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OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
President's Fall Address to the Campus Community
September 10, 2009
Fall Address 2009
Welcome back! Today I am ready to share with you, for the seventh time, my view of the state of our University and my thoughts on what the future may hold. A couple of months ago I passed the six year mark as President. In 2003, when I gave my first Fall Address, I had only been on the job for two months. Now, after six-plus years, I have learned a great deal more about the campus. I know we have accomplished so much and I also know these are good times for Towson University. Some of you will question… good times, how can he say that? I can say it by looking at what we have accomplished. For those of you who were here in 2001, 2002, compare today with yesterday. Yes, our Nation and State are experiencing some very difficult economic times. We are not held harmless, but we are still much better than we were and not as bad as we could be. We all would like to have nothing but perfect days, with all of the resources we desire, but, in our personal lives, and in our campus lives we can’t have everything we want. We also can’t focus only on the difficult times---the short term---we must celebrate all that we have been able to accomplish---the long-term.
This spring, the Regents and Chancellor scheduled me for my five year evaluation. Many of you were involved in that process. Following that evaluation, conducted by a team of outside presidents, I also had my annual evaluation with the Chancellor and Regents. They were able to get both evaluations in under the wire, before I completed my sixth year. It was a thorough review and physical, and the outcome was very good. There were suggestions for things to work on, as there should be, but the evaluations were very positive and encouraging. I reflect the success of the University, so, a good evaluation for me is a good evaluation for all of us.
One thing, noted in each evaluation, was change. There were many comments of note about the changes we have made at Towson. With the passing of time, every organization undergoes change, but unfortunately change is often by default. Our change was, and is, strategic change. We knew where we were going, we sifted the past, filtered out what had not happened, reflected, put a plan in place, and headed to the future. On our way to the future, we have picked up many supporters at every stop. Many of those supporters did not relate to Towson just a few years back…today they are fighting for us. By telling and selling the Towson story, we have increased the awareness of Towson as an institution of high value. By being recognized as high value to business, government, the System, the State, and many other constituents, we make Towson a high value to each applicant who considers us, each student today, and each graduate yesterday, today and tomorrow.
With each success we make a Towson degree more valuable. It is rewarding to be one of the best in US News and World Reports, being among the Top 50 Best Values in the Country, as selected by the Princeton Review and as one of the top 100 in Forbes’ America’s Best Public Colleges--- that’s out of 1,800 public institutions. We should all be proud. But, it is also important to assure we are a top value in the marketplace when our students graduate. A Towson degree must be important. The students know value is important. Let me share the quote of a 2009 graduate; a quote that I used as part of my five year self-evaluation. “A lot has changed in the last half decade, I have been here for a lot of it. I won’t be here for the end of it, but…, I do believe my degree will mean more a decade from now than it does when I graduate in May”.
As we make our degree more valuable, we will make Towson University more valuable. We do that through our accomplishments, accomplishments guided by our plan Towson University 2010; Mapping the Future. When we look at Towson University 2010, our 23 goals, 86 action items, and hundreds of milestones, we know the numbers are not what our strategic plan is about. The plan is about all of us and what we, together, have and will accomplish. The plan is about our involvement and that is what is most important. Towson 2010 has been about ideas and accomplishments, our ideas and our accomplishments.
Let’s look at a few of those accomplishments. We have moved students, faculty and staff into our new CLA building (Phase I) ---and there is more of that to come (Phase II is underway). Our joint MBA remains very strong. West Village is real, you can see it. The new West Village Commons Building, another university union the size of the present union, is underway, the dirt has been turned. We have hit a slight economic bump with West Village II housing, but we will work that out and hope to begin construction soon. At Harford Community College we are well on our way to the first step for our Towson University Harford Campus; by early next year design for the first building will be complete, and I can’t wait to put a shovel in the ground next year. We have made the Baltimore Hebrew University part of Towson as the Baltimore Hebrew Institute. This unique initiative gives us added strength in Jewish Studies and makes us the home and keeper of a world-class collection and archives of centuries of study, from the Joseph Meyerhoff Library.
We will soon have a presence in the Inner Harbor as we expand our K-12 STEM outreach efforts State-wide and merge our new UMBI-K-12 resources with our Hackerman Academy. We continue to give our students the best housing, new academic buildings, great programs taught by great faculty, and a growing reputation. Thinking Outside is no longer a phrase, or a PR effort. To the greater community, Thinking Outside is Towson University today. As we had hoped, Towson University is now a place you have to know about, because, you cannot avoid us, we are everywhere working hand-in-hand with you.
