2006 State of the University Address
January 26, 2006
Eric R. Gilbertson, President
Saginaw Valley State University
(click on image for a larger view)
To some extent the state of any institution necessarily depends on its resources -- that is, money. So we might as well deal with that up front.
There is not enough money, and there never has been enough money, and there never will be enough money. And so it goes.
We have generally avoided wild swings between affluence and crisis by managing our financial affairs conservatively. For that reason, we now find ourselves in a solvent condition and not on the edge of fiscal ruin. But this condition is, as always, somewhat fragile.
We are grateful for the support of our regional legislative delegation, which resulted in funding for the expansion and renovation of Pioneer Hall. This project will begin this Spring and will greatly improve the capabilities of our Engineering programs.
It is useful to bear in mind, however, that capital funds for buildings are different from funds for University operations. Even with a modest but much-appreciated increase in State funding this year, our reliance on tuition continues to increase. Whatever the good intentions in Lansing, make no mistake about this: the costs of public higher education have continued to shift to students and their families.
There are no villains in this political saga B unless we are prepared to blame ourselves and other tax-resistant voters. The pitiless truth is, however, that the State's revenues have declined precipitously -- largely as a result of both difficult economic circumstances and unwise tax policies. Michigan continues to succumb to the siren song of tax cuts without much effort to develop a more rational and comprehensive taxation policy.
And so, reliance on tuition to support public higher education -- another form of taxation, but with universities as convenient scapegoats -- steadily increases. SVSU has been responsible about tuition increases, and we can be proud of our record in this regard. But because of this reliance on tuition revenues, the strength of our enrollments is even more critical to the health of our University.
We have earned strong enrollments throughout most of our 40-plus year history. But we dare not take this for granted -- and there are some cautionary signs this Semester.
While our undergraduate enrollments have remained solid, a weakening of our graduate enrollments is apparent. These graduate programs are targeted primarily to working adults B especially in the College of Education, which produces about 80% of our graduate credits -- and the softening job market and competition from other institutions has clearly begun to take its toll.
The enrollment experience in our other graduate programs is somewhat mixed, though none have been particularly robust over time.
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It is clearly time to step back and reassess our overall institutional enrollment projections in light of these realities. We know that the numbers of high school graduates in Michigan will peak in a few years, and we had planned for an eventual leveling of our overall enrollments because of that. It appears, however, that given softening graduate enrollments this leveling may occur even sooner.
Bob Yien and Bob Maurovich will lead a study group to reassess our overall enrollment projections and make recommendations in this regard. Their report should be completed by the end of the Winter Semester and in time for the development of next year's budget.
What is clear now is that if our graduate programs are to succeed -- that is, have students willing and able to take them -- we will need to rethink a number of things. We will need to rethink their relevance to the professions for which they purport to prepare people; we will also need to rethink how to deliver these programs in ways that are accessible to working professionals and international students and others -- and to do so in ways that both maintain their quality as well as compete in an increasingly competitive market.
The slowing or even the cessation of SVSU's overall enrollment growth does not signal any failure. But it will require that we develop our University in ways that are not driven by enrollment growth, as has been the case throughout most of our history.
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Another factor which has a significant impact on our enrollments is ever-changing student interests. The University of California at Los Angeles annually conducts a nationwide survey of college freshmen asking, among other things, which degree programs they intend to pursue. SVSU students tend to follow national trends.
For the past several years our overall growth has been driven largely by rapidly rising growth in the College of Education, as a larger and larger share of entering freshmen planned to major in teacher education. What is apparent now, however, is that interest in teacher education programs has begun to decline -- likely in response to a much tighter job market, especially here in Michigan.
This phenomenon is similar to that experienced by colleges of business during the late 1980s and through the 1990s. The share of students choosing business disciplines peaked in the mid-1980s, then declined dramatically during the mid-to-late 1990s; this has only recently begun to increase again.
The greatest volatility in student interest has been in the health professions. Only a few years ago nursing programs were barely able to attract enough students to operate at minimal capacity. Presently -- both nationwide and here -- nursing programs are "bursting at the seams" with students motivated by predictions of a rapidly growing market for the nursing profession.
Other programs -- just a few shown here -- show varying degrees of volatility in student demand as freshmen (and often their parents) react to perception and rumor about future employment prospects.
