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State of the University Address
September 19, 2000
UNH: A University Prepares for its
Future
It is a pleasure to welcome you all—old and new—to University
Day at the University of New Hampshire. Summer in Durham is somewhat quieter
than the academic year, but do not be deceived. A great deal of scholarship
and learning takes place within the UNH community during the summer months,
although not always in Durham. Video Services and University Relations
have prepared a short video to share with you after my talk this morning.
It will give you a glimpse of last summer's learning activities for some
of our faculty and students.
On University Day we reflect especially on what the University's history
means today, what our current obligations are, and how we are positioning
the University for its future. Today I want especially to look at factors
that are important to the future success of our university. A university
is always about the future. We educate students in preparation for the
rest of their lives; we do research that advances human knowledge and
provides the basis for strong economies and improved quality of life, in
the future. We must never become so engaged with today's challenges that
we fail to position the University for the success of its next generations.
What is Required?
What do we emphasize if our interest is the strongest possible future
for our University?
The first is that the quality of a university depends on its faculty.
The faculty do the research and scholarship that push knowledge forward;
they apply what is known to human problems in our state and world; they
share in University governance; and they transmit their understanding
of academic subjects to our students.
The quality of UNH teaching is recognized nationally. The University chooses
its faculty carefully in the hiring process, because a faculty member here must
combine his or her scholarly interest with a commitment to undergraduate
instruction.
Our program, Preparing Future Faculty, was just awarded more than half
a million dollars to build on what it began in 1995: to provide doctoral
students with tools to become successful faculty members across the nation,
especially to prepare them for their teaching roles. This new grant from
the U.S. Department of Education will allow us to work with a network
of diverse universities and colleges throughout the region as they develop
similar programs and link them with ours.
Each year we see a sizable list of UNH faculty-authored books. Many, many
of our faculty are accomplished authors of fact and fiction: Persistence
of Empire, by historian Eliga Gould; novelist Charlotte Bacon's Lost
Geography—her first novel and one of my summer reading pleasures—A
Dictionary of Literary Symbols by English Professor Michael Ferber,
and Thompson School Professor Drew Conroy's definitive book, Oxen,
a Teamsters Guide, to name just a few from recent months. These books
represent scholarly work, not just of several months, but often of several
years. More than 130 of our faculty are actively engaged in scholarship
and research with countries outside the U. S.; more than 70 have held
Fulbright fellowships, making UNH one of the leading Fulbright campuses
in the country.
One measure of the quality of a university faculty often cited is the
level of external research funding generated by the faculty. Five years
ago the external awards at UNH totaled $41 million. This past year, the
external research awards totaled $78 million. That represents a 90% increase
over a five-year period. In addition to the research funding level, we
have recently been informed that within the new Carnegie classifications, the University of New Hampshire
is now in the top category of research and graduate universities. Good
for us!
One more observation: because research is the basis of graduate education,
the research reputation of the faculty becomes our guarantee of graduate
education's future at UNH.
Last May after Commencement, I was once again privileged to accompany
a group of first-year faculty on a three-day bus trip across our State
to see how and where the University works within New Hampshire. We visited
many, many sites-from as close as a bioremediation project at Pease International
Tradeport to as far away as a North Haverhill Dairy farm, an inner-city
school in Manchester, the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium, a West Rumney
lumberyard, a retirement community in Northfield, and the Laconia prison.
One thing that caught my attention was that on this, the third trip that
I have taken with first-year faculty at UNH, we did not duplicate a single
site that we had visited in the other two trips. This is a dramatic indication
of how extensive the work of the University is across our State. But the
other thing that I was reminded of, again and again, was the high quality
of our junior faculty—our first-year faculty. Each of these individuals
will hopefully be part of the University of New Hampshire for many years
to come. Our junior faculty give the best single assurance we can provide
for the future of UNH.
It is no accident I have opened with the importance of the faculty to
the University's future. They are the continuing foundation on which we
build. I know each of you is disappointed and frustrated that the summer
did not bring an end to the contract impasse in spite of earnest and genuine
efforts on both sides. Surely, I share that disappointment. All parties
are continuing to look for new, more creative ways to reach agreement
so that we can move toward the many opportunities facing us and begin
the healing needed to restore our community.
A second factor concerning our future is to recognize that a primary mission
of UNH is the education of undergraduate students.
Currently we have an undergraduate population that comprises highly motivated,
well-prepared students. The applicant pool for undergraduate programs
continues to grow. Our undergraduate research program is one of the best
in the country; last spring's Undergraduate Research Conference highlighted
the quality of undergraduate work in every academic corner of the University.
