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Welcome everyone to the closing faculty meeting. This year has been “quite a ride” and I would expect next year to equally interesting and important. As you all know, we are in the middle of an important transition in the nature of our university. As a result, each year will be “interesting.” And, so far we have all survived the old Chinese curse of “may you live in interesting times!” I want to thank each of you for all of the excellent work that you are putting in to make this transition effective. In my opening address of next fall I will speak at some length regarding what I believe are some important next steps in this transition. For now, however, we should celebrate the achievements of the year.
When I look at this past year, I see such important progress in the quality of the academic program, in our research and scholarly activities, and in our outreach.
This academic year, we had eight new programs approved by the Board of Governors. Some of these programs including the M.S. Social Work, and the M.S. in College student personnel extend our services to improve the quality of life in the community and the quality of a student's experience on a campus. Both of these are important degrees. Additionally, we received permission for a B.S in athletics training and B.S. in environmental sciences. These are two excellent areas for us to be in. I should also especially mention that we finally received permission to offer our first program in engineering. This project was begun by chancellor Robinson 30 years ago. I guess persistence pays. Finally, three of our programs were approved either for traditional distance education or as online programs. These include the B.S. in Health Systems Administration, the RN to BSN capstone program in nursing, and the M.S. in construction management. Congratulations to the faulty in each of these programs for their hard work in making sure that we have the right mix of programs to support our students.
This was also a year when we received significant accreditations and national awards. Ron Rash, for example, received the O'Henry Award and Jeanne Dorle has been notified that she has been awarded a research Fulbright to the University of Quebec. And, Jerry Miller from geosciences was selected to take part in an international program to study the ecology of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Jerry and his family are there now and I know that they are having a very rewarding experience. In addition, our entrepreneurship program was recognized as the best in the nation by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. This accomplishment was made even more significant if one realizes that UNC-CH was ranked second!
Another important academic accomplishment of national note was the recognition of our sports management program by the Sports Management Program Review Council. There are approximately 300 sports management programs in the country and only 40 of them have received recognition by the council. Congratulations to the faculty in sports management and to all other programs that received re-accreditation this academic year.
In addition to academic program development, we also saw significant research and grant activity. As Western continues to improve its academic stature grant and sponsored research activity will need to take a more prominent role. Over the last several years we have seen a significant increase in the dollar value of funded projects that allow faculty members to conduct significant research. One of the most important grants of the year was given to the faculty in physical therapy. The Kate B. Reynolds Foundation funded a new high tech Human Movement Science Laboratory. I'd particularly like to congratulation Kristen Jagger and Karen Lunnen on that accomplishment. Reynolds grants are very competitive. This award speaks both to the quality of their proposal and the quality of our physical therapy program. Other grants have been received by faculty members from such agencies as U.S Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, Department of the Interior, and the United States Department of Justice. The largest grant received this year was obtained by Carol Mellon; the United States Department of Education provided her a grant of $1.1 million to continue programs to special needs students.
Service also is a key component of our institutional mission. So many faculty members, staff members and students are involved with the western North Carolina community that it would be easy to leave someone's efforts out if I were to try to create a list. I would like to mention just one project because I think that it truly defines the nature and character of our institution. Watauga Opportunities, a company that works with physically and mentally challenged employees approached our engineering and technology group with a project just before the end of the fall term. Company had an opportunity to bid on a project that, if successful, would employ an additional dozen or so people and it would bring jobs back from China. The problem involved the need to prototype a production mold in a very short period of time. Of course, we were at the end of the term and beginning winter break. Several faculty members, Monty Graham, Aaron Ball, Phil Sanger, and Chip Ferguson as well as graduate student Michael Claire, gave up their break to complete the prototype of the mold. As a result, Watauga Industries won the contract. The efforts of these fine faculty members and students have been recognized by the Marketing Association for Rehabilitation Centers. They, along with Chester Pankowski from the Center for Regional Development received the Director's Award. I want to publicly add my thanks to these fine representatives of our university.
I normally don't say much about athletics at this event, but didn't it make you proud to see the fighting spirit of our women's basketball team both in the Southern Conference championships and in the NCAA Tournament. Kelly Harper and her women represented this institution well both on the floor and in the public forums—both after winning and losing. They are a class act and make you proud to be a Catamount.
Before introducing some of the key issues that we will need to discuss next academic year, I'd like to take a minute to thank the Faculty Senate for their hard work this year. Newt will give you a more detailed overview of what the Senate accomplished this year, but I want to thank the members of the Senate especially for their work in restructuring both the Senate and the curriculum approval process. This was very important work.
Now, I want to turn for a few minutes to the current budget situation and the work of next academic year. If you have been following the press and ChuckWooten's e-mail, you know that the state is dealing with a potential deficit of $1 billion dollars. Western has been asked, as have all other campuses, to provide scenarios regarding potential budget cuts. You also should be aware that the estimated deficit is partly the result of the need of the legislature to fund enrollment growth. If the current cuts proposed by the Joint Education Appropriate Committee were to be applied to our base, it would have the impact of reducing our enrollment growth funding by over 50 percent. Said differently, the reductions in our base would mean that each new student we enroll this year would be funded by the state at only 50 cents for each dollar of funding that we receive for a current student. Overall, given our enrollment growth since 2000-2001, the reimbursement we receive from the state per student will have actually declined by eight percent in real dollars. Counting even a modest inflation rate of 2.5percent per annum, the actual value of state operating support per student at Western will have declined by approximately 20 percent.
