Good afternoon, everyone! Continuing with recognition of faculty achievements this past year, I’d
like to highlight some other awards. In ceremonies late last spring at a Board of Regents meeting,
three of our faculty received Regents Faculty Awards. Dr. Mike Scott from Geography and
Geosciences received the BOR Faculty Award in the service category, Dr. Jinchul Kim in the
teaching category, and Dr. Bob Dombrowski received his award in the mentorship category. They
join 14 other SU faculty who have been so recognized by the BOR since the beginning of this award
program 10 years ago. In recent years, SU faculty have garnered the highest per capita recognition as
BOR awardees in the entire USM! Please give them a round of applause.
I’d also like to recognize some other faculty achievements from last spring and for this year. Dr.
Brian Polkinghorn from Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution has been awarded an Elkins
Professorship for the second year in a row! In the entire USM, only three Elkins Professorships were
awarded this year! In addition to maintaining the momentum of his Elkins Professorship award from
last year where he developed the Scholar-in-Residence Program bringing Arun Gandhi to campus,
Brian will also be working with colleagues in Costa Rica at the United Nations-mandated University
for Peace where he will share his experience with developing a graduate-level program in conflict
resolution. Please join me in congratulating Brian.
And SU faculty continue to be successful in being awarded Fulbright Scholarships. Dr. Pat
McDermott of Accounting and Marketing and Management is returning to us after spending last year
in China as a lecturer in law at one of China’s leading law schools, East China University of Politics
and Law in Shanghai. And Dr. Ed Robeck from teacher education is back having spent last spring in
Malaysia exploring professional development for science teachers and contributing to a review of
secondary level science curricula while based at the National University of Malaysia in the capital city
of Kuala Lumpur. This coming year we have three faculty going off with Fulbrights. Dr. Tylor
Claggett of the Economics and Finance Department will spend the year at Shanghai University of
Finance and Economics in China. Dr. Shekar Shetty, also of the Economics and Finance
Department, will travel to Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia in spring 2009. And Dr. Dean
Kotlowski of the History Department will travel to De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines.
Please join me in congratulation this year’s Fulbright recipients.
In addition, we have three of our new faculty members who have been awarded Welcome Fellowships
from MHEC, Dr. Kelli Randall and Dr. James King from the English Department, and Dr. Peggy
Proudfoot-McGuire from the Social Work Department. As in Board of Regents Awards, Fulbright
Scholarships, and Elkins Professorships, SU is very distinctive within the USM and country in its
faculty’s accomplishments!
In last year’s speech, I identified three issues that I wanted to help lead the campus in addressing.
They were (1) to initiate the development of our new strategic plan, (2) to enrich our academic
community and the academic success of our students, and (3) to define our campus community today
and to elevate the role of service in our community.
We are well underway in formulating our new strategic plan. As I think back to last year, and I think
forward to this year when we will culminate a tremendous amount of planning for the immediate
future of this university, I am impressed and humbled by the amount of time, expertise, and energy so
many have put into our various plans. The process of planning is indispensable to this institution’s
intentions to be distinctive. We will produce our five year strategic plan by the end of the fall
semester, I have no doubt. But be aware that the planning process will continue on after that. The
process is as important as the plan.
Soon, the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Committee will be presenting the draft of the Strategic
Plan to the campus community. Over the summer, Chief of Staff Amy Hasson took the lead in pulling
together for Executive Staff review and critique a draft outline that brought together all of the input
received from campus entities and exercises last year. It became clear that there were at least three
themes that threaded through our thinking about the direction of this institution over the next several
years and beyond.
First and foremost, we think we’re on the right path. We think we’re performing our mission with
quality. However, we recognize that the future higher education environment we will face is
changing, and we will need to make some changes in order to adapt. So our new plan would not have
us dramatically changing course, but rather would help guide us to meet the challenges and needs of a
dynamic future. Setting part of our course for change is the Chancellor. Chancellor Kirwan has
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identified his three goals for the System, they are (1) closing the Achievement Gap, (2) keeping
Maryland competitive, meeting workforce needs in particular the needs in the STEM areas, and (3)
reducing the carbon footprint of the System, making it more sustainable. Therefore, our proposed first
theme thread, our first goal, would entail continuing to improve academic planning, programming and
assessment to ensure SU offers programs that support our mission and better aligns our academic
programs with the rapidly shifting demographic and economic landscapes of our state and region.
