|
Welcome back. For some of you, it isn't very long since you were on campus, and for others, it's been most of the summer. I'm always excited to see colleagues return to campus, because it lets me know the beginning of the academic year is truly upon us. At Western this will be -- no question -- an exciting year.
Through your work, you have made Western a university on the move, and this is the year when we will take major steps in creating an international-caliber university dedicated to teaching and learning. The promise of this year is palpable.
Before discussing several key issues regarding Western's future, I want to briefly review with you the actions of the legislature this session. There were some very important decisions regarding the health and future of the University of North Carolina and Western Carolina specifically.
Most of you probably are aware that the faculty received a 4.5 percent aggregate salary increase. Compared to 2 percent last year, that is a major accomplishment. In addition, there is a half percent that is allocated, following procedures prescribed by the Board of Governors and General Administration, for faculty members who have been recognized over the last five years as outstanding teachers. We have had a very good year in terms of salary increases, and this moves us a long way to reversing some of the major trends that have affected negatively the University of North Carolina over the last few years. Many of you know that we have lost a number of good faculty to other states where salaries were much better than they were here.
The Legislature also supported a performing and visual arts center for Western. We received two million dollars toward the planning and initial construction phase of that building with a promise for the rest of the money in the next long legislative session. We were one of only six universities to receive any funding, and we received as much as anyone. It was a very good year for us.
The center is a critical part of our future. Back in February, you recall, I mentioned and discussed with you the possibility of this university's creating a special niche in performing and visual arts, and the center is key to that.
There were five people that I'd like to point out to you -- and if you know them, I'd ask you to say hello and thank them next time you see them -- who really were key in this university's getting this performing and visual arts center on the agenda and getting it funded.
At the Bard of Governors, Sam Neill, Orville Coward, and Wallace Hyde were particularly helpful and went to the Legislature and the governor on our behalf. I can't say enough about Sam and his willingness to really back this program.
We also had extremely strong support from our local senator, Clark Plexico, without whom this building would not exist. And from Senate President Pro Tem Basnight. Senator Basnight doesn't get one vote in this district from what I can tell, but he was right there on our behalf all the way through the session. That was very important for Western. Without those two senators, nothing else would have occurred.
These five leaders really did right by Western in getting us this construction. And so that you're aware of the magnitude of the construction, the Ramsey Center cost $17 million when it was built; this is a $28 million facility. The last academic building built on campus prior to the performing arts center is the one you're sitting in [Coulter Building]. That was completed in 1974.
While we're looking at the new year, we shouldn't forget some of the important activities of the old. Many of you took part in the SACS and NCAA review, which seemed, I'm sure, interminable as you were doing it. But you did an excellent job. Those reviews validated in large measure our own views of our problems and issues as well as our understanding of our great strengths. And a SACS team member gave us a motto to describe where Western is headed: Excellence with a personal touch. In fact, that has become the theme of our admissions literature that we'll be preparing this year. I want to again thank every person who contributed to these studies and the review processes, but I particularly want to thank Frank Prochaska for staying with this process all the way through. It's a lot of work, and it ain't over yet.
I would also like to thank Gary Poole and his committee for their work in bringing a new vice chancellor for academic affairs to the campus. They did a terrific job in a relatively short time frame, and this with key personnel changes in the middle of all of it that really were somewhat difficult to handle. Despite all of that, they made an excellent search, as really is documented by the quality of the man we were able to attract into the vice chancellor's position, and I can tell you I am very proud and pleased to have Rick Collings in this critical post.
I hope you've had the opportunity to meet Rick. He is a genuine human being, which really, on this campus is absolutely key, and he has a delightful family. I hope you will take the opportunity to get to know them as they become part of the Western Carolina family.
In addition to completing SACS and doing the critical searches that we had to do on this campus, we also received our first two fully funded endowed professorships. Adelaide Daniels Key donated the first fully-funded million dollar professorship in Special Education, and Carol and Irwin Belk donated another million-dollar professorship in Music Performance. That one is going to be, in its first iteration, a position in commercial electronic music. These gifts, while they are very important in themselves, clearly indicate the faith that people like the Belks and Adelaide Key have in you and your ability to move this University forward. They wouldn't put a million dollars on a losing proposition.
