September 10, 2001

The end of one year brings closure--the start of the new one brings opportunity. We're reenergized and ready to charge off again. It's a cycle I have repeated and repeated, but never tire of. New students, filled with wonder, curiosity and excitement can even put life in the eyes of Testudo. The faculty will once again have to convince a new population of students, about 9,000 in all, that they are truly at the top of their fields. The dialog, the give and take, the intellectual combat begins yet again.

Success

Everywhere I go these days, I have been talking about the extraordinary success of this campus. I enjoy it - no, actually I love it - because there is so much to say. As Smollett put it, 'Facts are stubborn things," and there are uncontestable facts that illuminate our success. I am particularly excited about the people here, the initiatives and aspirations of the faculty, their stunning research accomplishments, the talented students, and especially the connections we are forging to friends and alumni, to state and federal agencies, and to leaders in industry at home and abroad. Our academic programs across a broad range of disciplines are moving to the front ranks, as they must, and our reputation continues to grow in circles academic, economic, and political. In short, Maryland is 'on a tear.'

I want to spend some time today talking about our success and sharing with you reasons for my continued optimism about the opportunities ahead. Though it may seem that I am proselytizing the converted, I think it is important that we share news of our progress. After all, we are united by many common values and goals. From our accomplishments we gain confidence, confidence in our capacity to overcome challenges, to grasp opportunities, and simply to make things happen. We need to believe in our success. It's real - It's ours.

But what is success? Consider a couple of definitions. One, success is achieving something that is desired, planned or attempted and another is success is gaining fame or prosperity. In our case, when we reach our goals, we will have achieved something desired, distinction, and we will have gained fame. So success fits.

Success over 10 years

Let us begin by reviewing our successes. Because short-term changes can often be deceiving, we should look back a decade to illuminate real progress. I will give you a sampling of data covering the past decade and leave a full charting to be posted on the web. [Editor's Note: See chart below] When you go to that site, you will see that the number of National Academy Members on our faculty has increased three-fold from 7 to 23; the percent of minority faculty has grown from 11% to 15%; the percent of women faculty increased from 27% to 34%; the average high school GPA of freshmen has jumped from 3.0 to 3.75; our contract and grant awards grew from $113 million to $265 million through ORAA, a number that increases to more than $300 million when the remaining externally-sponsored research is figured in; and the amount of private giving increased four-fold from $19M to $77M. The data at the web site show that we are moving forward on every front.

Success last year

If the ten-year view is convincing, and I believe it is, the picture of this past year is even more striking: it is a candidate for our best year ever.

Our schools and colleges intend to be ranked among the best so let me give only one example: The Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Inspired by the college's achievements and its potential for greatness, Mr. Merrill, a major area publisher, gave $10M to be spent down completely to create the nation's best journalism program and faculty. That is the only charge - become the best - a simple, clean and straight charge. The College recruited three Pulitzer Prize winners to its faculty right away, David Broder, Jon Franklin, and Ira Chinoy, and is on the track to the top.

Absolutely nothing can replace the recruitment of stellar faculty in the building of a great university. Apologizing in advance for the many names that I will leave out, I will mention but a few to make the point. Physics recruited Bill Phillips, the 1997 Nobel Laureate, to its faculty; Geology recruited James Farquahar, the Clark Medal Winner (awarded to the most promising young geologist) and Government and Politics recruited Ben Barber, the national guru on democratic institutions. The list goes on.

We rank among the national leaders in research funding. This past year, research commitments to the University topped $300 million. How does this rate, relatively speaking? The most recent NSF report on federal research funding, based on fiscal 1999 data, would have us ranked 15th in US among all public and private universities. Our total R&D expenditure per full-time faculty stands at $220,000. When adjusted for health sciences programs, this per-capita research funding places us only behind Berkeley among our peers. The average annual growth of our federal R&D expenditures over the most recent five-year period is a whopping 13.7%, which spotlights the rapid change underway here.

Among public universities, mathematics and computer sciences rank fourth in receipt of federal funding; both physical sciences and engineering rank 6th. Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences is becoming a powerhouse in Earth systems science, and the University ranks fourth in funding from NASA.

