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Welcome back, colleagues, to the new year. It is good to
see all of you again and welcome to our new faculty. This
truly is a transformational moment in the University’s
history. This talk represents something of a milestone for
me in that it is the 10 th time I have spoken to the faculty
at an opening of school. This is the beginning of my tenth
year at Western. Those of you who were here last year may
recall that I had some fun recounting tongue-in- cheek theories
of why Western couldn’t grow. These theories involved
everything from chicken sandwiches and alcohol to the alchemy
of “differential gravity.”
This year, I wanted to be much more serious. So, I spent
a great deal of time looking over old quotes and pearls of
wisdom in Bartlett ’s. I re-read some of the works of
several poets and returned to my academic roots by reviewing
thoughts of Frank Lloyd Wright, Lewis Mumford, and David Burnham
to try to find just the right theme. After all, the tenth
talk with the faculty ought to be a “summing up”
and a rallying for the future. So, I thought about some themes
suggested by the writings of famous people.
After working diligently to find just the right quotes to
lend an appropriate air of gravity to my thoughts, I settled
on one person who just seemed to say what needed to be said:
Yogi Berra. After all, his homilies are simple and often relate
to topics of opening addresses. Chancellors’ opening
addresses lay out a course or a vision for the institution
and Yogi speaks to this in his famous, “If you come
to a fork in the road, take it.” Or, more pointedly,
"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where
you're going, because you might not get there." And,
then, Chancellors’ speeches are to address the future.
Of course Yogi speaks to that issue by saying, “The
future ain’t what it used to be.”
For any of you who may not be aware, there are more new faculty
on campus this year because of the state’s allocation
of enrollment growth monies than at any time in the last two
decades. Between enrollment growth funds and required use
of some local tuition monies, we have been able to allocate
52 new faculty positions. This represents a very significant
net growth in the faculty and it bodes well for the future.
Welcome to all of you.
As has become traditional, I also take this opportunity to
introduce new endowed professors. We have two new endowed
professors in the College of Education and Allied Professions.
Dr. John LeBaron joins us from the University of Massachusetts
at Lowell as the Jay Robinson Professor of Educational Technology.
Additionally, Dr. David Strahan has taken the Taft Botner
Chair in Elementary Education. Dr. Strahan joins us after
a long career at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Although he is a pillar of the University, I also want to
re-introduce Brian Railsback. Brian was the founding dean
of the Honors College and he has again taken the reins. Brian,
we all look forward to a great year in the Honors College
.
Many of you are probably interested in the Provost search.
We have an additional candidate scheduled to visit campus
on August 30. I am looking forward to hearing your feedback
on this candidate’s visit.
Now, let us turn to this fall’s enrollment. As seems
to have become a tradition at Western, this freshman class
is larger than any in the last twenty-five years and it is
the best in our history. When the data finally shake out,
we anticipate an entering class of about 1600 with a record
average SAT of about 1027. Last year the average SAT was 1023.
The average high school GPA of entering students this year
will approach 3.3, which also is the highest in our history.
Approximately 150 students entered the Honors College this
year. We anticipate a gross enrollment of over 8,000 students.
This enrollment is another milestone in the history of Western.
Given the hard work of this faculty, staff, and administration,
we can expect growth to continue at a rate similar to what
we have experienced this year. I believe that we are on track
to achieve our Board of Governors’ 2010 enrollment target
of 10,400 ahead of schedule.
So, that is a quick update on our current enrollment situation
and I want to turn now to the new academic year.
Well, Yogi provides a great beginning for a talk, but I really
want to focus today on the continuing changing situation within
which we work and the important choices that we have in front
of us. Yogi didn’t seem to have “the right stuff,”
so I turned to that forward thinker, Mae West. West’s
philosophy regarding change and the future can be found in
her statement, "When choosing between two evils, I always
like to try the one I’ve never tried before." That
probably explains a lot, but it still didn’t seem quite
right. After all, this is my tenth opening address to the
campus and there have to be more interesting and appropriate
thinkers than Mae West or Yogi Berra.
Instead of reviewing more old quotes and literature, I decided
to focus on this campus and all that you have achieved. “Raising
the Bar;” integrating technology; focusing academic
programs; creating a model advising system; improving the
quality of student life; reaching out to the surrounding community;
increasing funded contracts, grants and research; growing
enrollment; and enhancing the academic reputation of this
campus in ways that were seen as impossible only a few years
ago. I will tell you that it was within the review of the
work of this campus that I found the inspiration and focus
for the rest of this talk.
