MEMORANDUM

TO:               University Community

FROM:         Modesto A. Maidique, President
                       Mark B. Rosenberg, Provost and Executive Vice President

SUBJECT:    "Millennium Meetings"--Unit Consultations Throughout 2000

DATE:           December 20, 1999

With the new century upon us, and the SACS reaccreditation now proceeding, it is opportune to reflect on our future. We would like to outline here some of those steps and in the process invite your participation.

We believe that it is important to develop a new ten year vision and plan for the University, similar to Reaching for the Top (http://www.fiu.edu/~provost/reach/Newreach.htm ). The development of this vision and plan is likely to take one to two years.

A fundamental element in the development of our ten year plan is consultation with faculty and other members of the university community including our professional staff, students and members of the community (Board of Trustees and Council of 100). Accordingly, we would like to initiate this consultation with a series of meetings "Millennium Meetings" between President Maidique and every unit in the university community. We expect that these consultations will last throughout the entire year 2000.

There are many issues that the consultations could address. Some are outlined in the "Research I" and "Undergraduate Studies Task Force" reports (http://www.fiu.edu/provost/aaplans/default.htm#task). Others have been raised through the SACS self-study process. The Board of Regents has asked us to identify relevant benchmark institutions around the country. We are very interested in comparing ourselves to these and other benchmarks that your units may have identified. A discussion around this issue could prove very valuable to charting our future. Finally, we are very interested in quality-of-life issues that can enhance our learning environment. As we initiate the process, we would like to hear from you about the key questions and issues that you think ought to inform our conversations during this next calendar year. Would you be kind enough to give this some thought and share any thoughts about this before January 5, 2000 at maidique@fiu.edu and rosenber@fiu.edu.

Thank you.