September 19, 2003
Today, serves a twofold purpose. First, we'll recognize the excellence of our many outstanding faculty and staff who make Virginia Tech one of the nation's leading institutions. Second, I plan to give you my view on where we've been, how we are doing, and where we are going.
To all those who will be recognized later, I extend my personal congratulations, commendations, and particularly, my thanks for your efforts and your achievements. It is only because of your commitment to excellence that we achieve excellence as a university.
When I stood before you last September and reflected on the previous year, I thought we had seen some pretty tough times. Well, it was another year of rough waters. We incurred unprecedented losses in state funding, saw interesting debate among the governing board, and found ourselves in the midst of an athletic conference drama like this country had never before seen.
Yet, through it all we remained on target and focused. Our strategic plan guided many difficult decisions. We responded deftly to the losses from the state. The reorganization of our colleges and departments has positioned us to be more nimble and synergistic. Enrollment remains near record levels. Applications remain strong. Our Corps freshman class is the largest in thirty years.
Overall, the incoming class again set new records for student quality with an average GPA of more than 3.6 and average SAT scores of 1199. Bright students make for intellectually stimulating classrooms--where both students and teachers benefit.
By the way, most universities report the "weighted" high school GPA of incoming students where students received extra credit for Advanced Placement and the like. We traditionally have not done so. In coming years, we plan to conform to the general convention and you will see a higher number. Thus, the average GPA at Tech will be in the range of 3.8. These are smart young men and women!
Speaking of students, a residential campus like Virginia Tech, affords the opportunity to educate the whole person. That's why it is gratifying to see student leadership in action. For example, last year our students participated in The Big Event, a nationwide student volunteer effort aimed at improving local communities. The Student Government Association organized efforts to ensure that our state legislators understood the impacts of budget cuts. And this year, again under the SGA banner, our students are working to register fellow students to vote and participate in our cherished democratic process.
As for the administration, the budget has been our primary interest, and will remain so in the near future. We have taken many actions over the past year to position ourselves to generate the resources we need. Clearly, the state cannot solve the $350 million shortfall for higher education. We will be working with the General Assembly to gain greater flexibility in our operations.
Universities will have no choice but to be more entrepreneurial, to raise tuition to pay the bills, to enter into public/private partnerships, and to move quickly and nimbly. A 21st century university in Virginia will require more than control of its revenue stream. It also needs management tools. Currently underway among several Virginia universities are additional pilot programs of "decentralization" giving local authority for many management functions now controlled by Richmond.
We are asking the current General Assembly to make many aspects of these pilot projects permanent--including more control over property leasing, facility design and construction management, building maintenance, motor vehicle purchases, setting employment levels, and personnel recruitment. Such authority--and more--is essential in order to manage efficiently, find continuing cost savings, and enable us to move quickly to respond to the marketplace.
It is for these reasons that we have strengthened leadership in the Virginia Tech Foundation by appointing Ray Smoot chief operating officer. With about half a billion dollars in assets, the foundation needs full-time executive leadership. The foundation has been and will continue to be increasingly important in order to provide the financial flexibility we need.
For example, the foundation put up $5 million as seed funding for the university's participation in the National Lambda Rail project. This new high-speed network enables our participation in so-called big science projects. Virginia Tech has lead responsibility for the Mid-Atlantic Terascale Project, the regional component of Lambda Rail.
Our recent organizational restructuring is another case of positioning for the future and focusing growth and development of the academic and research programs. These new alignments result in greater synergies and more natural alliances, which better position us to advance the strategic agenda.
For the first time in many years, no dean has "acting" in his or her title. I hope that you are as pleased as I am with our recent appointments. Hassan Aref, the new dean of engineering, joins us from the University of Illinois. Sharron Quisenberry, the new dean of agriculture and life sciences, hails most recently from Montana State University. Two internal appointments give us Jerry Niles as dean of liberal arts and human sciences, and Lay Nam Chang at the helm for the college of science.
However, a key member of our leadership team will soon be departing. Minnis Ridenour, executive vice president and chief operating officer, has made clear his intention to step down by this time next year and devote his efforts to teaching and special projects. It is hard to convey the tremendous impact Minnis has had on Virginia Tech and all of Virginia higher education. With very good reason, he is highly respected by state officials and his colleagues throughout the country. He conceived the maintenance reserve fund to ensure that the state provided a consistent revenue stream to maintain our buildings. He devised the equipment trust find to ensure a consistent revenue stream for the equipment so essential to the academic enterprise. The burgeoning of construction on campus is much his doing. Minnis has, for some time, judged his success based on how many Virginia Tech buildings are in the General Assembly basket. His accolades are numerous. For now, suffice to say that he will be sorely missed.
