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>> JOEL SELIGMAN: Welcome to the annual Garden Party speech! On behalf of the Board of Trustees,
particularly Bob Witmer, who usually introduces myself, and over 2,000 shrimp who were generously
contributing themselves to the cause, it is a thrill to be back. I have had the honor
of being introduced by Bob Witmer the last seven years and he sends his deep regrets.
Because of an unavoidable conflict he can't join us today, but I feel the need to laud
him, as ever - just a few weeks ago, he was recognized by the rotary as the Person of
the Year for "Service Above Self," and if there's any phrase that captures the character
of Bob Witmer, it is "Service Above Self." So, in abstention, let's give Bob Witmer a
round of applause! Okay, so we've upped the ante this year - sound effects, history. We're
taking you on an adventure. Let's start with a poem. "We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place
for the first time." We began as a university in 1850, opening in what was then the United
States Hotel with a faculty of eight and an enrollment of 82 students. It's hard to overstate
the excitement of the University�s first commencement. �Thousands lined the streets
July 9, 1851 to see a splendid procession,� reports Janice Pieterse in what will be a
forthcoming history of the University of Rochester. �A brass band led the way from the U.S.
Hotel to the city�s majestic Corinthian Hall where the first ten graduates would receive
degrees.� The Rochester American wrote of the event as �the largest and finest civic
procession� that had ever been seen in the streets of [our] city.� �Marching behind
the band were the University janitor; grammar school students and teachers, University freshman,
sophomores, and juniors; city and county officials; guests; founders of the University; local
church leaders and prominent judges. Next were the graduating seniors; faculty; members
of the Board; Chancellor Ira Harris and Board President John N. Wilder; and last, the county
sheriff.� Martin Brewer Anderson, the University�s first President, was not hired until 1853.
He was an extraordinarily successful academic leader in his day, committed to �high Christian
Education,� consistent with the norms of many universities and his Baptist religion,
who welcomed students who were Catholic, Presbyterian, and Jewish. For 35 years, Anderson would provide
a steady hand at the helm, guiding the University through a near fatal decline in enrollment
during the Civil War. On November 23, 1861, University Treasurer William Sage �read
a trustee resolution that the [University�s new building]," and I might add, first building,
"mainly obtained by the zeal, labors, and the self-sacrificing spirit of its noble-hearted
president would be called Anderson Hall.� University historian Arthur May explains,
�Caught by surprise and deeply moved, the normally austere President could not conceal
his emotions, but gravely bowed in response to the hearty applause which the � announcement
touched off.� President Anderson subsequently oversaw the move of the University to Anderson
Hall, located on a dandelion strewn cow pasture on Prince Street, donated by Azariah Boody.
In 1893, �Dandelion yellow� officially became the University color. Now, Anderson
had some decidedly strong views that would not work well today. He did not believe that
students should live in dorms. He disapproved of sports such as football as �relics of
barbarism.� Now, in fairness he may have been on to something. Our first football game
in 1899, we lost - Cornell scored 106, we scored nothing! And I believe in true disclosure,
let the record reflect, we've done better since then. Anderson also did not believe
that a college could properly perform its job with more than 200 students. When he stepped
down in 1889, the University had an enrollment of 172. But Anderson possessed the most important
qualification you can seek in any leader in a high-pressure job, a sense of humor. He
once described the role of the president to a friend: "The College president is expected
to be a vigorous writer and public speaker. He must be a financier able to extract money
from the hoards of misers, and to hold his own with the trained denizens of Wall Street.
He must be a scholar among scholars; distinguished in one or two departments of learning; gentle
and kindly in his relations to the students, and still be able to quell a �row� with
the pluck and confidence of a New York Chief-of-Police. If he fails in any one of these elements,
he is soon set down as unfit for the position. [I]n looking back over my career, I am simply
astonished at having been able to bear up under the responsibilities as long as I have."
But bear up Anderson did. All that we have achieved in the 20th and 21st centuries would
not have been possible without the exemplary start the University of Rochester experienced
under Martin Brewer Anderson. We've come an extraordinarily long way. A few weeks ago
the University held seven ceremonies for most of this year�s 2,788 graduates. Our commencement
speaker, Nobel Laureate Steve Chu, a 1970 graduate of the University of Rochester, memorably
remarked, �Do something you love, do something that matters. When you are old and gray and
you look back on your life, you will want to be proud of what you have done.� The
pace of our University today is accelerating. Groundbreaking for College Town occurred May
2, 2013 with Senator Chuck Schumer, Mayor Tom Richards, and many other dignitaries attending.
