State of the University Address
November 6, 2007
Tucson
Thank you, Wanda, for the lovely introduction. And thank you all for joining me today for my first State of the University address. I very much appreciate your taking the time to be here and will try to use this time wisely.
Please know that I will not be offended if a few folks glance at their watches along the way, but I am determined to avoid the spectacle of too many of you actually shaking those watches to be sure they are still working!
This address is not intended to be a monologue. Rather, it is my hope that it will serve as a springboard for a dialogue across the campus and around the state on how we make The University of Arizona better. Our goal must always be about improving the quality of what we do.
An annual State of the University conversation affords us with the opportunity to reflect on the successes of the year past – and there have been many, of which we should be very proud – while looking forward to the prospects and goals of the year ahead.
It provides an opportunity to build on the vision and commitment of our predecessors while defining a new future and new priorities for this extraordinary institution.
William Jennings Bryan once characterized destiny as "not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; not a thing to be waited for, but a thing to be achieved." I believe it is the destiny of The University of Arizona to be among the small handful of truly great public research universities that will flourish and prosper in the decades ahead.
Just look at where we have come in the past year.
Interest in this University is at an all-time high. Applications for the current academic year were up by more than 25 percent from the year before, which allowed us to be more selective while simultaneously growing the freshman class by nearly 600 students, giving us our largest, most accomplished, and most diverse freshman class in history.
As just one component of this new class, consider that the number of National Hispanic Scholars rose from 49 to 72 – a phenomenal increase.
As enrollments are rising, so too is the stellar work of our faculty. The National Science Foundation recently ranked the U of A as No. 1 in America for the study of physical sciences, which includes the broad categories of astronomy, chemistry and physics. To achieve this top national ranking, the research grants that our faculty earned moved us for the first time past Johns Hopkins University and Cal Tech. People across the state need to remember that this is the company we keep at The University of Arizona.
With more than $530 million in total research expenditures last year, The University of Arizona now ranks 13th among all public universities.
The research of our faculty is having a profound effect on the understanding that we have of the world in which we live and the quality of life that we experience. Research at this University is unlocking secrets for feeding the undernourished; explaining global climate change; helping Arizona protect and utilize water and other natural resources; developing new treatments for cancer and diabetes; bringing the world better understanding of the evolution of humankind and the origins of our solar system.
We are able to build optical telescopes that are unequaled in size and quality. We are developing weather prediction models that are unique in their precision. We are unlocking the hidden secrets of Alzheimer's disease. And our success is not just in the physical sciences. Our University is also custodian of the world's premier museum on Southwestern culture, the top modern poetry center in the country, and one of the nation's leading dance programs. Across every discipline, and on a daily basis, this University is improving the human condition for the people of Arizona.
The range of discovery and creativity by our faculty is simply stunning. It shapes the uniqueness of this institution, and gives students at the U of A unsurpassed learning opportunities.
The University of Arizona is the leading public research university in the American Southwest because of the extraordinary quality of our faculty and the stellar work they do in the classroom, on the stage, in the lab and in the clinic.
This year we acquired an exceptional living laboratory to support the academic experiences that define the U of A. In July, we took over operations of the Biosphere 2 campus in Oracle. Importantly, we did this at a cost of only $100 per year, and with $30 million in private support pledged to support operations and research at the facility. The vision and creativity of Dean Joaquin Ruiz and colleagues in bringing this opportunity to fruition will benefit the University for years to come. Global climate change and water will be the foci of research in the Biosphere. As Travis Huxman and his colleagues in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology lead this effort to uncover secrets that will have profound impact on the quality of life for future generations of Arizonans, Peter Smith and his team at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory are leading us to Mars, with a mission that could unlock the secrets of life on the Red Planet; all the while, Hsinchun Chen in Management Information Systems at Eller is deciphering the dark side of the Web, and how terrorists use the Internet for training and recruitment; and Professor Carol Barnes and a number of her colleagues in the Psychology Department have established the McKnight Brain Institute, which will explore the behavioral and biological aspects of normal aging, part of the Psychology Department's broader activities in "cognitive neuroscience," which seeks to understand the brain mechanisms underlying complex functions such as perception, memory, language, decision making and emotion, and how they change during the course of life.