The most important activity that we began together last year was that we publicly discussed, and began to address, the "myths about Western." Back in February, on a very cold and snowy Friday afternoon, I discussed with you in some detail the nature of the "myths" surrounding Western Carolina University. These myths involve fundamental perceptions of outsiders regarding the quality of our academic program. Responses to that speech have, as always, been interesting and, in the main, useful. Almost to the person, people reported that they were encouraged by the fact that we as a University were moving to directly deal with what I know to be the wrongful perception of who we are at Western and what we are capable of doing. During that speech, I outlined a three-fold "plan for excellence" designed to directly attack these myths. This plan was focused most particularly on enhancing academic quality. Quality in teaching and learning is the key to our future; it supersedes all other University goals; it has primacy. Without increased emphasis on academic quality, and without the external understanding that Western has increased its quality, nothing else that we desire for this University is likely to be achieved. Today, therefore, I want to focus with you primarily on the actions that we have taken, and need to take, to enhance both the fact and the perception of academic quality at Western.
During that February speech, I outlined a number of significant actions that we could take to achieve quality. As of now several of these actions are completed, and others are in progress:
We are seeking to become recognized as a National Merit University, and we set a timeline of having this accomplished by the year 2001. This designation requires a sustained commitment and ability to attract some of the best students in the United States as defined by their SAT scores. Moreover, data from the National Merit Corporation indicate that approximately 96 percent of National Merit finalists have at least an A-minus high school average; that 96 percent had at least four years of high-school English and that 93 percent had at least four years of high-school math. National Merit Finalists are clearly good students who are sought after by the best universities in the United States.
For Western to be considered for designation by the National Merit Corporation, we must meet a series of criteria. First, we must be selected by the National Merit Finalists themselves as their "first choice university." They need to notify the National Merit Corporation in writing that we are their first choice. Second, in any given year, we must enroll at least three National Merit Finalists and offer them significant financial aid. Third, we must show a sustained record -- over a number of years -- of having National Merit Finalists select Western as their first choice and by following up their selection through enrollment. The actual number of years required to demonstrate a sustained record depends on the number of students who enroll under the criteria listed above. In North Carolina, there were only 387 National Merit finalists in 1995 and they were heavily recruited by universities both in and out of state. I am pleased to announce that we have attracted ten National Merit Scholars for next year. Honestly, I was hoping for at least three. Because of the number that we were able to attract, we are now on the "fast track" to National Merit designation. If we draw at least six National Merit Finalists next year, we can be considered for review in the following year and we will have achieved our goal two years ahead of schedule. In addition, because of the interest in the program and in Western, we will have to limit our offer of tuition, mandatory fees, room, board, and a computer to no more than ten students next year. (Honestly, I never dreamed that we would be in a position of having to place a limit on the number of offers we made to National Merit students, but once they visited campus -- and once they met you -- many of them decided to enroll. We didn't lose many who came to campus.) We are beginning to seek endowments to allow us to expand the program so that hopefully over time we can accommodate all the National Merit Scholars who want to take advantage of a first-class education, by an excellent faculty, in the spectacular mountains in Western North Carolina.
Ten National Merit Finalists may not sound like a large number, but let me share with you the names of some of the Universities in whose company we will now be listed by the National Merit Corporation. These data are drawn from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation Annual Report, 1994 - 1995 (p. 17): Boston College--12; Davidson College--14; Ohio University--11; University of California at Santa Barbara--12; Wake Forest University--14; Wellesley College--8; Syracuse University--6; and Wofford College--3.
It is critical now that we are attracting these national-caliber students that we assure that they receive the best possible education while at Western. Several of you have received notes from me in the last few weeks informing you that a National Merit student has registered for your class. Fred Hinson has volunteered to be the National Merit student advisor. We want to be sure that these students are made to feel at home on campus, that they are challenged academically, and that they receive the best advising that we can give them. I firmly believe that these students can be the core around which Western can attract many of the best students in Western North Carolina and the state. Their presence, in significant numbers, in our classes will be an important catalyst in Western "raising the bar" and our expectations for all students. We must continue to emphasize the importance of providing educational excellence for all, and this core of high-achieving students is an important first step.