Yes, Towson means more today. Consider extramural funding. The growth in faculty grants and contracts continues and we have reached levels not imagined before we set our strategic direction and goals. We are determined to rival our performance peers. The increase is the result of more senior faculty wanting to be part of the success and a result of our ability to attract the best new faculty. It is also the result of hard work in Academic Affairs and DECO. And look at our Capital Campaign. Over the past few years we have received 35 gifts of $100,000 or more, seven gifts of a million or more, and one gift over ten million. We could not have imagined such achievements a decade ago. We have the momentum. This is not the time to wait. I will continue to sell Towson University every day, and I expect that all of you will do the same. These are difficult economic times, but we will let others fill the pages of periodicals with stories of woe and bemoaning their fate. We must keep moving forward, looking for opportunities, telling and selling the story, and keep showcasing Towson University.
We will not slow up trying to be the best. We will keep up the momentum and spread the word. Over the past few years more and more of our new faculty are coming from premier institutions from across the Country, and around the globe. I don’t believe that outcome is because Towson is a place of last resort. We are among the best. I feel the same about our new provost. We did a surgical search, involved everyone who wanted to be involved, and did something the well known “they” said couldn’t be done. We spent just over three months, mostly out of the traditional cycle, to complete the process. The applicant pool was excellent – it was strong. The outcome is excellent, we have a great new provost, and it is not because Towson is a place of last resort – we are among the best.
I just used the phrase, “slow up”. Last year in my Fall Address I said, “We will continue to do new things, but we also need time to gather ourselves. We need time to mature Towson”. We now have that time. The economic downturn is an opportunity for us. This year our enrollment growth target is zero. We now have an opportunity to keep selling Towson, while at the same time better preparing ourselves for future opportunities. Last year, and a number of times since, I used that word “mature”. To mature, we will better develop some things we have underway and bring some things closer to perfection. We will now focus more on strengthening key initiatives and not adding new ones. We now have that opportunity.
I want to take a moment to comment on rapid growth. There is a perception, inside and outside campus, that I and a few others are obsessed with growing wildly. This is not the case. I said many times a few years back, if you want us to shrink to 10,000 and become one of those smaller elite institutions, I am ready. But, that would not have been best for the citizens of Maryland. Maryland needed us to grow. Over the past few years we have done what we were asked to do by the State and by the Regents, we grew. I believe they knew, and we know that few, if any other, institutions could have more ably taken on the task, and maintained quality as we have. We have grown because the State of Maryland needed us to grow and it is paying off.
I want you to know that I am aware that some parts of the campus have been stretched by this growth. We have tried to keep up with the growth, added quality faculty and staff and preserved a hallmark phrase that we still hear from families and students, “big campus, with a small feel”. As we go into this year of no-growth, we have an opportunity to catch our breath and do a little of that fine-tuning we have not had the time to do. Let’s use that opportunity wisely.
Now, I know one reason many of you are here today is to find out where we are going. But, before I talk about our future and steps we will take to control it , I want to share some of Towson’s three to five year strategic objectives. These objectives are tied to Towson 2010, are part of the maturation process, and were prepared last year at the request of the Chancellor for a Board of Regents retreat.
First, mature as a campus to fully meet the characteristics of our peer group and move closer toward the characteristics of our aspiration peer group. Some of the actions necessary to achieve this objective are:
• Develop a more aggressive program for grants and contracts and increase our Federal emphasis
• Fine-tune our growth model to allow growth of support functions and facilities to maintain pace
• Continue emphasis on diversity and student achievement
• Earn NCAA bids in revenue sports
• Continue to enhance relationships with the community and town of Towson
• Place more emphasis on all aspects of fundraising
Second, develop program and research niches which are recognized State-wide, regionally and potentially at the national level. To achieve this objective, we will:
• Examine existing programs, centers and institutes, including workforce and doctoral programs, and identify niches where Towson can excel
• Increase emphasis on out-of-classroom learning, on-line learning, certificate programs, and cohort programs, including weekend cohorts
The third objective is, develop targeted programs, jointly when appropriate, to address workforce needs. The actions are:
• Increase the production of STEM teachers, special education teachers, first-year teachers and health care professionals, including an emphasis on nurses
• Develop targeted doctoral programs
• Develop a School of Emergency Technology
• Consider a School of Nursing
• Seek joint efforts with other institutions targeting workforce needs
We have Towson University 2010 and from it broad objectives. We have done well with Towson University 2010, better than we could have expected when we started. The real year 2010 is just a few months away, it is here so quickly. By the time of the next Fall Address the year 2010 will be close to being history. It is now time to once again think about planning our future.
