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General Assembly Remarks
Welcome to the fall 2009 General Assembly! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and you are excited to begin a new year and ready to tackle some ongoing challenges! Teachers College Dr. Dee Holmes received the Distinguished Clinician Award from the Association of Teacher Educators. The Elementary Education Reading Program and Drs. Jean Morrow, Gerry Coffman and Beth Dobler, received the Certificate of Distinction from The International Reading Association. Libraries and Archives Athletics ESU had 14 student-athletes earn All-American honors in seven sports in 2008-09. (not academic) ESU had seven student-athletes earn ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Honors during 2008-09. ESU Baseball team participated, for the first time in Hornet history, in NCAA Division II Baseball National Championship, finishing second in the country. It was the Hornets second trip to the “World Series” in four years. School of Business The Beta Alpha Psi Team won first place in Best Practices at the Missouri Valley Region competition in Omaha, NE. The team, Beau Bemis, Robert Carr and Wanjin Xie, will represent the region in the national competition at the Beta Alpha Psi annual meeting this month in Brooklyn, NY. Accounting graduate Maj. Rapheal (Joey) Hamilton was one of ten candidates earning the highest scores on the CPA exam. University Advancement/ESU Foundation The student Call Center raised more than $300,000, breaking previous fall and spring call records. The “Grow Your Vision” faculty/staff fundraising campaign realized a 50% increase over goal. The division received a CASE District VI Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for writing and alumni programming. SLIM Students in three classes were part of SLIM’s Furbur Service Learning Initiative traveled to Mexico, Bulgaria, and Paraguay to participate in volunteer projects and learn about the global information infrastructure. A new Master of Library Science cohort has been started in Overland Park. Liberal Arts and Sciences Emporia State University was chosen as the outstanding America's Future Award winning campus for its participation in the American Democracy Project. The twelve-student effort was led by Rob Catlett, assistant professor of economics. The students are: Christopher Then, Andrew Dorpinghaus, Kathryn Davison, Katie McClain, Miranda Renfro, Jordan Heins, Shehwan Park, Justin Miser, Huibing Lu, Saehwan Park, Jane Welch and Shannon Kloiber. Art Ashley Czajkowski (photography) and Ashton Ludden (Engraving Arts) were the only undergraduate students to receive the 2009 Kansas Emerging Artists Awards from the Kansas Arts Commission. Larry Schwarm’s work was published in the prestigious journal Art in America and in a National Geographic book of international landscape photography. Dan Kirchhefer received the Donor Award in the Northern National Art Competition juried exhibition in Wisconsin and the Purchase Award in the “Secrets and Lies” International Juried Artist Books Exhibition in Oregon.
Biology Dr. Scott Crupper received a $195,000 grant from the NIH National Cancer Institute to study secondary metabolite production in Sporangium cellulosum. Dr. Marshall Sundberg was honored to be a 2009 recipient of the Botanical Society of America Merit Award “For Outstanding Contributions to the Botanical Sciences.” Communication and Theatre English, Modern Languages and Journalism Three student English majors have published in national literary journals. Math, Computer Science and Economics A team of three students shared a three-way tie for first place with teams from KSU and KU at the Kansas Collegiate Mathematics Competition. Team members were Le Zhang, physical science major from Xi’an, China; Jin Liang, mathematics major from Guangzhou, China; and Jing Long, mathematics major from Shenzhen, China. Music Nursing Faculty completed the process for continued accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission and continued approval from the Kansas State Board of Nursing. Physical Sciences Courtney Knaup (BS, physics, May 2009) is one of two students accepted from over 100 applicants to the Ph.D. program in Radiological Sciences at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center. He was also the only recipient of a 2009-2011 American Association of Physicists in Medicine Graduate Fellowship in Medical Physics. An ESU proposal for “Enhancing the Biosciences at Emporia State University” resulted in a $190,000 award from the federal Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education. Funding will enable the furnishing of a laboratory for an advanced biotechnology laboratory course, and upgrade of some chemical instrumentation. Social Sciences Sociology, Anthropology, and Crime and Delinquency Studies Dr. Brice Obermeyer published the book Delaware Tribe in a Cherokee Nation Administration and Fiscal Affairs Deferred Maintenance Projects in William Allen White Library, Roosevelt Hall, King Hall and Kellogg Circle are drawing to a close. All of these projects involving update to HVAC and Electrical Systems will not only make the interior environment more comfortable but will also result in energy savings. The Design Development Phase for the Memorial Union renovation has been completed. Regents approval of a multi-year fee increase has been secured along with student referendum obtaining Regents approval to proceed with preliminary and final architectural planning. Fiscal Affairs Public Affairs and Marketing Roe R. Cross Distinguished Professor photos hung in Plumb Hall, east wing, first and second floors. TCS Negotiation and procurement of Symantec anti-virus solution with generous licensing terms - available FREE to all faculty, staff, and students - for university-owned AND personal/home workstations. Identification and procurement of