College Town will open in the fall of 2014 and will be a 500,000 square-foot, mixed-use
development on 14 acres on Mt. Hope Avenue between Elmwood and Crittenden, combining
street-level retail, restaurants with outdoor patios, a grocery store, and spacious sidewalks
and boutiques with office space and residences in the floors above, a Barnes & Noble Bookstore,
a 150-room Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center, and praise be, a new parking garage
with 1,560 parking spaces. On December 19th of last year, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced
that the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council, which I have the honor to co-chair
with University Trustee Danny Wegman, was selected as a �Best Plan� awardee, receiving
$96 million to fund 76 projects, including $4 million for College Town and $5 million
for the Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation, our partnership with IBM. In May,
just a few weeks ago, the University held a dedication ceremony for Raymond F. LeChase
Hall, the new home for the Warner School of Education. Raymond LeChase was the father
of University Trustee Wayne LeChase, a pioneer in the Rochester construction industry and
a noted philanthropist and supporter of education. LeChase Hall is the first major building to
be constructed in the Wilson Quadrangle in 30 years. A four-story, 65,000-square-foot
facility, it includes 14 classrooms on the first floor that will serve the College of
Arts, Sciences and Engineering during the day and the Warner School in the evening.
This will be a momentous 100th year for the Memorial Art Gallery. On May 22nd, the MAG
held a ribbon cutting ceremony to inaugurate its new Centennial Sculpture Garden, featuring
new commissioned works by Wendell Castle, Jackie Ferrara, Tom Otterness, and Albert
Paley. To symbolize the MAG�s involvement in the Rochester community, the Museum also
removed portions of its wrought-iron fencing. In October, the original MAG building will
be rededicated 100 years to the day after its initial dedication. Two of our musical
groups were invited to Washington, D.C. for special events. On January 21, violinists
Che Ho Lam and Markiyan Melnychenko, violist Kelsey Farr, and cellist Hyeok Kwon performed
at President Obama�s inaugural luncheon, playing, among other numbers, a notable instrumental
version of our alma mater, The Genesee. On December 8, Vocal Point, our all-female a
cappella ensemble, gave a holiday performance at the White House. In February, two Eastman
School of Music graduates received Grammy Awards. Ren�e Fleming was awarded her fourth
Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Solo. And Bob Ludwig, the recipient of two earlier Grammy
awards, received an award for Babel, the Album of the Year performed by Mumford & Sons. In
March, the Medical Center�s Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation was ranked
No. 1 in the nation in NIH funding for orthopaedic research. And Recently the Medical Center
was named a Center for AIDS Research by NIH, which will bring $7.5 million over five years
to further our work on ***/AIDS and places us among the nation�s leading institutions
engaged in preventing, detecting, and treating this horrible disease. �Our Differences,
Our Strength,� our annual diversity conference was held on April 12th. Lani Guinier, a prominent
civil rights attorney and the first tenured African-American woman professor at Harvard
Law School, delivered a memorable keynote address. In March, Women in Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Entrepreneurship held its inaugural event, which brought together 36
women from 20 academic disciplines. WiSTEE chair and founder, University scientist Jie
Qiao, launched the event by sharing her vision for the group�to promote women in leadership
in science, technology, engineering, and entrepreneurship, and to increase connectivity and mentorship
among colleagues. Next year�s College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering class set a
record with, it says here, 16,156 applications, but our ever scrupulous staff was on the job
and it's now 16,180 applications, unless more came in in the last two hours - some 9 percent
higher than last year�s record number. The Meliora Challenge Capital Campaign, our first
comprehensive University campaign since 1924, has now reached $935 million in gifts and
commitments, 78 percent of our $1.2 billion goal. The campaign will continue until June
30, 2016. Our progress so far has meant that we have created 64 new endowed professorships
towards a of 80, raised $156 million for student scholarship and support towards a goal of
$225 million. Important as well is the support from over 2,600 George Eastman Circle members,
typically University friends and supporters who have provided multiyear support for our
annual programs. Notable gifts include those recently of Georgia Gosnell, who committed
$5 million to name the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the new Golisano�s Children�s
Hospital and created two new professorships in the School of Medicine and Dentistry. Indeed,
our University has been blessed with 14 new endowed professorships during the past year,
including: The Alan F. Hilfiker Distinguished Professorship in English, created by longtime
Trustee and alumni leader Alan Hilfiker, who has also provided support to the existing
Alan F. Hilfiker Endowed Graduate Scholarship Fundand the Alan F. Hilfiker Endowed Undergraduate
Scholarship Fund. On April 24th, we celebrated the installation of History Professor Ted
Brown in the Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professorship in Public Health and Policy.
