Regents taking two-day retreat to talk future of U of M

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents will spend Thursday and Friday discussing the future mission of the University in a private retreat in southern Minnesota.

U president Robert Bruininks said the meeting will feature wide ranging discussion on what direction the University should head and how that should happen as the U's budget is shrinks.

"This is an opportunity to debate, to reflect, to analyze, to review the work of the Board of Regents and the University of Minnesota and to really set priorities for the work coming up over the next year or two and in some cases even beyond," Bruininks said.

Regent Clyde Allen, who just took over as chair of the twelve-member board, said the group will spend time debating how to move the University forward, but won't likely leave the two day meeting with any solid plans.

"We'll get lists of questions we need to be asking ourselves, we'll get some process in place on how to go about answering those questions, but no we will not make any big decisions, " Allen said.

The retreat will be held at a private conference center in Owatonna. It comes after the board compressed its usual two days of monthly meetings into one short session on Wednesday.