What this means for universities is that there will always be times when certain programs are at or beyond capacity and other programs may be operating without sufficient numbers of students. We need to anticipate changes in student demand, but also not over-react to these temporary swings.
In any event, what is apparent now is that there are shifts underway, and that student interest in teacher education is decreasing and student interest in the health professions is at a peak.
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There are other changes and developments that we might note now -- especially the addition of many new colleagues on the faculty and staff. (Parenthetically, I hope you have noticed that 35 new students from Saudi Arabia are on campus this semester. Imagine the courage it took for them to come here. And imagine the opportunity they present to us -- we can matter in the world in important ways. Please make them feel welcome.
And we have hopes that, with legislative support, we may at some point be able to create another academic facility -- a Health Sciences Center -- in that empty lot just to the north and west of the Regional Education Center. "Keep your fingers crossed" on that one.
There is one other important change that simply must be mentioned -- the selection of a valued and trusted colleague to replace another valued and trusted colleague. Don offered himself as a candidate for the vice presidency in what was an extensive search process; and I'm not at all surprised that he was widely regarded as not just the best candidate for this vitally important position but as a worthy successor to someone who seems so irreplaceable.
Congratulations, Don.
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There is one final informational item to report.
There are always unanswered questions after a presentation like this -- there are always unanswered questions every day on this campus. That's part of what makes things fun and interesting around here.
In an attempt to answer some of those questions -- at least for those people who really want answers -- we have created an on-line forum for faculty and staff. I harbor no illusion that scores of you covet the opportunity to correspond with yours truly, but I do hope that it might provide the chance to offer information and, if the truth be known, to dispel rumors and gossip.
I never cease to be astounded by the echoes I hear of what is traveling the conversation circuits on this campus -- stuff about who's doing what and why, what someone did or didn't do and why, what's happening or not happening and why. I don't know for sure how some of it begins, but my theory is that often what starts out as idle conjecture evolves into truth asserted with scriptural certitude by about the third transaction.
Now, I understand that rumors and gossip are almost always more interesting and certainly more entertaining than fact and reality. And& this forum is not intended just to ruin anyone's good, clean fun. But please send questions -- about what's happening and why, what we're trying to do and why, and where things seem to be going or where you or I might want them to go.
It's lonely on the third floor of Wickes Hall, and I'd love to hear from you.
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I have frequently heard the expression "the next level" used in discussions about our University -- as in "getting to the next level" or "taking us to the next level" or "how can we get to the next level?" Several of the messages I reviewed about the recent search for the next Vice President for Academic Affairs raised the question in this term: can this or that person help get SVSU or lead SVSU to "the next level" as an institution.
SVSU has experienced enormous change -- mostly progress. Growth is obvious, both in the physical campus and in the numbers of students and faculty and staff. A larger residential student base has had an impact on the character of our institution and has created opportunities to do more with and for students. And the maturation of our academic programs, and our institution generally, has enabled us to attract more very well-qualified students and colleagues.
We share pride in what that has been accomplished. But it would be smug and dangerous to assume that our University has somehow risen to some "new level" upon which it can now rest, complacent and self-satisfied. Smugness and complacency are infectious diseases that lead to ruin in human organizations.
I suppose getting our University to some next level is a good thing -- assuming we have some shared understanding of what the "next level" is or where it is or how we will ever know when we get there.
We've watched other universities striving to get to some next level, and a lot of what we've seen is not particularly edifying. For many institutions, this "next level" simply means higher status or even just greater notoriety -- usually in satisfaction of the institution's vanity.
For example, some universities have set out to achieve greater public renown through sports programs. You've seen this happen. An otherwise obscure institution hires a serial cheater for a coach and recruits students without even dubious academic aspirations as athletes and all of a sudden they appear in a nationally televised game on ESPN! They become known -- but for what?
I'm all for success in athletics, and I take enormous pride that in the past few years some of our teams have competed for national championships in Division II sports, a few times even losing only narrowly to the eventual champion. Dammit. But doing whatever is necessary -- including depleting an institution's ethical capital -- is not what most of us want to get to some new level.