Between 1994 and 2007, many of you may remember, Chuck was our University provost. And Dale,
a professor of pediatrics, served as chief of the Medical Center�s neonatology division
in the Department of Pediatrics from 1989 to 2000. This is a remarkable show of support
for our University by our faculty. Let me praise our faculty further! Physics World
recognized University of Rochester researchers, including Professors Kevin McFarland, Arie
Bodek, and Steve Manly, who were part of a collaboration on one of the top ten breakthroughs
in physics in 2012 for their work demonstrating that neutrinos, a subatomic particle that
travels near the speed of light, may be used in communications. Think of it a future in
which there is the potential for communications between any two points on Earth without using
satellites or cables. Perhaps cellphones, but we'll see. Bonita Boyd, professor of flute,
was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Flute Association in recognition
of her remarkable career. Dr. James R. Woods was the recipient of the American Congress
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Lifetime Achievement Award for District II in recognition
of his contributions to the advancement of women�s health care. David Higgs, chair
of Eastman�s Department of Organ and Historical Keyboards, was awarded the Paul Creston Award
by St. Malachy�s�The Actors� Chapel in recognition of excellence in composition,
performance, and pedagogy. Dr. Nina Schor, the William H. Eilinger Chair of Pediatrics
at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and Professor of Pediatrics and of Neurobiology
and Anatomy, was voted president of the Child Neurology Society. Dr. Steve Feldon, director
of the Flaum Eye Institute at the University of Rochester Medical Center, similarly was
named president of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology. David Williams,
the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics and director of the Center for Visual
Science, received the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award at a ceremony chaired by the
president of Portugal in an event in Lisbon. The jury described Williams� work on adaptive
optics technologies as a "major breakthrough in the understanding and/or preservation of
vision." Now, no Garden Party speech could possibly be complete without our pathbreaking
research in rodent research receiving some comment. For years I have lauded the research
of Professor Vera Gorbunova and Assistant Professor Andrei Seluanov, who have made important
strides in uncovering why naked mole rats, such as my friend here, do not develop cancer
- they are absolutely tumor-free. Well this year, in a significant expansion of their
research, Gorbunova and Seluanov broadened their research to include blind mole rats,
which employ a unique �scorched earth� strategy, releasing a suicidal substance called
interferon beta, which destroys precancerous cells. I want you to know one of my thrills
last year was visiting the naked mole rat colony. Naked mole rats are cute, huggable,
lovable, sweet, affectionate. Blind mole rats, in contrast, are thugs. They're bitter. They
wouldn't let me get even close to the colony. Not that all of our breakthrough animal research
this year was limited to mole rats. Impressive work by Professor Jessica Cantlon demonstrated
that baboons possess basic quantitative ability. "A lot of people don't realize how smart these
animals are,� Cantlon notes, adding, �In the same way that we underestimate the cognitive
abilities of non-human animals, we sometimes underestimate the cognitive abilities of preverbal
children.� And in an instance of art imitating science, Spiderman made a much ballyhooed
visit to downtown Rochester, landing, as I hope you all appreciate, immediately in front
of the Eastman School of Music. This spring, a record 13 of our students were chosen to
receive the highly selective Fulbright Scholarships to study, teach, and conduct research abroad.
