<< President's Address continued from
In the Tri-Cities, under the leadership of Chancellor Vicky Carwein, we have a real opportunity to be the premier leader in clean technology in full and complete partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. We have a superb team working with her – John Gardner, Candis Claiborn, Dan Bernardo, Howard Grimes, and Provost Bob Bates -- and the team is continuing to build in strength. In fact, we are on the eve of finalizing the appointment of a star researcher who will serve as our first director/researcher of our Clean Technology Initiative. Believe me when I say that she is smart, motivated, and accomplished. I can hardly wait to have her join us full-time in August.
Dean Claiborn and I have discussed our strength in sustainable design, renewable energy, and clean power. With her leadership and that of her colleagues, and the engagement of Dr. Brian Lamb and his team, I am convinced we can become the leader in charting a course focused on a sustainable future.
In Vancouver, we are fortunate to have the seasoned and able leadership of Chancellor Hal Dengerink. WSU Vancouver will ultimately look more like a traditional comprehensive campus serving undergraduate, transfer and professional students, with the full array of service and programs in place. This includes residence halls, recreation centers, and other student amenities. Engineering programs will populate the campus as we seek to meet community needs and expectations. It is pristine location with Mt. Adams serving as the silhouette of this academic campus.
This spring WSU reported enrollment growth on all of its campuses. The growth is particularly strong at the Vancouver and Tri-Cities campuses, which now offer classes to freshman. Last fall, the Pullman campus welcomed the largest freshman class in its history, a class that was also notable both for its strong academic qualifications and its diversity. Under the leadership of John Fraire, our competitiveness will continue to grow in attracting the best and the brightest students within an increasingly diverse environment. We have already seen the fruits of John’s efforts through a more integrated enrollment system as we continue to promote and to celebrate access and opportunity without compromising academic and scholastic quality and, of course, keeping a WSU education affordable.
Here in Pullman I have emphasized the importance of agriculture and verterinary medicine. The reason is very simple. We have both a responsibility and an obligation to advance the science and the discoveries in these vital areas. For if we fail to do so, there is no other educational institution in our state charged with this mandate. The state’s $29 billion food and agriculture industry contributed 13 percent to the state’s economy and we must continue to grow market share because our farmers and ranchers are depending on us to bring best practices and new varieties to market.
The food and agriculture industry employs more than 170,000 people, making it Washington’s Number One employer. Dean Dan Bernardo and his team of researchers understand fully and completely embrace our role in this regard and it remains a pleasure working with them on this imperative. WSU must continue to provide research leadership vital to agriculture, including the development of new varieties of wheat, tree fruit research and the development of the wine industry.
For example, a recently released report shows that the wine industry, one part of the agricultural sector that has been most directly affected by WSU innovation, has a $3 billion impact on the state’s economy. We have and will continue to make a significant difference and facilitate meaningful contributions.
One particularly exciting area of our research excellence is the School of Global Animal Health Initiative. About three-quarters of infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, meaning they originated in animals or readily pass from animals to humans. Through our work to improve the health of animals in developing countries and here within the United States, scientists at Washington State University’s School Global Animal Health will enhance human health and well-being. Dean Bernardo, Dr. Guy Palmer, and Dr. Terry McElwain serve as our core group focusing on these discoveries and together they will position WSU as the unconditional leader in this most important space.
I am optimistic that shortly we will announce a major gift dedicated to Global Animal Health, designed to establish the school and to create a physical structure to house our researchers committed to the eradication of zoonotic diseases.
With the commitment and enthusiasm of the faculty in the Murrow School, we have submitted a proposal to the Faculty Senate to establish an independent Edward R. Murrow College. It is high time we recognize the achievements of our alums in this way and the contributions of our faculty in advancing the body of knowledge surrounding journalism and mass communications. This proposal is the next important step in the evolution of our communications program, and it has my unqualified support and endorsement.
I asked Provost Bob Bates to appoint a committee of distinguished faculty to review and evaluate the appropriateness of combining the College of Liberal Arts with the College of Sciences, given Dr. Erich Lear’s stated retirement as dean. After reviewing the matter, it was recommended that we maintain two separate colleges, and I have accepted that recommendation and the search has begun for a new dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
At the heart of the truly great universities in our country is a strong College of Arts and Sciences. The array of disciplines within Arts and Sciences serve as the essential building blocks for all disciplines within the academy and these disciplines must be nurtured, supported, and sustained if we are truly to have research excellence and comprehensiveness of scholarship and pedagogy at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. These investments must be maintained if we are to remain an academy of scholars.
In a similar fashion, we must identify new financial resources to invest in our libraries. As many of you know, we have significantly under invested in our library system, and it is impossible for us to achieve our AAU aspirations without a stronger financial commitment. Our new Dean of Libraries is a full and complete partner with us in this regard, and I look forward to working with Jay Starratt over the coming months and years and we create a new library paradigm within this ubiquitous, collaborative, digital, and global environment. I am convinced that with the appropriate asset base, we can lead the way for new models in library services for research universities, designed to support scholarship and creative activities of our faculty, and providing a uniquely profound resource base for our students, learners, and other scholars.
Viji Murali has joined us as our first full-time Chief Technology and Chief Information Officer. Her reputation which preceded her arrival has already proven accurate. She has literally hit the ground running and engaged our deans, students and faculty in an assessment of our IT needs and has been busy filling the gaps. She has already submitted a proposal, which has been approved, to the Board of Regents to acquire a new Dark Fiber Network which will increase by 80 times the existing speed of our computing capabilities and speed. I ask you continue support of her efforts as we forge ahead.
