Dear Trustees, Member and Affiliate Representatives, and URC Members,

Welcome to the website for the October 2003 UCAR Meetings! I am looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks here in Boulder.

This year’s Annual Meeting will be held once again at our new Center Green Campus, and I am very pleased to announce that Dr. James Duderstadt, President Emeritus and professor of science and engineering at the University of Michigan has agreed to be the keynote speaker. As many of you know, he is most recently the author of Higher Education in the Digital Age: Technology Issues and Strategies for American Colleges and Universities. He has also written The Future of the Public University in America: Beyond the Crossroads and A University for the 21st Century.

In his introduction to A University for the 21st Century, Duderstadt says of the current state of the university: “No question is out of bounds: What is our purpose? What are we to teach, and how are we to teach it? Who teaches under what terms? Who measures quality, and who decides what measures to apply? Who pays for education and research? Who benefits? Who governs and how? What and how much public service is part of our mission? What are the appropriate alliances, partnerships and sponsorships?” Provocative questions, and many that apply to research laboratories as well as to colleges and universities.

The title of Duderstadt’s talk at the Annual Meeting is “The Future of the American Research University”. He will address some of the challenges facing our complex organizations; a panel discussion featuring leaders from the academic community will follow. After the panel discussion, six breakout sessions will consider more specific topics: one of the sessions--the Next Generation Faculty--will look at the challenges facing universities right now; the other four sessions will explore how UCAR and the universities can work more closely together on major scientific and technological topics: the water cycle, biogeosciences, cyberinfrastructure, and the next generation observing systems. I hope we have covered many of your interests with these topics. We’ll ask you to register for one of the sessions in advance of the meeting.

We are looking forward to seeing over 100 of you this year—Trustees, Members’ Representatives, Affiliates, and University Relations Committee members, a record number of attendees for a year in which no Heads and Chairs Meeting is scheduled. During these times of stress and unpredictability, it is more important than ever that our community comes together to shine a light on the issues most affecting our professional lives.

Please let me know if you any questions or comments in advance of the meeting.

Best regards, Rick Anthes President, UCAR

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