In his 45-minutes speech to the College Park Senate, Kirwan highlighted numerous university achievements over the past year and outlined five major issues for the year.

   Kirwan began by noting that this year's freshman class boasts the highest average SAT score and grade point average and the largest number of honor students in the university's history.

   "As good as last year's class was, this year's class is even better," he said. "There is no doubt that part of the reason for this success is the attraction of our award winning honors program."

   Kirwan also mentioned the new Gemstone program and the World Courses sequence, as well as the College Park Scholars program (currently being used as a model for other colleges and universities throughout the country), as reasons for the university's success in recruiting such talented students.

   In terms of faculty accomplishments, Kirwan lauded several faculty members who have been selected nationally for fellowships and awards, including Elisabeth Gantt and Richard Webb who were elected to the National Academy of Sciences, a group of Engineering faculty who won the Boeing Educator of the Year award, and Victor Yakovenko who won a David and Lucille Packard Fellowship. "The accomplishments of our faculty are impressive by the standards of any university," he said.

   Recent distinguished appointments to the faculty include political analyst Ronald Walters, formerly of Howard University; Health and Human Services Deputy Director and former Kennedy School faculty member Walter Broadnax; and Sergei Novikov, a Fields medalist and member of the Russian Academy and the National Academy of Science. Four new senior faculty/administrative appointments also were noted - Keith Morrison, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities; Charles Lowry, Dean of Libraries; Christopher Kendall, Director of the School of Music; and Nelson Markley, Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

   Kirwan said he is pleased that the university continues to strengthen its reputation in the area of diversity. In his speech he mentioned a recent article in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education which cited the university as having the largest number of African-American faculty of any flagship public university.

   "The state universities that appear to have made the most serious effort at faculty diversification, when we include comparisons to blacks in the student body and in the state population, include the University of Massachusetts, the University of Maryland and Rutgers University," Kirwan quoted from the journal article.

   The university continues to score well in national rankings, Kirwan said. U.S. News & World Report recently ranked both the university's undergraduate business and engineering programs in the top 25 in the nation, a feat he said was unmatched by any other university, public or private, in the Southeast.

   "However," said Kirwan, "as the university looks toward the coming year and beyond, there needs to be an awareness of several external factors."

   According to Kirwan, the preparation of the university's budget is underway. "Gov. (Parris) Glendening has honored his commitment to provide higher education with a 3 percent increment in general funds," he said. "All other agencies face either a flat or reduced budget."

   Kirwan also mentioned the Board of Regents' approval of a 7.2 percent increase in tuition revenue for College Park, funds which will be used to support a number of university initiatives, including: 1.25 percent increase in faculty salaries plus a $1 million fund for faculty retention and recruitment, $1.6 million to support salary adjustments in the new pay plan, $1.4 million for enhancement of undergraduate education, $500,000 for enhancement of life science programs, $500,000 for enhancement of performing arts programs, and $1 million for information technology upgrades.

   Citing faculty salary enhancement as the university's number one priority, Kirwan announced that the regents are also making a special request to the governor to provide an increment of $5 million to raise faculty salaries at College Park to the 85th percentile among Carnegie Class I Research Universities. Currently the university is at the 73rd percentile for full professors, 57th for associate professors and 77th for assistant professors. This request is in addition to the items included in the Regents' FY 1998 budget submission.

   During his speech, Kirwan commented on the Board of Regents' decision regarding benefits to domestic partners. He said, "I want to make a special comment on the Regents' decision regarding benefits to domestic partners. As you know, the College Park Senate in 1994 overwhelmingly passed a proposal to extend benefits to domestic partners. I indicated my full support for the Senate's proposal but was asked not to take any action until the Regents had reviewed the matter and developed a systemwide policy. After considerable delay the Regents appointed a committee, on which I served, to make recommendations. The committee basically endorsed our Senate's proposal. Regrettably, at the July meeting the Regents rejected its committee's recommendation. Moreover, the Regents have interpreted their actions as meaning that individual campuses do not have the option of extending local benefits to domestic partners. I consider this to be a most unfortunate outcome, one that has caused considerable pain to members of our community and that is incompatible with values that many on this campus embrace. I believe that we must reopen this matter at some appropriate time. The questions are: when and how? I will be discussing this matter with the Senate Executive Committee and with other members of our community. But there is one thing that does not require us to wait. Because diversity is a hallmark of our university, I hope that we, as a community, will be sensitive to the disappointment, the hurt and the frustration our gay and lesbian colleagues are experiencing. I also hope that we will remind ourselves again and again of the many contributions our gay and lesbian colleagues make to the health and welfare of this institution. Their contributions have been many and significant, and they have been made at every level of the University."