The second proposed goal would articulate that one of the most important qualities of SU (according
to campus feedback) is its small school feel and the faculty/student/staff engagement that contributes
to that feel. Even in the face of recent and continued modest growth, SU needs to put in place
additional programs and services that reinforce its feel as a small school. These programs and services
will support student success by preparing students from before entry through to graduation, building
our rates of retention and graduation along the way thus addressing the achievement gap at SU.
And, the third goal of our strategic plan would address the other piece of our dynamic future: We
must continue to build the resources – human, financial, physical and external – that support student
academic and engagement needs. We need more staff, we need a library, we need a field house, we
need a fine and performing arts facility, we need more on-campus housing, and we need to fully fund
our student academic support programs. This will take continued effort at the System office, in
Annapolis, and in our private fund raising efforts, and therefore, it must be part of our strategic plan.
We are looking to have the draft completed by the end of September, to share it with the community
and take input at that point, and to revise it and have a final plan completed by the end of the year. I
thank all of those present for their participation to date and for their continued participation, review
and suggestions in moving forward.
My second area of focus that I wanted to focus on this past year was in enriching our academic
community. I think first and foremost, working our way through the myriad of details so that we can
fully implement the Fulton Curriculum Transformation this fall is a watershed event. The Fulton
School 4-credit-course-model, with reformed curricula in every program, literally hundreds of
reformed or “enhanced” courses, is designed to lead to an enhanced, deeper, more focused, more
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engaged, and more rigorous learning experience. Via the fourth credit in particular, students will
engage in a wide variety of learning experiences, with an emphasis on more independent and engaged
learning. These experiences will include everything from additional reading and writing assignments,
to deeper engagement in undergraduate research and experience with information literacy, a greater
use of technology, as well as civic engagement, service learning, additional class or studio time,
cultural enrichment, even study abroad. I hope that this transformation starting in the Fulton School
will enable and encourage faculty in the other schools to investigate new ways to engage their
students. This transformation process has also opened a discussion on faculty workload across the
campus, how it’s calculated, what is expected, and how adjustments in these calculations and
expectations lead to an enhanced academic community for all faculty. I will be investigating this issue
in the coming year.
In other ways of looking at enriching our academic community last year, we spawned two new
departments to bring more identity and self-determination to those majors that were previously housed
in departments of similar discipline. SU now has a department of theatre and dance and a department
of conflict analysis and dispute resolution. I also see the opening of the TETC as highly enriching our
academic community mainly for the wonderful academic facility that it is, but also the opportunities
its space gave the campus to accomplish other enhancing moves. For example, probably for the first
time since the beginning of the Perdue School of Business, all of their departments and faculty are
now able to be housed in the same building, Caruthers Hall. While this is just a three-year layover for
the School until their new building opens in 2011, it does give them the opportunity to
organizationally prepare for their new space….and it gives them a better view of the construction site!
And with Perdue moving out of Holloway Hall, there is now a home for the Allenwood exiles, better
known as our psychology department. Joining psychology in Holloway will be the conflict analysis
and dispute resolution department, and we are investigating enriching and concentrating many student
services into a “one-stop shop” for student services in space vacated by the Perdue School on the 1st
floor in Holloway. And finally, due to additional computer lab space in TETC, we were able to take
out a computer lab on the first floor of Fulton Hall to create a senior art studio for the Art Department
that had been temporarily housed last year in the old Delmarva Gymnastic Academy, which is being
torn down to make room for the parking garage.
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Last year, in another enrichment move to increase awareness of student success, we developed the
concept and then the creation of a Center for Student Achievement. I’d like to recognize the recentlyrecruited founding Director of that Center, Dr. Heather Holmes. The Center is located in a renovated
Room 213 of the Guerrieri University Center. Heather will be highly visible on campus over the
coming weeks and months as she leads efforts to further define the Center and enhance our support of
student success.
