OPENING SPEECH 2007
Following up on the recognition of our Distinguished Faculty Awards, I’d like to recognize some other
faculty achievements from last spring and for this year. Dr. Brian Polkinghorn from Conflict
Analysis and Dispute Resolution and Sociology has been awarded this institution’s 4th Elkins
Scholarship. Brian plans to use the award this year to provide students and community members with
an opportunity to learn from one of the world’s leading experts on peace and conflict—Dr. Arun
Gandhi. Dr. Gandhi, founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and grandson of famed
pacifist Mahatma Gandhi, will be the first guest in SU’s new “Conflict Scholar in Residence”
Program.
Two faculty are the first recipients of a newly created annual award this year. Dr. Diana Wagner of
Education Specialties and Dr. Diane Illig of Sociology are our first recipients of The Faculty
Diversity Award.
In ceremonies last spring at the Board of Regents meeting, Dr. Ernie Bond from Teacher Education
and Dr. Don Spickler from Mathematics and Computer Science received BOR Faculty Awards in the
teaching category. They join 12 other SU faculty who have been so recognized by the BOR since the
beginning of this award program. In recent years, SU faculty enjoy the highest per capita percentages
as BOR awardees in the entire USM!
Two more of our faculty have been awarded Fulbright Scholarships for this year. Dr. Pat
McDermott of accounting and marketing and management will spend this 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 will be exploring professional development for science
teachers in Malaysia. He will also contribute to a review of secondary level science curriculum while
based at the National University of Malaysia in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
In addition, we have two of our newest faculty members who have been awarded Welcome
Fellowships from MHEC, Dr. Tina Brown from nursing, and Dr. Dialla Sessooms from Teacher
Education.
To use an often used quote from Yogi Berra: “If you don’t know where you are going,
you will probably end up someplace else.”
Well then, do we know where we’re going? Do we know where we want to go….really? And who
are we, and who do we want to be…..really? What are our REAL reasons for being here? We say
we’re Salisbury University, a Maryland University of National Distinction, where students and faculty
come to LEARN, to LIVE and promote life-long learning, and to LEAD in learning and Life. To
establish the environment for this, we have stated our mission in broad terms and forged our vision
with six values: Excellence in all that we do, with a focus of being student-centered, and we are
driven by learning, the importance of community, the necessity for civic engagement, and the
appreciation of diversity.
In the general language of higher institution identities, we are classified as a public comprehensive
university. This means we receive funding from our state, or as the contemporary saying goes, we
were state-funded, then state-supported, and now state-assisted, and then maybe state-located? As a
comprehensive university we have a wide spectrum of degree programs in the arts and sciences as well
as in the professional programs. In the old Carnegie Classification System of higher education
institutions, we were called a Master’s I University, meaning we offered a significant number of
master’s degree programs beyond the baccalaureate, but no doctorate degree programs. In the new
Carnegie Classification system just released last year, we are now classified as a Master’s University,
Medium sized. However, we haven’t been really in the mainstream of any these national
classifications in recent years, because we do have a uniqueness about us, a distinctiveness. All four
of our academic schools are endowed by private funds, and we have many other endowments to
support our students and programs. We are good at obtaining private sources of support. Our Capital
Campaign that we are currently in has already exceeded its original campaign target amount, and it’s
looking like it might even exceed its new higher target amount just announced last year! This private
source of funds, our beautiful arboretum of a campus, and the quality of our faculty and staff, give us
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the look and feel more so of a private institution than a public institution. No matter how we are
classified as a university, we have been good at what we do. Our students are consistently graduating
on time and are going on to graduate and professional schools in larger numbers every year. Our
graduates are entering the workforce and being highly successful. Our application pool continues to
increase every year. And at least one form of external evidence, the national ratings magazines, has
consistently been noticing our quality. As you may have heard, US News & World Report
“America’s Best Colleges” rankings for this year have come out and for the 11th year SU has again
placed in the “Top Public Universities in the Northern Tier,” this year at Number 7. And we
maintained our rank of 38th place out of 174 institutions in the category “Top Public and Private
Universities overall in the North.” We were again listed in Princeton Review’s “Best 366 Colleges”
annual college rankings, and we also remained this year in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine’s
“100 Best Values in Public Colleges.” SU has maintained its status as the highest-placing public
Master’s-level university in Maryland in the national rankings publications!
Before we begin planning on where we want to go, let’s take a quick look at our recent past and how
we got to where we are now. How have we changed over the last 10 years? First, our students: In
1996, our student enrollment was 5,947 and in 2006 it was 7,383, a 24 percent increase. Of that, 653
were graduate students in 1996, and in 2006 there were 592, a 9 percent decline in enrollment when
the undergraduate population was increasing. We awarded 1,300 degrees in 1996 and 1,610 in 2006,
also a 24 percent increase. We had fewer full time students in 1996 at 76 percent versus now where 85
percent of our students are full time. Our out of state student enrollment has declined during these 10
years, being 24 percent in 1996 and down to 14 percent in 2006. Going the other way, our student
minority population has gone from 10 percent then to 17 percent now. Another significant shift has
been in the average age of our students. In 1996 the percentage of 20-year-olds and younger on
campus was 24 percent, and now that number has nearly doubled to 47 percent! And they’re
Millennials, Oh My God! And of course, what about our freshmen student profile? In 1996, the
entering freshman class had an average SAT of 1132 and a H.S. GPA of 3.22. In 2006, the SAT was
1104 and the GPA was 3.43. SAT down, GPA up, significant shifts in student quality??? The
national average for the SAT score also saw a dip last year, which was the first year of the addition of
the writing portion. However, for this fall, our incoming class of freshmen come with an increased
average GPA of 3.50 and an increased average SAT of 1120, (1673, 3 parts).
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And what about the faculty? While there was a 24 percent increase in student enrollment from 1996
to 2006, there was also a concomitant increase in full time faculty from 254 in 1996 to 337 in 2006, a
25 percent increase. In 1996 there were 204 filled tenure track faculty lines and 50 FTNTT. In 2006
there were 269 TT filled lines and 68 FTNTT. Filled TT lines as a percentage of total full time faculty
remained the same from 1996 to 2006 at 80 percent. Our percentage of minority faculty has also
followed the trend in our student population increasing from 7 percent of total FT faculty in 1996 to 15
percent in 2006. And since the spring of 2006, we have hired 52 new tenure track faculty, 29 brand
new growth lines and 23 replacements. That’s an overall increase in new tenure track faculty to this
campus of nearly 20 percent in just 2 years! And with possible continued enrollment growth and
retirements, the increase in new faculty will continue!
So where are we going? And who will we be?
What do I see as my goals in this coming year and beyond to help lead in getting us going? I
plan on focusing in three areas for the coming year.
First and foremost, I will work to help us development a Contemporary Strategic Plan.
Our current Strategic Plan was written to provide us direction from 2004 to 2008. This plan had four
major Goals and a selected number of Objectives for Emphasis taken from the entire list of objectives
of the original plan. The 2004 to 2008 Plan was a modification of the Plan before it, and it a
modification of the previous plan. These Strategic Plans can be considered to be “traditional strategic
plans” that had their value during more “traditional” times. Friends, I don’t see today and tomorrow,
even yesterday, being anything like traditional times. Will SU continue on its enrollment growth
increasing our student body out to 1500 new students over our fall 2006 number? At this moment in
time, we really are not sure whether will we grow at all, grow by 150 as in this year, or will it be 300
more for fall 2008? Our current direction from the Chancellor has indicated that we should plan on
recruiting an additional 300 students for next year. But let’s not forget the declared $1.5 billion
structural deficit in the State’s budget! Institutions in the USM have already received direction from
the Chancellor to also develop budget reduction scenarios for their institutions for the FY2009 budget
and beyond. Will the growth enhancement funding be approved by the legislature next spring?? Who
knows? The changing student demography that we are recruiting from today and tomorrow, the
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rapidly-changing global workplace of today and tomorrow, and our uncertain financial support from
the State today and tomorrow, all call for a new kind of strategic plan for this institution. The strategic
planning for enrollment management in both recruitment and retention has become more critical than
ever in the overall direction and welfare of this university. We have been working with a nationally
recognized enrollment planning firm, Noel-Levitz, to help us in planning for new enrollment
strategies. To fully institutionalize our planning for the future of this university, the President and I
propose that we create a standing Strategic Planning and Budgeting Commission. Our budget
planning must go hand-in-hand with strategic planning. The development of an updated Facilities
Master Plan, a Business Plan, and the Strategic Plan must come together in a coherent fashion. The
Commission would have purview over directing the process for creating our strategic plan in the
year(s) necessary, and would be the body that annually administers and assesses the
IMPLEMENTATION of our strategic plan. At the direction of the President, I will work with my
colleague administrators and our shared governance bodies to establish this Commission early this fall.
The second area of focus for me this year will be to help in the Enrichment of Our Academic
Community and the Academic Success of Our Students.
I am certain that many of the faculty in this room, if not all, believe that we need to direct more of our
student’s attention and efforts into their academic studies. Learning and student-centeredness need to
be joined. As a course of action designed to achieve the academic environment for our students and
our faculty, the Fulton School faculty have continued their work from last year over this summer to
transform all of their programs from the three-credit model to the enhanced four-credit model. Three
of their majors’ programs are being offered this year with the rest to follow next year along with the
approved changes to our general education liberal arts requirements – the first significant changes to
those requirements in over 25 years! There are still many questions as to the impacts of this
transformation on our student’s academic programs and the institutional resources that may be needed
for its successful operation. The impacts of these wholesale curricular changes on our governance
processes have led to many hours of debate and additional work for many faculty. But I believe that
this thorough examination and rewriting of the curriculum that the Fulton School is performing, will
result in a signal to the students that they can’t miss – the academic times at Salisbury University –
“They are a-changing!” It is my hope that other academic programs at SU will also continue to
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examine the delivery of their programs to see if there are ways to improve the relationship between
students, faculty, curriculum, and learning. I will be working closely with interim dean Richards as
her school continues their curricular transformation, and I look forward to working with other schools’
DEANS as they deem appropriate.
In a related area of enhancing our academic programs, I will be concentrating this year on bringing
into reality the establishment of a center for academic achievement that will be a nexus for facilities
and services available for supporting our student’s success. Most universities have already established
such a center, we have not. Using the findings of our great “Task Force on Foundations of Excellence
- The First Year Experience” as a starting point, we are ready to move forward on finding a home for
the various initiatives and services to support student success. In a highly competitive student
recruitment market that requires significant university dollars to be successful, retaining students we
have already recruited will become extremely important as outside financial support dwindles.
And my third area of concentration for this coming year will be to help lead us in defining our
campus community today and to elevate the role of service in our community.
Community: an association of individuals who share common goals, values, and interests.
And communication: an exchange of information using a common language. COMMUNIS - Common
goals achieved through a common language.
While this institution does share common goals, values, and interests, and for the most part, we all do
speak a common language, albeit with a wide variety of accents – which is good!, our community
neighborhood has, and will most likely continue to increase in size. New communities are beginning
to develop from within, straining the ties to the old community. This is a natural consequence of
organizational growth. I will work this year to help us transition into a community structure on
campus that keeps us as one university, but that also develops for us a sense of local community
familiarity and esprit de corps.
And let me begin my conversation today with you about Service. I am deeply worried about the recent
difficulties campus governance leaders are experiencing in finding faculty volunteers to serve on
committees. I will work in earnest to find ways to elevate the value and rewards of participation by
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faculty in the functioning of campus governance. A clear message must be sent to all that the giving
of one’s precious time for service on this campus deserves appropriate recognition. I promise to you
that I will work diligently to make that happen.
I’ll end this speech by framing my thoughts about this university, at this time in its history, with the
use of a metaphor. Picture a flowing river, one not on the flat Eastern Shore! SU has been on this
river with its rapidly moving and changing currents for some time, and we’re old hands at
maneuvering in these currents. We’ve always worked hard and well together to crew our boat. It
looks like we’re now coming back into a section of rapids again. Boat damaging rocks are beginning
to appear in the river, some of which show above the water, and some do not. It seems that the rapids
will get rougher soon, and there’s always the chance of a waterfalls looming up ahead. We’re in a
good boat, tried and true, built for rough waters, and we’ve shot the rapids before and have come out
intact, more experienced, but with some damage. Now, as the crew, do we fight the threatening
current we’re in, trying to avoid the rocks while at best staying in place, or worse, we begin to slip
towards the waterfalls with rock damage in our hull? Do we throw out an anchor? Or, do we as the
crew just go back to our daily boat duties and ignore the river, leaving our destiny to fate? What’s that
up ahead? I believe it’s a fork in the river, and while we can’t be absolutely sure where it leads or
what its waters are like, it is my opinion that we should take advantage of the energy within these
currents, and take advantage of the chaos within these waters, and use it to steer towards that fork.
Yogi Berra also said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” The underlying wisdom of his
sage advice is in urging one “to take” the fork, this way or that, but just be as informed on direction as
best as you can be, then make up your mind and take it. Be on the offensive! I urge us to engage in a
campus-wide discussion this year on developing a practical strategic plan that helps prepare us and
guide us for whichever fork in our river we choose to take.
Thank you for your attention, and I wish all of you an enjoyable and productive academic year!
Tom Jones, Ph.D.
Provost, Salisbury University
August 23, 2007
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