Our College of Behavioral and Social Sciences has been astonishingly successful in increasing external funding to $55 million, an increase of more than 500 percent over the last 10 years. In fact 16% of all federal support for social sciences comes to this University! Congratulations also go to the College of Education for its record year of research funding up about 40%.

Partnerships

We are a growing force in the region, the largest organization in the State, and its greatest hope for leading its transformation to the knowledge economy. Everywhere in our society collaborations and partnerships assemble talent and resources to address problems and opportunities. The University is responding to this call with enthusiasm. We are building bridges to national laboratories, to research programs, like the National Center for Global Climate Change that we recruited to College Park; to corporations like Fujitsu, Ltd. that we recruited to College Park; and even to foreign countries like the People's Republic of China, which is negotiating with the University to establish its first international research park outside of China in College Park. We are building bridges through partnerships with counties around us like the partnership programs with schools in Prince George's County; the Shady Grove Center in Montgomery County, where we offer programs for business and biosciences; and our Baltimore Incentive Awards Program.

Students

The exciting successes we are achieving in research are paralleled by the outstanding quality of our students. Our emphasis over the past decade on high quality undergraduate education and academically talented students has energized us, breathing new life into service programs and involving the best faculty in new and exciting teaching efforts. The students entering Maryland are simply better than ever. This year's class has an average high school GPA of 3.75 and an average SAT of 1246. Nearly 60% of our students enroll in an enriched curriculum.

Maryland Imager Giving Campus Tour

As I brag about our students, I would like to thank one group, the Maryland Imagers, the student volunteer group that gives campus tours to prospective students, parents and other visitors . When I see Imagers walking backwards across the campus, I am reminded of that 1982 Fred and Ernest Cartoon about Fred Astair: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards and in high heels." Thank you Imagers for putting your best foot backwards for the campus. And I also thank you for your "adopt a student" mentorship program.

The record of academic success of our student athletics this past year deserves special mention. We were the only university in the nation to boast 3 Verizon Academic All-American female athletes. We celebrated a record 409 honor student athletes last spring and a record 203 ACC honor student athletes. This is a 69% increase since 1995. We were thrilled at our basketball team's move into the Final Four, and I was especially pleased by the Baltimore Sun's front page story 'campus on a tear' that remarked it seemed only fitting that our athletic achievements should be catching up to our stellar academic ones. We beat Stanford to get into the final four, and unfortunately lost to Duke on our way out - that good academic company becomes even better when we beat 'm.

Staff

Our current level of success would not be possible without the dedication of our staff. The amount of capital construction, more than twice that in any previous year in our history, has been daunting. Building sites and renovation projects have sprouted like mushrooms. The staff that keeps us informed so cheerily with the "Ouch" campaign, the grounds keepers who keep the campus manicured despite constant disruptions for laying pipes or fiber optic cables, and the physical plant crew that responds quickly to crises, all contribute immensely to our well being. We thank all of them for helping us succeed in making our campus a welcoming place. And the Resident Life and Residential Facilities staff knocked themselves out to serve the overflow freshman enrollment through refitting and outfitting the residence halls, and working with parents and students to serve them as best they could under the circumstances. During my move-in day visits I saw first hand how extraordinarily effective they were in making the day flow smoothly. Many parents complemented me on the great job done here. Special recognition should also go to Jim Osteen, Marsha Guenzler Stevens and all their staff at Adele Stamp Student Union for their "can do" spirit. They strip away bureaucracy and never turn away problems; they solve them. Kudos go to you all.

In its first annual award, the University's Teaching Facility Committee recognized Jerome Thomas with a citation commending his efforts to improve teaching. Attention to the smallest detail can make a big difference: Mr. Thomas conceived of the wonderful boxes on the classroom wall to hold extra chalk and he got well-deserved credit for making life easier in the classroom.

Diversity

I want our campus to be known for its inclusiveness. Our record is very good because of many steps taken to promote community and diversity. Let me point to a few new ones. The ad-hoc committee chaired by Dean Goldstein to review the coordination of diversity programs recommended, among other actions, the appointment of a coordinator who would serve on the President's Cabinet to ensure that diversity issues are represented and fostered there. Dr. Robert Waters has assumed that position as a Special Assistant to the President and will help bring new focus to our community-building efforts across the campus.