Quite simply, over the last decade, this campus has engaged
in a process that most institutions of higher education would
find impossible even to contemplate. You have succeeded where
lesser faculties blanched at even making the attempt. Because
of your hard work, Western is on a different path—a
path that will undoubtedly lead to academic strength, regional
growth, and an excellent education for our students. During
the remainder of this talk, I want to look more closely at
the nature of that future while, at the same time, focusing
on some specific issues for this academic year.
It is hard to believe, but Deborah and I became part of this
campus community on St. Patrick’s Day in 1995. When
we came to campus, we were both impressed by the readiness
of the members of the campus community, and especially the
faculty, to take on significant change. That the campus was
in such a state of readiness is a testament to my predecessor,
Barney Coulter. He truly prepared this campus for what was
to come.
Because we have so many new faculty this fall, I’d
like to spend just a minute or two reviewing what has happened
with this campus over the last eight or nine years. I won’t
go into a great deal of detail here, but I think that it is
important to understand where we came from as a means of understanding
where we are going.
During my first few years here, it was not unusual for someone
to ask if Western was in “ North Carolina or South Carolina
?” Folks who thought they were being funny would sometimes
tell me that they had heard of the states of North Carolina
and South Carolina , but never the state of “ Western
Carolina .” While these comments were, at times, a bit
silly, it was clear that in most of the state, Western had
no image, presence or reputation. This, in part, explains
the long-term trend of little to no enrollment growth—a
trend that lasted nearly thirty years. It also was clear that
our local reputation was not overly favorable, and while alumni
appreciated the quality of education they received here, there
was not a great deal of overt support for the institution.
What was most important was not the modest image of the institution,
but the clear indications that faculty, staff, and administrators
were ready to take sweeping, sometimes difficult, actions
to change Western’s academic positioning. I must say,
it was not just that they were willing, it also was clear
that we had the quality of people on this campus to make it
happen. So, the University set out on a quest:
- We enforced our own academic standards and sent
students home who had failed out of school.
- We raised probation, suspension, and admissions
standards.
- Faculty raised standards in their classes and pushed
students to achieve at a higher level.
- We instituted the first computing admissions standard
in a public university in North Carolina —two
years before our big blue sister down state.
- We examined all of our programs for competitiveness
and quality.
- We set out a strategic plan for growth that focused
on attention to the individual student, increasing
academic standards, and working with the people of
the region to improve the quality of life.
- We reviewed general education and created a more
integrated program that assured that students received
a high-quality systematic and broad educational background.
- We started an honors college and an undergraduate
research program to encourage the best and brightest
students from the mountains to stay in the mountains
for their education.
- We developed the advising system, residential living
programs, academic support systems, student life programs,
and generally improved the quality of the students’
out-of-class experience.
- We worked to place parameters around a Greek letter
system that had gotten out of control thus reducing
the number and severity of behavioral problems. The
staff in Student Affairs created what has been seen by others
as a model “Greek Relations” contract to support
positive development of members of these organizations.
- We developed the first comprehensive master plan
for the institution in more than 25 years to make
sure that our growth proceeded systematically.
- We refocused our athletics program so that the needs
of the student- athlete are paramount. As a result,
graduation rates for athletes are significantly higher
than for the student body as a whole. (I should mention
that just this week Western was notified that our Women’s
Track Team has earned “All-Academic Honors”
and it is ranked 16th in Division I for academic
achievement. It is one of only 50 programs nationally that
qualified for academic ranking. Congratulations to
Danny Williamson, his coaches and athletes and to
Jennifer Brown and her staff for the emphasis they
are putting on academic achievement.)
- To assure that the educational needs of western
North Carolina ’s working adults were being
addressed, we greatly expanded our distance education
offerings and created one of the first graduate degrees
in the state to be offered through the Internet.
- With the help of the people of the state and their
support for the 2000 bond issue, we began implementing
the master plan. Since 1996, Western has been involved
in developing over $195 million in improvements to
its physical plant.
- To enhance the institution’s academic reputation,
fund-raising emphasis was placed on obtaining endowed
professorships and improving our merit-based scholarship
program. We now have nine endowed professorships and
are close to completing the 10th.
