Royal Purple

The following is a print transcript of Chancellor Richard Telfer’s 2009 “State of the University” speech.

Good morning.  Welcome to the beginning of the 2009-2010 Academic Year.   I hope you all had an enjoyable summer, whether you spent it here on campus or elsewhere.  I would like to spend some time today discussing with you the state of the university.  I’ve thought a lot about what to say today.  At the start of this school year, my thoughts are different than they were the last two years.  We’re in an environment where the future seems confusing and uncertain.  The economic times have been terrible and we are not immune from those influences.  Despite these challenges, as the theme indicates, we here at UW-Whitewater remain “on the move”.

So what is the state of the university?  

Would all the faculty, academic staff, and classified staff who are subject to the furloughs please stand.  I ask everyone to look around.  Now, if you are happy about taking a furlough, please sit down. I notice that not many seats are filled. We are all having to sacrifice…we are all sharing in this.  

I know that these sacrifices are difficult for all of us and that you may find the context of these cuts both confusing and frustrating.  

In more than 20 other states, state workers are taking furloughs, some more severe than ours.

At the same time, we see others who work in education-related occupations not being subjected to pay cuts and furloughs.

Thank you.  Please take your seats again.

I’d like to discuss the situation in which we find ourselves.  My intent is not to overwhelm you with details, but to remind all of us of a number of realities we face.

We haven’t been able to escape the economic realities affecting the nation and the State of Wisconsin.  Unemployment is high.  Housing prices have dropped.  Banks have failed.  And personal income has fallen.  Many of us know individuals in Janesville, Fort Atkinson, and other communities who have lost their jobs.  State tax revenue collections are down.  Projections are unclear when these situations will turn around.

There may be some light on the horizon.  Home sales have risen over the past several months.  Consumer spending increased in July for the second straight month.  The stock market has increased over several months.  New car sales seem to be increasing.  In Wisconsin, Oshkosh Corporation won a new contract with the Pentagon and recently hired about 400 new workers and returned another 650 from furloughs.  Johnson Controls will be benefiting from $299 million in federal stimulus funding for manufacture of batteries for hybrid cars and trucks.  

Even though these are turbulent times, we have been able to lessen the impact of the budget reductions, in part through actions we have taken over the past few years.

Our enrollment remains strong.  We anticipate a new freshman class of just over 1,950, a deliberate reduction from last year’s near record level.  

This strong enrollment has been due to the work of those who have created our excellent academic and co-curricular programs. These programs draw students to our campus.  

Our strong enrollment is also due to the efforts of many who work in Admissions, New Student Programs, and Academic Advising and Exploration and other units on campus.

We’ve been helped by having programs that win awards, that are accredited, that gain visibility through outreach and through media coverage, that win championships, and that reach out to people in the community.

All of these efforts make UW-Whitewater attractive to students across the region, helping to keep enrollments healthy.  Our undergraduate enrollment this year is up by 200.  If enrollments had been declining instead of growing, the sacrifices we are now facing would have been far worse.

Enrollment of Out-of-State and International Students
Our enrollment of out-of-state and international students continues to grow.  We have been able to restore the levels of out-of-state enrollment and increase them slightly.  As a result, we regained tuition revenue.  Although the number of international students enrolled remains small, we are working to increase that figure.
 
We have adopted a more entrepreneurial approach to our thinking, and as a result, we are accruing additional revenues that have helped soften some of the impact of the budget cuts and have allowed us to stay on the move.  

For example, we are offering more on-line courses across the campus, especially in Business and Economics and Letters and Sciences.   We collect an additional fee for on-line courses in order to offset some of the extra technical and administrative costs they create.  These additional revenues soften some of the impact of the budget cuts.  These on-line offerings are allowing us to reach more students and better serve the community.

That fact that our faculty and staff members have been diligent in their pursuit of grant opportunities is also paying dividends.  

Last year, extramural funding from grants increased by about 42%.  The additional revenues received have made for a more exciting and intellectually stimulating campus.

In 2009-2010, we will continue on the move.  But as we continue, it must always be with forward progress.  Our destination must always be excellence as a university.  To that end, we are continuing to move forward with our Strategic Plan.  

In September and October, the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee will examine the performance of our Strategic Plan over its first three years and discuss our next steps.

How will we continue to be on the move?

We will continue to develop in the area of Programs and Learning.

Since a strong liberal education is a key contributor to success, we will continue to emphasize the development of our liberal education core for all of our students.  To this end, I call your attention to the LEAP --Liberal Education, America’s Promise--campaign.  We are actively participating in this effort, along with colleagues across the UW System and across the country.

The national LEAP campaign promotes a series of essential learning outcomes for education that includes striving for excellence, cultivating personal and academic integrity, contributing to the larger community, valuing the perspectives of others, and developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning.  As you might notice, this campaign echoes our strategic plan.