Our athletic teams also were especially strong. Under the leadership of Coach Wendy Andreatta,
the field hockey team made its first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament, setting a new
University record for most wins in a season. Men�s soccer competed in the NCAA Championships
for the seventh time in the last eight years. The men�s squash team captured its sixth
straight Liberty League title and finished fifth in the nation. Head women�s basketball
coach Jim Scheible became the winningest coach in University of Rochester�s women�s basketball
program�s history with a win over RIT on November 27, his 400th career victory. The
Yellowjackets won the Men�s Liberty League Swimming and Diving Championship, winning
every single event. The men�s basketball team tied for the UAA championship. Senior
guard John DiBartolomeo was named the D3hoops Men�s Basketball Player of the Year and
a First Team All-American. The women�s basketball team also finished strong. Sophomore guard
Ally Zywicki was named First Team All-University Athletic Association. Project Fusion, an award-winning
saxophone quartet composed of Eastman School of Music students Dannel Espinoza, Matt Evans,
Michael Sawzin, and Matt Amedio, won the Grand Prize at the 2013 Plowman Chamber Music competition
and first place in the 2013 Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Wind Competition.
And they can play much more. Soprano Adelaide Boedecker, also a student at the Eastman School
of Music, won first place in the Scholarship Division of the National Opera Association�s
2013 Voice Competition. So it's been a great year for us. Our major challenge next year
will be developing a new generation of strategic plans. We have largely achieved the objectives
of what we set out to do in 2008. When normalized for faculty size using the most recent year
for which we have data, we rank 15th in federal research funding among the 126 leading research
universities, with more than $400 million in total sponsored research support during
the prior two years and $348 million in 2012. Faculty and instructional staff have grown
from 2,009 in 2004 to 2,557 in 2012. We have seen corresponding growth in our student body
from 8,300 total students in 2004 to 10,510 this past year, effectively achieving a goal
of our 2008 strategic plans seven years early. New programs have been developed throughout
the University, including 14 new majors in the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering,
such as those in international relations, public health, and the Barry Florescue Undergraduate
Business Program. Twenty new major facilities projects have been completed or initiated
since 2005 with an aggregate budget of $700 million. These include the Eastman Theatre
Renovation and Expansion, Rettner Hall, our new digital media and fabrication lab currently
under construction, and O�Brien Hall, our newest dormitory. In addition, we have helped
facilitate the separately financed development of Brooks Landing and College Town. The Medical
Center has been particularly active with new facilities projects, including the James P.
Wilmot Cancer Center, the Saunders Research Building, and the Golisano Children�s Hospital.
The Medical Center starting in June 2012 implemented a comprehensive inpatient and ambulatory Electronic
Medical Records system. A regional affiliation was completed with Thompson Health System
in Canandaigua, New York. Since 2004 we have grown to be the region�s largest employer
with close to 22,000 full time equivalent jobs, the seventh largest private employer
in New York State, with an increasing role in the community as the provider of approximately
47,000 direct and indirect jobs, $2.4 billion in direct and indirect wages, approximately
$70 million in uncompensated health care, and, since 1996, over 50 start-up companies
using University-licensed technology. Nonetheless, we face a more challenging external environment
today than we faced in the 2006-2008 planning period. Let me highlight four significant
aspects of this changed landscape: First, Academic Health Care. In 2012, 81 percent
of the consolidated University $2.8 billion budget originated in the Medical Center; 66
percent of this total involved patient care. We own three hospitals. These high magnitudes
for health care in the University budget are not new. As of 2005, approximately 80 percent
of the University budget was in health care. What is new is the increased pressure on academic
health care finances after the 2008-2009 recession and the enactment of the Affordable Care Act.
With provider reductions in the Act, probable future reductions in third-party payor support
for our hospitals, and a systematic effort to �bend the cost curve� in Medicare and
Medicaid, our Medical Center faces substantial financial challenges in its clinical enterprise.
Academic health care finance is the greatest area of risk to the University and the greatest
area of uncertainty during the next five years. As we always have, we will manage the risk.