The colleges continue their commitment to diversity, and I note that in Engineering, under Dean Farvardin's leadership, of the 13 stellar new faculty hires, 5 were female, 3 African-American and 3 Asian American. Congratulations to the dean and the School on their success in this highly competitive search process. The College of Education recruited three top African-American faculty, including its first "Professor of the Practice," the most distinguished and accomplished Carol Parham, former Superintendent of Schools in Anne Arundel County.

On October 9 Vice President Clement is sponsoring our first ever Building Community Day, a recommendation of the Moses and Johnson Committee. With funds from NSF, the College of Engineering is initiating a $1M, three-year program for "Women in Science and Engineering." Our Life Sciences Pre-freshman Academic Enrichment Program - still going strong into its 7th year - gives under represented groups a head start in the biological and life sciences.

All such efforts generate results. Our undergraduate student body is 36% minority, and according to the June 7 Black Issues in Higher Education, the University was ranked 22nd in the total number of minority bachelor degrees. Among the non-historically black universities and colleges, our campus ranks 5th in African-American bachelor degrees. In the total minority bachelors degrees in the biosciences, we ranked 11th. nation wide. In short we are doing well in building a truly diverse community, but, to be certain, not well enough to consider complacency.

The Fruits of Success

What difference does success make? Much more, I can assure you, than "15 minutes of fame" for the campus. For one, it lifts all of us -- the entire university. Everyone wants to associate with, to be part of, success. We have moved from thinking of pillars of excellence to a belief in the necessity of excellence across our disciplines. No great university is built on pillars; its entire foundation must be solid.

Second, our pride and exuberant confidence in our achievements are infectious: others have come to believe in us too. Consider our friends and alumni: gifts to us have increased four-fold; the number of alumni donors increased 23% last year! Or take Maryland Day 2001. What a marvel it was! When we started in 1999, many on this campus wondered whether anyone would come. This year over 60,000 people came to enjoy the campus. I thank everyone from across the campus that knocked themselves out to make it work so well. This day essentially guaranteed a first-class experience for all visitors and many of them were here for the first time.

Consider another by-product of success, the support of the Governor and the General Assembly. We are fulfilling the State's dream, its mandate that we build a great university. The future of the state depends on it, and we are demonstrating that its trust in us is well placed. Over this last decade our funding has increased 50% and this support is fueling our effort to build renowned programs that are paying back the state's investment many-fold.

Success leads to Challenges

We have achieved much over the past decade and we should all be proud of our accomplishments. We have reached new heights but not yet a plateau. So, we are very good -- among the best. But we must strive to be even better. Our successes grew out of meeting past challenges, and now they lead us to new challenges. I have identified five challenges that need our immediate attention. These are areas where our choices, our plans, will make a major difference in moving us forward. They are: Student overflow; student mentoring; student success; graduate student support; and civility and sportsmanship:

Student Overflow

As you all know, this last year we have experienced an unprecedented increase in the rate of acceptance of our offers of admissions - jumping to 42% from our recent historical norm of 38%. By the way, ten years ago the yield was 32% showing how our priority among admits has increased. By the time it became known that the rate had jumped this year, it was too late to limit the number of admissions; the letters had already been delivered. As a result we have a 400-student bulge in our freshman class. It creates challenges that we are accommodating from increased sections of freshman classes to taking extraordinary measures in campus residence halls. I thank everyone affected by this overload for his or her patience. And that thanks goes especially to the students.

This student bulge also creates challenges for the coming years. To contain the undergraduate student population, the admissions for Fall 2002 will have to be reduced. The increasing yield and decreasing class size will result in even greater competition for admission in 2002. That is bad news or good news depending on how you want to look at it. And it's a challenge nonetheless. And we need to be prepared to support the students we have admitted, ensuring that there are services and classes to meet their needs until they graduate.

Student Mentoring

As many of you know, increased mentorship of our students by faculty has been my goal since I arrived. The challenges of providing individual attention on a campus of this size are substantial. However, students consistently rate individual contact with a faculty member, often through research experiences for no degree credit, as their most memorable academic experience. A task force of deans chaired by Dean Halperin recommended one pilot program. Other ideas must be out there on campus and we need to tap into them.