I don’t know if we will have Towson 2015 or 2020, or something else; 2020 seems to be very far away. What I do know is that we will not allow the University to drift, as it appeared to be doing a decade, or so, in the past. After the first of the coming year, 2010, we will once again engage the campus community in helping define our future. As we did during my transition and prior to the preparation of our current plan, we will schedule a wide-range of focus groups. We will engage official campus groups, affinity groups, and individuals and groups internal and external and all who are interested in the success of Towson University. As we have done before, we will analyze the input by group, category and expectations. Each of you, if you choose, will have an opportunity to provide input into the creation of our new plan.
In the fall of next year, we will launch our plan to control the next half-decade, or decade. By that time we will be well on our way to maturing what we have already done, nearing completion of our initiatives and will have a firm foundation in place to assure that Towson does not drift through the next decade. As we have done to this point, we will be committed to controlling our future. This is important, because, one good principle to always remember is, “if you don’t take control of your future, someone else will”.
Before I close my comments, I want to remind everyone to remember that with success there are always some things that are not yet up to expectations. Earlier I mentioned many successes, but I must say there are still things we committed to last year that are not yet at the desired level of accomplishment. We must complete detailed plans for safe pathways for our students from the campus core to the West Village.
Last year I said we must focus more on the production of first-time certified teachers. We can do other things, and meet other needs, but any other efforts must not be at the expense of this goal. We have a similar commitment to the production of nurses, and improved pass rates for nurses. Again, we may do many creative things, but, we must concentrate on producing first-time workforce ready teachers and nurses. These goals are not options, they are what we must do.
I see the Harford County efforts as a success to this point. Now, we must ride the momentum to even greater success. A strong presence and strong programs at the Harford Campus is important to our future and important to the county.
I also view the Trimester as a success and we must find ways to mature that effort. A School of Technology and STEM remain a great opportunity for Towson, one we are moving on. We can bring together capabilities in the College of Education, the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics and the Hackerman Academy to increase the STEM pipeline, including getting those STEM teachers for all levels of K to 12 education. Another opportunity for Towson to lead.
We are not where we want to be with the new Arena for athletics, but we will get there. There have been hitches, ranging from trees, to economics, to planning, but we know what we need. When we get this piece, our Athletics Complex will be among the best in our conference and in our NCAA division. As we improve the physical components, we will not lose sight of the need for athletic success. Last year I said winning athletics is not an option; on the field, on the court, in the pool, nothing has changed.
While we continue to focus on winning athletics, we will focus even more on winning academics. We want our students to excel. Their diploma won’t be worth more in the future if they don’t have a diploma. Faculty will have the necessary support to assure that students get that diploma. A large part of winning academics is having faculty and staff who are the best in their disciplines and areas of expertise who truly care about our students. All of our planning and all of our efforts are diminished if we don’t focus on the essence of what we are all about, our students.
I also want to bring to life the Towson Promise, a program that will allow students to graduate in four years, or less, using our Trimester and on-line education to help facilitate that goal. I off-handedly suggested this idea last year but want to formally introduce it this year and charge the Provost with developing a plan to make this outcome possible.
If you have listened closely, it is clear that we have had success. We have had success that many would love to replicate. Towson is better today. There have been bumps, and there may be more bumps over the next rise in the road, but always remember, it is not about my comfort, or your comfort, it is about what is best for our students. If our students do well, we all do well.
The past is gone. Much of what we are deeply involved with today will soon be part of the past, unless we assure that it becomes a base for, and part of, our future. Today, we have much to be proud of, we can celebrate, and you can look back on and say, I helped make that happen. We have made so many things better. Now, as this semester leads us into the next decade, it is time to prepare for our next steps. The future is in front of us. Plan to be a part of that future and part of that success. We are that other State University and others now see it. We can do it!!! Today, we are again, moving ahead. Let’s make that vision a reality!!! As always, I thank you for being here and for all you do for Towson. Let’s have another successful academic year and get ready for a new and successful decade. Thank you.
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The President's Fall Address is held annually at Stephens Hall Auditorium.
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