- To assure that your hard work in improving the academic
climate of the campus was nationally recognized, Western
sought candidacy as a Sponsor of National Merit Scholars;
we were the fourth institution in North Carolina to
receive that distinction.
- Faculty took a strong leadership role in refocusing
our program mix to attract better students and to
better meet the needs of the people of the region.
New programs in education, environmental science, forensic
sciences, construction management, humanities, and
engineering are just examples of the far-ranging changes
in our program mix that were made by faculty.
- To assure that we could attract and retain the very
best faculty and administrators, systematic studies
of salary competitiveness were undertaken and completed.
Based on those studies, salary funds were allocated
last year for faculty to begin the process of improving
institutional competitiveness. (More will be said
on this topic later.)
What has resulted is a true metamorphosis in the institution.
Enrollment is up, the quality of students is up, the institution’s
academic reputation is improved, and Western is increasingly
seen as the key player in the economic and social future of
this region. Across this state, very few people are asking
“Where’s Western?” In fact, I am somewhat
surprised at the number of people in higher education in North
Carolina who are aware of what is going on out here. Your
work is not going unnoticed and I hope that you are proud
of what you have accomplished. I am sure that none of us believes
that our work is done, but it is important to take a minute
and reflect on how far we have come together.
I’m not sure that all of you realize how much the culture
of this faculty has changed over the last few years—there
is a dramatic shift and there was an incident last spring
that made it clear to me that the shift is permanent. You
may recall that we interviewed candidates for the Provost
position in the spring. We had excellent candidates who certainly
had national credentials. However, there was a strong consensus
on campus that the matches were not right. The general run
of comments did not disparage anyone, but pointed out that
we as an institution had progressed to a point that these
were not the right candidates. This reaction was, in my opinion,
both right and wonderful. It told me that you were developing
both an understanding of, and a sense of pride in, what you
had accomplished and you were not only setting higher standards
for students, but for administrators as well. This campus
is looking for a person to help us form a bright future and
I am confident we will find the right person.
Now, it is time to turn the rest of this talk to that future.
It is clear that we are in a time of great change in higher
education. I have talked about this situation with you at
length on prior occasions and especially during my “State
of the University” address early in the Spring Semester.
Recently, I ran into one of the first books that has been
published on the nature of the changing conditions in higher
education that is entitled Beyond the Crossroads: The Future
of the Public University in America, by James J. Duderstadt
and Farris W. Womack. For those of you who may not be aware,
Duderstadt is the former president of the University of Michigan
and Womack was Michigan ’s chief financial officer.
While a major weakness in this work is the authors’
lack of knowledge of our type of university, their major thesis
seems irrefutable: the situation for higher education has
changed and universities must respond or face very significant
consequences.
Duderstadt and Womack note that public universities have
always had missions that reflect the needs of society and
of the communities that sponsored them. Traditionally, these
needs have shaped the university’s tripartite mission
of teaching, research, and service. But, they argue, the needs
of society have changed. To directly quote:
The forces driving change in higher education today are many
and varied: the intensifying, lifelong educational needs of
citizens in a knowledge-driven economy; the increasing diversity
of the population and the growing needs of underserved communities;
the globalization of commerce, culture, and education; the
impact of rapidly evolving technologies such as computer and
telecommunications; and the exponential growth in both the
magnitude and commercial value of the new knowledge created
on that nation’s campuses” (Duderstadt and Womack,
2003: 2).
Duderstadt and Womack go on to argue that because of the
changing nature of the society of which they are a part, “universities
will find themselves facing a period of institutional transformation,
proceeding at a pace and to an extent that exceeds institutional
experience and the capacity of traditional mechanisms (p.5).”
Core to these changes, according to the Carnegie Commission
on Higher Education, is the clear linkage between the traditional
role of universities in creating an educated citizenry and
the increasing need for a “more vital and productive
workforce.” Thus, there will be a renegotiation of the
social contract between the university and society that accounts
for the new and much more complex expectations of the institution.
This complexity involves not just our traditional missions
of teaching, research, and public service, but workforce development,
technology transfer, and a clear role in economic development.
(I think I’m beginning to agree with Yogi, that the
“future ain’t what it used to be”).
