I am pleased to present to you this annual report on the accomplishments of the faculty, staff, and students of the University of North Dakota. Already one of America's leading universities, UND is in the process of rapid substantive growth and further development. We are guided by a strategic plan that has been in place for a year. This was described in my last annual report, "Pathways to the Future." You will be pleased, I think, as you review this latest issue celebrating the progress we have made in moving toward our preferred future.

This publication is, in a sense, a "corporate" annual report to our "stockholders"; in it you willnote some of the financial data, some of the analysis, some of the charts showing trends and other indicators about the ongoing strategic direction of the University. As you read about our progress, I trust that you will come to appreciate a broad vision of the University, serving in its many traditional roles and in some important new roles.

The areas we have chosen to emphasize in the immediate future are those described as priority action areas on Page 5. This fall we recorded the highest enrollment in the history of the University. This achievement was made possible by people - our faculy and staff - who see themselves as members of a community or team, all dedicated to serving the constituents who have placed their faith in us. You will read about new academics programs, including new graduate programs, which will hold the University of North Dakota in the highest stratum of America's doctoral research institutions. This report describes important new research developments, including the appointment of a new vice president for research charged with enhancing our efforts to secure more external funding for the creative work of UND's faculty and students. You will read about our efforts to sustain the University as a world player in distance education, building on its history of excellence in education, both traditional and continuing. We also describe examples of the University of North Dakota in its role of adding vibrancy to the cultural and arts landscape throughout the Upper Midwest. You will also read about programs designed to internationalize our institution as one of the vehicles for bringing greater diversity to North Dakota and to the Upper Great Plains. Yet you'll be sampling some of the many, many achievements of our faculty, staff and students.

We continue to be blessed with terrific support, not only from the North Dakota Legislature but also from alumni like Ralph Engelstad, who has given us the magnificent new hockey arena that we enjoy; the City of Grand Forks that has given us the Alerus Center, plus support in so many other ways; and others, like James Ray, one of our leading benefactors, who care about youth and the future of higher education. These, and other, have helped bring about a renaissance in academic and support facilities. I want to take this opportunity to thank President Chuck Stroup and all of the members of the State Board of Higher Education. Chancellor Larry Issak and the staff to the North Dakota Universty System, those who serve on our Alumni Association and Foundation Boards of Directors, and those who serve on our Aerospace Foundation Board and the boards of the Energy and Environmental Research Center Foundation and the Center for Innovation Foundation. Without help from such dedicated, caring individuals, the University would be merely a shadow fo what it is today.

I encourage you and all other University friends and stakeholders to join us as partners in building UND and the North Dakota University System into an even stronger force for the well being of our state, the nation, and the world. Through the North Dakota Legislature, the Higher Education Roundtable has provided us with new flexibility to meet the challenges of the future and pursue new directions. It is vital that was sustain this historic momentum.

Please contact me if you have questions about the University of North Dakota and its progress toward an even brighter future.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Kupchella

President