Good afternoon. Welcome to the 2008 State of the University address.
Thanks to all of you, we’ve had a wonderful start to this academic year. If you may remember, last year at this time, we were the first to experience the new Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall at the River Campus. We were so proud to successfully open that new campus. Over the past year many people have visited the River Campus and have marveled at that great addition to the University community, and our region.
It has been a year of progress, not only at the River Campus, but throughout our University community. It has also been and will continue to be a time of planning, thus our theme for this year, “A Year of Progress, Pride and Planning.”
I want to reorder discussing our theme just a bit today to first talk about pride. There are so many reasons this year to be proud of Southeast Missouri State University, but one student group recently brought great pride to Southeast - - our own Golden Eagles Marching Band. The video shown as you came in today was a clip of the more than 100 band members who traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to play at the prestigious Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The Golden Eagles are only the second United States university marching band ever to be invited to perform at the 59-year-old Tattoo. During the 5-week musical production, the band performed more than 30 times in front of more than 217,000 people. They were watched by more than 10 million people in a BBC broadcast to the entire United Kingdom and another estimated 100 million viewers in a world-wide broadcast. Talk about marketing Southeast Missouri State University to the international community!
Many of you may not know this, but not only did our students give up 5 weeks of their summer vacation, they also paid almost $3,000 each for their travel expenses. Since we weren’t able to take the trip to Scotland, I thought you would like to see and hear the group which has brought great prestige to Southeast - our internationally known Golden Eagles Marching Band. Would you please stand while the Golden Eagles sing the Alma Mater in their traditional manner and remain standing as they enter Academic Hall and play for you, “God Bless America.”
Thank you Golden Eagles and Barry Bernhardt, director of bands, Drs. Conger and Mizicko also accompanied the band but were not able to be here this afternoon. Let’s give them another round of applause as they leave.
In today’s address, we want to recognize new members to our University community, discuss several organizational changes, describe several areas in which we have made great progress, show you the Year in Review video, and briefly outline the strategic planning process we will use this Fall.
So our next order of business today is to extend a particular welcome to some new members of the Southeast Missouri State University community. Please stand and remain standing as I introduce you, and please hold your applause until all have been introduced.
- Dr. Margaret Noe, Dean of the College of Education
- Dr. Francisco Barrios, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts
- Dr. Wayne Bowen, Chair, Department of History
- Mr. Zahir Ahmed, executive director of International Programs
And we would also like to welcome all of you who are new to our campus. So would all of those who were not here in September of 2007 please stand. Please join me in welcoming these new members of the Southeast Missouri State University community.
As you came in, you should have received a State of the University handout that contains several areas I want to mention. As in years past, we’ve included a new organizational chart. So if you’ll pull that from your handout, let me explain several major changes we made and reasons for the changes.
If you will look with me from left to right, you’ll note that the first change is in the area of Business and Finance which has been renamed Finance and Administration. You will note that Facilities Management now reports to Vice President Kathy Mangels. Let me explain that change by saying that Dr. Holt did a great job with Facilities Management. But because, so often, Facilities Management involves budgetary and purchasing issues, and because we decided to give Dr. Holt additional duties related to student success, it made sense to move Facilities Management to the Finance and Administration division.
As we begin to discuss our enrollment management and student success goals in the new Strategic Plan, it seemed only natural to add to Dr. Holt’s division several units that have common goals and objectives. Dennis’ area has been renamed Enrollment Management and Student Success. The major change in that area is the moving of Dr. Larry Baker, Dean of Students, and the student development areas to that division. In addition to her title of Director of Admissions, Dr. Debbie Below has been given the title of Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management and tasked with extra duties to assist in carrying out the goals of the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan.
Finally, if you go to the far right of the organizational chart, you’ll see University Advancement. The need for better internal and external communications was a major issue identified in last spring’s strategic planning open forums. With the retirement of Associate to the President Art Wallhausen and the transitioning of University Relations Director Diane Sides into the vacated assistant to the president position, it was an opportune time to restructure the areas of marketing and communication and to place those University activities under one umbrella. Consequently, the former University Relations department was merged with several areas of University Advancement to form the Marketing and University Relations Department, now headed by Karen Grebing.