Although Beyond the Crossroads is the first book I have seen
that attempts to deal with this massive change in society,
for anyone who has been a part of the Western community for
any length of time, it should be clear that we recognized
the nature of these changes as long ago as 1997 or 1998 and
began redirecting the institution to account for these dominant
social trends. Our focus on engagement, increasing interest
in adult education, our emphasis in career-based education,
and concentration on regional development all are very consistent
with these long-term societal trends.
What I am saying is that you are responding to change in
a positive way. The “can do” spirit of this campus
has been tested, but it has triumphed. Your work has set Western
on a track that will increasingly allow us to respond to societal
needs. This transformation is crucial to our future. And,
almost as importantly, as the social contract between the
state and its institutions of higher education is renegotiated,
Western is negotiating from a position of strength. If you
have a chance to talk with Clifton Metcalf or Tom McClure
, just ask them about the legislative reaction to your work.
Western is increasingly known as a UNC campus that is “trying
to do the right thing” by the people of the state. And
you are seeing their response in increased support and funding.
For those of you who have contributed so much to the accomplishments
of this University over the last decade, it must seem as though
change is a never ending process. And, perhaps that is so.
The pace of change and push to meet the needs of the people
will not slow down nor can we turn away from our duties and
responsibilities. But, this is a faculty that has not wavered
in its commitments. This is a faculty that chooses not to
stand still.
This summer, I re-read Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”
and there were a number of lines in that poem that so reminded
me of you and your hard work. Perhaps the one that seems to
fit the culture of this faculty the best:
I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
I think that there is no fear of your rusting or of being
satisfied with where you are today. This faculty has shown
itself capable of doing whatever it takes to help our students,
region, and state.
As we all know, the work of transforming this university
is not over. We are on a course that will at times be difficult,
but we will succeed.
It is important to note that the core direction of this campus
will not need to change again in the near future. Our direction
is set and unless social upheaval causes the situation to
change dramatically, the next four or five years should involve
refining and developing the strong direction that you have
set. In many ways, Western is becoming a leading 21 st century
university. We all know that there is a great deal of work
to be done, but we now know the shape of the direction we
are taking. So, let’s turn to the specific work of the
year and to the next steps in refining our mission.
First, we must continue raising academic standards. We have
made very significant progress, but there is a great deal
more to do. On the front-end, we will continue to raise admissions
standards, but we also need to continue to focus on the quality
of our academic programs and the student’s life and
experience on the campus. The strategic plans that each department
prepared last academic year will be at the center of this
continuing press for quality and I want to publicly thank
each department that used this planning process as an opportunity
to improve the quality of their academic programs. This fall,
these plans will be reviewed in detail and used to inform
our college and academic strategic plans.
This year we have continued to improve our institutional
transition programs. I want to especially thank Fred Hinson
and his staff and the folks in Student Affairs for their efforts
in working together to create a “seamless” transition
to college for our entering students. The cooperation between
orientation, advising and the academic departments has never
been better or better organized. Likewise, the freshman mentoring
program has blossomed with more than 200 faculty and staff
taking on responsibility for mentoring over 200 freshmen.
These activities represent a great step forward; thanks to
everyone who is taking part!
An important element in improving quality in our academic
program is to assure that our graduate programs are operating
effectively and efficiently. Graduate education, especially
for working adults, will become an increasingly important
segment of our student population, so we must assure that
this program is working well. Therefore, I have asked Dr.
Vartabedian to work with the Council of Graduate Schools to
have them conduct an external review of our Graduate School
and its processes.
Additionally, we must again pay attention to the Honors College
. Brian Railsback will work this year to increase the quality
of students in the college; re-focus and expand our undergraduate
research program; and increase the quality of the academic
experience for honors students. It is time for this college
to take several important steps to improve quality.
First, I have asked Brian to work with faculty to create
a development program to help students apply for Rhodes ,
Goldwater, Eisenhower, Marshall , and equivalent post-graduate
scholarships and fellowships. We now have enough very good,
even brilliant, students to be competitive in these important
programs. It is critical, however, that we train students
properly for the competition and that takes strong preparation
by committed faculty.
Second, it is time for us to look at the academic options
available to honors students. Many of the best honors students
come to campus with academic backgrounds that call for flexibility
in our undergraduate requirements. Our Liberal Studies program,
for example, provides an excellent education for traditional
students, but it is not yet sufficiently flexible to accommodate
the demands of high achieving students. We need to provide
alternatives for these students that match their backgrounds
and abilities.
