Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Good morning, everyone, and thank you
to Bill and to Josh
for your remarks on this theme of community
and communications, which you hear again and again. I appreciate their really
focusing on it. Convocation is a time of great promise,
and I'm pleased to be here. But equally important, I'm pleased to see all of you
here.
Thank you for joining us I also want to acknowledge the staff members who
planned the event,
put the videos together. You cannot imagine how many people and how hard
they worked
to make this all go off smoothly -- and it always does. So please join me in
recognizing them.
I also want to give a special welcome to Council Member Marti Emerald.
Marti is a devoted supporter of ours
working behind the scenes -- sometimes working out in front. So please join me
recognizing her support.
This past year,
our 115th, has been a momentous year.
It's a year in which we met significant challenges
and continued our development as a leading public research university.
And I'd like to take a few moments just to reflect
on a small sample of our achievements. It was a very exciting year for international
programs
as we continue to emphasize the centrality of
international experiences to our academic programs.
We were ranked in the top 25 for students studying abroad,
with over 1,800 students having
international experiences. I want to thank Extended Studies,
International Programs, the International Student Center,
deans and all the faculty and staff contributed.
We were also a top producer Fulbright scholars
with a record 12 students and three faculty members
receiving awards, and I want to specifically thank Pat Huckle
for her extraordinary work. Our Confucius Institute,
focusing on Chinese language and culture,
was named one of eight model institutes in the world.
Sustainability initiatives also received significant recognition,
with both the Princeton Review and the Sierra Club
ranking us as a top university. Individual programs also received
significant recognition.
Graduate programs in the College of Business and College of Education
were ranked in the top 50 among all public universities by U.S. News.
The National Journal gave special recognition
to our Compact for Success Program, naming it
the most innovative program in higher education.
Individual faculty and staff members, as you've just seen,
continue to receive distinction. I can only mention a few:
Ilya Kaminsky of English and Comparative
Literature is a finalist for the Neustadt
International Prize. And, as many of you know, the Neustadt is often the
precursor to the Nobel. So if you see Ilya on campus
be very nice to him. Neil Shigley of Art, Design and Art History
presented his work at the National Portrait Gallery of
the Smithsonian Institute. And Madhu Gupta of Electrical and Computer Engineering
was named president of the IEEE society of microwave theory.
As I said, just a small sample. Our students, as you heard from Josh,
have kept pace -- again a sample. Katie Martin
interned for the vice president. Not the vice president of San Diego State
but Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States. Greg Allen,
our baseball team's centerfielder, was named
an Arthur Ashe Jr. Scholar for his academic achievement.
Kristen Regini received a post-baccalaureate fellowship
from NIH, and Erin Fletcher
enrolled in the Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences
at Harvard University. Our students also contributed to our community,
raising over a 100,000 pounds for San Diegans in need
and registering over 4,000 voters. t was also a great year for
scholarship and discovery.
Lisa Hoffman of History published American Umpire,"
a book that presented provocative views of American diplomacy
and gained international attention. Jeremy Barr
discovered a new human immune system. This was the most covered media story
in the history of San Diego State University, garnering over 59,000
pageviews. William Welsh and Jerome Orosz
discovered a solar system
with two earth-like planets, and Aarti Nair and Ralph-Alex Mueller
identified the brain structures implicated in autism.
Truly extraordinary for one year.
Our faculty, staff and student researchers continue to compete at the
highest level for grants,
bringing in over $115 million just in the last year.
Again, I can only give a few examples. Greg Talavera
received a $9 million grant to study
risk factors in chronic illness. Forest Rohwer
received a $4.9 million grant to study the
world's coral reefs. Fletcher Miller received a $3.9 million grant
to create solar power installations, and Bill Tong and Sandy Bernstein
received a $2.8 million grant
to prepare students for doctoral study.
These resources and others received from private sources
fueled innovation in the last year.
The Zahn Center expanded to focus on social entrepreneurship.
Thank you to everyone who worked across divisions and colleges to make that
happen.
Wells Fargo created a financial markets laboratory for our students.
We enrolled our first class of Price Community Scholars,
expanded the Casa Azteca program,
launced our Leadership Certificate and began our doctoral program
in physical therapy. We built out the Donald P. Shiley
BioScience Center, and our world-leading cardiac researchers, led by Mark Sussman,
launched the Integrated Regenerative Research Institute.
You may have noticed we've also been enhancing our campus
with the new Aztec Student Union and the extraordinary renovation of
Storm Nasatir Hall. Built on a hillside, it's quite an architectural
feat.