This reorganization, which became effective July 1, was the largest reorganization during my 17-year tenure at Southeast. However, it is my belief that this restructuring will provide better communications and more efficient operations so we are in a better position to successfully accomplish the priorities of our new Strategic Plan.
The State of the University address is the one event each year where we can come together to reflect on the progress we have made the last year. When you get some time, I’d certainly like for you to review our accomplishments as outlined on page 3 of the handout. But now I would briefly like to mention several items that I believe are very note-worthy.
With the collaboration of the Faculty Senate and the administration, the Board of Regents approved a new tenure and promotion policy this year that, in my opinion, will be recognized as a model throughout the United States. This new policy both clarifies and streamlines the process for promotion and tenure; places tenure and promotion to associate professor together; and it provides faculty the option to go through that process at either the fifth or the sixth year. Finally, this new policy provides senior professors, who already have received post-professorial merit, the opportunity to design a personalized post-professorial merit plan which would focus on their strengths and interests and the needs of the college and university. On behalf of Provost Stephens and me, I want to thank all those involved and to congratulate Faculty Senate, their chair last year, Dr. Martha Zlokovich, the executive officers, and the Faculty Senate committee on Professional Affairs chaired by Dr. Rick Althaus for a job well done. I also want to thank Provost Stephens for her significant contributions to this policy development.
One of our new initiatives was to establish a collaborative effort with Southeast Missouri Hospital to operate the Campus Health Clinic. As many of you may be aware, this operation was running in a deficit partly because we could not bill individual health insurance carriers. We were very fortunate to have entered into an agreement with Southeast Missouri Hospital whereby they are now operating the Clinic with registered nurses and nurse practitioners to meet the healthcare needs not only our students, but also to meet the needs of our faculty and staff. Southeast hospital brings a larger healthcare network than the campus facility previously had. With this new partnership will come convenient, low-cost services on campus for students, faculty and staff with the ability for those services to be reimbursed by patients' insurance. You can now go to the Health Clinic during normal working hours for your health issues without spending hours in a waiting room. If you wish, you can call the Health Clinic and make an appointment. This new collaborative effort also can provide “back-up” to the Campus Health Clinic in case of a surge in illnesses. Southeast Hospital can reallocate their resources from their hospital staff to provide more medical care personnel on campus in case the need arises. We feel this new opportunity for more immediate and convenient health care for faculty, staff and our students is a win-win-win for all of us.
We talk with pride a lot about being the University of First Choice – first choice for students; first choice for faculty and staff; and first choice for employers who recruit our graduates for jobs and careers. There are many indications that we are succeeding in what we do and we should be proud of our successes. Once again, the Marketing and University Relations staff and specifically Dave Andrews in Video Services have developed a 12-minute video for your pleasure. Thanks to Dave Andrews and his staff, Juan Crites and all the folks in Marketing and University Relations, and Assistant to the President Diane Sides.
One indication of our success in being the University of First Choice for students is enrollment. We are very pleased to not only have our returning students back on campus, but also to have, for the third year in a row, another record-breaking freshmen class. Beginning freshmen enrollment at Southeast will be almost 1,850 students. Coupled with last year’s 1800-plus freshmen enrollment, which was, by the way, over 19 percent more than 2006, our total enrollment should be a record 10,800 students. And, thanks to Zahir, approximately 120 new international students enrolled at Southeast and another 25 students in our Intensive English Program. We now have students from 41 different countries who add real diversity and internationalization to the culture at Southeast.
In addition to our increased enrollment, our new freshmen are better prepared academically. The number of freshmen with ACT scores of 24 or higher is rapidly increasing. This fall, we have 31 percent more freshmen with a 24 or higher ACT as compared to just two years ago. Preliminarily, their average ACT score is almost 22.9 versus 22.2 in 2006. The expanding enrollment of academically prepared students means better retention and higher graduation rates.