In every college and every department, it is the same story: groundbreaking work that is rewriting what we know and how we live. From the effects of advertising to the psychology of learning; from new forms of C.P.R. to new forms of artistic expression.
What an extraordinary range of things we do!
When Alexander Hamilton was a boy of 12, living in the West Indies, he was a stock clerk in a store. Clerking was not his ambition in life, and he often dreamed of the possibilities that might lie before him, and how he might shape the world beyond the walls of that store. In his diary he wrote these words: "I mean to prepare the way for futurity."
That is what we are doing on a daily basis at The University of Arizona. As one example, the future needs of this state will necessitate a large increase in the number of health care professionals. So this year we admitted the first class of 24 students to our new medical school campus in Phoenix. Within a few short years that number will grow to 150 new students per year. This growth will not in any way detract from what we are doing in Tucson, but will greatly enhance it.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in Partnership with Arizona State University is an exciting new opportunity to serve the future needs of this state, and to build on the solid success of our health sciences operations at the main campus.
It is led by a new dean, Ted Shortliffe, a renowned expert in Bioinformatics whom we attracted from Columbia University, and it is part of a larger Biomedical Campus that will focus on cutting-edge research to improve health care and cure disease.
While we have a presence in every Arizona county and are excited about our growth in Phoenix, we are also deeply committed to the needs of our community in Tucson. That's why this past year the U of A made a major commitment to downtown redevelopment by partnering with the city to bring our Science Center and a branch of the Arizona State Museum to the downtown Rio Nuevo project. The city's commitment of $130 million to fund the construction of the new facility is symbolic of the very positive relationship that we enjoy with our neighbors, and the synergy that results when we work together for the good of our whole community.
Before I talk about the new initiatives that we hope to undertake, let me mention one other major highlight of the year just past.
When I arrived at The University of Arizona in July of last year, we faced a historical imbalance of approximately $25 million in state funding. It was apparent that we had to face that and deal with it. It wasn't easy, and it required the determined commitment of our deans and department heads and vice presidents, but we were able to implement a new budget process that is transparent, participatory and data driven. Budget reductions and allocations were targeted, based on priorities. They were decidedly not "across the board."
Those actions, coupled with a strong state appropriation that brought us an overall increase of 13.7 percent, have put us on solid footing for the years ahead.
As I think about what lies before us, I am reminded of the history of the ancient coat of arms of the royal family of Spain. The Spanish were proud of the fact that their country sat on the very edge of the known world, which prior to the voyage of Columbus was thought to end somewhere off Gibraltar. The royal coat of arms depicted the Pillars of Hercules, with their columns guarding the Strait of Gibraltar, and the royal motto read: Ne Plus Ultra, which translates to "there is no more beyond here."
But then Columbus discovered a whole new world beyond the horizon, leaving the country's motto – and one could suggest the nation's pride - in question. A crisis loomed, but was averted when Queen Isabella accepted a simple change. The first word, "ne," would be deleted, and the Royal Court's motto became – and remains today – Plus Ultra: "There is plenty more beyond."
For the U of A, there is plenty more beyond the success of this past year.
And as we look to the year ahead, I want to stress what is my No. 1 priority for this institution, and what I want everyone to take from this conversation: We must put people first. Our focus must always be on serving our students and supporting our faculty, professionals and staff. It is people who make a university great, and we must do all that we can to see that everyone who is a part of this university family has the chance to succeed, because that is how the institution will succeed.
If we are to put people first, one area that requires immediate action is faculty salaries. I spoke earlier of just some of the great accomplishments of our faculty. If we can't retain those faculty, we can't attract the research funding that leads to new discoveries, drives our economy and improves our lives. Without great faculty, our students are deprived of the learning experience that underpins their future careers and inspires them to increase their capacity and their achievements.
