Robert Bruininks
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Robert H. Bruininks (born February 22nd, 1942) was appointed the 15th president of the University of Minnesota on November 8, 2002. He has served the University for 37 years, as professor, dean, and executive vice president and provost, and now as chief executive officer.
Bruininks currently oversees a major strategic planning and positioning effort aimed at making the University of Minnesota one of the top three public research universities in the world within a decade, an effort that has generated significant excitement on campus and around the state. Through it, the University is implementing system-wide changes to its academic and capital investment strategies, its organizational structure, and its operations, with the University’s coordinate campuses planning for new levels of excellence and improvement based on their signature programs and unique roles in their respective communities.
Bruininks’s vision for the University includes continued improvements to the student experience, building on recent successes such as special programming for first-year students, new and newly renovated residence halls and classrooms, improved academic counseling, and streamlined registration and financial aid processes. These innovations have helped create new pride on campus, and have fueled increased student satisfaction rates, increased numbers of applicants for admissions and enrollment, and significantly improved graduation rates.
To maintain a high level of access for students, Bruininks has made student scholarships his top private fundraising priority. He created the President’s Scholarship Match to double the impact of new donations establishing scholarship endowments, and, in February 2005, he introduced the Founders Opportunity Scholarship, a major new initiative to support undergraduates from low-income backgrounds.
Other priorities for Bruininks include strengthening the University’s interdisciplinary research across expanding fields of knowledge, continuously improving the quality of the University’s management and operations, and actively fulfilling the University’s responsibilities as a public land-grant research university.
Bruininks joined the University as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology in 1968. Throughout his career, his work has centered on human development and performance, policy research and development in education and social services, and strategic improvement and accountability in the fields of preK-12 and higher education, and he has authored or co-authored nearly 90 journal articles and more than 70 book chapters, as well as training materials and several nationally standardized tests. For his contributions to education, Bruininks has been honored with numerous awards, including election to Fellow status in the American Association on Mental Retardation, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. In January 2004, Minnesota Monthly magazine named him Minnesotan of the Year.
President Bruininks earned his bachelor of arts degree from Western Michigan University, and his master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees from George Peabody College (now of Vanderbilt University). He and his wife, Dr. Susan Andrea Hagstrum, have three grown sons and two grandsons.
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| Preceded by Mark Yudof |
President of the University of Minnesota 2002 – Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Presidents of University of Minnesota |
|---|
| Folwell • Northrop • Vincent • Burton • Coffman • Ford • Coffey • Morrill • Wilson • Moos • Magrath • Keller • Sauer (interim) • Hasselmo • Yudof • Bruininks |