There are expanding opportunities for students to engage in study abroad
activities and community-based learning experiences. In addition, we are
especially proud of our intercollegiate athletic program and our intramural
sports program. What a point of pride to see that UNH student athletes
have won the America East Academic Cup for the second year in a row.
Last May we graduated almost 2,400 students. Approximately one-third went
on to graduate and professional schools, and the other two-thirds entered
a strong economy that gave them many employment choices. This fall we
have welcomed almost 2,600 new freshmen to our campus. Forty-eight percent
of them come to us from states other than New Hampshire or from countries
other than the U. S. The average SAT score of this freshman class is 9
points higher than a year ago. We are seeing some enrollment shifts this
autumn with most of the increases in the liberal arts. That fits comfortably
with UNH traditions: here we combine professional programs with the basic
arts and sciences.
Most of the students entering as freshmen this fall were born in 1982.
Here are some of their experiences. In their lifetimes:
- Somebody
named George Bush has been on every national ticket except one.
- We have
always been able to reproduce DNA in the laboratory.
- There have
always been automated teller machines.
- We have
always been able to receive television signals by direct broadcast satellite.
- Toyotas
and Hondas have always been made in the United States.
- There has
always been a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Women sailors
have always been stationed on U. S. Navy ships.
- Hurricanes
have always had men's and women's names.
- These students
have never used a bottle of Whiteout.
Our thanks to Beloit College for sharing these and other factoids about
the nation's college freshmen this year.
Even though our residence halls feel crowded, this is not UNH's largest
freshman class. That was in 1997; indeed, in 1995 UNH had almost 500 more
students in total than we have this year. Even so, we need more on-campus
housing and dining facilities, and we are moving ahead to add one more
residence hall and one more dining hall.
We have set aggressive goals to create a more diverse community at UNH.
Two years ago our first-year class included 64 students of color; last
year the number was 84 and this year the number is 104 students of color
in the freshman class. While these numbers are not yet large, they are
moving in the right direction. A diverse community is an important component
in the quality of a university because each of us learns from those who
have different backgrounds, beliefs, and values. In addition, we expect
many of our graduates will move from UNH to work and live in communities
that are significantly more diverse than the State of New Hampshire. For
these reasons, we have made a strong commitment to building a diverse
community in which all individuals can reach their full potential.
Here's the bottom line with respect to enrollments: at UNH we have every
opportunity to continue to attract eager, talented students. Our success
in doing this is another test of the University's future.
Of course, a university needs more than a highly qualified faculty and
well-prepared students. Faculty and students require equipment and facilities
in support of learning. We are delighted at the transformation that has
taken place in the last few months on our Manchester mill yard campus.
We will dedicate that renovated facility on October 26, and it will provide
excellent support for the University's urban mission in Manchester. In
our Graduate Center there, we are giving graduate courses in Education,
masters level courses in Engineering, the MBA program, and the MPA Program.
We are developing plans to move the UNH Engineering Technology program
to Manchester. The development of programs at UNHM is an important piece
in positioning the University for its future.
The new Environmental Technology Building on the Durham campus will be
completed in February. It will give us research and development space
for faculty and students to use in their work with related industries
in our region. This building is an important addition to our Entrepreneurial
Campus and to our collaboration with New Hampshire businesses. The Pettee
Hall renovation will be complete next month, and several of the School
of Health and Human Services programs will move into a facility that is
up-to-date and appropriate for the types of teaching and research done
in those programs.
But even as we are excited by these new and renovated facilities, we must
be very concerned about the condition of the aging physical plant in Durham.
In last year's speech, I explained that our request to the legislature
this year would be for a multi-year commitment to facility renovation.
That proposal has gone forward from the Trustees to the Governor. We are
asking for State funding for the complete renovation of six of our buildings
within the next six years. Anything less puts our physical plant in real
jeopardy.
When we speak about equipment for a university these days, a big component
of that category is the information technology now used in instruction,
research, and administration. We have made substantial progress in this
area in the last three years. Our residence halls are all wired. The number
of general use computers on campus has increased by 30% over the last
three years. Now we have added a student-computing fee which will increase
the number of technology-enhanced classrooms, provide increased technical
staff support to faculty in all aspects of their work including curriculum
development, support our distance learning initiatives, and enhance student
access to information resources.
In addition to on-campus technology, the University is gaining experience
with distance delivery of instruction-another sign that the future is
now. One of our pioneers has been the Far View Program in Engineering.
