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curriculum and extracurricular opportunities. He said that Dr. Lauretta Byars is doing a very
good job in a lot these areas.

      President Todd said he planned to take some of his best people and try to define what
"Top-20" means. He said he was pleased to announce that Dr. Phyllis Nash, from the Medical
Center, and Dr. Mike Nietzel will take on this effort. As they try to define what it means to
become one of the nation's "Top-20" premier institutions, he wants them to look at two sets of
metrics. One is the independently collected data at the national level, and there are two or three
of those that can be looked at. There are also other measures out there and they need to clarify
those. This allows us to compare ourselves independently with all other national institutions.
This is what we have got to do before we can move forward. He said he has talked about UK's
higher purpose under his leadership. He feels that local measures, such as things that have been
problems for Kentucky for many years that no one has been willing to talk about, things in
healthcare, things in education, and things in the economy for the farmers, have to be looked at.
He wants a committee to come up with some measurable parameters that he thinks can be
implemented and then put those on our shoulders. He said he had talked to Congressman
Fletcher about writing proposals on a national level about this with a tone of different
compassion. Things in the proposals could state that this is part of Kentucky's goal, and this is
part of our higher purpose. Money from these proposals counts toward the national level
numbers as well. He said that he thinks that is a way that we can all feel good about what we do.
The University of Kentucky campus is the Commonwealth, and it is a land-grant institution. We
should be making life better for Kentuckians, and this task force will be seeking that type of
input. He said he would be announcing the other members of the leadership later.

      In conclusion, he reviewed the Task Force on the University of Kentucky's Future,
Faculty for the 21St Century. The purpose of Task Force is to really look at where the academic
and scholarly strengths are and where we can be looking at new initiatives and recommend some
priorities. He mentioned the "Reedy Report" that had been done some time ago. In his
presidential interviews, he was told that the report was good, but it was too broad. We need to be
trying to target ourselves more specifically to things that we want to consider important and
that's the purpose of this committee. The committee will look at some restructuring which will
promote multidisciplinary collaboration and intellectual innovations because multidisciplinary
work is extremely important and fundable now. He said we are doing a lot more than we know
we are doing. This committee will be composed of faculty members who have distinguished
reputations in research, scholarship, the arts, performance and education. The Acting Provost, in
consultation with other academic leaders, will form this committee. He will charge the
committee with a report by December 3 1s because of the need for priorities.

      D.    Business Item

      President Todd mentioned a business item. He said he was calling for a thirty-day hiring
freeze with general fund positions because he wanted to look at the budget and see where the
University is bringing in new hires. He said he wanted to look at the administrative
restructuring. While money is being saved from attrition, there are people who will be relocating
to other jobs. He said he wants to make sure they have the first shot at some of the new positions