“It’s important we have an active dialogue to make sure we are understanding what it is we want for this university going forward,” he said.

Postel opened the forum with an introduction of a new social media campaign, #WeAreUofL, launched last week in the midst of the news about an active FBI investigation into the men’s basketball program.

“What this means is this is our university. We are tough. We are resilient. We’ve gotten through all types of problems and we’ll get through these,” he said.

Updates on SACS and athletics

Prior to introducing the panel of UofL leaders, Postel provided updates on the SACS accreditation process and the latest news from athletics. Last week, SACS sent six visitors to campus to gauge UofL’s progress in addressing the organization’s concerns that initiated probationary accreditation status last year. Specifically, SACS representatives were looking at 10 issues and UofL was cleared on eight of them.

The two that remain a concern have to do with the university’s affiliated entities and the qualification of administrators.

Postel said a memorandum of understanding is being created to define UofL’s relationship with the UofL Real Estate Foundation and the Pediatric Medical Office Building to close the first loop. He added that many searches are underway for administrative positions and he hopes to name a few permanent positions soon to help with the second concern.

More information about the SACS visit is .��

On the athletics side, Postel said the “bombshell” news about the FBI investigation has consumed a lot of time and he is very concerned about how it is going to play out.

“I’m not going to downplay this. I love this place and it makes me sick that we have to continue to dodge things that hurt our reputation like this,” Postel said. “There is a lot that we still don’t know. It is an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Postel added that he is working to make the best decisions to protect the university and its reputation and that these decisions are not being made in a vacuum.

“There are no personal issues here. I am having many thoughtful conversations with the boards and we are approaching these issues as a team to acknowledge what is necessary to protect the University of Louisville,” he said.

2020 Plan

Postel then pivoted to the panel, brought together to examine UofL’s progress and discuss ideas for the future related to the five pillars in the 2020 plan.

• ����ֱ��al excellence: Interim Provost Dale Billingsley led the conversation on educational excellence, soliciting ideas on how to best increase enrollment while simultaneously increasing our graduation rate.

Professor Al Futrell suggested using distance education as a strategy to do both: “Distance education has played a major role in helping us get to where we are now. We need more of a focus on it as a legitimate strategy,” he said.

It was also suggested to increase a focus on our international student program. The graduation rates of international students are higher and “if we provide them with a good undergraduate experience, they may be more likely to choose UofL for their graduate studies.”

A concern was raised about who is going to teach all of these extra students if we hit ambitious enrollment goals in the next few years, since faculty resources are already compromised.

A suggestion was made to create a committee to focus on innovative ways to retain and develop adjunct faculty, since about 70 percent of classes are taught by adjuncts.

• Research, scholarship and creative activity: Bill Pierce, EVP for Research and Innovation, noted the dramatic increase in research output from 1997 through 2007-08 and said if UofL would like to continue in the top tier of research institutions, a business plan needs to be devised. He added that the IPR site is a major opportunity for the university.

“Most research institutions in metropolitan areas would kill to have 40 acres of land contiguous to their engineering school,” he said.

It was also suggested that the university focus more on undergraduate research as much as graduate research. This would overlap other priorities, such as educational excellence and recruitment of faculty.

• Diversity, opportunity and social justice: Mordean Archer-Taylor, vice provost for diversity, said there is a compelling interest in diversity, as it intertwines with all of the pillars. Also, a diversity plan has been approved by the CPE and the board of trustees and will be online soon. She noted it is a live document and is focused on the diversity of students and our workforce, as well as cultural competency programs.

• Community engagement: Ralph Fitzpatrick, interim VP of community engagement, noted that UofL is a national leader in community engagement. His goal is to become a national model. He provided a brief overview of some of successes in this area, including the Brandeis Human Rights Advocacy Program, which was recently named as an exemplary designee by the Engagement Scholarship Consortium and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities as an outstanding model of community engagement. Fitzpatrick also said UofL is in the midst of helping with the major revitalization of the Russel neighborhood in West Louisville, and is heavily involved in health care projects, especially for indigent communities.

“We are a major player in helping to strengthen regional economies and revitalize neighborhoods. We are a national leader. I believe we can become a national model. We stand ready,” Fitzpatrick said.

• Creative and responsible stewardship: Finally, Bryan Robinson, interim vice president of advancement, said his department is getting back to the basics of accountability and transparency. The team is improving the information flow to donors, including annual reports, and it is communicating more closely with deans and faculty to understand unit priorities and how endowment should be spent. The department created an office of stewardship to fulfill this objective.

Postel concluded the forum with a financial update, noting that UofL finished ahead of budget for 2016-17, and is on budget for 2017-18.

“We are just scratching the surface today,” Postel said. “We will continue to obtain input and spend time and consideration to decide what makes sense and find resources to make it possible.”

