Welcome back, colleagues, to the new academic year. These are exciting times at Western and this year promises to be another very important one for all of us. At the end of each academic year, I generally note that we in higher education do not take much time to celebrate "little victories." That is, we become so focused on our longer-range goals that we do not take the time to reflect on what has happened of which we rightfully should be proud. Other people outside the University take note of these events and activities, but we tend to overlook them and assume that they represent the normal course of events.

At Western, we have been even less prone than others in higher education to have these celebrations. Partly, this seems to be a function of our old mountain traditions of not wanting to brag. Partly, it also seems to be a reflection of our own self-deprecating campus culture. It's the old, "if it happened at Western, it could have happened anywhere" song. It's an old song and we seem to know the words by heart. It's safe and familiar-sort of an old friend that comforts us as we sit around the campfire at the end of a long, hard day. But you know, I think it is time that we learn a new song-one that really reflects what you have accomplished and continue to accomplish every year. Western's new song shouldn't be a quiet campfire ballad: you've earned something upbeat more along the lines of a fight song or Highland Reel.

Perhaps as we think about composing a song for Western, we should consider using our state's motto, "esse quam videri," as a title. After all, our state motto doesn't mean that we should deny what we are, only that we should not pretend to be what we are not. To me, Western has pretended much too long to be less than it is. There is no need for pretense, and hubris is a terrible trait, but you have every right to be proud of what you have accomplished.

Consider the challenges you have met and overcome. Last year, you instituted the first internet-based computing admission standard in the United States. While other universities are still looking backward and selecting a single computing platform, you insisted that we adopt an "open network standard" and you coupled that standard with a requirement for real computing skills for all entering students-again, a first. Your work in this arena is beginning to get the national attention it deserves. Apple Computer has just done a feature article on WCU, where your work is referred to as an "educational success story." And, Western is featured in an article in Sky Magazine, Delta Airlines' in-flight magazine, this month. The Delta article notes that "Western Carolina is on the cutting edge of the wired university trend." I know that you did not take on this very important work for the recognition, but, at the same time, it is good to know that others are aware of the quality of what you are doing.

You also may have heard about enrollment. Again, this is a time for celebrating a "little victory." The number of freshmen, transfer students, continuing students, and graduate students are all higher than they were last academic year at this same time. We expect our enrollment, therefore, to increase and we expect, based on current trends, for our enrollment to be within the normal "funding band." Given the number of faculty members on this campus who have "raised the bar" with regard to academic expectations, this is a major achievement of which you should be proud. Again, your reputation for high-quality teaching, caring about the individual, and focus on the future are all beginning to be recognized.

At the same time that we have been able to increase the size of the freshman class, we think that our average SAT also has increased. We are currently are right at 1000 (though the official SAT will not be available for some weeks). This is the first time in the history of the university that our average SAT has a chance to be above 1000. If you remember that in the fall of 1995 we had an average SAT of 964, the change is even more impressive. So, take a minute to savor this small victory.

There are so many other areas in which you have been winning. Our revised admissions processes will be fully operational this year and we are well on our way to creating a unified Student Services Center. The Honors College is approaching an enrollment of 490 students. We had only seventy-seven honors students when the college started in 1996. The average entering SAT for Honors College freshmen was above 1200 for the first time in our history. Likewise, we have four National Merit Finalists and twenty-four North Carolina Teaching Fellows in this class.

And speaking of National Merit Finalists, this is our year for formal candidacy for recognition as a "National Merit University." If we attract at least three finalists this year, the National Merit Corporation will list us (along with Duke, Wake Forest, and Davidson). This has been a long process, but it represents a milestone along WCU's path to academic excellence.

It is important to celebrate the milestones along the road, because they represent the culmination of a great deal of work by many, many people. At the same time, we know that the journey is not over and that we have a great deal more to do if WCU is to achieve its potential as a nationally known center for teaching and learning. I firmly believe that this faculty and our great staff can take Western to those levels. There is no question that you have both the ability and the drive to take this university to national stature. What also is interesting is that how we get there is becoming increasingly clear.