Other institutions have striven to what they saw as a next level by offering higher level graduate degrees. The Carnegie Foundation publishes a classification system by which universities are assigned a designation determined largely by the number and level of graduate degrees they confer. Some have coveted whatever perceived status might come with a classification as a doctoral or research-intensive institution. To offer doctoral programs they herd masses of undergraduates into lecture halls to watch listlessly as graduate assistants grind through PowerPoint presentations. And the result is usually to transform otherwise decent teaching institutions into undistinguished doctoral institutions.
Again, there is not much about this that recommends itself as a strategy for SVSU.
Of course, research is important at a University like ours; it can demonstrate to our students how scholars approach inquiry, and it can teach students how to approach the work of learning. It does often bring credit and appropriate recognition to our University. But none of this recommends that SVSU become a doctoral institution or even a research-intensive institution. The landscape of American higher education is littered with institutions which have chosen that path and achieved elevated status only in their own imaginations.
There are other unhelpful examples. Some seek approval in popular publications -- e.g., the infamous "U.S. News and World Report" rankings. Everyone knows these so-called rankings are bogus, that the surveys only query uninformed respondents concerning the qualities of institutions about which they really know nothing. But once an institution achieves this kind of recognition -- as a great bargain or as one of the best hundred of this or that, or whatever -- they suddenly treat this as proof positive of their own academic virtues. In other words, institutions, like individuals, cheerfully accept any compliment, sincerity or the lack thereof notwithstanding.
And some others look for gimmicks -- e.g. becoming "most wired" or whatever. There is no shortage of ways to achieve notoriety quickly and easily. But to what end, for what lofty purpose?
So . . . what is left for us as we look to the "next level" for SVSU? If we reject phoney academic pretensions or gimmicks to get to some next level, then we are left only with the hard work of getting better at what we do and who we are.
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There are some measures, benchmarks, evidences that will help us know if were moving in the right direction. We do want to attract more very well-prepared students and we can measure progress in this regard. But we want to attract these students not as an empty exercise in institutional vanity but rather because very good students lift what happens around them; they challenge the rest of us to do better -- faculty, staff, other students in their classes and on the campus.
Real progress will require, however, that we not just attract more good students but that we push them harder and higher. We need constantly to develop new and better ways of opening new and better opportunities for these students. And we can measure, count, how many of these students take advantage of our study abroad programs and the Honors Program and other opportunities that can encourage good students to lift their sights and dream bigger about what is possible.
We also need to assess what our students learn and how well they are learning. In some ways I resent the impositions of accrediting agencies in this regard; and the work of academic assessment is tedious and not especially exciting. But it is necessary -- not just to satisfy others but to satisfy ourselves that we are moving on that upward trajectory.
The hard work of accreditation -- both institutional and program-specific -- does provide objective analysis of our programs and institution. And recent accreditation reports for our Nursing and Engineering programs were enormously positive and gratifying. Nursing received a full ten-year renewal, and Engineering received a report that noted no failed standards and no weaknesses.
Are we moving upward? I wish you could all have read those reports.
Another measure of how we are performing may not be just the qualifications of those who enter but rather the success of students once they are here. One of our University's least impressive statistics is, unfortunately, the graduation rates of our entering students. We are making slow but steady progress with students who enter SVSU as freshmen, but this is clearly still a major challenge for SVSU as we move upward.
We can also measure how well our students regard what we have done for them and with them. Every few years we take a "student satisfaction survey" to ascertain what they think of advising services, of financial aid services, of student activities, of the campus facilities, of the quality of instruction they receive and, yes, even the availability of parking spaces. It's not a perfect measure of anything, of course, as all surveys measure perceptions more than realities.
But . . . what do they think? This past fall the survey was administered again and here are a few of the preliminary results. Not bad, really. But is there room for improvement? Of course.
We have all seen schools and hospitals and social service agencies and even businesses begin to think and act with an institutional arrogance -- as though they existed primarily to provide congenial and convenient employment for themselves. To be truthful, we have seen this in ourselves from time-to-time.
But upward movement requires that we never forget whom we serve and why we exist.
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Beyond these and other measures of how well we are doing, even more important to our upward progress is our willingness and ability to continue creating ideas and programs that are new and better. If universities are not busy creating they are stagnating.
One way to stimulate creativity is through endowments. Over the past several years, and because of the generosity and loyalty of the University's friends, our endowments have enabled us to create new positions and attract new people; they have enabled us to develop special programs; endowments have brought visitors to our campus to enrich our culture and stimulate our thinking; and endowments have provided scholarship support to help us attract outstanding students.