Our record enrollment would not be possible without the talent, dedication, support, and perseverance of so many faculty and staff here at Southeast. We don’t have enough time this afternoon for me to mention all of you who have helped make our progress possible. But I do want to point out several who deserve our sincerest appreciation for assisting us in once again breaking those enrollment records.
First, I would like to thank all the faculty and staff who work Show Me Days and First Steps, especially those of you who work those Saturday dates; all the faculty, chairs, advisors and deans who find time to talk with students, send personal letters to prospective students, telephone or answer their e-mails, and especially those who make time to meet each student and parents individually as they visit our campus; the Admissions staff; the Marketing and University Relations staff; the staff of the International Programs Office; the New Student Programs staff, and a special thanks to Scott Meyer and all of the Facilities Management staff who work so hard to keep our campus clean, neat and beautiful. In fact, I made my annual trip around the campus with Scott the Wednesday before move-in day, and in all my 17-plus years here at Southeast, I’ve never seen the campus more beautiful. To all of those I mentioned and many, many, more, thank you very much.
When we talk to students about why they chose Southeast, their top two reasons are the quality academic programs and outstanding faculty. In fact, I asked the Provost to provide me with some examples of what our faculty are doing for possible inclusion in this speech. The truth is I received so many high-quality examples of outstanding scholarship, grant awards, applied research, and excellent teaching and service that it was impossible to include them all in this address. And because I didn’t want to omit any of these exceptional accomplishments of our faculty, I have instead decided to send all of the great examples to our Marketing and University Relations staff for inclusion in upcoming issues of the Newswire, as possible feature stories, and for use on the University’s Web site for faculty spotlights. We want more than just those who attend this event to be aware of our faculty’s accomplishments.
On the topic of planning, our Board of Regents in July approved the draft version of our new Strategic Plan with five priorities. A Strategic Planning Steering Committee, comprised of representatives from throughout the campus community, has been very diligently drafting the objectives for the five priorities based on input from the February regional-wide planning forum, the April brown bag forum, and conversations with their constituent groups.
You will see beginning on page 4 of your handout a Strategic Planning Timeline, the Steering Committee membership, the approved mission statement and strategic vision, and five priorities with draft objectives. Our next step in the process is to get your input on the objectives as currently drafted by the Steering Committee. Remember, this plan will be the guide for our next three to five years. We want everyone to have the opportunity to provide input and suggest any changes to these objectives. As you can see from the timeline on page 3, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee will hold two open forums for each priority so you can only attend only those which you are interested in. For example, you may only be interested in Priority III: Communication, in which case, you’d just attend one of the forums scheduled for October 1st regarding Communication. Please note that executive staff members will not attend any of these open forums and the members of the steering committee will facilitate the open forum discussions so that you can feel free to give your full and unedited opinions. The Steering Committee’s goal is to present a final draft strategic plan to the Board of Regents for approval at its December 15th meeting. I want to thank the Steering Committee members and all of you who have participated and will participate in these open forums.
The Board of Regents has also asked us to develop plans to address the baby boom bubble! Many of you born between 1946 and the late 50s are counting the days before retirement – and that’s a lot of you. By June 30, 2011, 36 percent of our full-time faculty and almost 22 percent of our full-time staff will be eligible to retire. Those retirements will mean a loss of talent, expertise and historical and political perspective of our university. This is a concern and an opportunity to reallocate resources, so it is imperative that we discuss new academic program offerings and look at recruitment, retention and succession plans for faculty and staff. We will be working with Human Resources, the Faculty Compensation Committee and the Professional Staff and CTS Benefits Committee in the upcoming months on issues dealing with this major challenge.