This program has a two-year history of delivering master's level engineering
courses to individuals at their work sites and combining distance education
with instruction on the Durham campus. New Hampshire Public Television
is a major player in UNH's distance education. Their Knowledge Network
delivers instruction for both students and teachers to the schools of
New Hampshire. The Wide Area Computing Network, which is anchored at UNH,
connects over 70 primary and secondary schools, libraries, institutions
of higher education, and industries. You will hear us speak also about
the Granite State Network. This is the portion of the larger network that
combines television and computing technologies and opens many possibilities
for creative instruction beyond the Durham and Manchester campuses. Technology
gives us tools that provide for new ways of communicating with traditional
audiences and new ways of reaching new audiences.
You will notice that I have not yet said anything about the University's
administration and its role in the future of the institution. Believe
you me, we are in great shape in that category! I want you to know how
pleased I am to welcome four new people into Deans' positions this semester.
Dr. Arthur Greenberg, Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical
Sciences, a chemist by academic training, has joined us from the University
of North Carolina-Charlotte. Dr. Stephen Bolander, Dean of the Whittemore
School of Business and Economics, whose academic area is management, has
come to UNH from Colorado State. Dr. Andrew Rosenberg, Dean of the College
of Life Sciences and Agriculture, whose own work is in marine biology,
comes to UNH from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
in Washington, D.C. And, Dr. David Pearson, a scholar in Health Management
and Policy, has moved into the leadership of the School of Health and
Human Services as Interim Dean. It is a pleasure for me to work with the
campus administration on a day-to-day basis and know that the leadership
of UNH is in such capable hands. The University System has welcomed a
new Chancellor, Stephen Reno, who has come from the State of Oregon.
In the few short weeks he has been here, he has met with many of New Hampshire's
decision makers and worked hard to learn about UNH's programs and people.
At a Seacoast luncheon last week he described the high quality of our
research and teaching and called UNH, "Excellence on a Human Scale."
UNH staff also have an essential role in the University's quality. We
currently have over 3,000 individuals serving in a variety of staff positions.
We depend fully on these people for the maintenance of our grounds and
facilities, the operations of our offices and service units, much of the
technical work and outreach effort of the University, for student advising, and for the quality of life beyond the classroom. Never before have
I worked with such a committed, top-quality group of people. Many of our
staff have worked at UNH for 20, 25, even 30 years. We are extremely fortunate
to have such a committed group of employees as we enter this century.
Faculty, students, staff, facilities, and equipment work together to make
an effective university only if the university operates as an efficient,
cost-effective business. If you have been on campus for the last two or
three years, you have been aware of the administrative redesign underway
at UNH. I am pleased to report that the Business Service Centers are not
only up and running, but generally are operating at a high level of professionalism
and, at the same time, are responsible for considerable cost containment
at UNH. In addition, we are now in our first year of operation under the
more decentralized budget model we have called Responsibility Center Management,
or RCM. We have delegated considerable financial authority and accountability
to the twenty large units of the University, have made budgetary policies
more flexible, and have developed rules for resource allocation that will
cause resources to rise and fall with activity levels. Recent modifications
on the business side of the house appear to be serving the institution
well and represent an important component in positioning the University
for the next decade.
Planning for Academic Excellence
Having put the business side of the house in order, last year we turned
our attention to academic planning, not program-by-program, but at the
institutional level. To a large extent, the University community shares
a common understanding of who we are as an institution. We are a public
university in the land-grant tradition. We are also sea-grant and space-grant.
We are a major research university with a primary commitment to undergraduate
education. We have the three missions of teaching, research, and public
service, integrated in ways that cause the research and public service
to strengthen instruction. These are characteristics of our university
that are deeply rooted in our history and traditions. The question now
is not what the University has been or is, but what it will be. Not in
foundational terms, for we are committed to preserving the University's
historic missions and values, but rather in programmatic terms. That is
the goal of the Academic Planning Process.
A steering committee under the leadership of Provost David Hiley has been
working both as a committee of the whole and through subcommittees. This
semester they will connect their work to some of the University's standing
committees including the Enrollment Planning Task Force, the Faculty Senate
General Education Review Committee, the Academic Computing Advisory Committee,
and the Graduate Council, and they will begin university-wide discussions
with specific constituencies as they develop an academic action plan for
the next five years. They have tentatively grouped the issues that must
be addressed into six categories:
1. Clarifying and achieving consensus about UNH's central academic values
and core identity.
2. Developing a collegial and supportive community in which all members
can do their best work, are valued for their contributions, and are
appropriately recognized and rewarded.
3. Re-thinking what it means to be a land grant university engaged with
the State and responsive to the region's economy.
4. Building on the University's strong commitment to undergraduate education
to provide an education that is coherent, of high quality, and competitive
for the best students.
