Delivered by Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis

Thank you Distinguished Professor Smith. I also extend my welcome to our dedicated faculty, staff, and administrators, and the newest members of the Ohio University family – our new faculty members, staff, and administrators. I especially want to recognize Stephen Golding, our new Vice President for Finance and Administration, and welcome our two new regional deans – Dr. Donna Burgraff, our Chillicothe Campus Dean, and Dr. James Smith, our Lancaster Campus Dean.

With the pace of our work, we rarely have an opportunity to take a deep breath, pause, and reflect on the wonderful things happening at Ohio University. Because we achieve so much, it is easy to take our successes for granted; but we must not allow ourselves to take anything for granted. It is important for us to take time to applaud each other and appreciate the national recognitions, record-setting accomplishments, and academic excellence of our faculty and staff in support of our students.

Thanks to University Communications and Marketing’s production of the piece we just watched, we were able to see some of those accomplishments illustrated with beautiful words, images, and music. It is almost overwhelming to think that those achievements took place during the last year. Even more awe-inspiring is the fact that this six-minute video contained just a sampling of the ingenuity and success of Ohio faculty, students, and staff.

At the foundation of these outstanding accomplishments, prominent awards, and significant recognitions, there is a daily excellence that occurs at a great university like ours. What do I mean by a daily excellence? It is the beating heart of Ohio University…the daily work that ensures the continuous flow of energy, information, and resources necessary to sustain a healthy, thriving academic institution.

It’s the faculty member who stays after class to continue a discussion with a student who strives to absorb more knowledge about a subject. It’s staff members who are on the frontlines, answering calls from parents and students, ensuring that their issue is handled in the most professional and timely manner. It’s groundskeepers, who maintain our beautiful campuses and, despite the weather, still have a smile for those passing by.

But how do we quantify those special touches and verbalize who we are and what makes us different from other universities?

About a year and half ago, we began work to articulate in a sentence our vision for Ohio University. During that time, discussions were held with our senates’ leadership, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators, deans, Executive Staff, and governing and advisory boards.

Articulating who we are and who we want to become was not as easy as we thought. How in one statement can we sum up that which we do every day, and have done for 206 years, keeping in mind where we want to go as an institution?

It was clear that the residential-learning experience at Ohio University is more than living in a residence hall, more than a faculty member who stands in front of a class and lectures, and more than a staff member who responds to emails. It was clear that it is not just what our students learn, but how they learn.

Our vision for the our university is “Ohio University will be the best transformative learning community where students realize their promise, faculty advance knowledge, staff achieve excellence, and alumni become global leaders.”

Our vision expresses, in large measure, who we are and who we have been for 206 years. We are an institution that from the depths of its very soul and its earliest beginnings has been a transformative place of learning.

Our university is successful because we have committed people who are focused on our students. Our faculty and staff share their expertise, they want to guide students on their journey, and they want to transform students’ lives.

Ohio University is a transformative learning community where students realize their promise.

Through student organizations, community service opportunities, internships, and applying for nationally competitive awards, students are learning and growing…shaping their personal and professional goals. And they are doing that right here at Ohio University.

Consider our undergraduate students who are working at the Edison Biotechnology Institute. Working in conjunction with researchers and faculty, those students are making contributions to real world problems, such as diabetes and cancer that are affecting the human condition.

Or students involved in the “Boat of Knowledge in the Science Classroom.” This joint effort with our Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education and Human Services and our Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology is supporting K through 12 science and math education and providing hands-on research experiences to teachers in Southeast Ohio.

Or students participating in LeaderShape. This program is a leadership development experience that teaches students how to lead with integrity.

Consider some of our most impactful learning opportunities – opportunities born from the creativity of our faculty and staff who see the potential for expanding learning experiences. Our new Center for Law, Culture and Justice is a great example. Faculty, recognizing a gap in the offerings of a pre-law program in Southeast Ohio, decided to take it a step further and address it in a unique, interdisciplinary way.

