Transforming the University: Preliminary Report of the Metrics and Measurement Task Force

Two documents (Preliminary report and executive summary) regarding suggestions to measure the University of Minnesota's success in its Strategic Positioning effort. From the Introduction to the preliminary report: " The Metrics and Measurement Task Force is playing a central role in identifying appropriate measures to assess the University’s performance and its progress toward achieving the aspirational goal of becoming one of the top public research universities in the world within the decade. This report describes the progress made to date on addressing the six elements of the task force’s charge."The task force charge asks for metrics at several levels—identifying ways to measure progress at the operational level, and in collegiate units, coordinate campuses, and administrative units, as well as University-wide performance measures. A theme throughout this work is to align what we measure, wherever we measure it, with progress toward the University’s aspirational goal. Our work will lead to many activities being measured, monitored, and evaluated at a variety of levels. This is the real key to achieving the University’s goal. But only a relatively short list of measures can be reasonably used to make the University-wide assessment. These latter measures must be chosen selectively from among many competitors