Third, one of the characteristics of very high achieving
students is that they are inquisitive and many times have
broad interests that do not conform to our traditional notions
of discipline or profession. We need to make it possible for
our best students to create an individualized plan of study
that meets their needs and, at the same time, assures that
they receive a very high quality education. The current mechanism
for individual study plans is very cumbersome and it involves
the approval of each individual plan by the Senate. Many excellent
private and public universities have set parameters for such
programs and have delegated responsibility for their approval
to a dean or associate dean and a representative committee
of faculty. If we are going to encourage the best and brightest
students to come to Western in larger numbers, we will need
to find ways to accommodate their academic interests.
Fourth, Brian Railsback suggested this summer that we create
a “University Scholars” program that would be
open to only a relatively few students who are among the very
best that the state produces. These would be students with
very high SATs and GPAs who would benefit from a tutorial-based
education. Faculty members who are willing to take on such
students would be provided compensation, such as extra travel
funds, and they would be selected for their willingness and
ability to assist high performance students to achieve a unique
quality of education.
In addition to increasing academic quality, we must continue
to grow. As a focused growth institution, it is crucial that
we continue to improve our enrollment of undergraduate North
Carolinians . We have made tremendous progress over the last
few years, but there are expectations that we will enroll
more than 10,000 students over the next six or seven years.
In addition to traditional undergraduate students, we will
need to grow the number of non-traditional undergraduate and
graduate students. Distance education in all its forms will
continue to be important as will our adult programs in Asheville
. With Pat Brown’s and Michael Dougherty’s leadership,
we have developed a partnership with Haywood Community College
in which Western will deliver a degree program in birth through
kindergarten education. At the same time, we have begun to
offer teacher education programs on the campus of Isothermal
Community College . These programs are key for our future.
In addition to our work in education, we have increased adult-student
opportunities in Henderson, Rutherford, Cherokee, and Catawba
counties. We also need to find ways to work more closely with
Macon County and to assist that county in its development.
As you can see, Western North Carolina is truly becoming our
campus.
As we think about these opportunities and our ability to
engage with our region, we also will need to consider some
different issues regarding the nature of faculty appointments
and locations for teaching. For example, as we increase enrollment
in more distant locations, it will be more and more important
that we hire faculty members with specific appointments involving
distance education. The state provides funding for such positions,
but we have not really developed the procedures to accommodate
these new demands. Can we, for example, accommodate faculty
members whose primary appointments might be in a location
other than Cullowhee? How do we reward and recognize their
work? Can they stand for tenure? How will their tenure credentials
be considered? Can our tenure, promotion, and reappointment
documents provide sufficient flexibility for such faculty
members? I think our experience with faculty members who primarily
work in Asheville provides some guidance, but increasingly
we will have faculty members with variegated appointments.
It is important that you understand that the state not only
expects us to grow, they are providing funds for us to grow.
Specifically, this academic year, we have been able to allocate
52 additional faculty positions because of enrollment. Most
of these positions were allocated during the spring to handle
the expected increase in enrollment for this fall, but think
about the implications for continued development of academic
programs and institutional quality. As we grow, we can expect
additional faculty members to be added. Over time, this faculty
could well grow to 600 or more FTE.
In addition to enrollment growth and institutional quality,
we must continue to expand our ability to engage with our
community. Engagement is at the core of the new expectations
for universities and we are increasingly active in engagement.
As we look at our institutional strategic plan, however, it
is clear that engagement is not emphasized very highly in
our mission statement. As a result, we need to be sure that
our mission statement accurately reflects the activities that
so many of you are engaging in; therefore, I have asked Newt
Smith and Troy Barksdale to co-chair the University Strategic
Planning Committee to specifically examine the institutional
mission statement to assure that it is accurate and reflects
the good work of so many people.
It is important to focus a minute on the concept of “engagement.”
There are some in higher education who decry the need to engage
as detracting from our traditional mission of teaching, research,
and public service. They argue that adding a fourth leg to
the stool that represents higher education’s mission
only weakens the other three legs. They would prefer to retreat
to the past and to “keep universities the way they were”:
Ivory Towers separated from the “real world” where
students would drop in for a few years of enlightenment before
returning to their work-a-day lives. There are others, however,
who are beginning to recognize that engagement is an important
refinement and specification of the teaching, research and
service missions of the institutions in ways that cause universities
to meet the emerging needs of the people they serve. An engaged
university is one in which students apply their learning and
through application they internalize the important lessons
taught.
