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PARTNERS ARE ESSENTIAL
Only by four partners working together can we ensure both greatness and affordability at the University of Maryland. The partners are: (1) the College Park campus, (2) the Regents and the University System, (3) the State of Maryland, and (4) the alumni and friends of the University. Without the four-way partnership the University will never accomplish the State's promise. None of the partners can do it alone. This past year has been one when the partners' dedication to excellence and affordability has pushed the University to new heights.
PROGRESS TOWARDS THE GOALS
Competitiveness Rankings. This year U.S. News & World Report ranked 61 UM programs among the top-15 nationally, a significant jump from 51 in 2005 and 45 in 2004. The principal world ranking system, the global version of U.S. News & World Report, is the Shanghai Jiao Tong Top 500. It ranks UM 37th in the world among all universities (up from 47th last year), 28th in the U.S. (up from 35th last year), and 12th among U.S. public universities. These rankings reflect the excellence of our faculty and students, our research programs, and our contributions to the State, the nation and the world.
A new ranking system based on faculty productivity unveiled by Academic Analytics this year was detailed in The Chronicle of Higher Education. 7,300 programs in 104 disciplines at 354 institutions were ranked. Three disciplines at UM are ranked #1 among all universities in the nation: Nuclear Engineering, Linguistics and Criminology & Justice Studies, and one-third of UM programs were ranked top-10. The University of Maryland, College Park, was ranked 12th among public universities and 31st overall.
AFFORDABLE ACCESS
We are making a UM education affordable to all qualified students in the State of Maryland. It will be fulfilled only with the help of our partners. Let me describe some of our support programs:
 Rankings. This year UM ascends to No. 15 on the list of “50 Best Values in Public Colleges” compiled by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, up three places from last year. In a secondary ranking, “best value for public universities for students from out-of-state,” UM rose from No. 20 to 13.
Turtle Auction Benefits Scholarship
Aid. One of the highlights of the 150th celebration was the auction of 50 hand-painted Terrapin Turtle statues, which were exhibited for six months on campus and around the State, to support scholarships. The auction in October raised more than $300,000. Many of the purchased turtles were donated back to the University because they had become so popular on campus.
Need-based aid is a high priority for the University of Maryland. Excluding athletic scholarships 43% of our aid was need-based in 2006. The amount of need-based aid has increased nearly 50% since 2003.
Maryland Pathways Program
 Pathways I provides a debt-free graduation opportunity for students from poverty-level circumstances. The program covers tuition and fees plus room and board for four years, and currently serves 382 students from families with incomes less than $24,000; median family income: $14,761.
Pathways II ensures that students who work will not lose Pell grant support because of their earnings. The University replaces a Pell grant loss, because the student works, with scholarships. Median family income of this group is $43,524.
Pathways III caps the accumulated debt at $15,900 for rising UM seniors who started as freshmen and are from moderate income families: the median family income is $56,150. The support includes the cost of tuition, fees, room, board and books for one year.
Pathways IV is now being developed to aid high performing transfer students with greatest need.
Transfer Advantage
This fall UM welcomed 55 students into the Transfer Advantage program that facilitates transfer from community colleges to College Park. The program conditionally admits strong students for transfer to UM at the time that they matriculate at the community college. MOU's have been signed with Prince George's Community College, Montgomery College, Anne Arundel Community College and the College of Southern Maryland. The program provides the students with mentorship and opportunities to take course work at College Park while they attend community college.
Hillman Entrepreneurs Program. The new Hillman Entrepreneurs Program highlights innovation and entrepreneurship. Targeting students at Prince George's Community College who will transfer to College Park, it provides significant scholarship assistance, special course work in entrepreneurship and extra-curricular programs. Twenty-one students were chosen this year to begin the four-year pilot program that cultivates their entrepreneurial skills and spirit. The program was funded by $1.7 million from the David H. and Suzanne D. Hillman Family Foundation.
Maryland Incentive Awards. Providing full tuition and fees plus room and board, academic support, and mentoring for students who have overcome severely adverse life circumstances, the Awards expanded this year to five public high schools in Prince George's County. The program now provides life-changing opportunities to students from 14 public high schools: five in Prince George's County and nine in Baltimore City. The Prince George's County Council generously awarded the program $500,000 this year, and a new Wachovia Bank partnership of $150,000 will support two full scholarships for Prince George's County students.
Great Expectations. Philanthropic gifts and pledges to the University totaled $130 million in FY06. The Campaign for Maryland has already raised $100 million for financial aid and seeks a total of $350 million to help students finance their UM educations. The Campaign goal is $1 billion over seven years.
Limiting Student Debt. Concern for student debt at graduation is a key measure of affordability. The 2006 report, Project on Student Debt, ranked all U.S. states on the amount of student debt at graduation in 2005. With "1" as the largest amount of debt and "50" as the lowest, State of Maryland graduates were ranked 47th in debt owed, and the debt of campus graduates ($14,000) fell below the state average. The UM debt at graduation is $1,800 below the average graduation debt of its peer institutions. The average debt at graduation has not risen since 2001. The current average debt at graduation for the 2002 freshmen cohort is $13,300.
In 2006 the University spent more than $74 million to employ students: 6,500 undergraduates and 4,800 graduate students. An additional $54 million was spent on graduate student fellowships, tuition remission and health insurance, and $77 million on undergraduate scholarships and grants. Of this $205 million total support, the University funded $104 million and leveraged $101 million in outside funds from state and federal agencies, private sources, and University auxiliary departments to financially support our students.
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