"Welcome Back" Address
- August 23, 2007
- Eric R. Gilbertson, President
- Saginaw Valley State University
This is what some friends call my annual "let’s do it to them" pep talk. I’ll get around to that soon enough, but the cruel truth is that this gathering – and the start of another academic year that it signals – always comes just a little too soon. I know that I say this every year, but it’s true.
Still, as we speak, students are moving onto campus and dilettantes are registering for those last few "seats" in our classes and the clock is ticking. Monday will be upon us, ready or not.
We are ready . . . sort of, anyway. Last minute touches are being made on rooms and walkways; a few sections may or may not have instructors in place; there may be a few too many students in a few rooms; the usual and customary last minute scrambling is underway.
So . . . with new students and new colleagues and new facilities and new programs – and assuredly some new annoyances and new or renewed disagreements – here we go again, for the 45th autumn at Saginaw Valley State University.
It should be another interesting run.
* * *
There’s good news and bad news, as they say, from the summer.
The bad news is that State Government in Michigan is in absolute chaos. The State has no real budget for the year and, as a result, neither do we.
The good news is that my golf game is improving. As some of you may have read, I play at the Bay City Country Club. You can too!
That was a pathetic attempt at a joke. Bear with me anyway.
* * *
Let me explain about the budget . . . briefly . . . and then I promise not to talk about it again – at least until the next time I talk about it.
It’s still a pretty big mess in Lansing. And because the State still doesn’t have a budget, we were forced to adopt ours – including a tuition increase – by guessing what the Legislature and Governor were eventually going to do.
State Government seems utterly indifferent to the imperatives of the academic calendar – as well as to the needs of the cities and towns and schools and public institutions which rely on its decisions – and so we begin this new year under this cloud of uncertainty. I’d like to say that there are some large lessons to be drawn from all this – about the folly of political "term limits," the corrosive nature of partisan politics, the travails of a state recovering from industrial transition, about . . . well, you get the idea. But in fact there are no big ideas at work or in conflict. There are no contemptible villains; and there certainly aren’t any heroes. It’s just a big mess. Period.
Universities do not exactly thrive in chaos, and we have made every provision possible to ensure that our work will not be disrupted by this political and economic predicament. The protection of everyone’s employment will always be our priority, and we will continue to avoid mid-year budget cuts to departments and offices. We want all of you to work with confidence in the financial resources you have.
We begin this year with an assumed State appropriation that has been reduced by more than 12 percent over a year ago. And, as a result, our students and their families are left with the burden of paying more.
Just for the record: I hate tuition. I am opposed to tuition in all its shapes and forms and sizes. The problem is, of course, that someone has to pay for the costs of doing what universities do. And taxpayers don’t seem to have much interest in paying more – until they get a tuition bill themselves.
The opportunities we provide students really are valuable beyond their price, but what they are paying is a sacrifice.
And so we owe them our best – but you know that.
* * *
We expect to have students this year – lots of them. While we must await late registration to be certain of the totals, we anticipate that overall credit hour enrollment will increase by about 1 to 2 percent from last fall.
The entering class of innocent and impressionable freshpersons will again set an institutional record – some 1,500 or so young human souls will enroll here for the first time. We also believe this is among the best-qualified classes of entering students in SVSU’s history. About 70 percent of them will also be living on campus, making things especially crowded again. We’ll have more than 2,200 students in campus housing.
We are also encouraged by increasing numbers of returning undergraduates – which signals both their academic success and overall satisfaction with our University.
The numbers of graduate and international students are most difficult to predict. Grad students tend to make last minute decisions about whether to take classes in any given semester. And the unpredictability of visa applications will doubtless mean that we will have either more or fewer international students than we expect. We’ll see.
In any event, the signs are promising for strong enrollments – both in terms of quality and quantity – and that is very good news indeed.
* * *
We will begin this year, however, without one particular student among us. Abou Traore, a popular student from Senegal, drowned last Saturday in a tragic accident. He was a Resident Assistant in Campus Housing and was taking a break from RA training. It was, like so much tragedy, as random as it was cruel – and there was nothing I could tell his friends and fellow RAs to help make any sense of it. If there’s anything to be taken from this loss, it is yet another lesson about the preciousness of each individual and the time we have together here.
* * *
I usually try to pass around a few kudos at this event – reminders of the high quality work being done by our colleagues. But there’s just too much being done, too many outstanding accomplishments to mention individually.
So . . . just a sampling: books published by Paul Teed, Ken Jolly and Mary Harmon; Walt Head won his 700th game as SVSU Baseball Coach, and Dan Dorian won his third national championship as Bowling Coach; Walt Rathkamp was awarded more than $2 million in grants for the Math/Science Center, Jan Blecke over a million dollars for the Nursing Program, and Jo Brownlie over a million dollars for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
And there were so many more competitive grants won, outstanding work published, and accomplishments recognized. Congratulations to all.
* * *
This year, as in other years, you’ll notice that a lot of work has been done on the campus. The largest and most visible expansion is the "new" Pioneer Hall. Ask our colleagues in Engineering to give you a tour.