5. Providing graduate education of high quality, accessible to both
residents and non-residents, clearly aligned with the strongest disciplinary
and interdisciplinary scholarship at UNH.
6. Continuing to strengthen research and creative activity that is sufficiently
focused, collaborative, and in direct support of the education of students.
Within these
categories are many, many very practical questions: for example,
What is the relationship between University size and identity?
Can we "right size" the curriculum to make a better alignment
between resources and standards of academic quality?
What is our unique role within the University System organization?
How will we be a community that values differences of opinion and debate,
and also civility and consensus?
How will we develop better linkages with business and industry and state
government and not-for-profit organizations, at the same time maintaining
the freedom of inquiry essential to a university environment?
A preliminary draft of strategic issues and the questions around those
issues will soon be presented, and you will be invited to respond. We
have an opportunity in this year to shape the next 10 or 15 years for
UNH. I urge you to turn your mind to these critically important matters.
Community
It is not possible to think realistically about the University's future
without speculating about the kind of world our graduates will live in
and the kinds of human problems that will need to be addressed. We expect
graduates of UNH to experience work environments and communities that
are increasingly more diverse and more international. Thus, we work hard
to build a community that is rich in its diversity and to provide international
experiences for a high percentage of our students.
We expect that commerce and communication will continue to be increasingly
supported by technology. In New England, and especially in New Hampshire,
the economy is being built on technology, innovation, and high level services.
A great deal of what is known about this economy is contained in the research
of Professor Ross Gittell, chairperson of our Management Department in
WSBE. New Hampshire higher education has a heavy responsibility to provide
the State's work force for the new economy. Fully one half of the 65,000
jobs created in New Hampshire between 1990 and 1996—during the economic
recovery—required college-degreed employees. New Hampshire has been
sending half of its college students to schools in other states and then
has needed to address its work force needs by attracting workers from
surrounding states. But now the unemployment rates in those states are
low and their populations are aging. Surrounding states are making strong
efforts to retain their talent within their own borders. It becomes increasingly
clear that New Hampshire must do a better job of educating its own citizens
so that they will continue to live and work in our state.
We must, then, find the financial resources required to enable the University
to educate New Hampshire's work force for the next decade and to maintain
the level of research needed to support emerging industry. The University
has several sources of revenue. We are fortunate that our enrollments
are strong, but the University is overly dependent on tuition income,
and the financial burden on students at UNH is disproportionately high.
I spoke about our faculty's extraordinary success in attracting external
research dollars, but those monies must be targeted directly to the research
work for which the dollars are intended. We are beginning to see a more
substantial engagement of businesses and industry in the University's
programs and they will help us with equipment, internships, and contract
work, but they cannot provide for the day-to-day instruction of students
and the support of our faculty. We are grateful that private fund-raising
to UNH continues to grow, but again, these monies do not provide for the
day-to-day instruction; they provide the margin of excellence that makes
UNH truly distinguished in many areas.
The piece that is too small in the University's funding picture is adequate
support from the State of New Hampshire. Currently, New Hampshire is 50th
among the states in the support of public higher education and 50th in
total scholarship support. In recent years the University has received
funds to renovate only one of its 80 core buildings every three years.
At that rate, each building will need to stand 240 years before it receives
major renovation. Patterns like these put the future of our State in jeopardy.
What is required for change is that we—the citizens of our State—take
a longer-range view and make a new level of commitment to our future,
a commitment not just to solving today's problems, but to seeing that
the economic well-being and high quality of life that we now enjoy can
continue for future generations. This requires an investment in education
at all levels. Our legislature took an important step last session when
they passed the Granite State Scholars bill. This bill would recognize
the highest achieving 12th grade students in New Hampshire and provide
state money as a match to private gifts raised for student scholarships
on the public two-year and four-year campuses. The bill was passed, but
not funded in the last session so we must continue to be concerned about
its implementation.
Fortunately, the New Hampshire economy is strong, per capita income is
high, business and industry are speaking clearly about their work force
needs, and there can be little doubt that higher education will be more
critical to U. S. citizens in future decades than it has been in the past.
One of our Trustees, John Crosier, who is the President of the Business
and Industry Association of New Hampshire, has written in New Hampshire
newspapers about the challenges in maintaining a knowledge-intensive economy;
he writes under the title "The Keys to the Past Will Not Open the
Doors to the Future." This is the message we each must communicate
to our fellow citizens over the next few months.
Alumni, Parents, and Friends
We have talked about several groups of people who are part of the UNH
family: our faculty, staff, students, and Trustees. But there are others who are
also important. Our alumni care deeply about the University and its future.
Many of them serve on program advisory boards in our professional colleges.