I think that most of you are familiar with the changes that have been made in WCU's approaches to student recruiting. The complete recruitment model will be implemented for the first time this fall. At the same time, however, we are a year away from repositioning our viewbook, college recruitment materials, and our electronic recruiting approaches to conform to our current direction. We should, therefore, see additional increases in the number of freshmen in the entering class of 2000 and even more in the entering class of 2001.

At the same time we are growing the class, we must continue to raise admissions standards. You will recall that as you raised the academic bar, increasing percentages of students were academically suspended from the university. That is to be expected. Last year's freshman class was more able to handle the workload you expect, but the percentage of suspended students is still too high. Please understand, you need to keep your standards high; the university needs to continue to raise admissions standards and focus on recruiting excellent students who can increasingly meet your standards.

To this end, this academic year we will make one more major change in our admissions criteria. Class rank will be considered as the primary criterion for admission, followed by GPA, and then SAT. Students who finished in the bottom of their high school class did not demonstrate an ability to perform academically in that environment. Before attempting to meet your high standards, they should seek the assistance of our colleagues in the community colleges who have the programs to help them develop the necessary skills.

At the same time, we are significantly increasing our merit scholarship opportunities for North Carolina students. Any student who graduates in the top ten percent of his or her class and who has at least a 1050 SAT will be offered a scholarship. Those who do not qualify for traditional WCU merit scholarships will be offered the university's standard computer as the scholarship. You deserve to teach the best students and we will aggressively recruit them for your classes.

Please remember that recruiting is a "team sport." Many of you took part last year and it has paid off. We will continue to ask you to call and talk to prospective students. The best ones appreciate it and the relationship you establish with this phone call might last a lifetime.

In addition to reworking our student recruiting program, we have been focusing a great deal of attention on student retention. So far, this work has involved reconceptualizing freshman course scheduling, developing a stronger advising and freshman registration model, starting a transitional reading program, redirecting the freshman seminar, instituting voluntary fifth-week progress grades in 100-and 200-level courses, implementing a learning community program, and creating a "learning contract" program. That is quite a mouthful, but it still is just a beginning. Both the Pappas Group, which has been assisting us in both our recruitment and retention programs, and Price-Waterhouse-Coopers, which has been consulting with the UNC system, are recommending that we create a strongly integrated academic student support system. The actions taken to improve retention during the last academic year all are important components of an integrated retention program, but they need to be coordinated and integrated with other efforts.

To this end, today I am announcing the formation of a Division of Enrollment Management under the direction of Dr. Tom Canepa. The division will report within Academic Affairs, but it will have strong university-wide responsibilities. The new division will be composed of the Office of Admissions, the Registrar's Office, the former CAP Center, Student Support Services, and Financial Aid. The former CAP Center is being retitled "Educational Support Services" to reflect its emerging role as an integrated advisement and information office. One of our major goals in creating this division is to create a "one-stop" approach to answering student questions, providing information, and (in the longer run) accomplishing most transactions that students have with the university. When we were students, we all experienced, at one time or another, the "office run-around" where we had to go from office to office trying to get a question answered or a problem solved. It will be a primary goal of this division to minimize, if not eliminate, the need for students to wander from office-to-office seeking answers. It also will give faculty members a single point of contact to which to refer students or from which to seek information. This is a very important step in our strategic direction. I know that we all wish Tom well as he continues to develop this program.

You also might recall that during the last academic year we engaged in an extensive master planning process. Unlike most master planners, Woolpert L.L.P.-the firm that conducted our plan-focused much of their work on the nature of the core academic programs that would typify this university over the next ten years. They engaged the firm of Paulein and Associates, a nationally known higher education consulting group, to assist with this analysis. Their results are now available and they have provided clear direction for the next academic steps the institution needs to take.

We asked the consultants to help Western develop data to assist the strategic planning review committee in analyzing program viability. Additionally, we asked for analysis of programs that Western does not have that could assist us in enrollment growth.