Other opportunities have come to fruition through the support of the 1804 Fund, an endowment fund created through a monetary gift from Paul Stocker, which is celebrating 30 years of supporting and encouraging excellence at Ohio University. This fund has provided more than $14 million for over 500 projects, such as our successful Learning Communities program.

What began as a fund-supported pilot of two learning communities with 40 participants has grown to 162 learning communities with more than 2,700 student participants, including expansion to our regional campuses.

The 1804 Fund also has provided support for faculty researchers such as Dr. John Kopchick who was looking for support to develop the acromegaly drug called Somavert. His drug has eased the suffering of thousands of individuals and is largely responsible for the $8.2 million in royalty income the university received last year.

The 1804 Fund has launched programs, such as the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, which supports our exceptional students who this past academic year received 56 competitive awards, scholarships, and fellowships.

The 1804 Fund also has provided grants to academic departments for the acquisition of equipment essential to learning, such as a digitally controlled gas-powered kiln that was needed for our ceramics program, which also is a nationally-ranked graduate program.

To our faculty and staff, I thank you for investing in our students…for taking the time to mentor students, meet with students at events, advise student organizations, volunteer your time to review a student’s résumé or offer professional advice. You are making lasting impressions that are important to their success.

For those of us who are alumni of Ohio University, we know firsthand the role that this great university has played in lifting us up, in shaping us to be the professionals we are today. We also understand that the power of an Ohio University education to transform our lives and those of our students is because of our faculty, who advance knowledge.

Our students learn from the best and brightest faculty members in their fields – high-achieving scholars who not only advance knowledge but who teach and share their knowledge with the next generation of thinkers, leaders, and innovators. They bring our students along on their quest for new knowledge. This relationship to transforming the lives of our students is at the intersection of what we do and do best.

For example, our Department of English’s creative writing program has received international acclaim for its faculty and graduate student work. One member of the department, Dr. Jill Allyn Rosser, Associate Professor of English, received a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Dr. Lynn Harter, the Steven and Barbara Schoonover Professor of Health Communication in the School of Communication Studies, and Casey Hayward, Assistant Professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies, received a Broadcast Education Association Award of Excellence for Faculty Documentaries for their film “The Art of the Possible.”

Dr. Nancy Stevens, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences in our College of Osteopathic Medicine, was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to fund the creation of a university laboratory for fossil preparation and imaging. Dr. Patrick O’Connor and Dr. Susan Williams are co-principal investigators on the grant.

Ohio Magazine's 2009 Excellence in Education recognition program featured Dr. Jennifer Chabot, Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Public Health, and Dr. Peter Jung, Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy.

Dr. Guofang Wan, Professor of Teacher Education, received the 2010 Margaret B. Lindsey Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education from The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

This list is just a sampling of the outstanding work of our faculty who teach, mentor, and advance knowledge. We need to recognize and honor their commitment to teaching.

Thus, I am pleased to announce that we will resume the Presidential Teacher Award and name the newest recipients of this honor in the spring of 2011.

I believe that many of our faculty, students, and alumni would agree with me, when I say that our ability to transform lives would not be possible without our staff, who achieve excellence in their work.

Deeply invested in the success of our students, and the academic mission of our university, our staff play a significant role in elevating Ohio University. Our staff are committed to offering the best support and providing the necessary resources to bolster learning, research, and creative activity.

Thanks to the work of our Advancement Division along with other partners across our university, we have broken fundraising goals for our university despite the difficult economic climate. In 2009-10, we raised nearly $57 million.

Staff in our Innovation Center are supporting the 17 companies, including biotechnology to transportation and energy start-ups, housed in this incubator. In 2009, companies in the center generated 152 jobs and $9.4 million in labor income in Athens County, according to an economic impact study conducted by our Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.

Our Regional Higher Education staff are forming community college partnerships through which we offer the Online Bachelor Completion program. This program is vital to our state meeting its education attainment goals.