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“The vast majority of time we’ve spent since January has been in the diligent resolution of past issues, and these are real problems to tackle. But they’re not our future. What I want to do is shift the emphasis away from the problems of the past and look at what we can become,” Postel said to a full crowd in Strickler Hall’s Middleton Theater.

It was a rallying cry of sorts for the president, who solicited everyone’s help to keep the campus dialogue open, to submit ideas on how best to move forward, and to stay engaged with the university.

Postel used the recent transition of UofL Hospital’s management from KentuckyOne Health to University Medical Center as an example of what can happen when everyone gets involved and works together.

“It was run as a corporate entity, more of a top down structure. People were demoralized and many left. There was a feeling that things weren’t going to get better,” Postel said. “But we work for a university, where thought leaders come together and become part of the solution. When we started the steps to bring the hospital back to UMC, hundreds of faculty and staff became engaged. It was palpable and July 1 (the transition) was like a pep rally. There is enthusiasm there now that we are in control and we are going to do it right.

“We need an analogy like that on the Belknap Campus.”

2020 Plan and 21^st Century Initiative: Where we are, where we’re going

Postel used UofL’s 2020 Plan (put into place in 2008) and 21^st Century Initiative (meant to “reinforce” the 2020 Plan with a more granular approach and put into place in 2012) as the focal point of his presentation, noting what we’ve accomplished, what we’ve missed and what opportunities remain. He also shared some of his preliminary ideas meant to facilitate better, shared dialogue on how to improve on each of the five pillars from the 2020 Plan.

“The pillars very clearly represent what’s important to the university. Here we have two points in time where a huge shared governance process took place at the university. There are so many things within (the pillars) that can be empowering to us if we choose to engage,” Postel said.

1. ����ֱ��al Excellence

UofL has improved its student-to-teacher ratio, has better integrated critical thinking, has increased PhD production and has “dramatically improved” the student experience with library renovations, the upcoming SAC renovations, more and better campus housing and LLCs, and the construction of the Belknap Academic Building.

UofL has to work on a static number of undergraduate programs, enrollment growth and, especially, graduation rates.

Some of Postel’s ideas to be better in this area include expanding the student body, cultivating creative thinking to improve graduation rates, discussing whether or not we need to start a Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, and redesigning the distance education program.

“If the faculty and staff desire, these are things that can be transformative,” he said.

2. Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity

Postel said research tripled in the decade after the Bucks for Brains program was launched, but since then, about 2007, growth has been more modest and goals have been missed. Clinical trials have also grown, but modestly.

Postel said more thought needs to go into the trajectory of research on this campus.

“We’ve never built a scalable infrastructure here for research. There is no valid business plan for supporting research. Research requires subsidy and not a lot of thought has been given to that in the past,” he said.

3. Diversity, Opportunity and Social Justice

UofL’s study body is more diverse than it was when the 2020 Plan was put into place. However, Postel questions whether our underrepresented student numbers have increased enough. Additionally, though more of our students are studying abroad, we’re not getting enough international students to study here.

Some of his initial ideas to move forward on this pillar include conducting and publishing a comprehensive campus climate survey, renewing our scholarship creation, enhancing pipeline programs and revisiting our recruitment policies.

4. Community Engagement

This pillar has been “tremendously successful,” according to Postel, for example yielding more than 21,000 instances of student engagement. UofL is one of 360 universities in the U.S. with a Carnegie Foundation designation, which it has received twice.

Postel hopes to use our community engagement efforts to continue being an engine for economic development, interdisciplinary research, advocacy in healthcare and more.

5. Creative and Responsible Stewardship of Resources

Postel touted UofL’s successful $1 billion campaign and the university’s active and modernized Alumni Association. However, he noted that our endowment fell well short of its $3 billion goal; we lack a sustainable model for advancement, our culture of philanthropy is inconsistent; and our donor stewardship is also inconsistent.

Postel suggests prioritizing a new donor campaign and a new approach to stewardship.

“We need to have a collective effort to renew the faith of our donor community,” he said.

Budget and beyond

Postel also quickly touched upon the budget, noting that we have a balanced budget in place with conservative assumptions, and we are reporting on the budget monthly. He also said the suggested 6-percent procurement tax has been suspended and other models are being looked at after negative feedback was received.

“We are listening and this 6-percent tax is an example of that,” he said.

Postel took a series of questions regarding communication hurdles, long distance learning, how to enable voices from the bottom up and create better structures, and what the timeframe is to “move forward.”

More forums will be scheduled in the fall semester. Postel said those will be the next step in understanding what kind of mechanisms we can put into place to maintain positive momentum.

“The bulk of my presentation today is to test campus receptivity to shifting our focus to the future. We can’t wallow in self-pity or we won’t get past this junction,” Postel said. “This is our university, if we don’t fix it, nobody will. But it’s going to take all faculty and staff to fix it. Engagement is essential.”

Dr. Postel also recently sat down with Mark Hebert, UofL’s director of programming and production, to discuss some issues in more detail. That video is available below: