General Assembly Remarks
January 22, 2008
President Michael R. Lane
Emporia State University

 

Good Afternoon.

I am pleased to join you in welcoming our new faculty and staff.

The beginning of the spring semester always brings mixed emotions to me. Of course, it is the beginning of another semester with new classes, new students, and new opportunities. It is also accompanied by snow, cold weather, and an apparent disappearance of the sun for a couple of months. I know some of you are skiers or snowboarders and you look forward to this weather. I am a golfer, okay, not a very good golfer, but this is not my kind of weather . . .

The beginning of the second semester marks the half-way point of the academic year and I would like to give you an update of where we are now and share plans for the up coming months. There are so many important and great things going on at ESU, it is difficult to know where to start. However, I will give it my best.

Of course, our primary focus at ESU is the education of our students. As always, I want to thank you, our faculty and our staff for the outstanding job you do every day educating our students!

Here are a few of the other ongoing activities:

Strategic planning is progressing well with the work groups addressing the critical issues of the future of ESU.

The Dean search in the School of Business is progressing and we hope to conclude this search in February or March.

Now we must begin the process of searching for a new Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Before I continue, I want to thank Dr. Schwenn for his service to ESU. He has been at the university since August 1989 and has served in several capacities, none more important than the position of Interim President from May 2006 – October 2006. I thank John for the outstanding job he did during that period. Most of you know John as our Vice President for Academic Affairs, a position he assumed in October 1997. He has provided outstanding leadership to academic affairs at ESU and is responsible for working with faculty to create the outstanding quality programs we have today.

As you know Dr. Schwenn was named President of Dalton State College effective March 1, 2008. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Schwenn on his new position and thanking him for his service to ESU. Thank you!

Today I want to talk about two things. First, I want to highlight some of the many accomplishments of faculty, staff, students, and alumni during the last half of 2007. Second, I want to discuss the next major stage of life at ESU, a time of change!

As we embark on a new future, it is important that we continue to take a few moments to reflect and celebrate accomplishments from the last half of 2007. As always, the list of accomplishments provided by each vice president was impressive and, of course, in the interest of time I’ve selected some of the most outstanding accomplishments to share with you.

Administration & Fiscal Affairs

Facilities
  • Initiation of the Deferred Maintenance Program approved by 2007 Legislature.
    • Getting preliminary projects approved by Joint Building Committee.
    • Awarding bids for HPER roof.
    • Contracts awarded for engineering work underlying several projects
  • Progress on Memorial Union renovation.
    • Preparing preliminary plan.
    • Obtaining Regents approval to proceed with Preliminary and Final Architectural Planning.
  • Modifications to William Allen White Library to accommodate University Archives.
    • Allows sale of Anderson Library, should a buyer appear.
  • Completion of TCS frontline functions to a storefront area in lower level of Butcher Education Center.

Fiscal Affairs

  • Continued refinement of the Banner system.
    • All staff successfully paid on mid-September payroll.
      • Significant because it is one of the largest payrolls of the year, involving all staff/faculty.
    • New reports developed for campus community in Finance and H.R. pay.
  • Development (pending Budget Committee and KBOR approval) of innovative improvement to fee payment procedures, streamlining what is now the Deferment and Student Loan Process.
  • Selecting a new Director of Human Resources.

University Advancement/Foundation

  • Established online giving option complete with a button on the home page of the ESU website.
  • Implemented new Planned Giving pages on the University Advancement website.
  • Noteworthy growth of the START program (Students Through Alumni Recruitment Teams) across the state.
  • Coordinated a successful Bonner & Bonner Diversity Lecture Series in September, hosting Minnijean Brown Trickey, a member of the Little Rock Nine. Ms. Trickey addressed our ESU and Emporia community just days before the nation reflected on the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock High School.
  • Completed the $15 million scholarship campaign and held a celebration event thanking donors during Homecoming 2007.
  • Instituted the Lyman B. Kellogg Society to recognize individuals who have given a planned gift to the university.
  • Established the Black & Gold Society, a presidential membership organization to support a scholars program and groundbreaking initiatives.
  • Received the largest single gift in ESU history - $1.8 million - from the estate of Martha Kruse Furbur.
  • Won Bronze Awards for three publications from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Liberal Arts and Sciences