But in preparing for a new generation of strategic plans, we, like hospital systems throughout
the country, are highly conscious of the substantial challenges of health care finance. Second:
sponsored research. I mentioned in 2012, $348 million was provided for sponsored research,
approximately 14%of the overall university budget. The majority of this came from federal
sponsored research programs, most significantly the National Institutes of Health, National
Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy. There is little likelihood that federal
sponsored research will significantly increase in inflation-adjusted dollars during this
Congressional session. This is markedly in contrast with the period immediately following
the 2008 election, when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was, for two years, substantially
increasing federal sponsored research and the open question before the 2010 Congressional
elections was whether this level of increased funding would be continued. Third: tuition
and technology. In recent years, an increasing number of outstanding domestic and international
students have sought admission to the most academically successful United States universities
and colleges in what has been called a �flight to quality.� At the University of Rochester,
these high levels of applications are consistent with a widespread belief on the part of students
that higher education is a fundamentally important investment in their future and that education
from a leading institution is the best type of educational investment. The accompanying
chart illustrates the greater economic value of a bachelor�s, master�s, professional,
or doctoral degree both in terms of average compensation and lower unemployment rates.
Monetary value or lower unemployment far understates the value of University undergraduate and
graduate education. We are proud of our commitment to liberal arts education. We are justifiably
proud of our ability to teach critical thinking, to expose our students to areas of learning
that are difficult to effectively comprehend through self-learning, to offer our students
access to the extraordinary talents of our faculty, to provide classmates whose intellects,
diversity, and energy often inspire the best in our students as well as providing lifelong
friends, relationships, or colleagues. We are sensitive to the impact of tuition increases
at the University of Rochester, both because of the potential burden on our students and
their parents and the practical significance of tuition to the budgets of several of our
schools. We will continue to be unrelenting in our efforts to be as cost efficient as
is reasonable and to moderate the rate of tuition increases at our University. To illustrate
how these efforts have proceeded, in the five years from 2004 to 2008, when rates of tuition
increases were adjusted for inflation, they averaged 4.4 percent; in the last five years,
they have averaged 1.1 percent. We are not alone in this. In recent years, the cost of
higher education has been a focus of intense public debate. In the 2012 national elections,
for example, the leaders of both parties emphasized reducing the rate of increase of the costs
of higher education. One fundamental question with respect to tuition is whether tuition
costs in the future can be reduced because of online technology. The evidence at this
time, at universities like ours, is decidedly mixed. An increasing number of programs at
research universities, including those at our School of Nursing, have had success offering
hybrid courses combining online and in-class teaching. In 2012, for example, 32 percent
of all courses at the School of Nursing came in the form of online courses. There is little
data that suggests that online education will reult in substantial reductions in the level
of cost increases at leading research universities. None of the nation�s leading research universities
to date have committed to a shift in the residential undergraduate teaching model. More likely,
new teaching technology will coexist with the residential teaching model. University
education in our country is distinguished for its ability to assimilate change. In recent
decades, for example, we have been particularly successful in using computer technology to
amplify research and to provide information resources. This is one of the reasons so many
students from around the world are flocking to the United States - because of the quality
of our technology and education. A final point, to give you a sense of our changed environment.
For several decades, three macro factors have been most significant for leading research
and liberal arts colleges. In recent years, the segmentation of higher education has accelerated.
As Moody�s stated in 2012, �We anticipate an ongoing bifurcation of student demand favoring
the highest quality and most affordable higher education options.� There is also a widening
difference in endowment resources between the best endowed and the less well endowed
universities in what I call �red shift� because of the way returns on endowment accelerate
this differential. For example, if Harvard University, with a $30.4 billion endowment
in 2012, experiences a 10 percent annual growth in endowment values, this would increase its
endowment by $3 billion; at the University of Rochester with a $1.6 billion endowment
that year, a 10 percent annual growth would equal a $160 million increase. And further,
to set the stage, there has been a progressive weakening of the leading public research universities
as a result of systematically reduced state support as well as limits on tuition revenue
and flexibility with respect to student matriculation. It is striking, for example, that during the
past three years when our undergraduate College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering has improved
in U.S. News rankings 37th to 35th to 33rd, there are now only five public universities
ranked higher. In 2001, when the University of Rochester was ranked 36th, there were nine
public universities ranked above us. I anticipate that these kind of dynamics are going to persist
for the next five years. Now against this background, the leadership of the University
and the Board of Trustees are developing a generation of University, Medical Center,
and School strategic plans to operate fromm 2013 to 2018. The University Board began this
effort last October. We intend to adopt new University, Medical Center and School plans
in October 2013. Three themes are being emphasized in this process. First, continuity. While
we have made considerable progress in implementing our 2008 strategic plans, there is much more
to achieve to fully complete these plans. We have raised 78 percent of our Campaign
goal, way ahead of schedule, but we need to raise the remaining $265 million by June 2016.