Last year, we hired a new admissions director who has brought new approaches to the admissions process. He has changed the message given to prospective students to emphasize academic quality and focus and he has begun implementing different approaches to recruiting. Changing our approach to admissions -- even in mid-stream -- has had a positive effect. We have approximately 1160 students in our Freshman class (the same number as last year), but preliminary estimates are that we increased our average SAT by between ten and fifteen points. Between transfer students, increased graduate enrollments, and a strong returning student base, we expect total enrollment to be up somewhat this fall. There is no reason to believe that our increased emphasis on quality must reduce enrollments. Indeed, we may already have begun to "turn the corner" where increasing quality improves enrollment. We will have to wait for a clearer picture next year, but we may have turned the corner already.
At the graduate level, there also have been several major moves. We have added programs in physical therapy and educational leadership, and we have revised several other programs. We have increased recruitment of graduate students and involved faculty more directly in that process. And, in fact, the graduate application pool for the Fall term was significantly better in both quantity and quality than in recent years. This is a good indication that the "myth of the lack of quality" is beginning to become less of an issue as very good undergraduate students increasingly choosing Western for graduate school. We are attacking the myth.
There are several other significant actions of more minor note that were taken as a result of the February address:
I announced that the University would be founding a residential honors college, which is a major project and will affect all of us. This residential honors college has been developed in response to a need expressed externally as well as the willingness of faculty on this campus to work on the project and help develop the project. During the Spring, David Dorondo held open meetings with faculty and honors students to determine if the concept could work, and he received strong support. Based on the results of these hearings, I took a proposal to the Board of Trustees to found the college, and it received unanimous support from the board. I would like publicly to thank David for his leadership last year in beginning the process for establishing the Honors College. This year I have asked the honors committee to develop and recommend admissions policies, curriculum, honors faculty status, and graduation requirements for the College so that we might admit the first students for the Fall of 1997. My charge to the committee is to develop a very high-quality residential honors college that is fully integrated with the existing majors and academic departments. The college will not be successful if it isolates our best students or operates outside of existing academic programs. Again, the purpose of the honors college must be to help the University raise the academic expectations for all students. We will seek a dean for this College in the next academic year, and this will be Vice Chancellor Collings' first very important academic administrative appointment. The three smaller initiatives include a $10,000 fund for undergraduate research; a $10,000 enhancement to funding for the honors program; and a $10,000 commitment for two-year community college transfer scholarships to attract the best community college students to Western, following completion of the community-college curriculum. These commitments have been met for this current academic year and will be continued.
All of these actions were designed to position the University to attack the myth regarding Western's quality, but they are only first steps. We can already see the myth beginning to dissipate, however, as we actively attack it. Take for example a new publication that is to be circulated soon by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. In it, the following statement is made about Western:
WCU is "among the nation's premier state universities, combining high academic standards, nationally accredited programs, and convenient access to the cultural, recreational, and natural resources of Western North Carolina."
The message is beginning to get out. We can -- and we have begun to -- directly address the myths about Western.
As we move to address the myth about the academic quality of Western, we also must remain aware that the University's quality is based not only on the interaction of professors and students, although this interaction is obviously of the most and greatest importance, but the way people in every office treat students, the way they go about their jobs -- a tremendous impact on the perceived quality of the university. This was the basic theme of my investiture address: that every member of the University community must consider that students and others learn from his or her actions; that we are all teachers in that regard. This is this theme, that we teach others about our quality by our actions, that must permeate all offices of the University. To this end, we are focusing a great deal of attention on such offices as admissions, registration, planning and research, financial affairs, and many offices in student development. Our processes, approaches, and ways of treating others must reflect the quality of the University. One of the many reasons that I am so pleased that Rick Collings has joined us is that he has a great deal of experience in improving the quality of academic support services. So, as we increase the quality of the academic program, we will examine the operations of all offices in the university.
Today, I would like to spend a little time also discussing in some detail with you the actions for this year, things that we need to do together. Indeed, this is the year that we will together take the fundamental steps that are necessary if we are going to achieve the excellence that so many of you have told me you desire for this University. As I have said so many times before, it is because of your quality, your professionalism, and your commitment that Western has the unprecedented opportunity to distinguish itself among the best public universities in the United States that are dedicated to student learning. You will carry this University forward, and it is now time that we seriously begin our journey.