Our Office of Sustainability is putting Ohio University on the map as a leading sustainable institution. From the Recyclemania Residence Hall Challenge to our compost facility, Ohio University is proving that it is possible for universities to be environmentally responsible.

The Office of Diversity, Access, and Equity hosted the Inaugural Summer Institute for Diversity Education this past summer to expand our awareness and advance our education about diversity.

All of these accomplishments are examples of the daily excellence happening at Ohio University. These achievements are moving us toward our vision to be the best transformative learning community in America!

But the key word is being the best!

Being the best at what we do is a noble goal for our university. In order to survive and thrive in the 21st Century, we must be more than a university that delivers academic excellence. Our survival is hinged on ensuring the relevancy of what we offer, being responsive to the changing needs of society and our students, and being competitive with other higher education institutions.

The higher education community is very different than it was 10 years ago or even two years ago. In fact, higher education has changed more in the last two decades than any other time period since our founding in 1804. Technology, globalization, mobility –both socioeconomic and geographic – and student needs and desires have dramatically changed the role of higher education.

As we look to our future, we know that our state’s population is changing and it has the potential to impact our university. Over the next three years, the National Center for Education Statistics predicts that the state of Ohio will experience a decrease in the number of public high school graduates. That means that we are facing increased competition for students not only with universities in our state but colleges and universities across the country.

And we are facing these challenges during a time of great economic difficulty for our region, our state, and for our students and their families. Anyone who watched last month’s “Dateline” show on Appalachia was once again reminded of the poverty that exists in our region. We cannot ignore that the state of Ohio’s and our region’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average.

Thus, we must find a way to increase scholarship support for our students. Being able to award more financial aid will have a significant positive impact on our students’ and their parents’ ability to afford a college education. We want our students and their families to be able to afford the cost of the full residential experience offered by Ohio University.

We are projecting at least a $15 million reduction in the state share of instruction directly tied to federal stimulus funding for fiscal year 2012. In addition, costs for utilities and health care continue to increase. The need to address employee compensation, which we believe is very important, continues to increase our costs. Our ability to offset these budgetary pressures is limited both by tuition caps and our need to be sensitive to the affordability of a college education for students and parents.

As a result of these concerns, I am announcing today that we will continue our hiring freeze for the 2010-11 academic year. It is a short-term action that we must take in order for us to be in a stronger position for long-term transformation.

Our challenges are real. We cannot ignore their impact on our university, our students, and their families.

Now is the time for us to pull together and support one another. Together, we must apply our creativity and ingenuity to everything that we do and find ways we can be more efficient and strategic with our limited resources.

That is why our strategic priorities are so important.

We are moving forward with our plans to thoughtfully and strategically set short- and long-term enrollment goals; enhance our undergraduate and graduate curriculum; improve our financial strength; bolster graduate education, research and creative activity; institute effective compensation policies and practices; and launch a $450 million capital campaign.

Thanks to our Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, our Office of Enrollment Management, and our deans, great strides have been made in our efforts to establish effective short- and long-term enrollment planning.

• We developed specific, targeted communication activities for the entering class and for specific programs and Colleges.
  We enhanced our out-of-state marketing efforts with the first ever out-of-state marketing plan.
• We created new scholarship programs and re-balanced existing programs for out-of-state and specific college student populations.
• We established an alumni training program and expanded alumni assistance in recruitment activities.
• We enhanced on-line recruitment activities and developed a website to walk admitted students through each step of the admissions process.

I am very pleased to inform you, that because of these initiatives and this great work, which also was bolstered by our faculty’s involvement, our 2010 Fall Quarter enrollment numbers are looking very strong as of today. And, it appears, we have the most academically talented entering freshman class in the past six years – facts we will be able to confirm in the coming weeks.

With the work of our Budget Planning Council and Office of Budget Planning, we continue to improve our financial strength. For example, our annual budget places no reliance on investment income, minimizing the impacts of market volatility on our financial budgeting strategies. We also continue our work to implement our five-year budget plan to resolve our structural deficit gap.