They assist us in the recruitment of new students. Our Alumni Advocacy
Network now is a strong voice directed toward decision-makers in our communities
and in state government. Our alumni are generous in supporting our need
for student scholarship money, for named professorships and chairs, for
program endowment, and for learning equipment. A year ago we announced
a major financial campaign with a target of $100 million within five years.
We have already passed the halfway mark. As these gifts become available
to us, we can see the impact that private giving will have at the University
of New Hampshire. The most recent large gift that we have announced, as
you know, has been a corporate gift from Tyco to establish an undergraduate
scholarship program for Tyco Science Scholars. Programs like this one
enable us to bring the most talented students from New Hampshire and other
states to our campus.
Many in this room today are UNH alumni and many others are future alumni.
I'd like to speak a moment to the future alumni, that is to say, to current
UNH students. When you graduate, I want you to realize that the University
needs you as much as you now need the University. Four or five years is
usually not a very big piece out of a person's total life span, but the
four or five years at UNH is an especially important piece. These are
life-determining years and experiences. The faculty and the University
make a big investment in you as a student. You will be asked, not to pay
back that investment, but to enable other students and future generations
also to have the benefits of a UNH education. As you plan your own futures,
remember to provide a place in it for the future of UNH. The association
you have with your university is not a four or five-year association.
It is indeed a lifetime association.
New Strategies
As we are thinking about the future of the University, we must acknowledge
that there are tough problems ahead. However, our challenges are not likely
to be much greater than those which previous generations have surmounted.
And, because we live at this time in history, there are some strategies
available to us which would not have been available earlier. I have spoken
about the tools of technology that make it possible for us now to think
about teaching in new ways to new audiences. Technology also opens the
opportunity for us to partner with other colleges and universities in
research programs and in instruction. We are already doing some of that.
For example, our graduate program in Natural Resources has been part of
a course taught by faculty from each of the six New England land-grant
universities and delivered to students on all six campuses.
Other kinds of partnerships are open to us. We now have partnerships with
the federal government through the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration in two different UNH centers: the Cooperative Institute
for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET) and the Joint
Hydrographic Center. A third is under development: the Cooperative Institute
for New England Mariculture and Fisheries (CINEMar). These UNH centers
not only have federal money, they also have senior scientists from NOAA
working on the Durham campus with our faculty and students. We hope to
have similar partnerships with state agencies. A first example is the
Institute for Health Policy and Practice which we share at UNH with the
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. There are other
such opportunities ahead for us with industry. The InterOperability Lab
connects the University now to more than 190 computing industries, and
as our Entrepreneurial Campus continues to develop, we can expect to see
even greater engagement of industry with our programs.
Another strategy that is beginning to work well for us is the ability
to combine funds from government sources with private gifts and industrial
support. For example, the State of New Hampshire provided funds for the
basic renovation of Dimond Library and private gifts provided the furnishings
and equipment that make the Library both attractive and state-of-the-art.
One of our new programs, Ocean Mapping, is being built with private endowment
money, federal money, and commitments from business and industry.
In the next few years it may appear that some things at UNH are being
done differently than in the past. Indeed, we should expect that to happen.
First we must be clear about who we are and what needs to be accomplished.
Then we can search for the financial and human resources that are needed
and for the strategies that will advance the University toward those goals.
Success will require creativity and experimentation. Fortunately, these
are qualities deep in UNH's traditions.
In this millennial year, we have often looked back one hundred years and
contrasted the world then with now. But, we don't need to go back one
hundred years. In only fifty years, UNH has seen dramatic changes. Fifty
years ago, construction was being completed for the University's first
engineering building, Kingsbury Hall. Today, we are planning a many million-dollar
project to renovate and expand Kingsbury.
Fifty years ago, UNH President Arthur Adams announced a new program called
the College Scholars Program that would provide one semester of independent
study for superior students. Today, we have announced the Tyco Science
Scholars Program that will provide full four-year scholarships with both
research and travel funds to outstanding students in the sciences.
Fifty years ago President Adams announced the development of a new watermelon:
the New Hampshire Midget. Today we have hull-less pumpkin seeds, as well
as multiple research projects from the ocean to Mt. Washington and around the
world.
We are grateful for our history, traditions, and values, and we accept
the challenges of our own day. We welcome the opportunities of the future
which, for UNH, are almost unlimited. We are on a wonderful journey together, not
just for our students, but for each of us who has a commitment to the
University of New Hampshire. Welcome to this distinguished University.
Welcome to this new year.
Now for the 15-minute video I promised you; then refreshments in the corridors
just outside this room; and this afternoon a picnic supper with activities
for everyone on the T-Hall lawn.
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