University of Maryland Office of the President
Introduction
Executive Summary
Highlights of the Year
Measuring Up
UM's Performance
Competitive Environment
Closing the Gap
How Do We Stack Up
Recruiting and Retaining
Economic Impact
Funding Comparison
Making It
Quality and Access
The Path Forward
Going the Distance
Appendix A
Testimony PDF

   Making It into the Top Echelon

As our data show, the University has taken large leaps forward toward fulfilling the State's mandate to be among the best. What the data don't always reveal is that the best are not standing still. The Washingtonian article, "Move Over, UVA," gave Maryland the edge in many categories, including a big edge in science and an edge in social sciences, both areas that are the source of large amounts of federal research dollars and both areas that have impact on the economic and social programs of a state. We can be assured that the University of Virginia is working to strengthen these areas.

And in all other areas, major universities are competing vigorously for the edge.
  • They recruit and retain the best faculty.
  • They work with their states to build on research strengths and promote economic leadership through state-university collaborations like the North Carolina Research Triangle, the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor and the California Institutes for Science and Technology.
  • They seek strong and diverse student bodies.
  • They invest in academic programs that have national impact.

    The University of Maryland is closing the gap, but we must have the State's commitment to go the full distance. The comparison with our peers above allows us all to gauge our needs and to identify areas in which we fall short. If we are to be competitive in quality, we must be competitive in resources for faculty, for students, and for programs. Our gains are threatened by severe reductions in funding. We are now fighting to maintain the quality education we have pledged not to compromise.

    Let me give one illustration: We are proud of our nationally recognized enriched curricula for undergraduates, but we now have to fight just to maintain the number of seats in classes that students will need to complete their degrees. Because of budget cuts, an analysis in August predicted that a large number of seats in course offerings in Spring Semester would need to be eliminated. The Provost and the Deans worked very hard with their departments to restore these lost seats. Through the judicious allocation of budget assistance funds provided by the Provost, total undergraduate seats this Spring were down by only 1,016 (1%) when compared to Spring 2003. Colleges are reporting that they were only able to maintain their course offerings this year with the extra budget assistance.



Office of the President, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742