The third area that I wanted to concentrate on last year was to define our campus community today
and to elevate the role of service in our community. I think we made a great deal of headway on
defining ourselves through the various strategic planning activities, and we should be in a good
position to more formally define ourselves with the completion of the Plan at the end of this fall
semester. And efforts were initiated last year to address the issue of, “how can we increase the
recognition and rewards to those who provide service to the campus community and beyond.” The
Faculty Senate has led discussion on this, and the President has suggested possible methods to
accomplish this. We will continue to consider mechanisms in the coming year that will encourage and
reward faculty in providing the needed service for this campus to function with quality. In a modest
way, I’d like to recognize right here and now service in faculty governance to several chairs of
committees of the Faculty Senate that by their committee charge require a large amount of their time,
and a large amount of expertise and responsibility to get the work done well. While service on all
committees is appreciated, we all know there are certain committees that really require extensive time,
energy, and responsibility. As I recognize the chairs of these committees, I also recognize the same
dedicated work of the committee members of these committees. So to begin, I first recognize Dr.
Kelly Fiala, chair of the Membership and Elections Committee. Kelly, please come up to accept your
gift and will all Committee members from last year please stand and be recognized. Next I recognize
Chair of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Dr. Susan Muller. I think we can all appreciate
the amount of time, and stress, this committee put in last year on the curricular transformation alone.
Susan, please come up to accept your gift and will all Committee members from last year please stand
and be recognized. Next, I’d like to have Dr. Gerry DiBartolo come forward for his gift in
recognition of being chair of the Academic Policies Committee, and would the members of that
Committee please rise and be recognized. Dr. Lisa Seldomridge, please come forward and receive
your gift for chairing the Faculty Welfare Committee, and would the members of that Committee
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stand and be recognized. As chair of the Faculty Development Committee, Dr. Anita Brown, would
you please come up to receive your gift and thanks, and would the members of that committee stand
and be recognized. Lastly, while this committee does not meet as often as others, the burden on this
committee to perform its duties professionally can be arduous, so I’d like to recognize Dr. Jim
Hatley, the chair of the University Promotions Committee. Jim, please come up and will the members
of that Committee please rise to be recognized. Thank you all!
Additionally, I’d like to recognize a faculty member who stepped forward to take on the trials and
tribulations of leading his school, not for just one year, but for two! Will former interim Dean of the
Henson School of Science and Technology, Dr. Mike Folkoff please come forward to accept my
thanks for a job well done!
I’d like to end my “Welcome Back Address” by talking about the greatest strength of Salisbury
University….that would be you, The Faculty. What a diverse, dedicated, highly professional, well
credentialed, and GROWING faculty you are. Just three years ago in fall 2005, SU had 265 filled
tenure-track lines. Starting this fall, we now have 309 filled TT lines. SU has allocated and recruited,
almost exclusively at the assistant professor rank, 44 new tenure-track faculty. Over the same period,
another 58 new tenure track faculty have been hired to replace resignations and an ever-increasing
number of retirements for a grand total of 102 new TT faculty….in just three years! That’s a 38
percent increase in new TT faculty over a very short time period. And additionally, during this time of
rapid increase in TT faculty, we have also increased the number of FTNTT faculty from 58 to 66. So
if you’re keeping score, SU has a total now of 375 full time faculty starting this fall.
With the exception of the early 1970s, this university has never seen such a dramatic increase in new
faculty in such a short period of time. It was the expansion in the faculty during the 70s that led to the
initial elevation of quality of the institution. But Salisbury State College was in a much different
world in those days, there were different expectations then. Today we face new and different
challenges in higher education. Maintaining the high level of quality we have achieved and moving it
ahead to an even higher level, will also require a high level of energy with participation by many.
With so many new faculty joining our SU academic community, I ask for our more senior faculty to
take on with renewed energy your role in mentoring our new colleagues so that they will better
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understand this university and be successful. Mentoring them not only in pedagogy, advising,
professional development, and service, but also mentoring them on the importance to themselves and
our students in being a part of SU university life, such as being on campus to attend faculty and
student events, and attending special occasions for our students such as convocations and graduations.
I believe we have assembled an exceptional faculty at a time in this institution’s history that will make
new history. This faculty with appropriate resource support from staff and administration will define
this university for the 21st Century. I’m excited and honored to be with you at such a momentous time,
and I look forward to working with you in the coming years to do just that!
So Here’s to You, SU Faculty, have a great year! And let’s work together to Rock this University!
(Song “We Will Rock You” by Queen to be played)
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