I want to thank everyone who worked on the project
but also a special thank-you to everyone on campus who has been gracious
in the face of inconveniences.
We enjoyed the most successful year in San Diego State University Athletics:
12 conference championships.
My last acknowledgement goes to the Daily Aztec,
which celebrated its 100th anniversary
and, as if on cue, our alumnus David Hasemyer
won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
What a difference one year makes.
At this time last year we faced unprecedented budget challenges,
and we discussed a new strategy for our university --
a strategy for the new reality facing our state
and our nation.
Today, as we start a new year, I want to discuss
two components of that strategy.
The first component is a focus on increasing our revenues
from multiple sources. While we are very very grateful
for the end of state reductions, our state appropriation is still
$81 million below its level in 2001 --
2007, excuse me. Plain and simple,
we must generate more revenue.
The second component is to invest strategically.
In a phrase, we must focus our resources for results.
These components of the strategy are, of course, integrated.
Generating revenues allows us to invest in our programs,
and through these investments we can build excellence and advance the
university.
Today, I'm pleased to tell you that we have made significant progress.
Through the combination of cost efficiencies, revenue initiatives
and the end of state reductions our financial picture
has brightened significantly.
We have pursued multiple initiatives for enhancing revenue,
and together they have made an impact.
To give you one example: In the last year we raised over $91 million in
private funds
That beat our all-time record by over $50 million.
In recognition of this achievement our division
of University Relations and Development was recognized as one of the top fundraising
programs in the nation
by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
I also want to give special recognition to our academic deans,
who did an extraordinary job in their role raising funds.
It's important to know our faculty and staff have been
leading donors. Two examples:
Carey Wall and Terry O'Donnell endowed
a faculty position in musical theater,
and the late Henry Janssen gave a gift of $1 million
to support the development of our Honors College.
Funds raised are supporting student scholarships,
endowed professorships, a critical expansion of the Library science fiction
collection
and our China initiative in Hospitality and Tourism Management,
among many other initiatives.
The goal for our comprehensive fundraising campaign
is $500 million and, as of
today, we are approaching $420 million.
Please join me in recognizing everyone who has contributed.
In the coming year, we must continue our revenue initiatives.
Through these initiatives we can create a path
to financial strength -- strength that will support our core mission:
and allow us to control our own destiny. As a number of speakers mentioned,
we've also made progress on the second component of our strategy.
Through a series of community discussions we created a new strategic plan
titled "Building on Excellence."
Thank you to the hundreds of people who participated in the process.
The plan describes dozens -- literally dozens -- of initiatives in student
success,
research and creative endeavors, and, equally importantly,
community and communication. Initiatives,
many of which have already been funded in this year's budget, include
investing in areas of research excellence;
increasing transformational educational experiences
such as study abroad, undergraduate research,
internships, integrative diversity initiatives to bring our community
together;
student success Initiatives -- writing and math centers,
the LGBT Center, learning communities for commuter students;
building our alumni network and cultural philanthropy;
and enhancing the campus environment through the hiring
faculty and staff to fill critical needs
and increases in compensation. Regarding compensation,
our budget plan has four components. First,
funds of $800,000 to support
in-range salary progressions for staff and the Equity II salary program for faculty
members.
Second, funding of
$2.8 million to support the cost of increased health-
care premiums for faculty and staff. Third, funding of
$3.9 million to support the cost of
increased retirement contributions for faculty and staff.
And fourth, funding of $38 million across the CSU
to support salary increases. In total, we have budgeted
over $10 million for increased compensation for faculty and staff
and over $7million for faculty and staff
to fill critical needs. These investments
do not address all of our needs, but they are a
very important first step in the right direction.
After a period of significant challenges,
our investments in our people
and our programs are beginning to create excitement on this campus.
This year we'll be welcoming
many new faculty and staff members to campus.
As we do so,
I can't help but think of Henry Janssen
and the many faculty and staff members who have
literally and figuratively built our campus.
For the first time in over 60 years
Henry Janssen will not be here with us
on the campus this fall. But his spirit
and the spirit of all the faculty members and staff members
who came before us -- a spirit focused on
excellence -- will be with us. Inspired by this spirit,
we know that the work we do this year will advance our missions
in education, research, and community service
and lay the foundation for the future development
of our university. Thank you to each and every one of you
for everything you do for the university. I am honored to be your president,
and I look forward to a great year. Thank you.