Dear Faculty Member:

I hope you are having a restful summer. So many things are going on at the University that I thought I should bring you up to date. This Update will be somewhat lengthy since it covers a number of topics. These are indeed exciting times to be at Western.

Fall Enrollment. First, undergraduate enrollment continues to grow rapidly. As of this writing, it appears that we could have 18 to 20 percent more freshmen than last year (though the situation is still very fluid). This also looks to be the best class in our history. Again the situation is fluid, but the average SAT is currently 9 points higher than it was at the same time last year.

One thing that is aiding us this year in increasing our academic admissions standards is that we have created a waiting list of the students who, while they meet our minimum admissions standards, are less likely to succeed. If current deposit and application trends continue, their admission will be deferred until January. Given our application trends, we also expect to start the recruitment cycle for 2004 with a waiting list. We will then reassess our situation as the semester progresses.

Additional enrollment has also been recently generated by the graduate school. Because most of our graduate students are adult learners, it is not too late to have even more impact on graduate enrollment. I would encourage anyone who is a graduate coordinator or who works closely with graduate students to make sure that your graduate program is fully enrolled.

If graduate enrollment stabilizes near the expected level, we should see total headcount enrollment of between 7,400 and 7,500 students. At the same time, student credit hours, the basis for obtaining new faculty positions, should increase quite significantly. After fall semester begins, I will share with you the actual number of new faculty positions that should be derived from the increased enrollment. But, it is safe to say that current trends are very promising.

I hope that all of you understand that our enrollment growth is primarily the result of the hard and sometimes difficult work that each of you have taken on. You have reviewed and improved programs, increased the quality of teaching, created significant numbers of new programs and generally “raised the bar.” Staff members are improving our residential living programs, continuing to provide tutoring, and generally improving services offered to students. Of course there is always a great deal more to do, but I hope you sit back and take some real satisfaction in a job well done.

Restructuring to Enhance Enrollment. Last year I conducted a review of our enrollment trends and services. Those of you who took part in the faculty focus groups, particularly those who participated in the spring, will remember that in most groups we talked a great deal about academic issues such as advising, structure of the major, enrollment, and the like. I also reviewed the quantitative outcomes data provided by the Board of Governors and the surveys of students. Based on these data it appeared that we could take advantage of our current enrollment growth by more aggressively marketing the University and better coordinating our entire first-year program. Therefore, two significant changes have been made:

Clifton Metcalf has been assigned responsibility for developing a comprehensive approach to enrollment marketing. He is chairing a committee to develop this approach. Because of his extensive business experience in the field, Newt Smith was asked to work closely with Clifton on this committee. Marketing is much more than advertising. It involves a comprehensive approach linking deans and faculty to student recruitment, reviewing and updating our approaches to using merit-based scholarships, re-thinking our advertising, and re-structuring our message to increase the match between the student and the institution. This process will be both iterative and evolutionary, so I would anticipate that it will take a year or two to fully develop the approach. However, this should help us capitalize on our current enrollment growth.

Fred Hinson has been promoted to “Senior Associate Vice Chancellor” and been given responsibility for coordinating and managing all aspects of the first-year experience including scheduling, curriculum, linking the curriculum and co-curriculum, developing “courses in common,” and coordinating all of this with enrollment management. The Enrollment Management Division will now also report to Fred. One of Fred’s first tasks will be to create a formal enrollment management plan that: 1) assures coordination among all areas that have responsibility for first-year students; 2) links the advising center to the academic departments; and 3) strongly supports first-year students moving toward the major.

It should be noted that this reorganization is a direct outcome of the faculty focus groups. The information that participants related regarding ways that we could improve our graduation and retention rates was very helpful in thinking this issue through.

Technology Transfer. Last academic year there were several faculty members who approached me with questions regarding copyrights, patents, and possible “spin-off” businesses. I had more of these questions last year than in my first seven years at Western. Because of this increasing interest, and because of engineering, genomics, and optoelectronics, it is increasingly clear that we needed to develop formal expertise in what is called “technology transfer.” Please do not let the name put you off—it is a term of art. However, as we become more engaged in the community, issues regarding technology transfer will increase.

To respond to these issues, the Board of Trustees has approved the creation of an Office of Technology Transfer. Since we do not need to staff such an office full-time at this stage, I have asked Rich Kucharski to head the office. Rich’s new title is “General Counsel and Director of the Office of Technology Transfer.” Rich will work on this issue part-time and because of the press of legal issues involving everything from construction to tort claims, we will hire an assistant attorney.

I should note that this approach is consistent with the development of the equivalent office at NC State. I also sought advice from Russ Lea in the Office of the President. The Office of Technology Transfer is the coordinating location for contracts, copyright enforcement, and patent application—it is not a technology office. Technical evaluations of potential products are usually done by a third party such as the Research Triangle Institute. This office operates under federal law (the 1988 Bayh-Dole Act) and state law governing patent and copyright ownership. If you have any questions regarding these issues, or if you have an idea that might be appropriate for technology transfer, please contact Rich.

