in the strategic planning process and will be modified and/or affirmed throughout that process.
Mission
We integrate experiential education, research, and engagement within our distinctive location to inspire innovation, strengthen community, and prepare leaders and lifelong learners.
Values
- Connection. We foster meaningful connections among ideas, people, place, and possibility.
- Curiosity. We encourage bold questions, creative discovery, and lifelong learning.
- Civic-mindedness. We engage in thoughtful action to advance the welfare of all.
Vision
The University of Minnesota Duluth is a nationally recognized research university that drives community and economic vitality, advances environmental sustainability, fosters cultural engagement, and promotes health and well-being.
- To advance community and economic vitality, we invest in partnerships that strengthen communities and build prosperity for all.
- To advance environmental sustainability, we steward our environment, promoting understanding and sustainability of natural resources.
- To advance global and cultural engagement, we develop mutually beneficial intercultural relationships to create just and inclusive societies.
- To advance health and well-being, we promote holistic health and wellness and create conditions for people to fulfill their potential.
Elevate Extraordinary 2030
At the same time that UMD was engaged in revising its mission, vision, and values, the University of Minnesota was creating a new strategic roadmap for the system, Elevate Extraordinary 2030. This roadmap includes five imperatives that will drive actions throughout the university:
- Prepare students to be fully engaged and active in our state, nation, and world.
- Innovate to transform the future of learning.
- Serve communities through knowledge creation and exchange in the arts, health, healthcare, and the economy.
- Advance our excellence to lead in the discovery and applications of sustainable solutions, improving environmental, human, plant, and animal health.
- Secure and strengthen our future as a world-class University by strategically investing in our talented workforce, operations, and facilities.
To achieve our vision of being a nationally recognized research university, we will integrate our campus mission, vision, and values with the system imperatives to identify priorities that are distinctly UMD. The UMD Strategic Roadmap will identify how we can most powerfully live into our mission and vision while maintaining our values.