Please know that our legislators want to support the UNC system. It is important that they understand the significance of the accumulated effects of the spending cuts we have received over the last five years on the potential quality of education for the people of North Carolina. Our state's economic future is closely tied to the quality of its post-secondary education programs; we must invest in the future if we expect our sons and daughters to have a high quality of life. If you have an opportunity to speak to any of our legislators, please thank them for their past support and encourage them to consider strongly the impact of further cuts on their children's future.
If we end up having to deal with significant budget cuts, I plan o convene the budget advisory committee to receive their input on how we should progress. Both Newt Smith and Provost Carter sit on that committee and we will circulate notes from our meetings as a means of keeping you informed.
Now, briefly to the work of next year. I mentioned Provost Carter. One of the major changes that occurred this year was the hiring of the first Provost at Western. This is an important step that is consistent with the development of the University and its emerging size and status. The next steps in the process will involve a more clear delineation of responsibilities between the traditional role of the Chancellor at Western and the new role of the Provost. This is an emerging process and it will become increasingly important that the actual duties of the two offices become more clearly distinguished than has historically be the case. Likewise, as the role of the Provost becomes more clearly defined it will be necessary to re-define the roles of the deans and department heads. What we are looking to do is to locate authority for decisions at the proper level and location in the institution to maximize our ability to respond to changing demands. This is not “decentralization of authority in pure terms because in some cases who had authority was not always clear. We will move toward an organization that used to be described by management development staff at IBM as having “loose/tight properties.” What that means is that you provide people a great deal of flexibility to be able to effectively accomplish their work while, at the same time, exercising appropriate controls to assure that monies are spent appropriately, that the work makes sense for the institution, and that appropriate evaluations are made.
To help us with this process, we have engaged Penson and Associates. Many of you may be familiar with them from my review, but they are an excellent firm that can help guide us as we together work through these critical changes in organization.
At the same time that we are working on issues of authority distribution and decision-making, we will also need to look at the structure of the colleges and academic areas. Western is becoming more complex. The disciplines and professions are changing rapidly and whole new areas of study are emerging. It time for us to examine how we are organized both in terms of the number of colleges and the consistency of expectations across the university. This too will be important work.
I should mention that there is no one organizational schema that works for all institutions. Colleges are not included as an eleventh commandment. We have control over how we are organized and it will be the work of the next academic year to being to examine how we should be structured.
I will speak more extensively on this issue in the fall, but I hope that you will spend some time this summer reflecting on this important issue.
A third important part of this examination of the organization involves the structure of strategic planning. For the last 10years we have been using a model of planning that was developed by Bob Shirley. Bob's model is specifically designed for academic institutions and it has been of great value to us. Starting next year, I would like for us to modify the model a bit by tying strategic planning much more closely to budgeting. This tie is critical. Therefore, I am considering reconstituting the strategic planning and budget advisory committees and combining them under the chairmanship of the Provost. I look forward to talking with Newt and other representatives as to how we might most effectively develop this important university committee and provide it an effective charge.
I will conclude my comments by mentioning three other issues: enrollment, SACS, and the Presidential Search. These three issues don't really relate to one another in a clear way, but they are all important. Perhaps we should include them as the list of the top three things that keep a chancellor awake at night.
Enrollment at Western will be larger next year than it is this year. However, if one follows the trend line, it is clear that we have reached the apex of what marketers call “the product lifecycle.” Next year's freshman class will look a great deal like this year's freshman class though it will include 50 to 75 more students. It is time for us to look again at our recruiting process and our institutional marketing. We need to increase our number of applicants again significantly if we are going to start a new “product lifecycle.” Again, I will speak more to this in the fall, but we anticipate an enrollment of about 9,000 students for the fall.
Next, we are in the midst of our SACS preparation. This is absolutely a critical review for us and I appreciate Carol zzzz taking the lead for us. Defining the key measures for quality improvement and also taking steps to implement quality improvement actions will be of utmost importance. SACS has changed the process and put a great deal more responsibility on the institution. We must be successful in our reaccredidation process and it will take a great deal of effort on all of our parts to bring it to successful conclusion.
Finally, I know that you are aware that President Broad has announced her intent to retire. The search process is under way and it appears that it will move along with all deliberate speed. The chairman of the Board of Governors is chairing the search committee and he is seeking input regarding the desired characteristics of the next president. If you have any ideas or comments, I know that he would be pleased to hear from you.
I also would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank President Broad for her support of Western. Under her leadership we have been able to gain significant new academic programs and, because of the bond issue, more than $100 million in new construction. Fortunately, she is retiring to the faculty at UNC-CH, so she will not be far away. To her and her family: “God's speed.”
Now, a truly final comment: this graduation officially completes my 10 th year as chancellor. Deborah and I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the support and affection that you have shown us over these years. Serving as Chancellor of Western has been and continues to be a labor of love. Thank you so much for all that you have done to make me appear to be successful. I have the good fortune to be able to represent you in Raleigh, Washington, and around the country. You make my job easy. Your work and your efforts have sustained both of us through some difficult times and through some of the happiest times of our lives. Thank you for letting us be a part of this wonderful community and I look forward to continuing to work with you as we serve the people of this Great state.
Have a wonderful summer. Thank you.
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