  • Department of Communication and Theatre:
    • ESU’s Debate Squad is continuing its streak of successful debates against strong competition with winning results. All members of the team have achieved varsity level at one tournament and have won at least one round as well. The team of Kelly Thompson and Kurt Fifelski made it to Octafinals at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas tournament, making them one of the top sixteen teams out of over 80 teams nationwide. On October 15, the debate squad hosted an international debate with two British debaters who were touring the United States.
    • Kenna Reeves has been named a Master Teacher.
  • Department of Sociology and Anthropology:
    • Dr. Gary Wyatt has a new book, “Family Ties: Relationships, Socialization, and Home Schooling” University Press of America.
  • In the Department of Math, Computer Science and Economics:
    • The Departments of Biological Sciences, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Economics, and Physical Sciences have developed an outreach program for Hispanic youth. Si Se Puede is a program to encourage 5th and 6th grade students to continue their interest and participation in science and mathematics.
    • Dr. Betsy Yanik was chosen by the Mathematical Association of America to serve on the national Strategic Planning Group for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
    • Dr. Joe Yanik joined a national interdisciplinary group focused on resources for students learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
    • Emporia State University was one of fifteen universities selected by the AASCU's American Democracy Project to participate in the Deliberative Polling Project.
    • Kappa Mu Epsilon sponsored a "Math Jeopardy" contest for new mathematics majors.
  • From the Department of Music:
    • Dr. Terry Barham was awarded the Harry Robert Wilson Award for lifetime service to the choral art by the Kansas American Choral Directors Association.
    • Yaokun Yang, MM - Performance, was awarded first place in the Graduate Division at the Collegiate Piano State Competition.
    • Feifei Jiang, MM - Performance, was awarded second place in the same competition.
  • In the Departments of Physical Sciences:
    • Rachael Lane, junior chemistry major, was one of just 29 students nationally to receive a Greater Research Opportunity Fellowship from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This award provides up to $17,000 per year for two years of educational expenses, a $500 per month stipend, and a paid summer internship at an EPA laboratory. In addition, the EPA has provided funding for Rachael to conduct a two-year research project at ESU. See her faculty sponsor, Dr. Jim Roach, associate professor of chemistry for Rachel’s project title.
    • Dr. Eric Trump, associate professor, chemistry, is the President of the Kansas Academy of Science. ESU will also be the host for the 139th annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science, March 28 and 29, 2008.

ESU Library and Archives

  • Archivist, Heather Wade's exhibit, “Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings: The Drawings that Produced the Book that Inspired Nancy Schön’s Sculpture in the Boston Public Garden,” ran at the Boston Public Library from September 6-October 12, 2007. The exhibit featured 15 items from ESU's prestigious May Massee Collection.
  • Cynthia Akers accomplishments
    • One of two Roundtable representatives on the American Library Association Conference Planning Coordinating Team, 2008. This committee oversees the organization of conference programs to be presented at the ALA Annual Conference, 2008, Anaheim, CA.
    • Named to the State Librarian's Interlibrary Loan Development Program (ILDP) Task Force, 2008.
    • Third term as a member of the 2008 Kansas Notable Books Committee.

School of Business

  • Dr. William Smith assisted in formal creation of the 22- county Flint Hills Tourism Coalition, Inc. and was elected the Coalitions first president through the 2008 calendar year. This group has been recognized by Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Kansas Travel and Tourism as the marketing organization for promoting the Kansas Flint Hills as a tourism destination.
  • The ESU Center for Business and Economic Development conducted 10 monthly workshops in partnership with the FHTC (Flint Hills Tourism Coalition) during 2007.
  • Dr. Smith was a speaker at the October 2007 Kansas Flint Hills Heritage Conference in Cottonwood Falls sponsored by the FHTC (Flint Hills Tourism Coalition) Heritage Task Force.
  • Students in the Business Policy class achieved an institutional average score in the 85th percentile nationally on the Major Field Test in Business.
  • An Emporia State University chapter of Beta Alpha Psi was chartered in the School of Business in the fall. Beta Alpha Psi is a national honorary organization at AACSB accredited institutions recognizing outstanding academic achievement of accounting, finance, and information systems students

Teachers College

Alums:
  • Jill Augustyn, Tamara Cassidy, Kristen Healy Crank, Shane Heiman, Derrick Richling, Erin Nichols and Jennifer Schmidt were selected as Horizon Award winners by Kansas State Department of Education. The award recognizes exemplary first-year teachers, and we’re proud that seven of this year’s 32 Horizon Award winners are Emporia State grads!
  • Max Heinrichs - Kansas Assistant Principal of the Year
  • Jamelle McConnell-Brown and Eric Kessler: Milken Award Winners
  • Tristen Wendland was named the National Rehabilitation Counselor of the Year by the Veterans Administration

Students:

  • Steve Harmon and Sandra Valenti: one of 3 finalist teams in the Association for Education Communication and Technology Pacificorp competition.