To enhance the quality of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, we enrolled our first class of Athens-based Bachelor of Nursing Science students. Through academic restructuring, we re-configured the College of Health Sciences and Professions and broadened the academic missions of the Patton College of Education and Human Services, the College of Business, and the College of Fine Arts. An endowment was established for the Patton College and the creation of a Center for Arts Education by alumna Miss Violet Patton. Thank you to the deans of each of those units as well as their faculty and staff.

To bolster graduate education and associated efforts of faculty in research and creative activity, the University System of Ohio designated two Centers of Excellence at Ohio University – Energy and the Environment and Health and Wellness. We held the grand opening of the state-of-the-art teaching and research facility – The Osteopathic Heritage Foundations and the Charles R. and Marilyn Y. Stuckey Academic & Research Center. We also supported continuing affordability through a General Fee buy-down for graduate students. Thank you Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit, our deans, including our Graduate College, and to our faculty and staff for your work in this area.

Our Department of Human Resources is leading our efforts to institute effective compensation policies and practices to ensure that talented faculty, administrative staff, and classified staff are rewarded and retained. Last week I approved a merit raise pool of $750,000 for Athens tenure-track faculty. It is important to support and encourage excellence in teaching, research, and service, and we are happy that we can recognize our exceptional faculty in this way.

And, we announced approval of the project to develop a new “Career Banding” compensation system for administrators. This system will be implemented over the next 12-15 months.

To support our transformation, we will launch a $450 million capital campaign focused on supporting core academic initiatives. We already have raised $215.5 million in gifts and commitments toward the campaign goal. Alumnus Charles Stuckey and Trustee David Wolfort have graciously agreed to chair our capital campaign and lead our efforts to reach our goal. Given their success to date, it is clear Vice President Howard Lipman, our development officers, Advancement Division staff, and our Deans are making it hard for alumni and friends to say “no” to sharing their treasure and talent with Ohio University.

Our strategic priorities are helping us address many of our challenges by best utilizing our limited resources in a thoughtful and meaningful way. And while the work taking place to support those priorities is important, we must be realistic about how we will address the bigger picture – the changing landscape of society and our nation. We must look to the future of our university and define its place within our world.

I want to reassure you that we are not going to be hasty as we make decisions about the future of our university and our strategic investments. Holding fast to our historic principles, with your help, we will be methodical and apply research, thoughtfully and strategically.

Last spring, in the face of a growing host of “unknowns” brought about in part by the effects of the economic crisis of 2008, I decided that it was critical to develop a greater culture of and capability in multi-year planning. To that end, a multi-year planning process was developed and implemented. The process was built around two components—conducting a strategic analysis and a budget analysis. Our goal is to identify the trends that will impact our university in the coming years, and to determine their impact on our current strategic priorities and budgeting process.
 
I want to provide you with a brief overview of the work taking place to thoughtfully and strategically place our university in a position to become the nation’s best transformative learning community.
 
First, the strategic analysis includes the environmental scans taking place at the university level and at the planning-unit level. The nine-person Environmental Scan Team is evaluating and prioritizing the trends that are likely to have the most impact on our progress toward becoming a transformative learning community. Updates on their work, along with reports and resource documents being used by the team and planning units, are available on a blog that can be accessed through the Executive Vice President and Provost’s web site.
 
The Environmental Scan Team soon will produce a draft document that outlines what they have identified as trends of greatest concern for our progress as a transformative learning community. In October, the team will hold forums and seek comment on the draft document from the university community. I encourage you to participate in these important conversations.
 
In conjunction with this work, planning units are conducting their own environmental scans, which will be completed by October 1st. Those reports will be shared with the University community via the blog and will help to shape the identification of trends that are of primary importance to Ohio University. I want to thank members of our planning units and members of the Environmental Scan Team for the important work they are undertaking.
 
The other significant piece in our multi-faceted long-term approach is the budget analysis, which will continue into the Fall. As part of this analysis, we are developing three to five year projections on expenditures and resource generation. 
 