Some have wondered about my commitment to intercollegiate sports since I have not been as visible as some presidents at athletic and sporting events. I have a healthy perspective on intercollegiate athletics and embrace WSU’s longstanding commitment to field competitive teams at the highest level; to recruit and retain the best and brightest coaches; and to provide our students athletes the best classroom and athletic environment imaginable. I take my stewardship in this regard seriously and will never waver from the obligation to support our coaches, athletes, and their parents. Jim Sterk and I are strong partners – so, difficult as it may seem, when you see him, you see me.
I have every reason to believe that under the leadership of Governor Gregoire, the legislature will continue to do all that it can to provide a core of base funding for WSU. But if we are to achieve the excellence and quality that Washingtonians expect and deserve of their research land-grant university, it will require private gifting and private philanthrophy. Brenda Wilson-Hale and her leadership team within the Foundation are doing a superb job—the Foundation raised, on an average between $40 and $50 million from 1995 to 2005. In the seven months of this counting period, we have already raised $54 million and we still have five months remaining to count. We are currently in the silent phase of a major capital campaign for excellence at WSU. I am asking you as I am asking other donors – give much and give often!
Taxpayers and donors expect us to exercise uncompromised stewardship over the resources that they have entrusted to us. It is for that reason that I have re-organized our business and financial matters under the capable leadership of Greg Royer. A WSU graduate, Greg understands not only the WSU culture, but also my requirements for managing the resources allocated to us. We will leverage every available dollar and operate our University with exceptional efficiency and accountablility. We are constantly evaluating our programs and services to achieve maximum value, impact, and efficiency. I will depend on you to let us know how we are doing.
I want to use this occasion to publicly thank and congratulate Provost Bob Bates for a job well done. We have been fortunate over the past seven years to have had his steady and capable hand as our Chief Academic Officer. Bob and his wife Wendy will continue their service to WSU, principally on the Vancouver campus beginning July 1, 2008. Dean Warwick Bayly is chairing the search for a new provost. We anticipate making an appointment not later than June 30, 2008. Join me in recognizing Provost Bates for a job well-done.
Before he leaves his current responsibilities, I have asked Bob to do two things: lead the effort to refresh our Strategic Plan, and lead the prioritization and re-allocation process. A committee appointed by the Provost has developed criteria to evaluate all of our academic programs, services, and departments. The deans and their faculty are now applying these criteria to all that we do. The deans will report their findings and conclusions to the provost and then we will begin the process to reallocate resources towards areas of high priority. This is not easy work and there will be both disappointment and disgruntlement among some; however, we simply can no longer afford to be all things to all people. We must be strategic in all that we do to maximize our competencies in the support of our centers of excellence. Our mantra must always be EXCELLENCE and QUALITY.
Our students are the best in the land and I am so very proud of them each and every day. We must make a concerted effort to improve the conditions of our residence halls and this summer we will begin a major renovation effort throughout our residence hall system. Some of our halls remain in relatively the same condition they were in during the 70s, with the additional impact of time over the ensuring three decades. This fall we will break ground on a new residence hall – which will be the first new residence hall since McEachern was built in 1971. We all look forward to the re-opening of the CUB this fall. We have decided to create a tunnel with access to and from the Holland Library. A significant step forward in supporting the intellectual climate.
With the assistance of the President’s Student Advisory Council, Greg Royer and Mel Taylor, we have opened conversations with the City of Pullman to establish a University District on the western portion of College Hill. While the specific details remain under discussion, it is of paramount importance for us to assume responsibility for maintaining a safe and secure atmosphere on this part of College Hill, which has become an extended residential campus for WSU.
I have placed renewed emphasis and on support of the Administrative/Professional Advisory Council. The chair of APAC, Francis Benjamin, now regularly reports to the Board of Regents, along with the Chair of the Faculty Senate, Dr. Ken Struckmeyer, and the President of Associated Students of Washington State University, Kasey Webster.
I believe very strongly in shared university governance and we will evidence such behavior is all that we do.
In conclusion, where are we headed? We are building the intellectual capacity and scientific acumen to become one of the leading research land-grant universities in the country, building on our strengths and comprehensiveness in our quest to achieve AAU status. We will continue to build on the strong foundation laid by President Lane Rawlins on undergraduate education while building capacity and capabilities in graduate education, professional education, and research. Increasingly, I will depend on Dr. Howard Grimes to continue our graduate and research advancement. I congratulate Dr. Patricia Hunt for setting the standard by being named one of the top 50 researchers by Scientific American.
This may sound like a daunting list of initiatives and goals. And it is. But we will not fulfill our potential as an institution, we will not keep faith with the vision of those who came before us, by talking half-steps or half-measures.
For those of you who might find this list a bit too ambitious, I offer this quote from Abraham Lincoln.
“The best thing about the future,” he said, “is that it comes one day at a time.”
What we must do, as individuals and as a university, is to keep our goals clearly in view and, each day, make progress toward them. The journey may seem long, but it is far shorter than the one that faced those hearty souls who gathered at the Agricultural College, Experiment Station and School of Science of the State of University more than a century ago.
They started us on a path that has led us to this time of great opportunity and promise. It is our responsibility, our obligation, to take the next step. Our future is now and our path to greatness is clear.
Carmento and I are delighted to be a part of the WSU Family. What an amazing family. As always, Go Cougs!
View the President's Address via Videostream
Download the full transcript PDF >>
Pullman
Spokane
Tri-Cities
Vancouver
Extension