We are incredibly grateful to all those, including so many in this room and the spillover room,
who have been so generous in their support. There are several capital projects to complete
as part of our 2008 Campaign, most notably the Golisano Children�s Hospital, and several
key goals that can be more fully achieved. Second, we will respond to a changed environment.
While we face many new or increased challenges, the combination of efforts in federal and
state governmental programs �to bend the cost curve� of clinical health care and
the seemingly permanent federal budgetary crisis dwarfs all other challenges for our
planning. The most significant strategic consequences of the new external environment will be reflected
in the Medical Center strategic plan. But for all academic divisions, there will be
a need to plan with the assumption that budgets will have to be disciplined during the next
five years, with an overarching need to balance pursuit of existing or new strategic objectives
with fiscal discipline. And finally, among the most important objectives of our next
cycle of strategic planning is to continue to focus on our paramount University objectives.
Our fundamental objective is to be one of this nation�s leading research universities,
which at the University of Rochester means strength, not only in research, but as a university
based on a liberal arts undergraduate program, with professional schools in business, education,
medicine and nursing, and an unrelenting commitment to the creative arts led by the Eastman School
of Music and the Memorial Art Gallery. There are significant opportunities now available
to us because of our institutional strengths and momentum that will be a particular focus
for the next generation of strategic plans. An emphasis in the balance of the Campaign
will be on strengthening our faculty and our student body and developing or enhancing ennobling
programs such as new programs in data science. The College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering
will build on its successful momentum in its residential teaching model to sharpen the
distinction or communication of its programs by adding new majors or degrees and making
greater use of technology to improve teaching, seeking higher levels of student retention
and identifying greater opportunities for student research. The Simon School has begun
steps toward implementation of a new branch campus in New York City in conjunction with
the School of Nursing and the Warner School. The Medical Center regional clinical strategy
is anchored by formation of an Accountable Care Network that will align physicians and
hospitals throughout the 19-county primary and secondary care service area. Eastman is
contemplating new programs that may extend its undergraduate and master�s programs,
for example, potentially to new programs that involve music management or new technology.
And Warner is developing plans to add new online education programs. Like all universities
and colleges today, we face challenges. And yet more than any other social institution
in our country today, universities like the University of Rochester combine freedom, creativity,
incredibly bright faculty, students and staff, loyal alumni, and friends who share a vision
that we are moving toward a better world. I view our leading research universities as
capable of a type of perpetual existence. Faculty at research universities will continue
to assimilate ideas, methodologies, and technologies that are new, while teaching the very finest
students and preserving the most important elements of our ever-evolving culture. We
will continue to do this well because we have consistently shown the judgment to effectively
balance what is enduring in what we study and teach with the challenges of the future.
Our next generation of strategic plans gives us the opportunity to articulate who we are
and where we are going. We build on tremendous momentum and with the knowledge that we have
successfully executed much of our previous generation of strategic plans. We will not
be daunted by our challenges. We will continue to �dream no little dreams.� Our work
is never done. But I am thrilled to be a part of a community of people who are so talented,
dedicated, and enthusiastic. We will continue to make the University of Rochester �ever
better.� Thank you. [applause] Now some of you may recall, after my remarks last year,
I had a surprise announcement. I intimated to my friends that Delores Conway and I were
engaged and I am duly bound to report that we are now married as of October 7th of last
year and ecstatic and happy and thrilled to be back at the Garden Party. But there's a
lot of pressure when you make an announcement like that. An unbelievable number of really
pushy friends said "What are you gonna do this year?" So I am delighted to report that
while I can never top that announcement - that was once in a lifetime, folks - I am nonetheless
the beneficiary of a particularly good friend, Bud Frame - Bud if you'll come join me on
stage - who has helped me orchestrate this year's surprise announcement. Bud is among
our most generous supporters and he has decided [applause] that I too should put on my yellow
jacket. And I gotta tell you, I'm not only putting on my yellow jacket, I'm also rolling
up my sleeves. I am thrilled to be at this university; we have work to do. If I may close
with the most quotable remark that our first president, Martin Brewer Anderson, ever made:
"We have only but begun." This is a community and a university on the move. Meliora to all
of you! [applause]