Embracing the Future. Embracing Our Vision.

Our fall faculty and staff meeting provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the University’s current position and, equally importantly, on its future. A snapshot of the University’s current position presents a very encouraging picture.

Looking back

This fall we enrolled a record 25,580 students, including a record freshman class of 4,538. The quality of that freshman class has never been stronger. As a group, a full third graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, and 929 of them had high school grade point records of 4.0 or higher. As a group, they averaged in the top 20 percent nationally on the ACT. Also this fall, The University of Alabama enrolled a record number of African Americans at 2,867, up 8 percent over the preceding year.

Our academic programs continue to prosper. Almost one quarter of this year’s entering freshman class (1,066) enrolled in Honors College. This group scored in the top 2 percent nationally on the ACT, and they have extraordinarily strong high school records. The Blount program enrolled a record freshman class, up 8 percent this year. Our new construction engineering management program continues to prosper. The research activity of our faculty grew by 15 percent in terms of research expenditures, reaching $33 million, an increase of $4.5 million from the preceding year.

The University of Alabama has never been in a stronger financial position. Our operating budget this year is $603 million, up 15 percent over last year’s operating budget. At the end of this fiscal year, we expect to have net assets approaching $1.2 billion.

Our capital campaign continues to make dramatic progress. At the end of September, we had $422 million in cash and pledges toward an ultimate $500 million goal, with $250 million of the goal targeted to scholarship support.

Over the last four years, we have committed just under $29 million to faculty merit raises, and nearly $28 million to staff merit raises. We have invested more than $6 million in supplemental retirement benefits and have added almost $9 million to PEEHIP.

Four years ago, we announced a four-year goal of having a faculty merit raise pool of 35 percent. With the merit raises that took effect this fall, we achieved slightly more than a 35 percent merit raise pool for faculty, and just over a 31 percent merit raise pool for staff. Our six-year goal announced last spring is to have a 50 percent merit raise pool for our faculty. I am very optimistic that we will achieve that goal. Our professors and associate professors are already well past the Southern University Group 50th percentile working toward our ultimate goal of the 75th percentile, and I am optimistic that when comparative figures come out in a few months, our assistant professors will be nearing or passing the 50th percentile.

During the last five years, we have increased our deferred maintenance budget from approximately $1.5 million to $6 million a year to help ensure that one of the most beautiful campuses in the country remains that way.

Our construction program has remained very active. Our new Ridgecrest residence hall facility is open. A large number of additional parking spaces are available. Roads have been completed, and extensive renovation projects have been both completed and are ongoing.

Looking ahead

This meeting also provides an opportunity to reflect on the University’s future, and the sound investments we are making to turn that vision into reality We are significantly increasing our recruiting efforts. We recently added another full-time recruiter for Mobile, a second recruiter in Georgia and in Florida, and our first resident recruiter in Tennessee.

In the last four years, we have increased our scholarship support from just over $10 million a year to $23 million this past fiscal year. Through our capital campaign, we are committed to growing this pool of scholarship support so that the best and brightest will be fully able to attend the University.

We are working hard to improve already good retention rates and to create an academic environment that is even more supportive of the instructional mission of the University.

Our facilities and infrastructure will continue to receive increased attention. By December, we will be breaking ground on the second science and technology building in the Shelby complex. A $24 million renovation program for Lloyd Hall has already begun, with a first-phase commitment in excess of $5 million. We will break ground this year on Ridgecrest II, which will open in August 2009 and provide 960 additional residence hall beds. That facility will be built on top of an underground parking deck that will provide approximately 1,000 parking spaces.

The Crimson Ride program is off to a very good start and helps us keep our campus pedestrian friendly. In early spring, we will begin to seriously consider expanding our football stadium.

We are working hard this year to strengthen the research environment of the University. Last year, we added $2 million for the recruitment of additional faculty. Provost Bonner added $3 million this year. The faculty members hired with those resources will significantly increase our research capacity. As we announced last spring, we are investing dollars in a cluster hire for the MINT research program, which involves our engineering and science departments. The dollars allocated will be enough to recruit an additional five to six faculty members.

We continue to make significant progress in the area of service, which is an integral part of our vision for the future of the University.

Making a personal commitment

I feel strongly, however, that there is another investment that we must make. This investment is less easily quantified, but may be as important as all the people and buildings and equipment we will bring to our campus in years ahead. This investment involves personal commitment. I strongly believe that the members of our academic community – students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends – must step forward and assume a greater sense of personal responsibility for the future of our university.

Examples of this type of personal responsibility already abound across our campus. Dr. John Vincent is president of our faculty senate and one of the most prolific scholars on our campus. Although he is clearly actively involved in faculty leadership, he makes time to advise undergraduate chemistry students because of personal commitment.

R.B. Walker did not run for SGA president to put something on his resume. I have sat by his side at 7:30 in the morning while he helped the administration of this campus as well as our mayor and other city officials wrestle with issues of safety and how to make this environment better for our students.

Our Provost Judy Bonner has devoted an extensive number of hours to making sure this University is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of its students. In addition to meetings, e-mails, letters and publications, she has met with parents in Mobile and other areas to communicate this university’s commitment to the safety of their sons and daughters.

I cannot think of a more dedicated recruiter for this university than Joyce Whetstone, the wife of the director of our alumni affairs office. Her leadership role in Discovering Bama and the time she personally spends conducting tours and talking with students has led to dramatic increases in enrollment, particularly non-resident enrollment.

This type of personal responsibility is reflected in the behavior of a faculty member you heard about during commencement a couple of years ago. A young man in the College of Engineering had been called up for active duty and sent to Iraq just a little short of having met all the requirements for his degree. Because this faculty member put the necessary materials online, this young man was able to complete his degree requirements on a laptop in Iraq. Since we had graduation that spring on the Web, that young man was able to graduate and hear his name called in absentia. That professor did not have to put in those extra hours. He could have easily waited for that young man’s return. Because of personal commitment, the professor didn’t wait.

Many of you have heard me tell a story about a member of our grounds crew, who was riding a lawn mower in the vicinity of Gorgas Library about 18 months ago. He noticed a man and a young lady looking at a campus map. The young lady and her father had an appointment with me, and were trying to find my office. That gentleman stopped his lawn mower, went over and asked, “Can I help you find something?” I am willing to bet that that gentleman has never read our mission statement, but based on what I was told that day, I am also willing to bet that he comes to work each day embracing and living that commitment.

Conclusion

As I said a few moments ago, our fall faculty and staff meeting provides an opportunity to look at a snapshot of our current position, and that picture today provides us with a source of pride and well-earned satisfaction.

We have also paused today to review the investments we are making in our future. And those investments are necessary, substantial and wise. We have also paused to consider the need for a new investment that our academic community – we – should make. And, that investment is embracing a sense of personal responsibility for the future of this university.

I believe that many of us here today have already embraced that sense of personal responsibility. I believe that most members of our academic community will decide to embrace that sense of personal responsibility for the future of the University. And, I believe that the future of our university is very bright.

Thank you.