OHIO UNIVERSITY 
2009 FOUNDERS DAY ADDRESS
Delivered by President Roderick J. McDavis
Friday, February 6, 2009; 10 a.m.; Walter Hall Rotunda

Whether one is an alumnus of our great University, a student, a faculty member, or an employee whose family has worked here for generations, I believe we all understand that Ohio University has a way of getting into one's heart.

It certainly became a significant part of my life, beginning when I was a first-year student nearly 43 years ago. I almost took that out. What always has touched me about Ohio University, even before I arrived on campus my first year, was the progressive nature of our faculty, of our students, and of our staff.

Now, back when I was in school, "progressive" was not necessarily meant as a compliment. I believe the nickname for Ohio University was "the Berkeley of the Backwoods." But I found that for me, Ohio University was a place for freedom of thought, freedom from the constraints to do what always was done before.

As a student, I was encouraged to absorb all that the university community had to offer. And my professors gave me permission -- actually they demanded -- that I embrace this freedom to dream and to consider what my place in the world would be.

The word that we use to define progressive today is innovation. If one looks back at significant events in the history of America, Ohio University clearly was at the forefront of being part of the solution to our young nation's problems.

It was a place where those seeking access to a greater opportunity found a home: Pioneers settling the Northwest Territory; a freed slave pursuing a college degree 36 years before the Emancipation Proclamation; veterans returning home from World War II transitioning into a post war America; students seeking connection to a global world during a technological revolution.

With each change affecting our region, our country, and our world, we have answered the call. Our community joined together. Collective sacrifices were made. Most importantly, innovative ideas were created and implemented.

Our world today asks nothing less of us now. In fact, it demands that we be a university community of innovators!

CALL TO ACTION

Consider the news we read each and every day. Story after story reports the tens of thousands of people being affected by layoffs, imploding business sectors, record-breaking foreclosure rates, and stormy financial markets.

Looking around our own region, we are pained by the impact on families, friends, and neighbors. Good, hard-working people are struggling to make ends meet and to provide the basic necessities for their families.

Local non-profit organizations are struggling to keep up with demand on their much needed services. Businesses are closing and leaving empty storefronts. It is painful and heart wrenching to witness.

Indeed, these are historic times. Times that demand we answer the call to help lift our state and position it for economic recovery.

Being an innovator doesn't mean following the latest trends. It means embracing our historic legacy and remaining true to our core values.

Through Vision OHIO, we reaffirmed those core values. We developed innovative ways to remain true to those values and continue to help the people that we serve.

Now, more than ever, we must remain steadfast to that commitment.

Last week, during Governor Ted Strickland's State of the State, he called on all Ohioans to "accept the sacrifices that these times demand."

Ohioans are being asked to make great sacrifices in order to support those investments he viewed as critical to our economic recovery. At the top of that list is education.

The Governor's budget proposal bolsters spending for education, including a commitment to increase the State Share of Instruction for higher education. This increase would allow for a continued tuition freeze for fiscal year 2010.

We greatly appreciate the Governor's support for and his personal commitment to higher education. But we understand that his support comes at a great price to social service agencies in our state -- agencies that are providing key support to families impacted by this historic economic downturn.

We must find creative solutions to our region and our state's economic woes. In order to do that, we must be active participants in important discussions about the future of our University and of our community.

ANSWERING THE CALL

Governor Strickland is calling on our institution to be accountable, to increase accessibility, to be innovative. Most importantly, he calls on us to be innovative in our approach to preparing the youth of today to "succeed in the modern economy" and in "modern life."

Last week at the State of the State, I smiled when I heard the Governor say those words -- to succeed in the modern economy and in modern life. Our faculty and staff are working hard every day to accomplish just that very mission.

In fact, today's student honorees speak to that level of passion, commitment, and creativity that is inherent in our community.

I thank you -- the faculty of Ohio University -- for igniting the spark of curiosity and intellectual discovery in the minds of our students. To our students, thank you for opening your minds and for your contributions to our mission of academic excellence.

It truly takes a community to realize the promise of Ohio University. I want to take a moment to acknowledge and share my appreciation for Dr. Krendl, our deans, our enrollment management team, and others who in one year:

• increased our retention rate one and a half percentage points to 80 percent
• increased the A.C.T. composite score one-tenth of a point to 23.7; and
• increased selectivity four percentage points to 78 percent

Through the work of many faculty, staff, deans, and executive leaders, our undergraduate student learning experience is even stronger.

• Now, more than half of first-year students on the Athens campus are engaged in a learning community.
  
  
• The number of students receiving nationally competitive awards, which was pointed out earlier, soared taking last year's total to 75 -- a record for our University.
  
  
• The multicultural diversity of our incoming students increased to nine percent.
  
  
• The international diversity of our undergraduate student body nearly doubled from the previous year.
  
  
• In cooperation with the leadership of Student Affairs, we reduced the number of high-risk drinking offences by more than one half.

To take the undergraduate student learning experience, for which Ohio University is already recognized nationally as a model for other universities and colleges, and make it even stronger is a great accomplishment. The leadership and support of Dr. Krendl, our deans, and all those involved have helped us to exceed expectations, and I thank you for your efforts!

This kind of success is key, especially as Governor Strickland calls on our University to be more efficient and to meet tangible outcomes that illustrate our commitment and ability to prepare and graduate students.

These successes also speak to our ability to develop and implement a plan, to focus our resources, and to support those initiatives which we deem our highest priorities.