There is an old saying, “Tell me and I’ll forget;
show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”
Teaching with engagement is a means of involving the student
so that he or she may truly understand the lessons we are
teaching. At the same time, engagement in research and service
does not have to minimize scholarly content. Engagement insures
that scholarship and service actually meet the needs of the
people. Thereby, engagement is a means for the university
to “do good” as it is “doing well.”
It is important for us to understand that engagement is not
limited only to a few disciplines or departments. Every area
of the University needs to be engaged. What is interesting
is that as we have focused more effort on these issues, our
enrollment has increased and our academic reputation has improved.
People value education when it addresses their needs and when
it speaks to their lives.
In addition to co-chairing the strategic planning committee,
I know that Newt is working with the Senate to assure that
we appropriately weigh engagement in decisions regarding tenure,
promotion and merit. This is important work and I look forward
to seeing the products of that effort.
It also is important to mention that we are increasing our
ability to reach out and to engage with the community in a
variety of ways. Last spring, Paul Evans, a Western alum,
joined us as the Director of the Center for Regional Development.
Paul comes from a long career in business but he also has
government experience in his work with the National Science
Foundation.
The Center for Regional Development has taken on a new life
under his leadership. Our faculty and staff are visible in
the Western North Carolina community and in the media. And,
some of the research that has already been conducted by the
Center’s faculty fellows is suggesting some important
directions for development of this region. Paul is a welcome
addition to the institution and he will play a very important
role in both the CRD and in developing our Millennium Campus.
Before leaving the subject of engagement, I do need to highlight
the Millennium Campus. I know that it is hard to believe,
but Western will finally complete purchase of the first parcel
of land for our Millennium Campus. We have 64 acres under
contract and we will close on that property tomorrow! The
closing for the larger piece of property that will be part
of the campus has not yet been scheduled.
I want to stop here for a few minutes and talk a bit more
about what we are trying to accomplish by creating the Millennium
Campus. Some of you may have read Richard Florida’s
work on the “Creative Class,” or more recently
seen the excellent report by John Eger entitled, “The
Creative Community.” Both of these authors argue that
the economic future of the United States comes from the linkages
between regional economies and international economies. A
true “national economy” is not of significance,
according to this perspective; wealth will be created by the
linkages among regions and world conditions.
At the core of a vibrant regional economy is a city that
is the “center” of a broader region. What is of
value is the linkage between the city and the surrounding
region. In western North Carolina , there is a long tradition
of thinking in terms of “ Asheville ” and “not
Asheville .” We have even experienced some of this type
of thinking in recent months as we have tried to work together
to create a regional health and wellness center. We need to
move beyond that parochial view and think more broadly about
the nature of the western North Carolina region.
Most of the authors who look at the future of regions—including
Florida and Eger —tend to see regions in overly simplistic
terms. There is a great deal of literature that can be traced
back to at least 1915 with the publication of the Galpins’
studies, that regions are complex with intersections and overlapping
boundaries. So, for instance, while western North Carolina
is a part of Asheville ’s economic and social region,
it also is a part of Atlanta ’s, Charlotte ’s,
and Greenville-Spartanburg’s. Our linkage, therefore,
is not just to one regional center city, but to several. This
complexity is important and it will need to be considered
as we build our plans for the Millennium Campus.
A second element in developing a successful regional economy
involves the roles of the University. I mentioned these earlier
in this talk, but it is important to note that there is an
emerging literature, including the National Governor’s
Association’s “best practices” papers, that
focuses on the specific relationships between universities
and regional development. Our move to create a Millennium
Campus will try to incorporate what has been learned over
the last several decades with regard to “best practices.”
Third, we must not lose sight of the fact that successful
development of the Millennium Campus, and the region, will
require us to consider the importance of the quality of life
as one of the most significant variables. In this regard,
our focus on the visual arts, education, literature, music
performance, theater, and the like all are crucial to improving
the quality of life and supporting the “creative lifestyle”
that is at the heart of a vibrant regional economy. Likewise,
the new facility for an emerging School of Health and Gerontological
Sciences that was approved for planning by the legislature
in this past session, and the inter-institutional Center for
Health and Aging that we are developing with MAHEC and UNCA,
will have significant impact on the long-term quality of life
in the region. These are important components in this region’s
development and I would especially like to thank Senate President-Pro
tem Marc Basnight; senators Martin Nesbitt, Joe Sam Queen,
and Walter Dalton; and, our Western North Carolina legislative
delegation for making these developments possible.