We recently announced several new endowments. Dr. Malcolm Field has created two new endowed chairs -- one in Engineering and one in Health Sciences -- and I am very proud that this Theatre is now named in his honor. We plan to use these new positions to broaden and deepen our talent base in these disciplines.
The Gerstacker Foundation has pledged $1.5 million to create and support a new fellowship program to provide a rigorous interdisciplinary experience for a select group with outstanding public school leadership potential. You will be hearing much more about this exciting program over the next several months.
And the Wickes Foundation -- one of SVSU's oldest and most loyal friends -- recently announced the creation of a $1.5 million endowment at the Saginaw Community Foundation to support a fellowship program for outstanding faculty and staff of this University. Two of our colleagues will be chosen each year to receive a grant of $37,500 over a three-year period to support their professional work. Selection as a Wickes Fellow will become one of the most important honors and opportunities available to the best among us. I am especially proud that this program will also bear a name that has been so important to this University: The Ruth and Ted Braun Fellowship Program.
You will also hear more about this wonderful opportunity in the weeks ahead.
Later this year, we will be announcing a campaign to raise $20 million in endowed support for our University. These initial gifts set the stage for several others we expect to announce during the months ahead. When completed, SVSU will have an endowment of some $50 million, providing support for these and other good programs and people.
Stay tuned for more good news.
Our University has earned the respect and the loyalty of good friends who understand that there is no vision of a bright future for this region without a strong SVSU at its center. Their loyalty and generosity are testimony to that; and their loyalty and generosity place a great responsibility on all of us.
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Endowments alone can never fully support all the new ideas and improvements we want and need to initiate. Our current institutional plan also calls for us to set aside investment funding -- even during lean budgetary times -- to create or develop distinctive qualities in our programs. This current year, we have invested in ideas proposed by our Music Program, our Theatre Program and our Political Science Program.
The Music Program proposed additional staffing by professional musicians -- artists in residence -- who would provide both performance models and create performance opportunities for students. Jeff Hall, who had been a longstanding adjunct in the Department, has now increased his time commitment as our new Musical Artist in Residence in Jazz. And MiJung Trepanier, a gifted pianist, has also joined the Department as an Artist in Residence. They join Dr. Julie Meyer, an outstanding vocalist, to add new strengths to this department.
This Department also received additional scholarship support to attract more fine students to their Program and their performance ensembles. The results of their work benefit us all; and if you haven't attended the Music Department's performances lately you've missed some exciting and gratifying developments.
Likewise, the Theatre Department proposed an expanded position in set design. Jerry Dennis has now joined the Department and the results of his work are also on display to all of us who enjoy theatrical performances on campus. The department will also have more scholarship support to attract more fine students -- and their performances will demonstrate the qualities they intend to achieve.
And the Political Science Department proposed to expand opportunities for students to participate in "real world" political and governmental experiences. To that end they created the "Center for Politics and Public Service" and hired James Johnson to join them. Look for more interesting developments from this initiative.
Another initiative that seems enormously promising is the movement within our College of Business and Management to develop programs in entrepreneurship. An undergraduate minor has been approved, and we hope to strengthen ties between the University and the economic development efforts in the region around us.
There is a growing consensus that the best hope for economic development in our State and region is through the creation and expansion of new, indigenous businesses -- that is, through entrepreneurs. The University has an important interest in the economic health of the State and region and an important role to play in this regard.
Next year we plan to create more such opportunities in other departments. There is a growing demand for health care professionals in our State and region, for example, and I would encourage our academic units to develop responses that help meet those needs and provide new opportunities for our students in the Health Sciences.
I hope faculty and staff and departments will approach deans and directors with ideas for other initiatives. We simply have to keep on creating -- again, even during difficult times and even as enrollment growth may slow.
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One other new idea this year is the "Student Research and Creativity Institute." This provides funding for good ideas by good students -- or, as one colleague says, "to let extraordinary students do extraordinary things."
Requests for proposals went out and several were received and reviewed by an advisory committee. I am proud to announce that some $35,000 has now been awarded to eight grant requests from students. These range from support to send music students to perform in a select national ensemble, to a research project involving invasive species in the Great Lakes, to students who will create murals in urban neighborhoods.
