Join President John Anderson on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 3 p.m. in the Hermann Hall Auditorium for the Spring University Staff Update Meeting. The meeting will last about an hour, and all are invited to a reception in Hermann Hall Ballroom immediately following the meeting.

Shuttle buses will be provided to bring employees from the Institute of Design (ID) and the Downtown Campus (DTC) to Hermann Hall for the meeting. The schedule is below:

Institute of Design Pick-up at 2:20 p.m.
Downtown Campus Pick-up at 2:30 p.m.
Main Campus Drop off at 2:50 p.m.

Return Trips to Downtown Campus and ID:

· Pick up at Main Campus at 4:30 p.m. (Additional Shuttle, will run on regular shuttle schedule)
· Pick-up at Main Campus at 4:55 p.m. (Additional Shuttle, will run on regular shuttle schedule)
· Pick-up at Main Campus at 5:15 p.m. (Additional Shuttle, will run on regular shuttle schedule)
· Pick-up at Main Campus at 5:35 p.m. (Additional Shuttle, will run on regular shuttle schedule)
· Pick–up at Main Campus at 6 p.m. (Additional Shuttle)

For staff members who are unable to attend in person, videoconference locations will be available at the Institute for Food Safety and Health in Room 100, Rice Campus in Room 120, and Downtown Campus in the auditorium. We will also provide a webcast option for ID staff.

Please RSVP here no later than Friday, March 6.

There are two primary agenda items for the March 10 meeting. The first is a presentation of the results from the Staff Speak survey conducted over the past few months. The presentation will be made by the committee of staff members who, along with Dr. George Langlois, conducted the survey. I think you will find the results interesting. There will be time for discussion of the results. The second agenda item is the announcement and presentation of the staff merit awards. This is always a highlight of the staff meeting because we recognize the excellence of our staff through individuals who were selected by the staff for the awards.

Now for a few updates about the University:

· The campaign Fueling Innovation is on pace to reach our goal of $250M by December 2016. Currently we have $186M in payments and pledges. The most promising result to date is the very large number of donors at the level of $100,000 or above who have previously given less than $10,000 over their lifetimes; these individuals will play a large role in the next campaign. Alumni engagement during the campaign has also seen a large increase in the number of alumni attending our events in Chicago and around the country and world.

· The search for a new provost, to replace President-Elect Cramb, is in high gear. Some very good candidates have already expressed interest in the position, and we expect more candidates to surface over the next several weeks. The search is focused on external candidates, which is usually the case when the president is selected from the university’s academic leadership. Our goal is to have candidates visit Chicago during March and April for interviews with the 21 members of the search committee (please see the website . The search process is being conducted with confidentiality because most of the candidates do not wish to make their interest in the position public. Our goal is to have the provost-elect on campus this summer.

· The Kaplan Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship (formerly the Innovation Center) is being designed by John Ronan Architects. John is Professor of Architecture at IIT and is taking a leave of absence to design the building. As I noted previously, the Kaplan Institute will be built on the Morton Park site while maintaining the sense of green space we have for that area. As the design enters the final stage, we will present it through electronic media in the MTCC Collens Welcome Center. We hope to break ground for the building in 2016, and the building will be completed about 18 months after ground breaking. I am excited about this project because the Kaplan Institute will allow us to do things in education not presently possible, and it will be an affirmative statement that IIT is moving forward to achieve our vision.

· Per our strategic plan, our goal on enrollment is to at least maintain the current number of graduate students (Masters, PhD, JD) and increase the headcount of undergraduates to 4,000. In fall 2014 we saw an undergraduate enrollment of 3,100, but there was a slight drop in graduate enrollment; however, net tuition revenue will increase this year. I believe our enrollment goals are in reach over the next four years.