A Strong U Awaits a New President

"There is no better time than now to shine a light on recent successes at the University of Minnesota," writes university President Joan Gabel in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Gabel is stepping down after nine years at the helm, a tenure that saw the four-year graduation rate at the Twin Cities campus more than double in 20 years, and student debt drop $2,000 below national averages.

In fact, 40% of the school's 14,675 graduates graduate with no reported debt.

The university is "highly regarded nationally and globally," Gabel writes, and its researchers are more productive than ever, competing for and successfully earning more than $1 billion in research funding for the second year in a row, placing the university in the Top 10 among public institutions nationally.

"Thanks to historic investments in student health and success, students are graduating in record numbers," Gabel writes.

"The four-year graduation rate at the Twin Cities campus has more than doubled in 20 years.

This has helped reduce student debt, which is now about $2,000 below national averages.

The university educates 70% of the state's physicians, 73% of dentists, 60% of pharmacists, and 69% of public health professionals, and we offer the state's only Ph.D.

in nursing."

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