Adobe Connect Pro as our new web conferencing software for online courses and web conferences/seminars. Upgrade of all Banner modules and the BuzzIn Portal to latest releases, keeping ESU in the forefront of mid-western institutions (some much larger) that utilize Banner. Involved functional representatives from across the institution. Faculty Senate Last year the Faculty Senate generated 22 bills, 4 reports, and 7 resolutions. Notable among the work of the year was the complexity of many of the issues addressed, and the collegiality of the faculty in updating and writing policies that would have a broad impact. Many of the bills passed by the Senate responded to needs for alignment with KBOR policy, and to audits. Two of the bills were related to campus security The most challenging policies of all were the: Faculty rose to the challenge of working long and hard and collaboratively, with each other and with administration, and the result is a sense of shared accomplishment and a slate of solid policies that will be beneficial for all. Congratulations to each of these groups and individuals. Remember to take time during the year to celebrate your successes and your accomplishments. Overview I will begin with a summary of our current budget position, an issue which I know is important to everybody in the room. I caution you that this is the situation as it exists today. Further budget actions from the Governor might impact these numbers. The climate for higher education has undergone some extraordinary changes in the last eighteen months. Beginning with the signing of the Higher Education Opportunity Act by President Bush, through the national recession and the impact this economic situation is having on businesses and students, we must look at the world differently! Hence, I will spend some time talking about opportunities we must pursue. Budget:
Now before we start pointing fingers at Admissions, you need to understand the numbers. The Admissions Office is responsible for new start students and transfer students. Here are the numbers
So our decline is in returning students and graduate students!
Thank you to each department and to each person who does what they can each day to keep costs under control. If you have not given this much thought, we ask that you consider what you can do as an individual and as a department to reduce costs. This takes all of us. For example, if each of us remembers to turn off our lights and computers and think about the thermostat setting when we leave our offices, it can and will make a difference. I’m sure you are already doing these things and others and we appreciate your efforts. One last note about the budget, we are not like a business. We do not have the ability to move monies around where ever we wish. Money we get from the State and money we collect from students for specific purposes must be used for those purposes. Let me give you two examples. I was asked yesterday “why are we spending all that money on the Kellogg Circle drive when we have reduced faculty and staff positions?” Answer – The moneys used to repair the Kellogg Circle is from our State Appropriation for Rehabilitation and Repair and can only be spent on projects which have been approved for use of that funding. Strategic Plan Update: Clearly we have already made progress on the plan. One very visible item is campus signage which is going up, and will provide much needed information for visitors. I hope you have noticed there are building signs as well as “way-finding” signs. Building signs will eventually be on both sides of campus buildings. The signs are created and installed by the facilities department. There are also several other items accomplished last year that make progress on the Plan such as: Objective 1.2.2 – a committee has just delivered recommendations for streamlining the curriculum review process to the provost As you can see, even though the implementation teams have not yet completed their recommendations, we are moving forward with putting elements of the plan into action. Progress on the Memorial Union renovation continues. We have had the 100% meeting with the architect, which means that the spaces are defined and they will begin to work on drawings for use by the contractors in the renovation. We are still on schedule for a spring ground breaking event. Copies of the published Strategic Plan will be available at the back of the hall at the end of my remarks. The entire plan is also available on-line at New directions, new opportunities, new imperatives As I look at our enrollment trends WE MUST DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND WE MUST DO DIFFERENT THINGS! Beyond our core mission, what are our goals? What are the primary obstacles? Where will we get this money? ESU Foundation or external grants? More students? How do we grow the enrollment at ESU? We must offer courses in the locations, delivery modalities, and times that will attract students. Our course offerings cannot continue to look solely like a traditional undergraduate residential campus. How will we do this? We have made some progress, but not nearly enough and not nearly fast enough! As a result, we have prepared a “Request for Proposal (RFP)” to get some expert help in these areas. The RFP seeks assessment of our recruitment and admissions processes (including the role of departments, faculty members, students, and alumni). We are seeking assessment of our scholarship programs. We are seeking current methods of recruitment to meet the needs of prospective students (implementing technology to communicate with students, creating prospective student landing pages, etc.). We are also seeking training for faculty and staff on current methods of recruitment and retention of students. We have learned from many conversations with prospective students (often non-traditional) from metro Kansas City; they do not want to come to