I plan to focus the rest of my remarks on our academic program, but I wanted you to be aware that what we've discussed and what I've discussed with you today has implications across all offices in the University. The actions that we have taken to date are designed to position the University so that we may expect to attract students to meet our mission, including some of the best and brightest students from this region and from across North Carolina. In some regard, these University-level actions are relatively easy to take. Now, it is time for us to focus on some actions that will be more difficult. These will require the members of each department actively to work together to discuss and resolve issues that are not always easy to resolve. In some departments, this work is "old hat" and it has been under way for many of years. It's nothing really different. In others, where such reviews and conversations have not been traditional, however, this work may become very difficult indeed. I believe, however, if you reflect with me for even a few minutes, I think that you will agree that we cannot progress and increase quality unless we address them.
First, as I stated in my policy address, I am asking each of you to continue to examine every course you teach to assure that you are teaching it at the appropriate level. That is, are you teaching the course at the level that you, as a professional, believe is correct or are you lowering the standard in the course to meet the students' perceptions of what they can accomplish? If you are teaching a freshman course, are you comfortable that it really is a college-level course? Are the assignments the ones you really want to give, given the number of students in the class and the level of the course? Each faculty member should consider these issues individually. If a student cannot achieve the level of work required, even with your assistance and caring, then I ask you to help get him or her to remediation.
After you have individually considered these issues, the department should collect all syllabi for each course and examine these syllabi to determine if the course achieves what you as professionals in the discipline want it to achieve. Does it really serve the purposes of the department? Is it offered at the appropriate level? Is the work the student is required to complete appropriate to a first-class university? Is the course still needed? Are all the needed courses for the discipline being taught? Is the distribution of courses appropriate to the nature of the undergraduate or graduate major that you offer? Is the course too narrow for the nature of the program and the number of majors you can reasonably attract, or is it, perhaps, too broad? If it is a required course for the major, does it meet the needs of the next generation of your students? This review is the most important action that you as a faculty can take, and it is critical to our future. The academic quality of this University is first and foremost based in the curriculum offered within the university. I would ask, therefore, given its importance, that each department complete this review by spring break and forward the results to the dean of the college. Vice Chancellor Collings will work with the deans to establish specific details regarding this review. Please remember that the goal here is to assure that the department's curriculum strongly directs and reinforces our move to pursue excellence.
One goal of this review is to create a curriculum that furthers the students' education. I need to know from you -- after all, you are the professionals in your fields -- what aspects of university curriculum policies and procedures not only stop you from doing what you want to do, but make it difficult for you to move forward. We need to have a curriculum within each department that reflects your best judgment and one that isn't hampered by the institutional policies and procedures. If there's something that we can change to make your work better and easier at the university level, we'll do it. Each department needs to continue to enhance its ability to demonstrate to others that its programs are effective. There is no question that you are the faculty who can do this job, no question at all. So, let's move forward.
Second, I ask each department to look at its approach to class scheduling. In many universities, class schedules are designed for the convenience of those teaching rather than to meet the needs of the students. Those universities that choose that approach have little hope of achieving excellence in teaching and learning since they don't use their class schedules to enhance the students' ability to get the courses they need in a timely manner. Each department should examine its distribution of classes. Are required classes offered so that students can take them when they need them? If a class is offered in multiple sections and is required -- such as classes in general education -- are the classes spread across the week and the hours of the day? Indeed, if your department is responsible for general education, have you scheduled enough sections to cover the needs of the students for the class? (If we as a faculty believe that a student is benefited by taking a class early in his or her career, have we as colleagues scheduled enough sections to allow our students to take the classes when of most value?) Do we offer enough classes on Friday -- including Friday afternoon -- or have we moved to a four-day learning week? Does our schedule tell students how important we think their learning is or does it send a different message?