Let me share ways we have supported some of our top priorities:

We determined that when it came to investing in people, faculty had to be at the top of that list. I am very pleased that two years into our five-year commitment to invest 1.2 million dollars each year to increase faculty salaries, in doing so, the average salary for a full professor on the Athens campus is now $100,000. This priority is important and I am very proud that we were able to make that level of commitment.

In December, the Executive Staff and Deans formed work groups to examine various cross sections of our University. They looked at administrative restructuring, academic restructuring, Intercollegiate Athletics restructuring, and revenue generation among others. As a result of that review, some initiatives have been implemented.

For example, Senior Vice President Bill Decatur and Vice President Kent Smith recently announced a merger of several units within their divisions. Residence Life merged with Housing. Conference Services was combined with Baker University Center and University Events. These changes speak to the kind of cross functionality that we must identify and implement.

We continue to work to implement a shared services model, which would include support functions such as information technology, communications and marketing, and printing services.

Our commitment is to limit expenditures in order to protect the resources needed to support our academic mission and those services central to achieving that mission.

TOWARDS OHIO'S FUTURE

As we look to the future of Ohio University, committees and task forces are taking creative steps to put forward recommendations not only to save funds, but to enhance students' learning experiences and build on our institution's strengths.

You may ask, how will we do that?

Working together -- let me repeat -- working together, through review processes that utilize best practices, we will gain a clearer understanding of our Centers of Excellence as well as our Programs of Distinction.

I was pleased to learn that yesterday the Task Force on the Centers of Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education presented its report to Dr. Krendl. That report along with other evaluative exercises will help us achieve the type of focus on academic excellence called for in the Five Year Vision Ohio Implementation Plan and the University System of Ohio Strategic Plan.

We will implement strategies to support regional higher education.

Traditional residential college students, as we know it, represent only 16 percent of the total number of students enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States. That means 84 percent of the students currently enrolled in higher education are seeking other kinds of advanced learning opportunities.

Access is important and we must open our doors even wider through expansion of support for regional higher education. As part of an aggressive Five Year Vision Ohio strategy, we will achieve ambitious regional campus enrollment and retention goals.

I want to thank the Task Force on the Future of Regional Campuses for its work. We are moving forward with its recommendations and taking a deeper examination of those suggestions that will enhance the ability of our regional campuses to achieve their critical mission. Three teams were formed to facilitate progress on those recommendations:

• The first team will focus on short-term recommendations for implementation, including the development of an action plan. This group's work begins immediately.
  
  
• The second team will study the potential advantages and disadvantages of creating a regional college. This study is expected to be completed by April.
  
  
• The third team is focused on a strategic vision for the future of our regional campuses. That group's work is to be completed by June.

We will continue our commitment to increase diversity.

The eight historically black colleges and universities that joined Ohio University to form The Interlink Alliance have pledged to work cooperatively to reach, retain, educate, graduate, and facilitate the success of students. The Interlink Alliance is especially focused on those who continue to be underrepresented despite other efforts.

This agreement represents something new in higher education. By uniting the strengths of the member institutions, we will have a greater impact on the future of our students and expand teaching resources available to our faculty.

We will continue to take discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. In fact, in fiscal year 2008, we reported our highest royalty income to date -- 5.9 million dollars. Forbes magazine recently ranked Ohio University fourth in the country for the amount of license revenue generated in relation to our research funding.

The Technology Transfer Office more than doubled its number of patent applications, from 15 in fiscal year 2007 to 32 in fiscal year 2008.

We will continue to find innovative ways to support economic development and continue outreach to support the growth of new businesses.

According to a new study by the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, our small business incubator -- the Innovation Center -- contributed 15 million dollars in labor income and 386 jobs to the region in 2007. This represents¬ the biggest economic impact to date. Half of the start-ups stemmed from Ohio University research.

We will continue to partner with government leaders and seek private support through the generosity of alumni and friends.

Since July 2008, we have raised 15.8 million dollars toward our 20 million dollar fiscal year goal. Those private funds will support important initiatives critical to our mission of access and excellence. Alumni and friends have provided generously to create and support scholarships in programs such as Studio Art, Physical Therapy, the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, and the Southern Campus.

Private gifts also were given in support of important programs and initiatives including an international center, the Appalachian Scholars Program, The Cutler Scholars Program, a Chair in the College of Business, the Kennedy Museum of Art, the AMVET Diabetes Research Institute, the Academic and Research Center, the Ralph and Luci Schey Sales Centre, and the Jewish Studies certificate program.

To our alumni and friends, many of whom are with us today and serve as Trustees of our Foundation Board, thank you for your efforts and leadership to help us realize the promise of Ohio University.

To be sure, we face many difficult decisions over the next several years. But we must have the courage to make difficult decisions in order to preserve our core mission of undergraduate education, select graduate programs, and distinctive areas of research. These are our priorities. Vision Ohio is and will continue to be our guide.

The Governor's support for higher education calls for more demonstrated accountability from public universities with the implementation of a new funding formula linked to outcomes. Indeed, the Governor's proposal requires us to achieve new efficiencies equaling three percent of our budget in both of the next two fiscal years.

We must prove to the citizens of our state that we are worthy of their support and sacrifice. The great work we have done with Vision Ohio is only going to help us as we become more efficient and effective as a University.

On January 21st, President Barak Obama stood on the steps of the United States Capitol, and reminded all Americans that "greatness is never a given. It must be earned."

Ohio University has a 205-year history of earning its greatness. We must continue to strive for that promise. That is something that we can only do together.

Let's go to work! Thank you!