This year I am issuing a call for innovative ideas on mentorship from faculty. We need to tap the same exceptional creativity that brought us programs like College Park Scholars, Gemstone, and so many others, to create a freshman mentorship program. We might call it a "freshmentor program." Programs like Gemstone succeeded in part because they stepped out from traditional academic planning methods, brought together faculty and staff to create programs that work in different, enriched settings. I will commit the financial backing and the Presidential support needed to give a comprehensive mentorship program for freshmen every chance to succeed. The program must have faculty commitment to make it a success. Provost Destler and I will welcome the opportunity to work with you. I urge you to think creatively and let us consider your plans. We must take on the goal to provide mentorship for every freshman student who wants it.

Student Success

Over the past academic year former Provost Geoffroy chaired a committee that examined how our policies and counsel, indeed our campus culture, facilitated undergraduate student success. One key measure of success is the rate of graduation of full time students. Most agree that our graduation rate of 63% over six years is particularly low, especially in this period of increasing student qualification at admission, of increasing demand from applicants for admission and of increasing support from the state. The Geoffroy committee identified issues for attention and implemented a number of changes, like establishing, for the first time, a statement of expectation that our students will earn a degree in a timely manner. Still more needs to be done to turn our full attention to guiding, assisting, indeed expecting, academic success of our students. Provost Destler has taken on the leadership of this continuing campus-wide effort, and I urge support and participation of the faculty, staff and students in this effort.

Graduate Student Support

For many years, services provided to students have largely addressed undergraduate student needs. This year we are committed to working on graduate student needs and making improvement in the graduate student experience a priority. I have asked Interim Dean Liu to continue the work initiated last year by Provost Destler to recommend specific improvements in graduate student circumstances including increasing the stipend of teaching assistants, increasing the number of fellowships available, increasing services for graduate students and investigating housing opportunities for graduate students. In addition to the moral imperative of serving our graduate students equally, our self-interest also requires that the learning environment and experience of our graduate students need to become at least the equivalent to those of our peers. Great universities must be able recruit and serve top graduate students.

Civility and Sportsmanship

This is my fourth campus address and, to my surprise, the one recurring topic has been incivility. Over these three years, we've dealt with hate crimes, incidents of intolerance and acts of celebration that have led to personal threats, FBI investigations, violence, injury, lawsuits, property destruction, arrests and convictions. The incivility issues generated by hate incidents have largely been dealt with by campus action, enforcement of the human relations code and by law enforcement. After all, people who commit hate crimes are criminals and need to be dealt with accordingly. On that score there is no disagreement.

Though not as psychologically devastating, acts of unruly celebration have been more destructive in their extent and visibility, and certainly more difficult to deal with. People who participate in a celebration that gets out of control are - in their own minds - fans not criminals. They would say that they are normally well meaning, law-abiding celebrants who are doing what fans do. Some would even claim tradition as a basis for justifying their behavior, no matter how uncivil or lawless or destructive it may be. This civility problem is not ours alone. It is no comfort to realize that unsportsmanlike conduct exists at other universities and erupts around the world for that matter, from little league parents to soccer hooligans. We must deal with ourselves. Reasonable and practical steps need to be taken, and will be taken, to maintain civility around sporting events at an acceptable level.

To that end I appointed a Presidential Commission on Sports Civility that has been asked to provide the campus with a statement of principle on civility, review what has been done at other universities, and provide specific guidance on rules and policies to be implemented this year. Dr. Charles Wellford chairs the Commission and I asked for its report by the end of October. I have asked the commissioners to put on their broadest brim campus-wide hats as they consider recommendations that best serve the interests of the campus, its citizens, its alumni and the greater public beyond College Park. I invite the Senate as a whole, and you as individuals, to support and lead in the effort to set the right tone for sportsmanship and civility generally.

Opportunities

The Chinese character for crisis, or shall we say challenge, is the same as the character for opportunity. Only the context can distinguish the meaning of this character. And so along with challenges we also have opportunities to build even greater success. I will mention four residing at the top of my list: the Baltimore Incentive Awards Program, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the Facilities Master Plan, and International Programs.

