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College of Biological SciencesFY 2013 Compact UpdateModern biology is a genome-enabled suite of disciplines that has emerged as the dominant science of the 21st century. Although curiosity about ourselves and other forms of life upon which we depend emerged with the first awakenings of consciousness, in another sense biology is the youngest of the sciences. Formal, academic study of the basis of life crystallized around the insights of Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin in the mid-19th century, but over a century later the true potential of biology is still being realized.Between 1940 and 1970,the first “revolution” in biology began with two seminal discoveries: the role of DNA as the conduit of information from one generation to the next and the elucidation of the functional components within cells as the “motors” that enable the processes of life. Within the same time frame, ecology emerged as the scientific enterprise capable of understanding the collective functions of all living organisms on planet Earth. The second “revolution” in biology depended on the technological advance that enabled the large scale “decoding” of the genetic alphabet of species, including humans. The evolution of this technology is truly mind-boggling. The Human Genome Project, envisioned in 1985, provided a first draft of the genome of single individuals. It required thousands of person-years and $2.7 billion dollars. Three weeks ago, Oxford Nanopore, announced their new technology that will decode the human genome, or its equivalent amount of DNA (3,000,0000,000 letters of the genetic alphabet) in 15 minutes for less than $1000. The rapid availability of vast amounts of sequence data opens truly novel avenues for discoveries in areas ranging from human health and disease to ecosystem analysis. Within the past decade, biologists have produced an explosion of information that may exceed the sum total of all information generated since the beginning of human inquiry. As a result, biology has become the most computationally intensive enterprise on the planet. Biology is faced with the daunting challenge of synthesizing this knowledge into cohesive understandings at all levels of the function of biological systems. This effort enables creation of biology-based engineering disciplines that seek to use biological information for social benefit, including creation of new products, disease therapies, and, even, organisms. As a consequence, some leading thinkers suggest that biology is poised for a third revolution, the Convergence Revolution in which the boundaries between life sciences, engineering and the physical sciences disappear. This forward-looking context is the basis for the Compact Update for the College of Biological Sciences. 1. What are the unit’s key areas of strength and its comparative advantages?CBS has developed signature programs in its quest to become the best undergraduate biology program in the country. As a consequence, we have experienced a 5-fold increase in applications for admission to our undergraduate program over the past decade, and lead the University with more than 15 applicants per seat in our freshman class (7,001 applicants for 450 seats). As a consequence, the quality and capacity of matriculants to CBS are on par with the most highly qualified at the University (eg, they have the highest high school ranks and second highest ACT scores.,)Research spanning the biological sciences has experienced a “paradigm quake.” As a consequence it is the most competitive growth industry in scientific research. Clusters of faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in CBS have risen to positions of intellectual leadership at the international level. The themes of these clusters include:Ecosystem SciencesBehavioral NeurobiologyDevelopmental geneticsCell motility and diseaseLipid metabolismInnate defense mechanisms and therapeutics against HIV and other retrovirusesStructure and dynamics of proteinsGenome engineeringSynthetic microbial ecologyBioremediationEvolutionary genetics and cell biology of plantsScholarly approaches to teaching2. What are the unit’s areas of concern and significant challenges?Developing the resources necessary to fully address the scale of competition, nationally and internationally, during these times of explosive growth. With sustained investments, CBS is poised to take advantage of the third revolution.Providing state of the art infrastructure and the staffing to support and develop the research enterpriseFunding to meet undergraduate enrollment increasesLimitations to serving our students because of historical organizational issues that challenge our jurisdiction over our majors3. What is the unit’s vision or strategic agenda, as informed by the unit’s Blue Ribbon Committee or equivalent effort, for the next three to five years? CBS mission: To improve human welfare and global conditions by advancing knowledge of the mechanisms of life through breakthrough discoveries, and prepare today’s students to create the biology of tomorrow.a. What priorities and goals were discussed in recent (approximately three years) compact discussions and what is the status of each? Describe the measured outcomes and impacts.Priorities and goalsBecome the best undergraduate biology program in the country. This goal was established in our FY2006 compact and re-affirmed by the Blue Ribbon process. Key components of our strategy include a streamlined curriculum with active learning as a core value, genuine research experiences for all students, leadership development and career exploration. A self-study was conducted in FY2010 followed by an external review led by the country’s leading science educators. They concluded that we are on a trajectory to lead the nation, but that substantive, additional work is required to meet this lofty goal. Further evidence of progress toward this goal is the attention paid