The budget proposal that we have presented to the regents requests $13.6 million in new funds to address a critical and immediate need for faculty salary adjustments. The salary gap between the U of A and our peer institutions is much too wide. Our request to the state, which is for a 7 percent increase, would bring us to the mid-point compared with our peer institutions.
This is a modest investment that can bring huge returns. The faculty that we have lost in the past few years by not being competitive have taken with them to other states tens of millions of dollars in research grants and dozens of jobs that those grants supported. The state of Arizona cannot afford to let that trend continue.
Unfortunately, competition for faculty is only going to become more intense in the coming years. Let me give you just one example. We know that universities in the California system are among our biggest competitors for faculty talent. We know, too, that U.C. Berkeley salaries are about 17 percent higher than our salaries. That situation is about to change, and not for the better.
Within the past two months, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation donated $113 million to support 100 endowed faculty positions at Berkeley. We are not going to be able to deal with that level of competition if we don't get the state to take immediate steps to make our faculty salaries more competitive.
The gap in salaries varies by college, and the gap is greatest at the full professor level. The funds that we are seeking through the UA Faculty Competitiveness Initiative would be distributed on the basis of merit, market and equity. Making faculty salaries competitive is one of our highest priorities. It is where we will focus our energy in legislative conversations in the year ahead.
I am encouraged that the Governor and legislative leaders are seriously discussing new methods of funding the state's universities. The current model simply rewards size, without regard to quality. Our state is not going to succeed in the competitive global economy without the kind of quality higher education that The University of Arizona offers as a nationally prominent student-centered research university.
The uniqueness of what we are able to bring to the state of Arizona can be characterized in so many different ways, but let me offer just one example, and it involves our extraordinary ability to do research across disciplines. In our College of Science, Roger Angel, who is the world's premier expert in mirror fabrication, knows how to collect and focus sunlight. It is what telescopes do. Now he has turned his attention to the topic of solar energy. Arizona is the premier location in the United States for this effort. The challenge is to make solar panels competitive with fossil fuels in generating electricity. By partnering with colleagues in Engineering and Optics, Roger Angel is on the verge of making that a possibility.
Bringing together great minds across world-class departments can only happen in a few places in the world. The University of Arizona is one of those rare places. It is what we do and it must be supported.
But to get that support we are going to need to be creative as we think about the possibilities for new funding models.
I have proposed that the state think about funding in a whole new way by creating a competitive investment fund that would provide matching funds in several critical areas. This would reward success by making funding more competitive. By providing matching dollars for exceptionally large external grants – and by that I mean millions of dollars per year and above – the state can leverage the extraordinary work that our faculty do to bring in extramural funding. Much of the funding that our faculty can attract through competitive grants requires matching funds. The state should reward and support our ability to attract those outside dollars. The benefits to the state and to the University are too great to ignore; they are enormous.
Similarly on the private side, I have proposed and will lobby for an endowed professorship incentive fund that would provide matching funds to private donations that create endowed professorships of a minimum total endowment of $1 million or more.
We must also put a new emphasis on need-based financial aid to make the U of A accessible to all qualified students. This is why I have asked our financial aid office to create a program that we are calling the Arizona Assurance. This program is aimed at supporting students most in need, and would assure them that they could attend The University of Arizona free from the burden of tuition and fees. The Arizona Assurance will be a great leap forward in generating the educated citizenry and work force that Arizona must have to succeed in this 21st century, but only if the state and private donors step to the plate to support this program.
But there is a limit to what the Arizona Assurance can provide if we do not get the state and private donors to step to the plate to support our efforts.
Private giving to the University is another area that is a high priority as we move forward. We have great, loyal supporters of the U of A, and have this past year received some very generous gifts. In fact, this past year we had one of our best years ever for fundraising, attracting more than $143 million in support, an impressive increase of 19 percent over the previous year.
But compared with our peer institutions, the U of A's endowment is small, and we must make the growth of the endowment one of our major priorities. As the endowment grows, we will be better able to underwrite and stabilize support for faculty, students, professionals and staff, and sustain our underlying theme of putting people first.
