Office of the Chancellor
STATE OF THE CAMPUS - FALL 2007
State of the Campus Address
PATRICIA A. SULLIVAN, CHANCELLOR
The 115th opening convocation of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
August 15, 2007
Welcome to the 116th opening convocation of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Convocation is an event I always enjoy — it is wonderful to see all of you again. I look forward to the opportunity of meeting new faculty and staff, and welcoming everyone back into the folds of the UNCG family.
For me personally, a highlight of 2006-07 was hearing Nicole Steele, senior class speaker for the May commencement, asking our new graduates to “Inspire. Change.” While speaking to her fellow graduates she said, “You don’t have to change the world in one day; all you have to do is recognize the need for change and inspire others to do the same. If you remember one thing from your collegiate years, remember always … ‘Inspire. Change.’” It was thrilling to hear a student express her hopes for the future with our tagline!
Nicole shows us that we are making important connections with our students. With all of your diverse roles and responsibilities, you are putting students first. I encourage you to continue your good work and always remember that you are making an impact. Take pride in the fact that UNCG is creating an environment in which students are inspired to create meaningful change — here on campus and as they enter our communities and workforce.
Our goal is to realize the vision of the UNCG Plan, which is to become a diverse, student-centered, public high-research university, linking the Triad and North Carolina to the world through learning, discovery, and service. I will concentrate on the highlights of this past year and share with you my thoughts for our future.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, David Perrin. Dave joins us as the former dean of the School of Health and Human Performance, where he did an outstanding job of leading his faculty and staff. We look forward to hearing Dave’s vision for our future, and I know you are pleased that he was chosen from within to be the new academic leader of our university.
For the 2007-08 academic year we have more than 130 new full-time faculty members. Of this number, 12 are tenured faculty members, 39 are faculty on tenure-track, and more than 80 are full-time faculty in other categories. UNCG is known for its diversity in student enrollment, and we strive to attract diversity in our faculty and staff as well. In 2006-07, more than 13.3 percent of faculty were minorities – 50 percent were women!
I would like to thank the deans and faculty for their outstanding work in promoting and creating new programs.
The Board of Governors has approved a request to establish a doctoral program in Communication Sciences and Disorders and a request to establish an MS in Athletic Training. We have submitted other requests for authorizations in environmental health science and computational mathematics, as well as the new master’s and PhD programs that we will hold jointly with NC A&T.
We have new department heads for the start of the 2007-08 academic year:
- Dr. William Brown – Accounting and Finance
- Dr. David Cook – Broadcasting and Cinema
- Dr. Robert Mayo – Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Dr. Stephen Tate – Computer Science
- Dr. Jennifer Etnier – Exercise and Sport Science
- Dr. Dan Pearlman – Human Development and Family Studies
- Dr. Bill Hart – Religious Studies
- Dr. Cathryne Schmitz – Social Work
- Mr. Jim Fisher – Theatre
- Dr. Katherine Jamieson – Women’s and Gender Studies Program
- Dr. David Smith – Specialized Education Services
- Dr. Carol Mullen – Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations
Two other important appointments that I would like to acknowledge is Dr. Ceola Ross Baber as the Interim Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dr. Celia Hooper, Interim Dean for the School of Health and Human Performance.
Some faculty kudos:
- Jackie White is this year’s recipient of the 2007 Carolyn Wood Sherif Award from the American Psychological Association’s Division to those who have made exceptional contributions to the psychology of women as scholars, teachers, mentors, and leaders. The award notes that Jackie’s “contribution to the psychology of women are extraordinary. She has excelled in all four of the ways that qualify an individual for this award.” She will be giving an award address at the 2008 APA convention.
- Three faculty members received prestigious Fulbright scholarships to pursue research abroad. The winners are Adrian Wurr in English, and Loren Schweninger and James Anderson in History. Their studies were conducted in Vietnam, China, and Sweden.
- The national Phi Beta Kappa Society named UNCG’s Epsilon chapter as the best in the country among chapters at public universities.
- The Division of Continual Learning’s iSchool program was picked by Governor Mike Easley to develop the state’s first Virtual Early College High School, to go into effect in fall 2007. DCL received a “Learn and Earn” planning grant for the project.
- UNCG’s overall external funding for research, public service, and creative work set a new record, totaling $36 million in 264 individual awards, up almost 8 percent from $33.4 million in 2005-06. The total included $23.2 million in federal funding, primarily from the US Department of Education.