Baltimore Incentive Awards Program

This Fall we are kicking off a new program, called the Baltimore Incentive Awards Program, that brings nine freshmen who have overcome especially disadvantageous circumstances from each of nine Baltimore high schools to the university on full-four year scholarships. The students, who are competitively selected for this program, will help us establish pipelines to these schools by returning each semester to connect with students and teachers. You may be interested to know that all of Baltimore public high schools sent a total of 44 freshmen to us this fall, up 10% over last year. Think about it.

On September 20, the first class of nine students will be presented to Baltimore at a fundraising dinner at the Marriott; the program is off and running. I offer great thanks to Ms. Jackie Wheeler, director of the program, and many others on campus for making this dream program happen. We will build on this promising start and I ask for your support.

Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

The Concert Hall at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

With the dedication of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the campus is blessed with a unique opportunity and an enormous responsibility. We have not yet begun to realize the impact of this Center on us. The uniqueness of the spaces, the quality of the architectural and technical designs and the attractiveness of the programming will ensure that this Center will be a magnet for students, faculty, performing artists and patrons alike.

The opening of the center will have a profound impact on the University and the surrounding region. It demands a quality standard in performing arts that has abruptly changed the expectations of everyone associated with it. The number and qualification of students applying here are increasing significantly and internationally acclaimed professionals want to perform here. The Clarice Smith Center becomes our unfair advantage in the performing arts, and I know that we will make the most of it. Patsy and I plan to attend as many events as possible. By the way she is co-chair of the gala and serves on the Center Board.

Facilities Master Plan

This year we are preparing the Facilities Master Plan for the campus for the period 2001 - 2020. The plan will be presented to the campus this fall for comment prior to its submission in the winter to the Regents. The plan will take seriously considerations of environment, green space, architectural beauty, vistas, transportation and preservation of the campus character while it identifies sites for development, parking, and expansion. I intend for the plan to offer a vision of a first-class campus of which we and the state will be increasingly proud. It will set a tone for the campus and surrounding area for the next two decades and provides us with a great opportunity that we will not miss.

International programs

International programs are central to our success, now and increasingly in the future. Whether we are thinking of the 3,500 international students, of the nearly 800 domestic students who study abroad each year, or of our partnerships with international organizations of all types and sizes, international is a profound part of our great university.

The most important issues of our time, like environmental preservation, human health, disease control, political freedom, human rights, economic development, national security and conflict resolution are international ones. And thanks to technology, virtually any business is a world business; nearly any issue can be a world issue. Certainly the world awaiting our students and the one benefiting from our research requires that we not only understand international issues but are also at ease in addressing them. More than ever before, international leadership is the role of a top-ranked research university in the world's most powerful nation.

The international activities of our faculty span the globe from the Middle East and Africa, to Central and South America, to Central, East and South East Asia. To illustrate the important role we play globally, I will mention briefly two of my personal conversations over the last year. In June I reviewed our College of Agriculture and Natural Resources' most distant extension office in Bukhara, Uzbekistan that is being sponsored by the U.S. State Department. President Karimov of Uzbekistan was effusive in his praise for this program and also pressing in his request that we help bring higher education and Western economy to his ten-year old republic. Last Fall President Chen of Taiwan asked me to consider building people-to-people communications across the Taiwan Strait to facilitate better understanding and the promotion of peace there. In short, the work of research universities cuts a wide swath through the global issues of our time.

Most of our students should have the opportunity for an international experience; we should help them arrange it and encourage them to take it. And we must not penalize them for taking it. I would also be pleased if our academic units become engaged in, even boastful about, their international programs that have great impact. In the longer term, we need to create an international center, a physical place that would be a focal point for educational and cultural programs, and for services provided to international students, visiting scholars and other international and domestic visitors.

Conclusion

We have much to celebrate and much to engage us. Our plate is full. I look forward to another wonderful year as we work together on our challenges and opportunities and continue to build successes. Our success enables us to transform lives and to bring unparalleled benefits to the citizens of the State. In short, success helps us to do the work a great university is meant to do.

Let me close by paraphrasing a quotation of Ralph Waldo Emerson: "To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into useful flame, to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy is the work of a great university."

Thank you for your polite attention.