To begin the process, the consultant defined a set of seven peer institutions. These selections were reviewed with the strategic planning committee and consensus was reached regarding the set of peers. So that you are aware, the peers include: James Madison University, Humbolt State University, Bloomsburg State, Shippensburg, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Radford University, and Murray State. Five of these universities are rated by U.S. News in their "top tier" and two, plus Western, are rated in the second tier. The consultant's analysis of the academic program array, student enrollment patterns, and perceived academic reputation were fascinating and showed some significant patterns.

First, WCU's academic reputation has changed significantly in the last several years. On this measure, our score now is well within the range of the "top tier" for schools of our type in the southern region. It is other characteristics - admissions standards, graduation rates, and so forth - more than our academic reputation that are contributing to our overall U.S. News rating as "second-tier."

Second, most of the first-tier schools in our comparison group have developed one or two areas of very significant strength, identifying conceptual themes that link several disciplines. In contrast, the second-tier schools in this group tended to be diffuse in their offerings and less likely to have a focused identity.

Frequently the themes that are emphasized at top-tier schools create linkages between traditional arts and sciences disciplines and a more professionally focused area. For instance, several first-tier schools have emphases in environmentally-related areas such as agriculture or natural resources management, and strong and heavily-enrolled programs in the natural sciences to complement them. Another extends its management emphasis outside the traditional business-school boundaries, creating linkages with the arts, with science and technology, and with the hospitality industry.

Most schools in the top-tier group have significant enrollments in education programs, though in some cases, as at JMU, future teachers, counselors and administrators earn "minors" rather than "majors" in education. Finally, several of these schools have unique programs related to their areas and traditions: the arts at JMU and Humboldt State, hospitality and tourism at Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

The consultant found only one discipline, construction management, that she would strongly recommend that we add to the program mix at Western. Many of her most important conclusions had to do with how we focus and organize our existing programs. If she is right-and I suspect that she is-the major task we face this academic year will be to recast our existing programs in ways that students and their parents can understand.

The simplest approach to this process involves our reconceptualizing the university catalog. Many universities include suggested curricula for students for every major that shows the student how to complete a degree in four years. I have had reason to look at a number of university catalogs over the last year and most have this type of display. This is an important, though simple, change for Western. Others are not quite so simple, but are probably more important.

The consultant has suggested that we look closely at how we can integrate curricula. This integration should be based both on the needs and interests of prospective students and our own professional understanding of what it means to educate the whole person. This is a very interesting concept that seems to have great potential for us. The consultant suggested, further, that we look closely at James Madison's approach to curriculum integration.

James Madison has focused around the notion of "careers." Most universities focus on first jobs or graduate school enrollment. These are short-term goals that students have interest in, but these goals do not speak to life-long interests and development. Careers tie the students instrumental needs and interests to the university's strong traditional values and emphasis on liberal learning. Careers are developmental and require life-long learning; jobs are vocational and static. Careers involve lifestyles, human choices, and thoughtful considerations. Jobs involve work. Each of us has managed to combine our love of our disciplines with the ability to earn a living. Each of us individually has been able to create a career that nurtures us and promotes and enhances our love of learning. Our students deserve no less than what we have been able to do for ourselves. And think about the opportunities that this type of approach gives the students to whom we have dedicated our professional lives.

Last academic year, faculty members from several disciplines and colleges came together to create proposals for baccalaureate and master's degrees in environmental science. Those of you who worked on these proposals showed the way. You not only created important degree proposals, you created a process that will foster curriculum integration. Let me suggest a couple of examples. What if a student were to major in environmental science and minor in management? Could we not prepare a suggested four-year schedule and curriculum that would allow integration of these two important areas to create an "environmental management" career path and possible degree? I suspect that both the management minor and the environmental science major would require little or no change to work together. Or, we have an endowed professorship in commercial music, but we have not put together a career path for students in music business.

What if a student were to major in social work and have a minor in management and public administration? We might not currently have the right minor, but that is relatively easy to fix. Could this not become a career path in social work management? In another vein, you have done tremendous work in integrating technology across the curriculum. Yet, we have not as an institution parlayed this work into career paths. We know that some of the most rapidly growing career fields all have strong technology bases. But, we have not thought fully about the opportunities to integrate our various curricula to create even stronger programs.