to our programs (Nature of Life, Foundations of Biology) by peers, nationally and internationally. Over the past two years, Associate Dean Robin Wright, and others, have been invited to make 17 presentations at universities across the country and 5 at national and 2 international conferences. In addition, dozens of delegations from other universities have visited Nature of Life or the Foundation course in the Active Learning Classroom. Increase the impact of research. The quality and quantity of research conducted by our faculty, students and staff is the core value of our institution. The quality of CBS research output as determined by the impact of published work of our faculty on a per capita basis, has and continues to lead the UofM by a significant margin. A measure of the quantity of our research is the ability of our faculty and trainees to obtain funding in this highly competitive era of scarcity. We are pleased to report that research expenditures have increased in each of the past two years (up 17% and 14%). Improve the quality of our graduate programs. One of our graduate programs, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, was highly ranked (top 10%) in the most recent NRC evaluation. The others generally ranked in the top third. As outlined above, knowledge in our disciplines is expanding more rapidly than in any other academic endeavor. Keeping pace or moving up cannot be achieved by casual means. Improving these graduate programs is crucial not just for academic reasons, but also as the foundation for problem solving in medicine, agriculture and environmental matters that are fundamental to Minnesota and the nation’s economy. Strengthening these programs requires a two-pronged approach: (1) strategic hiring in emerging interdisciplinary fields will attract the best pool of graduate students, and (2) financing new cohorts of high capacity graduate students that can take full advantage of the new research opportunities. Setting a New Trajectory The preceding goals have evolved through many years of the Compact Process. They were consolidated in my recommendations to the Provost a year ago, entitled Setting a New Trajectory, and were derived from our college’s Blue Ribbon process. Additional components of this strategy are found in the sections appearing below.b. What are the unit’s goal, strategies and progress related to University-wide priorities?i. Undergraduate Education1. Academic profile and preparation of new high school and transfer studentsApplications from NHS continue to increase (3.7% increase this year compared to last year) in the face of a generally downward trend for the rest of the UofM (except CSE). CBS continues to lead the university in the ratio of applicants/seats for the freshman class (ie, CBS – 16/1 (7,001/450); CSOM – 12/1; CSE – 9/1). CBS matriculants in the current freshman class lead the UofM in terms of mean rank in high school graduating class; mean ACT scores are 30.2 (CSE leads the UofM at 30.4).Admitted transfer students from outside the UofM have a mean entering GPA of 3.49 (mean n=172; steady over last 3 years)2. Enrollment managementBased on the unmet demand for our undergraduate programs, we proposed to increase our freshman admission target from 400 to 500 over two years. We also proposed a modest increase in transfer students (20 NAS by 2015). The increase in NHS was endorsed by the Provost; the situation regarding NAS students remains ambiguous.3. Student success (including retention and timely graduation)Retention of first year students rose from 93.2% to 95.7%, surpassing our goal of 95%. Retention of 3rd year students rose from 77.9% to 84.6%, boding well for an increase in 4-year graduation rate of that cohort. 4-year graduation rate was rather stable, 61.6% for 2006 cohort to 59.8% for 2007 cohort. Our Award winning Deans’ Scholars Program, a leadership development program for selected students has received several national awards. Those enrolled in this program demonstrated a 4-year graduation rate of 85.7%, compared to 61.6% for entire 2006 cohort.To meet student interest in emerging interdisciplinary fields, we are working within our majors to enhance quantitative and computational coursework. Strategic reforms of our curricula in physics, mathematics and chemistry will allow students to delve deeper into their majors, while providing opportunities for cross-disciplinary work. We are expanding our Student Services operation to include a Research Opportunity Facilitator, a Pre-Med Specialty Adviser, implementing a smart phone app to enable 24/7 scheduling of advising appointments, and plan to revolutionize our advising model to one based on the successful Deans’ Scholars Program. ii. Graduate or Professional EducationEnrollment in our graduate programs (which range in the extent of “intercollegiateness”) continues to be challenging. Faculty in all of our programs desire an increase in the number and quality of our students. However, the costs associated with support for students remains an extremely challenging conundrum. Recent reorganization of the administration of Graduate Education is part of the conundrum, but many of these issues have been in a holding pattern for a decade. Our graduate programs are central to the reputation of our disciplines. To help resolve long-standing issues, we will use the cluster hiring of new faculty to emphasize leading themes within our fast-moving disciplines and thereby recruit the highest quality graduate students possible. At the same time, current fiscal issues will require that we decrease the number of graduate students in our programs. New central support of research infrastructure will allow us to invest more fully in our graduate students and provide them with the research experiences they need in their careers. Though difficult problems will remain, by this summer we plan to have a comprehensive graduate funding package in place.The administration of our professional