Another round of grants will be available next year, so please begin now to encourage your best students to develop their ideas.
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As I mentioned, moving upward requires that all of us -- in whatever department or college or office or service we work -- continue to improve what we do and how we do it. It also means that we promote and enhance the reputation of Saginaw Valley State University. What we do and how well we do it should not be a secret. A university's reputation is its capital -- it adds value to the degrees we award and expands our capacity to do more, to do better. For that reason it is worth noting that we have also developed more and better ways to explain our University to others -- and to ourselves.
I hope that you've noticed, for example, the publication "This is SVSU," now in its second edition. We all hear compliments about the growth of and the appearance of our physical campus. But what happens inside these buildings is what really matters, and this and other University communications try to make that point with stories.
A good story requires both a good subject matter and a good story-teller. "This is SVSU" has both. And those who conceived this publication -- and others that make the University alive and real to others -- help too in moving us along that upward trajectory.
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Every now and then it behooves us to look at the things we put up on our walls. A few years ago we rewrote a "Vision Statement" for SVSU. It was intended to give voice to our aspirations, and looking at it again might be a good reminder of what we set out to do then . . . and what we might still become.
There are certain key expressions: the University "will achieve national recognition for its programs of distinction." Certain programs will become "signature" qualities of our University, and that recognition will be "achieved" -- not captured through gimmicks or exaggerated self-puffery.
We have and are at work on such programs -- but not as an exercise in institutional vanity but to fulfill a more important aspect of our vision. Eventually our success will be determined and measured by the accomplishments of our graduates.
For SVSU to continue upward on its trajectory, we need to produce more and more highly motivated and well-prepared graduates. It is just that simple; and it is just that difficult. And everything that matters or ought to matter for our University must somehow relate to that over-arching goal.
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So, if we do keep moving along this trajectory, what will SVSU look like in four or five years? What new "level" might we attain?
In four or five years we're likely to be about the same size -- or perhaps a little larger. But our enrollments will be strong and stable and we will continue to attract more and more very well-prepared students -- including international students.
There'll be a few more academic buildings -- a greatly improved Pioneer Hall, for one, and perhaps a new regional health sciences building as well. We'll also make good use and take great care of the wonderful facilities we have.
In four or five years, SVSU will be even more engaged with the economic development and the cultural development of an increasingly prosperous and socially progressive region. Our students will be working and studying across Mid-Michigan in schools, businesses, cultural institutions, social service and health care providers, governments and nonprofits -- applying their creative energy and learning in ways that can only be learned by caring and trying.
By 2009, our endowments will approach or exceed $50 million, allowing us to attract more exceptional colleagues and exceptional students, allowing us to create and offer more unique programs like the Foundation Scholars and the Roberts Fellowships and the Gerstacker Fellowships and the Braun Fellowships.
More and more of our students will be participating in the Honors Program, seeking grants from the Student Research Creativity Institute, and studying abroad through the opportunities we have or will have created. And they will be inspired to shoot higher and dream bigger.
In four or five years, SVSU will be much better known -- regionally and beyond -- for the quality of its teaching and student services and the distinctive quality of several of its academic programs. First-rate plays and concerts and presentations on the campus will be much better attended and important ideas will be on our minds and in our conversations. And, yes, our athletic teams will compete year after year for Conference and even National championships.
Most important of all, more and more of our graduates will be out there tearing up the World -- making lots of money but also making social change and making art and making public policy and making us even more proud and reminding us of why all the rest of it matters.
And so . . . in a few years, or sooner, SVSU will be even more of a vital and interesting place -- and we'll all be having so much fun that we won't have any time to quarrel among ourselves.
I guess that's something of a vision.
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The expression "the next level" comes from the vocabulary of sports, as do many of the metaphors and analogies and phrases that give color and depth to our speech. I've always liked some of the old stories about colorful figures like Bobby Lane and Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel. One struck me as making a helpful point today.
As the story goes, there were two 20-year-old pitchers in the Yankees' training camp, and the manager, Casey Stengel, was asked to evaluate their prospects. In ten years, he said, the left-hander has a chance to be an All-Star. And in ten years, he went on, the righty has a chance to be thirty.
I still think universities are like that. Some have a chance to be something special. This usually involves what I call the confluence of opportunity and initiative.
I think we've got a chance. Let's take it.
Thank you.