What I am talking about is not creating a whole new set of programs, but of linking together many of our traditional programs in ways that are understandable to students and their parents. These are not interdisciplinary programs per se, but a coalescing of strong traditional disciplines in which we have so much personally invested. The concept is powerful and academically sound. We take the students from where they are to where we know they need to be. No watered-down curricula; no lowering of standards. But, instead, we work to our academic strengths. We endorse the academic disciplines. And, we build on our greatest asset-you, the faculty.

I was asked one time on a radio talk show if I did not think that higher education was being hurt because we had moved away from notions of education for its own value to education for purposes and outcomes-and especially education related to jobs. My response was that it is very hard to sit and contemplate poetry when your babies are crying themselves to sleep because they are hungry. Likewise, very few of us could afford to be here today if we had not found a way to economically support our love of our disciplines. We need to give our students the same opportunities that we have discovered for ourselves.

Real attention to our curriculum and the linking of programs in ways that prospective students can understand are, I believe, very important to our future. Because of the importance of the issue, and because appropriate curriculum linkages will necessarily involve work across colleges, departments, and programs, I have asked Frank Prochaska to coordinate these efforts. Frank has extensive experience working across the university in directing the SACS self-study, in his role that laid the groundwork for the enrollment management division, and in his leadership of the computing implementation task force.

In addition to this work, I am asking Frank to take responsibility for improving coordination of our various technology initiatives. During the last academic year, Frank was tapped by General Administration to serve on a system-wide taskforce developing strategies to support integration of technology in the curriculum across all sixteen campuses and to co-chair a task force on technology applied to Student Support Services. Because of this work, he brings a unique perspective back to the campus that will greatly assist us in our own developments. At the same time, he has seen firsthand many of the problems that you face as you implement our technology initiatives in the classroom. This experience will be invaluable in helping us move to the next technological level.

You may be aware that last year's budget included earmarked new funding that could be used to hire a Chief Information Officer. Many universities like Western have created a senior-level position to take primary responsibility for managing the increasingly important, diverse, and pervasive information systems of the university. Given how much you already are doing with information technology, this would be a very logical next step for Western. But, because we were unsure as to the possibility of significant budget cuts that affected Rick Collings', ability to release faculty positions, I chose to freeze this important administrative position as well. To date, we have been able to create the Division of Enrollment Management and sustain our technological developments without creating any new senior administrative positions. (Tom Canepa, you may recall, is in the position that was held by Harry Ramsey.) If, later in the year, it appears that we have turned the enrollment corner and that we could expect new faculty positions next year as a result, I will consider releasing the Chief Information Officer position. Until that time, I am asking Frank to take responsibility for bringing together the offices that have primary responsibility for these services to see if we can improve support and develop an even more coherent strategic direction in this critical area.

Returning to the consultant's report, there are several other opportunities that she is suggesting. One of these, as I mentioned, involves creating a new program in construction management in the College of Applied Sciences. Several of her suggestions involve taking a very close look at the structure of existing programs. We have, for example, unique opportunities in hospitality, tourism, and recreation management. But our efforts are scattered. And several of our traditional disciplines are significantly under-enrolled compared to all our peers. We need to be very thoughtful about the reasons and possible solutions. But the potential value to the University of such a thoughtful review is outstanding.

One final point regarding undergraduate education- this fall you will have the opportunity to consider the final draft of the new liberal studies proposal. In my role as chancellor, I will refrain from speaking to the merits of the proposal since this is a faculty issue. But I will say that general education review is one of the most important activities in which we have been engaged over the last two years. Every student's education will be affected by the core liberal studies curriculum. I hope that you will take the opportunity to review the proposal and provide comments to the committee or to the Faculty Senate.

