On March 5, I received a communication from Mary Ford, UMRA's representative to the Campus Club (CC), regarding a letter she had received that was written by CC President Amelious Whyte after conversations with CC board members and Executive Director Ann Holt.

The CC is seeking input from some of its largest stakeholders—deans on the Twin Cities campus, development officers, the Retirees Association, and Regents professors—regarding a notification the CC received from the University stating that, due to the tremendous financial challenges at the University, the University’s yearly subsidy to the CC will be discontinued at the end of the next fiscal year, on June 30, 2022--a subsidy the CC has received since 1978.

The CC needs to develop a new, sustainable business model and would like input from its important stakeholders, including UMRA. The CC would like answers to the following questions:

1. How does the CC contribute to UMRA’s efforts to accomplish the University’s mission and vision?
2. What elements of the CC are important to maintain as the club considers a new business model?
3. What new or missing services could the CC provide that would further assist UMRA in meeting its goals?

The CC may use some of the responses to these three questions should there be need for continued financial support from the University under a new business model.  

Until the changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, UMRA has been a major user of the CC for our monthly luncheon forums and workshops. 

If you have suggestions/recommendations as you think about the three questions, please send them to Mary Ford at [email protected] by April 12; she will collate them. Mary will be attending the UMRA Executive Committee meeting on April 19 when this CC request will be discussed, and a response will be prepared.

Thank you for your attention to this request.

—Frank Cerra, UMRA president