Legislative Issues. As of this writing, the state budget is in flux. The $400 million shortfall in revenues put a significant crimp in the progress of the budget. I will keep you informed as this matures.

If you have contact with legislators, please be supportive of the Senate’s budget. In its current form, it includes faculty and staff raises, enrollment growth funding, money to support the start-up of engineering, and focused growth funding. Even with the proposed base budget cuts, Western would see a significant increase in total funding if the Senate proposal is adopted.

I have been in Raleigh often to work on budget issues and have had the opportunity to testify on four bills:

Updating the state’s anti-hazing statute.

Explaining why the legislature should not be involved in campus fee setting.

Supporting a bill to move family health coverage to a pre-tax benefit. This would have significant implications for the actual cost of health care to all employees.

Explaining institutional requests to increase flexibility to establish certain buildings of the campus as “no smoking” facilities. This would affect such facilities as physical recreation centers and certain residence halls.

In addition, Michael Dougherty and I have had a chance to have input into a bill being developed to promote teachers staying in the field and to encourage North Carolinians to enter the teaching profession.

Teacher Education. In addition to having input into the possible bill related to the supply of teachers, Clifton, Tom McClure and I have begun discussions with the College of Education and Allied Professions on several key issues. Although it will take some time for any of this to mature, there are several areas that we feel may be of interest. They would take significant action by both the Board of Governors and, in several cases, the legislature. We also have begun discussions with Howard Lee, the new chair of the State Board of Education, regarding options that he believes might help. We will invite Senator Lee to campus to continue these discussions. Several items are under consideration:

We are exploring the possibility of having declared teacher education students from out-of-state exempted from the 18 percent out-of-state student cap for “focused growth” institutions.

We are exploring possible ideas for uses of state scholarship money to see if we can improve the number of North Carolina teacher candidates, especially in fields in which there are shortages.

We will begin examining how we might re-think our distance education options in teacher education to provide resources to departments to encourage 2+2 programs at community colleges.

There is beginning exploration of how we might establish continuing or ongoing relationships with high school counselors in other states where large numbers of students are exported for higher education.

I have asked Chuck Wooten to work with Michael regarding the costs of a new education building. Killian is being partially remodeled, but it does not have sufficient square footage to handle large increases in the number of students seeking teaching degrees.

In the current budget situation it is not likely that building funds can be obtained, but we need to plan for the future.

We are seeking full funding for the NCTIP program that allows us to offer scholarships to out-of-state teacher candidates who will commit to working in North Carolina.

I am looking at all budgets to see if we can find both the position and the funding to create an “assistant director of admissions” for teacher education to focus on recruiting larger numbers of teacher education candidates.

Because of the quality of our faculty and academic programs, Western has the potential to be the premier teacher education institution in North Carolina. Given the massive teacher shortage in the state, it is important that we do so.

Distance Education and Summer School. Some of you may have heard, but Oak Winters has told us that he intends to retire in October. Oak has done an excellent job of developing our distance education program, reaching out to the community, and representing Western very well across the state. We will miss him but wish him every good fortune in retirement. I know that you join me in thanking Oak and Kathy for their many contributions to the life of this campus.

Because of the increasing importance of distance education, we will conduct a national search for a new dean. Because of the increased demand in most institutions of higher education for experienced deans in this field, we anticipate that finding appropriate candidates will be difficult. Therefore, we will use the services of a search firm to assure that we get the best possible person.

If you have seen Chuck’s presentation on the role of credit hour production in the budgeting process you will understand that we need to have a first-class individual heading up this area. Oak is leaving this program in excellent shape and as a result we have an opportunity to greatly increase the enrollment in this type of programming over the next few years. Also, because of the role that community colleges can play in our distance education enrollment, we will be seeking a person who understands how to develop 2+2 programs and how to extensively market existing programs. Michael Dougherty has been asked to chair this search. The committee will be composed of a staff member from Continuing Education and Summer School and several faculty members that are involved with distance education.

It is expected that we will conclude this search in the fall semester. We also are asking Malcolm Loughlin to act as interim dean until the permanent dean can arrive.

We anticipate increased faculty requests for assistance. Therefore, we are enhancing our support for WebCT and other distance technologies through the newly formed Educational Technologies unit in the Division of Information Technology. In addition, a review of all of our policies related to distance education will soon begin. The focus of the review will be to increase the value of distance education to departments that take active part. This review will pay particular attention to allocation of faculty positions and support dollars and to the role of the college deans in encouraging development of distance education programming. As we enter the fall semester I will seek broad input into how we address these issues.

Well, as you see, things continue to move. I hope you have a restful summer, and I look forward to seeing you in the fall.

Regards,

John W. Bardo
Chancellor