I am in my thirteenth year at UNCG, and I want to thank you for your hard work, dedication, and loyalty to our fine university. We can be pleased that the state legislature has passed a budget which gives SPA and EPA non-faculty employees a 4 percent increase with faculty receiving 5 percent. This is the second year in a row that we have fought for increases for state employees. We are fortunate that the legislature agrees that you deserve a financial reward for loyalty to our state. You are a wonderful group of faculty and staff and administrators; you are my UNCG family. Share with our students your knowledge and experience! Light their imagination and push them to do more than they think they can. To the newcomers, I hope you share with them your positive attitude and become a stellar example of teaching and research on our campus.
Last year, President Bowles approved the formation of a system-wide Staff Assembly. The Staff Assembly gives our employees means to interact with their colleagues and administrators from across the state. UNCG’s Staff Senate, which was chaired last year by David Vaughan, elected three delegates and an alternative to attend the two meetings held this past year. Suzanne Williams was elected Secretary of the Assembly for its first year. According to David, the relationship between the staff and faculty/administration on many other campuses is nowhere close to the respectful and mutually-supportive relationship that exists at UNCG between faculty, staff, and the administration. A quote from David, “Man, do we have it good!” I know you join me in wishing the Staff Assembly and Staff Senate all the best in the upcoming year.
I also want to acknowledge the leadership of Dr. Anna Marshall-Baker and the Faculty Senate, especially for beginning their comprehensive work on sustainability, which I hope will continue. I look forward to working with Kathy Crowe this year as Senate Chair.
David Vaughan also chaired the SECC campaign this past year and Dr. John Locke will be our new chair this year. Last year, we far surpassed our goal of $200,000 and raised $239,374 to help our communities and those in need. We had a remarkable 50.26 percent participation rate, and this year we hope that number will be even higher. I thank you not only for your contributions, but also for volunteering your time and talents to the campaign. Some of you volunteer year after year for this worthy cause. The hours of service from our very own UNCG employees adds up to a considerable amount of caring and compassion for those in need. Thank you for taking the time to volunteer and give what you can.
We couldn’t begin the new school year without mentioning our Banner Finance Team! Our resilient campus departments and functional offices have accepted the changes Banner has brought without missing a beat. The complex year-end and annual reporting project led by Wayne Jones, now in its final stages, has created a more efficient annual process and has been shared with a number of our sister campuses. In fact, President Bowles said to me one day, “Why is it UNCG is the only campus who can handle Banner?” Thank you to our Banner Finance Team.
On the construction front, projects totaling $71.7 million were completed and put into service this past year, including the Gatewood Studio Arts Building, the Moore Humanities and Research Administration Building, the Gove Student Health Center, the Spring Garden Apartments, the Dining Hall roof replacement, and Jackson Library chiller replacement and waterproofing. The Alumni House, Brown Building, Petty Science Building, and Aycock Auditorium are currently under renovation. Our last bond project, the Forney Building, will begin this fall as well. The most impressive fact about our buildings is: they come in ON TIME and ON BUDGET and without major revisions from the beginning to the end of the project!
We have several cooperative ventures with NC A&T State University that I would like to tell you about. You all know about Gateway University Research Park. We had two ground-breaking celebrations this past year – one on the North Campus and one on the South Campus. The South Campus on East Lee Street will acquire its first major tenant about a year from now – a US Department of Agriculture facility. The North Campus is across from Bryan Park and recently welcomed SERVE, UNCG’s largest research grant. SERVE is one of 10 regional education labs funded by the Department of Education. UNCG’s SERVE Center received a $2.9 million grant from the US Department of Education to conduct a four-year study of North Carolina’s “Learn and Earn” Early College High Schools. They are in a beautiful facility at Gateway and I hope you all get a chance to see it.
We are proud of the work that John Merrill, Executive Director of Gateway, does to promote a cooperative spirit with our sister school across town and to engage the entire Triad research and business community.
Another exciting joint project with NC A&T State that had recent support in the North Carolina Legislature is $5 million in planning funds for the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, along with $53 in funding for a building to house the new joint school and $1.4 million in operating funds for programs. We are in the processes of searching for a dean for the school who will lead the planning for this exciting, innovative project.
In the spirit of PACE, UNCG is working now – as it has for years – to provide essential university services in the most cost-effective way possible. This year, NC A&T State University approached UNCG’s Information Technology Services division to request that UNCG host A&T’s Blackboard course management system. Hosting involves managing the equipment that supports Blackboard services for NC A&T faculty and students. Our ITS division developed a plan that would provide A&T this essential service at lower cost than they were paying to outsource it – while also reducing UNCG’s costs to host our own Blackboard services. We will begin hosting in January. This is yet another example of creative collaboration that produces a win-win situation for both campuses. Along with other PACE savings, it demonstrates to the UNC system and the General Assembly that UNCG is using the taxpayer’s dollars with great care.