Departments/Programs:

  • HPER has established relationships with two corporations: Trikke and Garmin - both of these have resulted in significant equipment contributions to the department. We are contributing health and fitness research to the two corporations as part of the collaborative relationship.
  • Teacher preparation at ESU selected by the George Lucas Foundation as one of ten Schools of Education in the nation that will change the way we teach. Edutopia Magazine (November/December issue) summarized our program.
  • The adaptive special education program received a Kansas Board of Regents grant to hire two additional full-time faculty members to prepare additional special education teachers for the state of Kansas.
  • Saleem Sehlaoui and Nancy Albrecht received a US Department of Education grant to train additional ESL teachers.
  • Gaelynn Wolf-Bordenaro was elected to the American Art Therapy Association Board of Directors.

School of Library and Information Management

  • SLIM Ph.D. students Jody Howard and Nance Nassar, School Library Senior Consultant at the Colorado State Library, were recently notified that they were the recipients of a $25,553 grant titled, Celebrate a Winning Team: Principals and School Librarians, Ingredients for Increased Student Achievement! Jody has been designated as the grant coordinator.
  • Professor Herbert Achleitner and Dean Gwen Alexander participated in the Information Literacy and Life-Long Learning Conference in Belgrade, Serbia.
  • The first EDI Leadership Institute was held on the ESU campus, Oct. 18-19, 2007. It brought together 30 EDI students and their librarian and faculty mentors from Kansas, Colorado and Oregon.

Intercollegiate Athletics

  • Volleyball qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years.
  • It was announced that the 2007 softball team finished with the second highest team GPA in the country at 3.631.
  • Senior Jonel Rossbach earned All-American honors in cross country for the second straight year.
  • The year 2007 ended with ESU being the only D-II institution in the nation to have women's basketball, men's basketball, volleyball, and baseball all ranked in their respective national top 25 polls.

Division of Student Affairs

  • Admissions, Financial Aid and ESU Foundation collaborated on the creation of a new Hornet Scholarship Program. This should allow us to be much more competitive in student recruitment.
  • Reviewed and revised all Welcome Week activities creating a new program to further facilitate new student transitions.
  • Began process of coordinating Banner Operations Group.
  • Finalized revision of the Student Code of Conduct.
  • Implemented several first year programs related to at risk students including the EDGE Program, Student Success Program and First Year Hall.
  • In collaboration with Fiscal Affairs finalized all necessary documentation for Memorial Union Renovation Request for Proposal to Kansas Legislature.

From the Office of the President

  • I recently completed work on the Legislature’s Interim Advisory Committee on Math and Science Education.
  • I will continue my visits to each department on campus. I hope to get to all remaining departments (academic and administrative) this academic year.
  • I will continue “Pizza with the Prez” meetings with students representing the various segments of the student body. These meetings have produced lively and thought provoking conversations.
  • I will continue to meet with small and diverse groups of faculty members (approximately 10 faculty members per meeting) to help me learn about the things you are working on and to provide an opportunity for meaningful discussions.

We continue to do great things and we should all be proud of these accomplishments as well as all of those which I was unable to include.

Change, Change, and More Change!
I would like to spend a few minutes reviewing plans for the interim period as we search for a new vice president. I will also give a brief overview of the search and finally outline some of the administrative changes I will be implementing as we restructure the responsibilities of two vice presidents.

Interim:
I have asked Dr. Rod Sobieski, former dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to serve as an interim Vice President for Academic Affairs. I am pleased to announce that Rod has agreed to serve but he is not available on a full-time basis. Rod will handle all personnel matters in Academic Affairs.

Since Dr. Sobieski is not available full-time, I have asked Dr. Betsy Yanik to step out of her teaching responsibilities for the semester and assume the role of Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and I am pleased to announce that she has agreed. Betsy will assume the position of Co-Chair of the Strategic Planning Task Force.

I will be working with Dr. Sobieski and Dr. Yanik to create a structure and working relationship that will carry us through the search process. In the next couple of weeks we will define the responsibilities of each of them for the interim period.

During the interim, I will meet with the deans once each month at one of their regularly scheduled meetings. I will also meet once each month with representatives of the faculty leadership, Dr. Harvey Foyle and Dr. Amy Sage Webb. Once we have finalized the responsibilities for Dr. Yanik and Dr. Sobieski and have determined Dr. Sobieski’s campus schedule, we will let you know.