This issue has been found, time and again across the country, to be of great importance for student achievement and for student retention. When students can't get classes they need, they tell others off-campus about their problems, so class schedules affect our reputation and our perception of quality. Some students who can't get classes get frustrated and transfer or simply quit -- this affects retention. Otherwise good students drop out or transfer. This issue is so important for our future as a first- rate center for student learning that I have asked Dr. Kinnear, the chair of the faculty, to work with me to appoint a committee to make recommendations to governance on a University class-scheduling policy. I hope that this committee can make recommendations to the Senate by Christmas break and that the Senate will put it on a fast track for consideration.
The third area for consideration by departments has to do with assessment of student outcomes. In February, I asked departments to consider creating a portfolio of senior level work and begin assessing how well senior students are performing both within the disciplines and in integrating general education skills of writing, problem solving, appropriate uses of numerical information (as defined by the discipline), using technology, and how well they can communicate orally. It is clear that there is no one right model for assessing these elements within each major, so, with the exception of syllabus analysis, it will be a departmental decision as to what is included in the portfolio. However, it is important that the work be representative of all seniors and should either include the work of all or of a probability sample when there are too many majors to be reasonably assessed. Again, this is a key step in our establishing Western as an internationally competitive center for student learning.
The fourth issue has to do with student advising. Again, each department should take a look at its approach to student advising. Are all faculty really familiar with the curriculum and the students' requirements? Are you assuming that advising is an individual faculty responsibility or are you working as a department to assure that the faculty have the tools they need to help them? Do faculty need training on how to advise as well as how to assist with course selection? There is a difference. The basic question is how are we as colleagues assuring that our majors, our students, are being advised properly?
These departmentally-based actions will not be easy, but, given the quality of faculty on this campus, I have no doubts that you will succeed in working through these issues. Rick Collings, the deans, and I are ready to help if needed. If it would be of assistance to bring in someone from off campus, we're happy to do that. Just let Rick know or let one of the deans know. Again, these items that we're talking about now are the most important work that the University can achieve this year.
Returning to the University level, there are just a few other issues that I want to touch on briefly: general education, enrollment management, and technology. The review of general education begins in earnest this year. I have asked Dean DePaolo to have her committee complete two tasks before May: first, to provide a literature review to the campus regarding trends in general education, and second, to compare our current general education program to the information obtained in that literature review. This will provide the baseline for further development of our program next year.
I want to talk a minute about frustration. Last year was a wonderful year, and I can honestly tell you that there was one frustration that I think plagued this campus all year. It had to do with enrollment management. I do not feel that even now we have a handle on how all our systems work together to accurately manage enrollment so that we can predict enrollment so that we can establish a budget with the Board of Governors and have a reasonable opportunity to achieve the enrollment necessary to make that budget. Our failure to meet budgeted enrollment last year cost all of us over $750,000. These funds would have gone primarily to hiring faculty, purchasing technology and needed equipment, and upgrading the campus. We must more accurately predict enrollment, and we must take those actions necessary to assure that we meet our predictions. To this end, I have asked Noelle Kehrberg to convene an enrollment management task force to assure that we are taking those actions necessary to gain understanding of this important issue. I should point out, however, that there is every indication that we will make our enrollment this year. Moreover, due to the number of residential students that we are receiving applications from, we will have to "triple" many of the rooms in the residence halls at the beginning of the semester. This situation should be alleviated, however, within four to six weeks as student enrollment shakes out.
One more point regarding enrollment management: our enrollment issues are, in my opinion, the result of known causes, and they associated with the structure of the enrollment management process. While it is true that our implementation of the new probation and suspension standards was a factor in the actual number of students on campus, there were ways by which this policy could have been included in the enrollment planning process. We need, therefore, to do a better job of planning, not back off our efforts to increase standards.
During the 1995 - 96 academic year we made the first major moves to increase quality, but the work certainly is not finished. We have defined a course of action, and now it's time for this great University to "stay the course." If a student is not coming to class, not performing, and not learning, please try to help and get him or her to the appropriate assistance. If they still insist, however, on not doing the work that you require of them in your best professional judgment, then give them the grade that they deserve, the grade that they earn, not the grade that you gave. We cannot back off higher academic standards. Remember, it is because we care about these students so very much that we must assure that they are working at nationally, if not internationally, competitive levels.