Emporia to earn a degree. Costs of relocation, family obligations and job obligations are three of the most commonly stated reasons. That leaves a couple of options, but only one feasible option. In order to meet the basic requirements of these prospective students we must put all our General Education courses on-line. I know some of you do not support this position. But let me ask you a question. Should we do this and control the quality or should we give the students and their tuition dollars to the University Phoenix or other for-profit proprietary institutions at other quality levels? We brag about quality teaching at ESU. It is time to step forward and demonstrate this ability in every teaching modality! On-line education is not a fad it is an imperative! And please remember that the Associate Provost’s office through Distance Education supports the development and first delivery of an on-line course with a $2100.00 stipend. Our new Strategic Plan lays the groundwork for a spirit of entrepreneurial thinking and acting. According to Onuoha as published in “Entrepreneurship” AIST International Journal, “Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations or revitalizing mature organizations, … generally in response to identified opportunities.” Other definitions include concepts like willingness to take risks. For ESU to survive and to grow, and hence to fund those things we wish to fund, we must think and act differently. General education on-line is an opportunity! We had a great example of another kind of entrepreneurship at ESU. As we approached the budget process this year, one program sent forward a proposal. In short the proposal was as follows: The department faculty members teach non-credit classes and rather than getting paid, they deposit the funds in the department to support faculty. The department volunteered to fund a part-time faculty position from this fund if we would be willing to share the tuition with them. We agreed to share tuition collected from students in that class on a 50:50 basis. This will help the department build a fund to continue this program into the future. I realize that every department does not have these kinds of funds. So we are developing a couple of concepts. First, Dr. Williams will be working with the deans and me to create a non-credit revenue sharing model for departments willing to participate. Specifics will follow at a later date. Since this will take time, we are establishing a small loan fund to begin to support entrepreneurial activities such as those described above. This is an idea that came from the Administrative retreat just twelve days ago, so the details are not yet ready. However, this will provide opportunities to begin to think creatively. Projects considered for this fund will have to result in specifically identifiable increased revenue in order to determine revenue sharing for purposes of repayment of the loan and building departmental funds. Today I am committing $50,000 of one-time funds to begin this program. We will distribute the requirements to you as soon as possible so you can begin to look at opportunities beginning in the spring 2010. One requirement which will be included is recommendation of projects by the appropriate dean. If we are to increase student enrollment in order to gain the resources we need to accomplish the goals I outlined earlier, we have few choices. We will continue to recruit on-campus students, but the pool is shrinking. We will continue to expand our international enrollments, but there is a practical limit to the number we can effectively serve. So, what else are we considering? We are currently in the process of investigating several possibilities in China. We are looking at placing an Intensive English Program in China. We are also exploring connecting with AASCU for additional 1:2:1 Programs. Finally, we are exploring offering selective graduate degrees to students in China using varied means of delivery including summer face to face. Future expansion beyond this must come from meeting the demands of the U.S. student market and that is on-line. We can stand on the sidelines and watch others succeed in this market or we can participate and raise the quality bar in on-line education. Two thoughts occur to me. First, it is easy to teach bright students. They want to learn and they know how to learn. It takes great teachers to teach less well-prepared students and we have that ability at ESU! In the most recent Senior Survey (May 2009!) when asked if “the student’s department was characterized by mutual respect between undergraduate majors and professors,” 97% of the responding seniors answered in the positive. As you will recall from my January remarks, we need to see these same results among freshmen. Second, since we are an outstanding teaching institution, we should be leading the way in all modalities of teaching. I am proud of the fact that our IDT faculty has offered summer seminars to help with on-line teaching the last two summers and we have had excellent participation. We have several programs on-line now and it is time to expand to include the traditional areas of education so we can lead and not be late arrivals. I know we have the ability to do these things and I promise we will work hard to reward those who accomplish these imperatives. If we succeed the results follow. Let’s keep the goals in mind:
So, I leave it with you. Do we continue to do the same things over and over and expect a different result? Or do we seek new opportunities and imperatives? It is going to be a challenging year, but we have excellent faculty, exceptionally supportive staff, and students who are excited about being at ESU! We can pull together not just to survive, but together we can position ESU for a prosperous future! Thank you for your attention and have a great semester!
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