   Other Board of Regents issues mentioned during his state of the campus address included the proposal that the University of Maryland System name be changed to "The Maryland System of Universities."

   As a blueprint for the coming year, Kirwan mapped out five major campus issues during his state of the campus address:

• Early Retirement Legislation - A UMS task force, which Kirwan chairs, will propose early retirement incentive programs for System faculty and staff. The staff plan will be modeled on a plan passed by the General Assembly last year for non-System state employees. To be eligible for the plan, an employee must be at least 50 years old and have worked for the state 25 or more years. Eligibility for faculty also requires 25 or more years of service but is restricted to those who are at least 60 years old. Both plans provide one month of additional retirement credit for each year an employee has worked at the university.
• Pay Plan, Performance Review and Development Process - Kirwan said funds had been requested to support step increases for university staff. He emphasized the importance of supervisors using the PRD process effectively so that meritorious performance by staff can be appropriately rewarded.
• Morale of Faculty and Staff - "I am deeply concerned about the erosion in faculty and staff morale," Kirwan said. In his speech, he cited some contributing factors at College Park, including the 40-hour work week and low salary increments in recent years. To begin addressing morale issues, Kirwan said a high level committee will be appointed to explore systematically the root causes. "Until we identify what the major issues are, we can't as an institution begin to put them to rest," he said.
• Capital Campaign - "This year the university will take the steps necessary to launch a capital campaign on the order of $350 million," Kirwan said. "To be successful, the capital campaign will require a community effort," he emphasized. "The capital campaign is not just the responsibility of the Office of Institutional Advancement. We will all have to do our share - faculty, staff and administrators. A successful campaign will make a tremendous difference in our university," he said.
• Implementation of the Strategic Plan - "I am very enthusiastic about the plan," he said. "We have a document that has been embraced by the Senate, the Board of Visitors, and indeed, the entire university community. It sets a clear direction for us to follow in our march toward distinction as a university." Steps in the Strategic Plan include a review of all graduate programs, which is now underway under the leadership of Mahlon Straszheim, chair of the Department of Economics. It also calls for a new budget process, tied to the initiatives in the strategic plan. Kirwan recently launched the budget process through a letter to the vice presidents. In the letter, he called for a one percent reallocation of division budgets in support of the plan. He also created a $2 million revolving fund that will be allocated as seed funds to support units that have innovative initiatives tied to objectives in the strategic plan.

   As a special priority, Kirwan has asked units to consider initiatives that will help to elevate retention and graduation rates. "As impressive as our recruiting efforts have been at the university, we still do not have retention or graduation rates that reflect the quality of our students and programs," he observed.

   Kirwan said he also plans to appoint a committee to work with him in monitoring the implementation of the strategic plan.

   As the University of Maryland at College Park continues to move forward, Kirwan said there are plenty of reasons for the entire community to take pride in the university.

   "Clearly, we've made a lot of progress. We must now demonstrate that we have the collective will to move further and become one of the nation's very best public research universities, the best on the East Coast," he said.

   In conclusion, Kirwan said, "We're on the verge of a major breakthrough in the quality - and the perception of the quality - of our undergraduate program. The academic profile of our entering students is now roughly comparable to that at UNC and most other leading public universities. We must remember that in coming here, these students had very attractive alternatives. In many instances, they came here instead of Ivy League schools or other leading institutions. These students will expect demanding courses. We must deliver. They will expect high quality services. We must deliver. We must not let this opportunity pass. Collectively, we must insure that these students have an experience-educationally and developmentally-on a par with that offered at the nation's best universities, because that's who our competition is. This will require all of us to rethink how we interact with and serve our students, all of our students.

   "We also have an opportunity to become a national research university of the top rank. In selected areas we already have risen to the highest plateau. Now we must broaden our base of academic excellence. This will not be easy to do but guided by the results of the graduate program review and the strategic plan, it can be done.

   "The point is that great things are within our grasp if we have the collective will to stretch. I think we do have the will and that's why I look forward to this year with such great anticipation. I hope you share this enthusiasm."

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