Last year we made some strides in implementing technology, but honestly, did not get quite as far as I hoped we would. This year, a great deal of effort will be spent on assuring that we make the transition to the new forms of management of technology and that we get a better view of your needs for technology in the teaching and learning process. Over the summer we opened two excellent electronic classrooms -- they are of very high quality and are competitive with any that I have seen on other campuses, including Brown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and others. This year, we will open a third classroom (in Coulter), and we will also purchase purchase eight portable multimedia teaching stations. These teaching stations are being purchased because your college deans represented your interests during the budget hearings and indicated that the teaching stations would be of immediate value to many of you. This year we are also making major investments in the five computing labs that are being managed by the computer center -- the two in Forsyth and the laboratories in Belk, Moore, and the Library. The worst of the machines are being replaced by Pentiums and Macintoshes -- I hope that all Apple IIes are gone from campus, even as doorstops. To improve student access, the laboratory in the Library will be open 24 hours a day if student demand warrants. We have brought on line -- and are in the process of bringing online -- 3,500 new ports to the Internet. Western is the first university in the state system to truly have a "port by every pillow" in the residence halls. Over the course of the next few years, we will continue to balance creation of electronic classrooms with adding multimedia teaching stations and open laboratories. This is a major investment, and Western has moved light years in one year due to the work of some very good people.
These are the major issues with regard to quality in the academic affairs division. We have made progress in the other two areas: fine and performing arts and regionally-related programming. I will not speak to those today, given the time, but I will put out a Chancellor's Update to let you know what we've been able to accomplish in that area. Clearly, the mission review and strategic planning process that is currently under way is very important and will codify our direction and activities. We will assess the degree to which we are addressing University goals and implementation of the strategic plan in a Fall leadership retreat to be held August 29. I think most of you will remember that last year we developed, I believe for the first time, a set of published university goals that was shared, prior to their adoption, with the campus community. Now we're going back and assessing what we as a campus were able to accomplish. It's taking assessment to the University level. At the same time we will create an additional action plan for this year to allow us again to understand what actions we specifically are going to take.
Finally, in my update to the Board of Trustees last year , I reported that we were able to establish together a direction for this university, based fundamentally on enhanced academic quality. This year, I plan on establishing a similar direction and University-level goals for student development programs. If we are to educate the whole student, and to make maximum impact on student learning, our student development activities need increasingly to meet the student's needs outside the classroom.
There are several areas that are particularly important here:
One is our precollegiate testing program and its integration with our orientation program. I probably will call on the ACT corporation or ETS to assist us in looking at our precollegiate placement program.
Second, we have moved already to a freshman emphasis hall this year to try to improve the retention rate of freshmen. But we need to look at other alternatives and other programs to determine if there are things we ought to be doing on this campus that will be effective with our students, including the possibility of implementing at Western the equivalent of what N.C. State has in a freshman residential college.
Third, we are looking at the organization and structure of our delivery of student support services to assure that we are appropriately organized and using our resources to the best benefit.
Fourth, we are going to examine the array of activities we offer students and their availability and quality.
Fifth, we are looking at our residential capacity. As I mentioned, we are going to be tripling a substantial number of students this fall. Residential capacity is now beginning to limit this campus's growth and future. Therefore, we will begin a systematic analysis of housing market potential to determine what courses of action needs to be taken to improve the number and diversity of housing units available to students both on campus and off.
Well, as I said in the beginning of this talk, this is a year that has the possibility of being tremendously exciting and rewarding. The University is clearly on the move. President Spangler is reported to have said to the President of our Alumni Association, "Western doesn't have to hold the second fiddle to anyone." We know the President is right. This is your time; this is your University. You have the ability to make this University a premier center for student learning and a national, if not international, University of choice for the best and brightest students, both from this region and from the rest of North Carolina. I strongly endorse Terry Kinnear's talk, and I can tell you I did not know the details of it before he spoke. Terry is absolutely right. Together, we can make this University move forward. Any of us individually is not going to do it. Please work with Terry and with me on redoing faculty governance, looking at the constitution of the university, looking at the bylaws, to make sure that we all can participate in our move to excellence. You, as individuals and as a collective, have already made the difference. Welcome back. Now let's move forward to excellence.
|