This is the first year of the new wireless requirement for all freshmen. I am pleased that students are signing up to purchase Lenovo PC’s or Mac’s depending on their needs.
Let me recap some facts and figures from the last academic year: Total enrollment for fall 2006 was 12,921 undergraduate students and 3,707 graduate students, of which were 568 distance learners. The freshman class of 2,427 was UNCG’s largest to date. A total of 3,262 graduated during the year, including 74 doctoral students. We are anticipating another record-breaking year as far as enrollment numbers are concerned! We are on target to exceed our enrollment projections of 2,460 new freshmen and 1,370 new transfer students. We are anticipating more than 3,700 graduate students again this year, including 924 exclusive distance learners. Our new student freshman class last year was 30.1 percent minority – for all undergraduate students we had 26.2 percent minority; and for all students it was 24.1 percent. Our student diversity on campus combined with our faculty diversity means we are holding true to our vision statement of creating a diverse, student-centered research university!
The Master Plan work will help us develop responses to these challenges. We will be presenting the Master Plan to the Board of Trustees at the September board meeting. As you know, we will be finishing our last year of the five-year UNCG plan that started in 2003. We will then analyze the efforts of President Bowles’ UNC Tomorrow Commission to incorporate their findings into specific plans for UNCG, as we fashion our next five-year plan.
For the past three years, I have included in my convocation address a progress report on our unparalleled fundraising initiative, the Students First Campaign. Every year it is more and more exciting for me to share the good news.
In 2004, I told you that even though we were just getting started, we had already raised $17 million. The following year, I was delighted to report that our outstanding momentum had nearly doubled that amount to more than $31 million. Last year we all cheered at our latest campaign achievement — $55 million.
This year, I want to hear even more celebration because we have now surpassed $80 million! Isn’t that an exciting way to begin a new academic year?
In fact we have reached $81.2 million. This is especially remarkable considering that our initial goal was to raise $78.2 million by 2009. Clearly, we have already exceeded that benchmark two years ahead of time. Therefore, it became necessary to set a new measure of success. Our goal is to now reach $100 million. As you can tell, we are well on our way to realizing that goal, and along with it, so many dreams of our students, faculty, and staff.
We have supporters from all over the nation. But we certainly have many right here in our very own campus community. Your contributions as faculty and staff have been magnificent. I continue to be impressed by your generosity and your vision for the future. Your gifts to the campaign demonstrate your confidence in UNCG. And that is very important if we are to expect others to also believe in UNCG. As of July 31st, gifts from faculty and staff totaled $5,167,020! That is very impressive. I personally thank you for the impact you are having on the campaign and on our university. I believe the results you will see from the campaign’s success will create a university that evokes an even greater sense of pride and allegiance.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the accomplishments of the Students First Campaign so far. To break it down, our fundraising to date has resulted in the following outstanding achievements: 127 more undergraduate scholarships, an additional 26 scholarships for graduate students, and the necessary funds for 129 new programs that will transform this campus and the educational experience for our students.
I cannot talk about all of this campaign success without thanking the marvelous staff in University Advancement, led by Dr. Patti Stewart, for their outstanding work in helping us realize unprecedented campaign achievement. They have demonstrated wonderful teamwork and dedication in their charge, and for that I am most grateful. I am also grateful to our splendid volunteer leadership team, Norman and Sylvia Samet and Linda Carlisle.
More on the student success front — our Spartan athletes rose to the challenges — winning with commitment to good sportsmanship.
The UNCG Spartan men’s and women’s soccer teams won both the regular season and tournament titles in the Southern Conference. Both competed in the NCAA tournament with the men reaching the Sweet Sixteen for the third year in a row. Forty-eight percent of our student athletes had a 3.0 or above GPA for the fall semester, and 52 percent for the spring semester. Our men’s teams finished second in the 2006-07 Commissioner’s Cup for best overall men’s programs in the Southern Conference.
Nelson Bobb, Director of Athletics, was recently named to the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Executive Committee as an at-large member for the 2007-09 academic year.
I would like to end today by sharing a story about a group of students on campus called ELITE. I met them casually as I was leaving campus one day, and they introduced themselves and told me their purpose. They are a group of African-American students, mostly women, whose purpose is to be academically elite. They are proud of their high academic standards. You, the faculty, inspire that achievement. Your nurturing, caring, and commitment to education is the motivation behind each student’s success. Thank you for your dedication as we continue our mission. Let’s have a great year!