Tomorrow, the LEARN Center is hosting a workshop by L. Lee Knefelkamp, a leading advocate for LEAP.  The presentation, entitled, “Why Are We Here?” takes place at 10 a.m. in the Timmerman Auditorium in Hyland Hall.  I urge you all to attend.

We will continue to enhance The Educator-Scholar Community.  

Last year was a record year in extramural grant activity, with $8.2 million awarded.  It exemplifies our efforts to seek additional funding for our work.  

 An example of our success is the nearly $1 million dollar grant to the University of Wisconsin System School Library Education Consortium, which is led by faculty members Eileen Schroeder and Anne Zarinnia.  The grant will help prepare 50 new school library specialists for Wisconsin's rural and high-need urban public schools. The United States Institute of Museum and Library Service’s “Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program” made the award.

Another example is a $60,000 grant awarded by the Merck Institute for Science Education and the American Association for the Advancement of Science to three of our faculty.  This past summer, faculty members Catherine Chan, Elisabeth Harrahy, and Paul House and their students used the funding to study the effects of personal care products and over-the-counter drugs on water quality and plant growth.  

We will continue to develop in the area of Diversity and Global Perspectives.

An excellent university must offer students a diverse learning environment.  To help us continue to encourage diversity and inclusiveness on our campus, we are participating in the UW-System’s Inclusive Excellence planning process this year.  The program was designed to help UW colleges and universities foster diversity, equity, inclusion and accountability at every level of campus life.

As part of this process, we will administer a Campus Climate survey during early October.  The survey will assess the climate on our campus and identify opportunities to strengthen it.
In September, you will receive emails with links to the on-line survey.  I ask you all complete the questionnaire.  The input is extremely helpful to us as we move forward.

We will continue our efforts toward Regional Engagement.

Earlier this year, the City, the Whitewater Community Development Authority, and the University reached an agreement on a location for the Whitewater University Technology Park.  The first phase of this project will involve constructing a $5 million innovation center, This park and, specifically, the innovation center will help the area’s economy move forward by bringing together our researchers to develop innovations that will create new business opportunities.

The design stage is nearly complete and in August a construction manager was hired to help with the final design and the budget.  We hope to break ground for the building in October.

We continue our discussions with faculty and staff to identify ways to promote business development using the talents and skills of our faculty, staff, and students.  
We expect that the projects that result will both advance scholarship in the researchers’ fields and yield innovations that will create new business opportunities for communities in our area.

We will continue our efforts related to Professional and Personal Integrity.

In 2007, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater signed on the the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment aimed at reducing our carbon footprint and leading to a more sustainable campus.  This commitment promises that we will complete a greenhouse gas inventory, identify some tangible actions toward sustainability, and begin to include sustainability in the curriculum.   We have begun a number of efforts in these areas.  We have exchanged a number of vehicles for more fuel-efficient vehicles.  We have changed our plantings and our mowing patterns.  We have begun to discuss ways to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum.

We will be moving forward with the number of efforts.  I recently received our greenhouse gas inventory, which we can use as a baseline.  With this as a baseline, we can work toward reduction of our campuses carbon footprint.  Our newly constituted Sustainability Council will help coordinate our process.

Now, I’d like to show you a short video of some of our other accomplishments this past year.  After the video, I’d like to answer some of the questions you’ve submitted.  I plan to answer as many as time allows.  Those I don’t get to, I’ll respond to you via email or in other venues.
 
As we continue on the move, we will apply our more-entrepreneurial approach to help strengthen our institution and to cope with our economic situation.

First, we will seek every opportunity to provide internal funds as seed money for those seeking extramural grants.  We recognize the importance of continuing to pursue grant funding as part of our overall funding program.  Through the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, we will continue to help identify grant opportunities and help faculty and staff to prepare competitive proposals for funding.  This promotes both scholarship and funding support.

Second, we will continue to support faculty interested in teaching courses on-line, including helping them prepare to do so.

Third, we will continue to tell the story of our students, faculty, and staff, highlighting their successes and their contributions to the community we serve.  By doing so, we will help the community better understand the overall impact of the campus on the region.  We make southeastern Wisconsin better because we are here.

Fourth, as we continue to make the community more aware of our successes and our contributions to the community, we will strive to assist the UW-Whitewater Foundation as it grows our endowment.  We will continue to seek support for the foundation so that it can help provide funding to ensure excellent educational experiences for our students.

Fifth, we will continue to build success through a more-entrepreneurial approach and continue to find other ways to add to our revenue.  We will take more control of our own destiny.  

I am impressed with the excellent work being done by our faculty and staff.  I understand the sacrifices that are being made by each of you.  It is important to continue to be striving for excellence, to continue to provide outstanding educational opportunities for students, to continue to develop professionally, and to continue to be on the move.  Welcome to the challenges of the 2009-2010 school year.