And there are other changes: the renovation of Wickes Hall first floor and the Marble Lecture Hall (which had last been treated 25 years ago); improvements to the Student Center and Athletic Complex; the completion of new student housing in the University Village and the start of a new North Campus housing project; various office moves, including the Writing Center’s new quarters in the Library and the new Art Studios in what had once been a theatre; and a series of landscaping and campus beautification projects.
And yes, there’ll be a Starbucks café in Science East.
Some might ask how these projects can be undertaken when there are budget problems and other needs – fair questions. In fact, capital projects are funded from a variety of sources – Pioneer Hall primarily with State funds, housing and food service facilities (including the Starbucks café) from their own revenues.
Much of the renovation and landscaping was done with previously authorized University funding. The continual maintenance and upgrading of the physical campus is an investment in the future, even as the campus we now enjoy represents an investment made in previous years. There will always be budget problems; and someone can always claim that money for any particular project could better have been used for a purpose of their own choosing. But it is important to make investments in the campus through good times and bad.
And in the end, the quality of our physical campus not only helps to attract students and to enable our work, but also remains a source of pride and enjoyment for all of us.
I’ve said more than I wanted to about money and budgets and so forth. But I do want to make one additional point. Just as we cannot afford to stop investing in our physical campus – even during difficult times – so too we can’t afford to stop investing in good ideas. We have never had enough money to do everything all of us wanted to do; we never will. But even now, even in this particularly tough situation, we must do what we can to support individuals and departments with promising initiatives and compelling needs.
The future of our University depends on our willingness and capacity to continue creating and improving courses and programs and services. Please don’t assume that because budgets are tight there’s no reason to keep on thinking or to keep on asking. And even if the resources may not be available immediately, if the ideas are good enough we will find a way to move forward.
* * *
A wonderful series of lectures has been planned for the Fall Dow Symposium: the theme is "Human Rights and Human Responsibilities," and the opening speaker is Stephen Lewis, former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. And there are more interesting presentations planned in this series and other featured lectures throughout the year.
Our athletic teams have already been practicing for the past three weeks and the first soccer game is August 25th. Football opens a week from Saturday at Wickes Stadium. These kids are good at what they do and fun to watch. Good luck to our coaches and teams.
Similarly, our Music and Art Departments will provide enjoyment that comes to the rest of us as a perk of being on the campus.
And the Theatre Department has planned a series of noncontroversial performances – thank you very much. And then, there’s always golf for everyone at the Bay City Country Club!
Whatever, enjoy the fun and fascination of all the things happening around us.
* * *
A few weeks ago I "Googled" myself. I do not recommend doing this to oneself for anyone who is easily embarrassed. But I did find a nugget from a different time and place: somewhere deep in the archives of the Ohio State University lies a column I had written back in (and I hate to mention this) 1977.
The piece I had written, in all the sweet naïveté of my tender years – rhapsodized the university experience. It seems saccharine, even silly now – filled with platitudes and bereft of tightly woven logic. I won’t tell you how to find it – but suffice to say it provided yours truly with a glimpse, a remembrance, of what I was thinking when I entered upon a career in academia.
What started me on this introspective inquiry was a conversation with my son, an SVSU alumnus, who was in the process of making a career decision. One option – the one he chose – was a position with the State University of New York.
I remember making such a decision at about the same time in my own career – the decision that eventually led me to this place, here with you today. My son asked if I had any regrets about a career in the university. I don’t.
It’s not that every day brings undiluted joy – some days are really lousy, as a matter of fact. But the truth is that even all these years later – with all the disappointments, disagreements, dissatisfied colleagues and customers – I’ve never wondered whether the work of the university really mattered. Not many people in not many vocations can say that.
My career – and yours, I would suspect – has been a continuing struggle between the idealism that brought me to an academic life and the disappointments that came from lost causes and lost friends. I daresay that this is the story of most careers in most human endeavors. But in academic life, each fall brings the possibility of renewal – a fresh start, a fresh perspective, and a remembrance of what we do and why it matters.
Important things do happen to students here, in these years, as they did to us. And for many of them this adventure is about to start – tomorrow or next week. And we have the chance to be part of that – an important part of that.
* * *
As we were preparing for the start of a new academic year we did some research on the demographics of our faculty and staff – that is, on all of you. There were some revealing composite data points about ages and experiences and the like. In fact, you guys are getting younger!
What I am about to say next has become something of a tradition. But in light of the demographic data I just mentioned, it is probably time for an explanation – there just aren’t enough of you left who remember the wonderful 1980s television series, "Hill Street Blues."
The series was about a police station in a rough urban setting. It had a wonderfully eclectic cast of characters – stiff personalities and zany eccentrics, dreamers and would-be Lotharios, a few geniuses and a few real heros, some idealists and some cynics, friends and rivals – with a few normal people mixed in just as a point of reference. In short, it reminded me of a typical university.
Each day, they went out to face a host of challenges – some fascinating and some mundane, some heart-breaking and some hilarious – again, sort of like a typical day at a typical university.
They dealt with hardened felons and criminal enterprise of all sorts; we only deal with students. But who’s to say that mental mischief and intellectual indolence is any less dangerous to civil order and the future of Western Civilization?
So . . . what I traditionally say to you is what a grizzled desk sergeant always said to his troops before turning them loose on those mean streets. In the words of that sergeant:
Let’s go out there and do it to them before they do it to us . . . and people, do be careful out there.