Search Process:
The search for a new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs will commence immediately. I have drafted a revised position description and an advertisement that I will give to the Search Committee for review when we meet.

I have worked with the vice presidents, the deans and with Faculty senate leadership to develop a Search Committee as follows:

Search Committee for the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs:

Dr. James Williams, Chair, representing student affairs
Dr. Harvey Foyle, representing the Faculty Senate
Ms. Diana Kuhlman, representing Administration and Finance
Ms. Mary Conley, representing the Classified Staff
Dr. Gary Wyatt, representing the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Dr. Zeni Colorado, representing the Teachers College
Dr. Barry Smith, representing the School of Business
Dr. Lynne Chase, representing SLIM
Ms. Cynthia Akers, representing the library
Ms. Alli Jordan, a freshman in secondary English education, and
Mr. Matt Marasco, a senior health promotion major, student representatives

The committee will be charged to present 3-4 finalists for my consideration with a list of strengths and weaknesses for each. I expect to be able to attract a high-quality individual to begin at ESU in mid June to early July.

I did consider the use of a search firm but decided at this point to save the money and assess the applicant pool after a few weeks. If the pool is not sufficiently large or strong, I will revisit the possibility of a search firm to assist in the search.

Reorganization:
As I mentioned in my comments in August, I was looking at some areas for reorganization. There are several reasons for looking at making the changes.

  • Data needs
  • Consistency in marketing processes
  • Critical nature of retention and graduation rates
  • The need to develop greater and deeper partnerships

The first title change will be that of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The first significant structural change is the creation of a Division of Enrollment Management. This new division will be headed by an associate provost for enrollment management and will report to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The division will include individuals from the following existing units:

  • Admissions
  • Financial Aid
  • Registrar
  • Advising
  • Graduate Programs
  • Lifelong Learning (Off-site and Distance Education)
  • International Programs

This will create a university with one front door through which all students enter. It will standardize data collection and ensure that the data structures are sufficient for making good decisions for the University.

Since we do not currently have the new Provost and VPAA on staff, I have asked Dr. Williams to manage the transition of these departments into the new Division of Enrollment Management. He and I will be working with current department heads to determine the best reporting lines and locations for staff members in the new division. This process will begin on February 1, 2008. Earlier today I met with the staffs from each of these departments. I know there is some trepidation and uncertainty. We will identify the new structure as quickly as we can without disrupting the important work ongoing in each of these important departments.

As a result of the change in duties and responsibilities of the new Associate Provost, we do plan to continue the position of Faculty Intern in the provost’s office.

The change in the name of the current Lifelong Learning unit to Off-site and Distance Education is being done for two reasons. First, this name reflects the actual work that is being done in the division. It also removes confusion on the part of those outside the University who believe this is the unit that handles non-credit programs (which they do not other than the Elderhostel).

It is often said that if everybody is responsible for a goal, then nobody is responsible. As we sit today we are not overly strong across this institution in the area of partnerships. There are clearly some areas of significant strength. There are also many opportunities for expansion in this area. As a result, the final area of change is in the title and duties of Dr. Williams. His title will change to Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Student Life. He will pick up responsibility for working with the deans, the faculty, the business community, the region, and, as necessary, other educational institutions to develop and manage strategic partnerships. Expansion of these partnerships should increase our ability to accomplish many goals as we move through the next decade. These duties will begin as soon as we bring the new provost on board.

I want to thank the vice presidents, the administrative team, the deans, Faculty Senate leadership, and Classified Assembly leadership for acting as sounding boards for various parts of this plan. I am particularly pleased with those who encouraged the changes despite the fact that it would cause significant changes in their responsibilities and span of control.

Change is a difficult process. I am moving forward with these changes to accomplish some institutional goals, increased enrollment, increased retention rates, increased graduation rates, increased international enrollment, improved orientation and advising for international students, and increased partnerships.

As with all changes, the structure and responsibilities may change if they do not work. The process needs to be adaptable to ensure we get the improvements we want and need. We are entering a critical phase for the University. I am sure each of us will have to do a little more over the next four or five months as we seek a new academic leader.

As I conclude, I want once again to wish Dr. Schwenn the best in his presidency. We will have a campus reception to celebrate his service to ESU on Monday, February 18 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Sauder Alumni Center.

The challenges remain! Strategic planning must continue. The excellent teaching and learning that we are so well known for must continue. We must move toward our future which I believe is bright. Remember, it is each of you who make ESU the great and wonderful place it is! Keep up the great work!

Please join us in the rotunda for cookies and punch. Thank you and have a wonderful spring semester!