masters program (Masters in Biological Sciences) was transferred to the College of Continuing Education (CCE) last year. This partnership allows CBS to oversee curricular matters, while CCE provides administrative support. Casual market research suggests growth potential for this program. Increased enrollment has some potential for increased revenues to both colleges. iii. Research and ScholarshipSee aboveiv. Equity and DiversityGoal: To provide a climate within the college that embraces diversity in all of its forms. At the undergraduate level, retention and graduate rates of students of color are tracking overall with rates of white students. We embrace the matriculation of NAS (transfer of students from outside) in part, because of the high level of diversity in this population of students. Diversity of graduate students increased a modest 1.4% from fall 2010 to fall 2011. Our strategy for improving the climate for diversity has two elements. First, several of our students have taken a leadership role in establishing dialogue sessions on facets of diversity. We are seeing slow but hopefully sustainable progress as more administrators, faculty, staff and students become engaged and expand their horizons. Second, with respect to recruiting a more diverse graduate student body, we have taken steps to convert our Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program (joint with the Medical School) into a recruiting and admitting tool for our graduate programs. With new leadership in place, we expect a greater degree of accountability and delivery on our goals of recruiting a more diverse population of graduate students. CBS has been a partner with CSE, CFANS, and central administration in the Northstar Alliance for Minority Participation for the past 5? years?? Through these efforts, the number of under-represented minority students earning degrees in STEM disciplines at the U has more than doubled.? A proposal to expand the program has been submitted to the NSF.v. InternationalizationGoal: To provide CBS students and faculty research and educational unique opportunities around the globe. Norwegian Centennial Chair: In June a delegation from the U of M visited the University of Oslo and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in order to identify new, complementary research areas for transatlantic collaboration. Seven focus areas ranging from renewable energy and biomedical research to computational biology were identified.? Short-term research fellowship and travel awards for faculty, postdocs and graduate students have been established, and several already awarded, to foster collaborations between Minnesota and Norway. A request for 2-year research seed grant applications went out and the first round of selected transatlantic research projects is expected to be funded this May.? New student exchange partnerships are in development with Link?ping University, Karolinska Institute, and Uppsala University, all in Sweden.The number of students studying abroad has doubled since 2006, from 44 students to 88 in 2010/11. Although we are pleased with this increase, expanding efforts in this arena will require additional focus and staff resources. CBS faculty conduct research around the world—from Papua New Guinea to Tanzania to the Arctic. Given this breadth, we plan to create a leadership position for a faculty member to harness our global research and teaching capacity with the goal of expanding our international programs for undergraduate and graduate students.We annually host “Reflections from Abroad” – an event to showcase a sample of CBS student experiences from across the world. The event targets students who are considering study abroad.vi. Public EngagementGoal: Maintain campus-based public engagement, and expand off campus public engagement using our Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories and the nascent UofM Natural Reserve System as platforms. CBS Plant Science Investigation workshops for K-6 teachers celebrated its 20th year in 2011.Annually provide space, equipment and support for “Native Academy,” a month-long Native American program focusing on science, technology and math run by Migizi Communications.Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve aims to have students learn science in ways that reflect the inquiry methods used by scientists to understand the natural world. Field and inquiry-based activities for K-12 have grown to serve 1,940 students and teachers in 2011, a 625% increase from 2006. Cedar Creek is partnering with the College of Education and Human Development for professional teacher training under funds provided by NASA and State of MN. Non-formal community outreach activities resulted in over 1000 participants in 2011, an increase of 310% from 2006 activity. The college has hired John Rotenberry as special assistant to Dean to guide strategic planning for our field stations. A significant portion of his responsibility will be the development and coordination of public engagement programs using the research enterprise at our field station. c, What are the unit’s top priorities that will be pursued over the next three to five years?Setting a New TrajectoryContinue to strengthen the undergraduate program, focusing on (a) the upper division biology curriculum; (b) the interdisciplinary science curriculum (chemistry, math, physics, computational biology, and bioinformatics); and (c) the student development curriculum, including career-focused courses and a new advising model.Increase the impact of the research of the college’s faculty and students by supporting state of the art research infrastructure and through cluster hiring of new faculty in key areas.Improve the quality of our graduate programs, also through cluster hiring of faculty that advance new generations of technology and new research approaches in interdisciplinary biological sciences. ................
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