To this point, I have focused primarily on undergraduate education, but we have a great deal of work to do at the graduate level as well. First, I am not clear that we really know what the purposes of all our graduate programs actually are. To what extent do our graduate programs reflect our own personal interests rather than the interests of prospective students? Some of our graduate programs have had enrollment difficulties. Do we know the causes? To what extent do these curricula clearly articulate to the prospective student the program's goals?

President Broad, in an interview with the Asheville Citizen-Times, noted that she understood that there is room for increased graduate enrollments in the west. We need to offer our programs in ways that enhance student enrollment. Much of our graduate student enrollment growth will be in the "I-26 growth corridor," involving Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania counties. Most of the enrollees will be adult learners. It will be a significant challenge for us to meet the needs of adult learners, but Patsy Miller, Abdul Turay, and Oak Winters all are working with the academic departments on these issues. There is great, professionally rewarding, potential in this area.

At the same time that there is great potential, I am aware of some of the limitations that we are facing in providing even our current level of service. I know that we are already seeing space and technological support limitations that are affecting our ability to schedule currently demanded classes. These issues will only increase as we increase our offerings. At the same time, our current sites in the area are not on the major growth corridor along I-26. Our ability to serve new graduate students, in part, will be dependent on our ability to deliver suitable academic programs in convenient locations using pedagogies that are appropriate to both the level of program and to the needs of the adult learner. An important part of the work this year will involve examination of alternative solutions to these problems.

Also, Noelle Kehrberg, director of University Planning, uncovered a simple way that we can enhance graduate education. I was not aware, and I suspect that you were not aware, that fewer WCU students sign up for the GRE than those at any other UNC campus. We do not appear to be advising our best students that they should take the GRE and consider going to graduate school. Our students are bright and capable. Many of them should have graduate degrees. We need to make this an important part of our campus culture. I would like to challenge each of you here today to think about your best students and encourage them to consider graduate school. Indeed, every Honors College senior should take the GRE to increase his or her post-graduation options. Graduate education is critical to our future.

Finally, I would like to say a word about scholarly development. Rick Collings has been looking at the distribution of workloads across departments. This is an Academic Affairs initiative, but it is an important one so I felt that I should mention it. We as a university have to be committed to keeping our average class size relatively small. Currently, we have undergraduate lecture classes that average twenty-one to twenty-three students. This is a very important component of our tradition that must also define our future. Under the State of North Carolina's funding system, this means that a major part of a faculty member's professional effort has to be directed at teaching organized courses. There is no other way to keep class sizes down. And WCU will be rewarded as we grow in total enrollment if we do not change our average class size. At the same time, faculty members in all disciplines have need for time for professional scholarly development. Scholarship in each discipline has its unique difficulties and problems. When one looks only at one's own discipline, it is easy to see the problems there as unique and worthy of special recognition. Unfortunately, when viewed in isolation, each discipline can make the same claim. Rick is working to "even out" some of the discrepancies among departments that have evolved over the last twenty or more years. This effort recognizes that all (not just some) faculty members need time for scholarly development and contemplation. Our resources are always limited, but we need to improve the equity of distribution of those that we have. There will, I suspect, always be inequities. But faculty positions generated from enrollment growth and reasoned redistribution of positions as they become vacant should, over time, reduce the worst problems and provide opportunities for professional development.

Well, this brings me to the end of my talk. There are so many other things that could have been addressed because of the breadth of the work you are doing. I have not spoken to development of the governance system, extension education, economic development initiatives, or the like. All are very important to our future, but I felt that this talk should focus on the most immediate strategic issues that we must address.

I do want to end with one final note. After four years I can truthfully say that I am more proud to be chancellor of Western than I was the day I accepted the job. You are an amazing faculty. Your willingness to take on difficult tasks and make them look easy, your understanding of the future, your professionalism, your caring for students and their needs, all set a national standard. Be proud of what you have accomplished-remember, it ain't braggin' when it's true.

There is a new billboard going up by Jack the Dipper. The designer took some "artistic" license and spelled catamount with a "K." It says "Y2Katamounts". "Oh Yeah! We're ready." Well, you are ready-bring on the millennium. You are creating the university of the next millennium. Have a great year!