In addition, a series of meetings were held over the summer with planning unit heads, Dr. Benoit, Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Mike Angelini, and members of both of their staffs. These meetings were designed to provide an opportunity to discuss unit budgets, staffing, and activities. Additional planning unit budget meetings will be held throughout the Fall.
 
I want to take a moment to thank Dr. Benoit and Mr. Angelini for forging this important partnership, especially during this difficult economic time. Your leadership and partnership is a true testament to what we can achieve when we come together to find ways to solve our fiscal challenges. I know that this important partnership will continue under the leadership of Dr. Benoit and Mr. Golding.
 
When I was preparing to speak to you today, I realized it was almost exactly six years ago that I delivered my inaugural address. During that speech, I established the Presidential Task Force on the Future of Ohio University. The work that task force accomplished began to lay the foundation for where we stand today, positioned to transform our university. And if anything, over those six years, we have learned that time is not static.

Consider how our world has changed over that time. We have seen Facebook, Smartphones, and Wi-fi become commonplace modes and tools of communication for our students and our community. We witnessed our regional, state, national, and global economy transform from prosperous to struggling. We became part of a formalized state system of higher education in Ohio with a renewed emphasis on shared goals and collaboration among public universities.

It became clear that if we do not invest in transforming our university to be responsive to the needs of our world and our students, we cannot secure the future of our university. If we wait, we will lose our opportunity to chart our destiny.

The time is now. We must embrace this opportunity and our shared responsibility to be active participants in determining the future direction of our university. Our world will not wait for us. 

Our institution must be at the forefront of change… a leader for transformation. After all, it is who we are.

Let’s harness the leadership role that was established with the founding of Ohio University as the first transformative learning community in the Northwest Territory.

Let’s lead other public higher education institutions by showing them how to foster a transformative learning environment for students and ensure its relevancy in the 21st Century. We already do it well…let’s do it the best!

Let’s harness our mission to help students fulfill their promise – and advance it to the next level.

Let’s lift up one another, inspire others through our passion, and share the story of Ohio University.

We are the authors of the next chapters of its compelling history!

As we depart today, University Communications and Marketing, a department that works hard to share our stories both internally and externally, has prepared a quick Ohio University fact booklet for everyone to take. These are just facts. I encourage you to take these facts and share your narrative with colleagues, friends, family, peers. Share the reason that you get up each and every day dedicating yourselves to the mission and vision of Ohio University.

In closing, I want to share an email I received from a parent who recently attended Bobcat Student Orientation.

She wrote:

“I wanted to take a moment to share my observations on our Bobcat Orientation experience. I can appreciate what it must take to coordinate this many people to multiple events, and your team of OU staff and students pulled it off without a hitch – the planning and organization of the entire team was superb! 

“But what was so incredible to me was the quality of the content and the spirit in which it was delivered. As a parent sending my first child off to college, I received all the facts and emotional reassurance I was looking for. Most impressive to me was the consistent message through words and action from everyone we met – ‘your child’s success, academically, emotionally, physically - is what we are here for.’ ”

I want to recognize our Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Kent Smith, and his staff for their great work with our Bobcat Student Orientation program. 

This email is just a sample of the accolades I continually receive about our exceptional faculty and outstanding staff. You are making a difference. You are what sets Ohio University apart from other universities.

I am thankful to come to work, surrounded by talented, passionate people who embody our vision. People who understand the meaning and importance of our strategic priorities. People who make daily contributions and invest in our students with their time and talent.

As we undertake important work to secure Ohio University’s future and place within our world, I encourage you to keep persevering, continue to think of creative ways for us to achieve our vision, and participate in the discussions taking place about the future of our university.

Make no mistake, our journey will not be easy, but we will face tomorrow’s challenges together. And we will be the best student-centered learning experience in America because of you… because of your commitment, because of your leadership, and because, as public servants, we are part of something bigger than ourselves!

We are Ohio University and we will do what it takes to inspire others and lift up the next generation of thinkers, leaders, and innovators!

Thank you and let’s have a great academic year!