But I want to return for a minute to the role of the arts.
From time to time I get questions about why we as a University
are investing so much in the arts instead of pressing directly
on business, technology, or science. The fact is, the University
is making investments in all of these areas, but the arts
need to be visible and need to be developed early in the process.
According to Eger , “Throughout history, science, math
and technology have flourished only where and when all the
arts have flourished. No evidence exists that this will not
be the case in the future.” ( Eger , 2003: 20).
I hope that you are seeing the vision of what this campus
can become and how it can help drive the future of this region.
Cullowhee can be the center of a Renaissance in art, literature,
science, and technology. On a smaller scale, we can contribute
to creating a “New Florence” in western North
Carolina that honors and builds on the traditions of the peoples
of this region while adding value and helping the region achieve
prosperity and quality of life only dreamed of by past generations.
When we complete the purchase of the property to expand the
campus, it will be time for us to re-open the master plan
and to look more closely at how we can integrate all of the
elements that will be necessary for Western to encourage development
of a “creative community” in and around Cullowhee.
We will continue implementing the elements of the current
plan for which we have money. They are nearly all under way
and will not change. However, it is clear that we need to
create one integrated plan for a greatly enlarged Western
Carolina University that incorporates our best thinking regarding
our “creative community” rather than falling into
the old trap of creating two campuses.
I hope that you agree that the next five to ten years at
Western will be a time of unparalleled opportunity. Our Millennium
Campus—what I prefer to call a Millennium Initiative
since it will actually involve the whole campus—can
allow us to focus our attention on what both this university
and this region need for the future. The opportunity is tremendous.
I look forward to working with you as we continue to develop
this concept. But, there are two final points of business
before I conclude my address.
First, we need to spend a great deal of effort this year
getting ready for our review by SACS. The process has changed
and it is going to be very important that we address core
issues right at the beginning of the academic year. Carol
Burton has agreed to chair the committee and I appreciate
her willingness to take on this important task. We will kick
off the process with a campus-wide leadership retreat on September
23 during which we will have presentations from representatives
of several other universities that have successfully completed
their SACS review. Of particular importance will be selection
and development of a Quality Enhancement Program as required
by SACS. Each institution is expected to select a QEP and
to build a record of sustained improvement using these indicators.
This will become an important part of the on-going planning
for the institution and I hope that many of you will take
part.
Second, you may recall that last academic year we completed
studies of faculty and administrative salaries with regard
to market conditions. Because of increased funding this year
due to enrollment increases, and because the Board of Governors
approved our local tuition request, we will have funding to
improve the average salaries of our faculty and non-faculty
EPA employees. The Board of Governors required that we use
some of the funds to address academic improvements including
average class sizes and the number of traditional part-time
faculty, so we will not be able to address all salary needs.
As you are aware average class size is not an issue at Western,
but we need to assure that we are creating enough new full-time
positions to improve the quality of education and reduce reliance
on traditional part-time instructors. We believe that the
52 new faculty positions address those needs.
To assure that all faculty members and EPA non-faculty are
aware of how these changes will affect them, I asked that
we not distribute any funding for salary adjustments until
the academic year began. Now that you are on campus, I am
asking that Mr. Wooten and Dr. Vartabedian work together to
distribute the funds to departments based on the formulas
created by the committees and that the deans work with the
department heads to assure that the funds within departments
are allocated appropriately based on both market and merit.
It is my intent that these salary increases will appear in
the September 30 payroll and that they will be retroactive
to July 1. Our ability to meet the expectations of the people
of the state with regard to this University is dependant upon
our ability to attract and retain excellent faculty and administrators.
We must move closer to market pay in all of our disciplines
and departments.
Well, I have spoken long enough. I want to again take this
opportunity to thank you for all that you are doing to make
Western an excellent example of a 21 st century university.
As I complete this speech, it is increasingly clear to me
that Yogi Berra’s comments about the future were right
when applied to Western: “The future ain’t what
it used to be.” Because of your hard work and dedication,
it is much, much better. Thank you for all of your hard work
and commitment. I am very proud to be counted among your number.
Thank you.
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