Finally, our planning also includes AQIP - You will remember that many of you participated in forums where we discussed AQIP and its relationship to how we now obtain reaccreditation. Three AQIP projects were identified last year, including projects dealing with academic advising, indicators for the University of First Choice, and internal communications. I want to thank all of you who have or who are continuing to serve on those AQIP Committees. Two AQIP projects have been completed - indicators for the University of First Choice and academic advising. We will soon need to identify two more AQIP projects. The AQIP Committee still has a list of those projects that faculty and staff identified last spring. So if you believe that one of those projects should be elevated to Action Project status or if in the meantime, you’ve discovered another challenge that might benefit from the AQIP project process, please see either Provost Jane Stephens or Vice President Dennis Holt, who co-chair the AQIP Steering Committee.
It’s very important to be planning for where the University will be three to five years from now, and to identify the tasks we’ll be doing next year as shown on page 10 of your handout. But as all of you know, there are some challenges that need immediate attention.
Our student open labs are outstanding and are being systematically updated through a student technology fee. However, we have been remiss in not systematically updating the computer technology in academic specialty labs – those computer labs that are designated for specific majors or programs in the colleges and departments. So, I have asked Vice President Mangels to set aside $175,000 in one-time funds to immediately replace 143 inferior PCs in the academic computing labs. The Provost and Deans have reallocated $250,000 of base budget for systematically updating over 1,100 computers in the Southeast specialty labs. Any additional funding needed to maintain these labs will be discussed by the Budget Review Committee.
As we all know, transportation costs have skyrocketed due to significant increases in fuel prices. We know that departmental travel budgets have taken a hit, much like student worker budgets did when we had the unexpected increase in the minimum wage. We also know you’re being frugal with your travel budgets and I suspect you have curtailed travel and some faculty and staff professional development plans. As a result, I’ve asked Vice President Mangels to research the travel budget shortfalls due to increased fuel costs and to designate one-time dollars to be allocated to the Provost and vice presidents for distribution into departmental travel accounts. It’s imperative that this year you be able to continue needed travel and faculty and staff professional development. We will recommend to the Budget Review Committee that next year’s budget include permanent funding increases for travel budgets where needed.
We are also aware that increased fuel prices also may be impacting your own personal finances. So I have asked Human Resources and the Department of Public Safety to investigate the possibility of developing a carpooling program whereby faculty and staff could easily identify others who might be interested in sharing rides. Once the program is up and running, I’ve asked Public Safety to designate special carpooling parking spaces located close to main buildings so we can use better parking spaces as an incentive for carpooling.
In closing, due to increased fuel costs, a very slow economy, and inflation, I am concerned that we’re going to be facing some very real financial challenges in 2009-2010. Missouri’s Senate Bill 389 caps any fee increases at a rate not to exceed the percentage of change in the consumer price index. As we look at more than a 5% CPI increase, I’m not sure the general assembly will be able to provide such an increase to our appropriations. I have no doubt that it will be a very challenging FY 2010 for both the general assembly and for Southeast. But I can assure you that our priorities will be to retain and continue to strengthen our outstanding academic programs and continue to protect the welfare of our faculty and staff and students.
I have now been at Southeast for more than 17 years and am privileged to begin my 10th year as president. We have been through some very good times and some very tough times during those years, but thanks to the vision of our Board of Regents, past and present, and to the work of all of you, I believe our university is a far better place than it was a decade ago. Our more than 1800 new students are happy to be here. We had over 50 new faculty in our Teaching Enhancement Workshop – a testament to how many faculty wanted to pursue their academic careers at Southeast. Our new staff orientation had individuals who have tried for years to be part of our University community and more and more employers are hiring our graduates. We are now being recognized as the University of First Choice – first choice for students, first choice for faculty and staff, and first choice for employers hiring our graduates.
I am both proud and humbled to have the opportunity to get to know some of the greatest University students in the world; and to be able to work with a faculty and staff who are truly dedicated to students, to teaching, to research, to leading this community and to serving this region and the world beyond. Thank you for all you do and let’s strive to make this year another wonderful year in the history of Southeast Missouri State University.
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