I am also a firm believer that if people are going to have an opportunity to succeed, they need the right physical environment. You can't do 21st-century research in 1960s buildings. We have to provide our faculty and students with the facilities that will allow new discoveries and foster intellectual growth.
Winston Churchill once said that "we shape our buildings. Thereafter they shape us." Without the right physical plant, we cannot realize our potential. As we continue to grow, our future needs for classroom, laboratory and library space will grow as well. We must begin to address the state of our physical plant, and support of capital renewal within our state budget is critical to that process. Be assured, we will lobby hard to be certain that The University of Arizona has classrooms and labs that enable the educational and research programs on which the state of Arizona's well-being will rely.
In recruiting faculty who will fill those labs and classrooms, we must be more diligent in our efforts to ensure diversity. I want to say this as clearly as I can: The University of Arizona is fully committed to recruiting and retaining the most talented and diverse faculty possible. A more diverse faculty will enrich the classroom experience of our students, enhance our ability to understand and serve the diverse population of our state, and make us stronger as an institution.
To ensure that we reinvigorate our efforts in the recruitment and retention of a more diverse faculty, I have charged the Provost to develop a specific plan that will bring greater accountability – and success – to our recruitment efforts. Recruiting underrepresented faculty, and making dual career placements, must be one of our highest priorities in the coming year.
Edmund Burke noted that "you can never plan the future by the past." To keep your thinking from being limited by the past, it is incredibly important to have input from people with vision and imagination and hope. At the U of A we are fortunate to have a terrific model in place that elicits the kind of visionary input that can help inspire our future direction. The centerpiece of that is our Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee.
The strategic plan that SPBAC has developed over the course of the past year reflects the values that guide us as a university: the quest for academic excellence; a desire to provide access for students from across the state and to ensure their success; and a commitment to improving the human condition and quality of life for all the citizens of Arizona. The plan provides an important roadmap for guiding our decisions through the decade ahead. It is a terrific example of shared governance, drawing on the creative talents of faculty, staff, students and alumni leaders.
We can empower the Arizona Dream, but we must focus on people. This plan gives us a way to do that.
The budget decisions that we make in the future will be guided by the priorities articulated in the strategic plan. Its focus is on students, faculty, professionals, staff and the citizens of this great state. Serving the people of Arizona more effectively and with the highest quality is what we aspire to as an institution.
We have made great progress in the past year: enrollment and applications are growing; research funding places us among the elite institutions in the world; patient care continues to improve; and our outreach efforts are touching lives in every county of the state, whether through work force development, 4-H, public broadcasting, or extension agents dealing with issues as diverse as water use and range management. Our strategic plan lays a solid framework for operating the University in the year ahead, and we have strong new members of our leadership team to help bring to fruition our vision of being one of the top 10 public research universities in the nation.
But we are not without challenges: we must make our faculty salaries more competitive; we need increased funding, both public and private, to support increases in financial aid; we need our endowment to grow; we need to expand and improve many of our facilities; and we need the state to recognize our unique role by providing a funding formula that allows us to compete for state support.
We should all be encouraged by this past year's accomplishments. The Governor and legislative leaders played an important role in that. They have been strong advocates for the need to strengthen public higher education in this state, and their support in my first year as President has been nothing short of terrific. I am deeply grateful for it. We will need to build on that support as we look at the very real challenges of the future.
Despite those challenges, our goal must be certain, our voice must be clear: We WILL be one of the 10 best public research universities in America. We WILL improve the human condition for Arizonans. We will put people first and quality will be our hallmark.
This University is about quality, discovery and opportunity. Those three words define us. They underpin all that we do and all that we are.
I have been in higher education as a faculty member or administrator for almost 30 years. In that time I have worked at outstanding universities with glorious traditions. But none with so great a potential as the U of A at this moment in time. Never in my career have I felt such excitement as I do now, looking at where this great university is going. The state of The University of Arizona has never been better, our future never brighter.
To everyone who cares about this institution, my thanks for your help and support. It has made my first year as president better than I could have imagined, and I know it will make the years ahead even better still.
Thank you all.