On a more upbeat note, long-awaited raises will soon be a reality for both faculty and staff. In addition, the Board of Visitors indicated they would support a plan to raise faculty salaries to the 60th percentile of our peer group over several years.
We have just entered the "quiet phase" of a major fund raising campaign. Endowments for faculty and scholarships will be one of the campaign's highest priorities. It is essential that we have ample resources to attract and retain top scholars--among both faculty and students. The campaign will be among our most important endeavors over the next decade. Strong philanthropy is a critical resource, as private monies create the margin of excellence every school desires. It is also a mark of success. People, foundations, and companies voluntarily part with their money only when they have faith in our ability to do something meaningful with it. A successful fundraising campaign validates our accomplishments to those outside the university community.
Our strategic plan calls for a cluster of programs to be among the very best in the world. We are committed to strengthening research, scholarship, teaching, and outreach. Quality is our watchword. I sometimes must explain to people outside the academy that our quest to be a top 30 university transcends the research arena. It is nothing less than the pursuit of pervasive excellence - expanding the quality and impact of all we do throughout the academic enterprise.
We are investing time, energy, and resources in four major institutes. In a way, they catalyze our strategic plan and will be a primary interface with the external world. The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute has positioned Tech to be a player in the world of genomic miracles. The Institute for Biomedical and Public Health Sciences brings together the many seemingly disparate health, policy, and life science disciplines on campus.
Together both institutes allow us to participate in huge investments the federal government has made in health and medicine. By its appropriations process, the government drives the national research agenda. Over a five-year period in the late 90s, the fed doubled appropriations to the various National Institutes of Health. We will be part of that process.
The Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science is a focal point for interdisciplinary study and research and will house state-of-the-art laboratories. It will cluster synergistic research groups, particularly those in science, technology, and engineering. It will pull together the many, many efforts underway in information technology, energy and environment, biotechnology, advanced materials, and transportation.
An Institute for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, or a similar organizing structure, is in its formative stage. With the leadership of senior fellow, Tim Luke, The Institute will provide a framework for the development of a vision, and document the achievements to date of artists, humanists and social scientists. Moreover, the Institute will serve as a vital structure for planning the next steps and making key, strategic investment decisions regarding the support of graduate programs, faculty scholarship, and creative endeavors in these disciplines.
While they are not all inclusive, these institutes typify the direction the university is going in the coming decade. In addition to serving as foci for research, the institutes will drive new programming. As you know, in recent years we have developed graduate degrees in biomedical engineering, genetics, bioinformatics, and computational biology. Just last month, we announced a new masters in communication.
Several years ago, we began extolling the virtues of so-called strategic partnerships. Over the past several years, we have seen the creation of the new school of biomedical engineering with Wake Forest, an affiliation with the Oak Ridge National Lab, the Carilion Biomedical Institute and many more. Shortly after I spoke with you last year, NASA awarded us the contract to run its National Institute of Aerospace at Langley Field--a reflection of our national leadership in many engineering and scientific fields. This is yet one more example of a partnership, in this case with other major universities, that we could not have done on our own.
Students, faculty, and staff are now feeling the pinch of state funding losses. However, I believe that we are now experiencing the toughest part and times will get better. I am confident that, given new flexibility and authority by the commonwealth, we will be able to regenerate some lost funds and start putting additional instructors in the classroom by this time next year.
After the events of last spring and the Supreme Court's rulings on the Michigan cases this summer, I know there are a lot of questions within the university community as to where we stand with regard to diversity. Let me be very clear that the university's commitment--and my personal commitment--to diversity has not waned. The diversity of ideas is the essence of a university. The richer the diversity of backgrounds present in our community, the greater the diversity of ideas.
I hope you all were able to attend the 6th annual Celebration of Diversity last week and the "Community Forum on Access and Inclusion" last Friday. In particular, I want to personally invite and encourage all of you to attend a university-wide information session that will be held on November 10 from 3:00 to 5:00 in Owens banquet hall. The purpose of this gathering will be to provide both an update on the review of our race-conscious programs and an opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to ask any questions they might have. In addition to university administrators, at least one member of our Board of Visitors, Mr. Ben Davenport--who chairs an ad hoc committee of the Board on this topic--will be participating.
And finally, I suppose that this talk would not be complete without some mention of the ACC. Okay, I mentioned it.
Let me conclude by saying how pleased and gratified I am to serve you as the 15th president of Virginia Tech. We are focused. We have the talent and we have the will to be among the very best universities in this great nation. Excellence is our watchword. It's a word sometimes overused in the world of higher education, but one that still resonates for me. And I thank you for your drive and zeal to accept nothing but the best as evidenced today by the many colleagues we will recognize shortly.
Thank you.