State of the University Address: The New West Virginia University
September 10, 2001
Remarks by David C. Hardesty Jr., President, West Virginia University
Members of our Board, Campus Presidents, Colleagues, and Friends of the University:
I am pleased to present to the Faculty Senate and others today my annual State of the University address. In addition to my remarks, I am distributing three publications evidencing that the state of our University is strong, and getting stronger. One of these presents a sampling of our recent University-wide achievements. Another tells about our plan for new facilities on the Morgantown campus. The third outlines how we are implementing the recommendations of the Commission on Academic Standards and Expectations
In each of our focus areas?teaching, research, service, and technology?West Virginia University is thriving. Moreover, the financial position of the institution is strong, largely because of our ability to leverage the dollars we get from tuition and state appropriations and also due to our success in attracting external support.
But before I go into this, I would like to tell you about an experience I had recently.
In July, Paul Miller, WVU?s 15th president, and his wife, Francena, who was a prominent member of the faculty here, visited the campus in Morgantown. Susan and I feel a strong bond with Dr. Miller. He was president here in 1963, and he delivered the convocation address to Susan, me, and the other members of our class when we sat where the 3,700 current WVU freshman students sat this fall.
We had a wonderful day of touring the Morgantown campus. We toured the Mountainlair and the downtown campus, Evansdale, the Law Center, the PRT, the Health Sciences Center, the new athletic facilities, and the new Student Recreation Center.
Dr. Miller was instrumental in developing the Evansdale campus, and he takes great pride in the evolution that has occurred at WVU since he was its president nearly 40 years ago. On the green expanses of Evansdale, facilities have risen that seem so much a part of today?s WVU as to have been there forever: the Creative Arts Center, the Towers, Percival Hall, Allen Hall. Yet, when Paul Miller was inaugurated in 1962, not one of them had even been sketched out on a notepad.
More important than the facilities themselves is the evolution in WVU?s teaching, research, and service that they helped enable. Physical improvements such as those achieved by the Miller administration are directly linked to improvements in WVU?s curriculum, research capacities, student life, and public service and outreach.
Try to imagine WVU without the Mountainlair, for example. The current facility was built during the Miller and Harlow administrations and expanded during Neil Bucklew?s tenure. Several generations of WVU students have known it as a central part of their college experience. Yet, there was a time not so long ago when this vital facility did not exist. Nor did the excellent educational programs and gathering spaces it shelters exist. Today, they are part of our University?s fabric.
When we look farther back into WVU?s history, we see the two-building campus of 1867. We see the all-male student body with its corps of cadets and the bearded professoriate. We see the first women degree candidates arriving in 1889, the first African American undergraduate student receiving his degree in 1954, the first co-ed marching band in 1972. There is Jerry West leading his team to victory at the old field house, and Carolyn Conner becoming the most recent in our legacy of Rhodes Scholars from WVU.
This progression of changes at WVU shows us that, as in nature, human organizations evolve. They adapt to meet the inevitable changes and challenges in their environment. As they do, they not only survive, but become stronger.
When we consider the natural world, we tend to think of evolution as a very slow process, something that occurs over epochs and eons. When we consider human organizations, however, evolution is something that can occur rapidly?in years, months, even days.
Such has been the case at West Virginia University. Six years ago, I was inaugurated as president of a very different WVU than the one we know today. I promised at that time to make every effort to ensure that WVU is a place where dreams can be realized, where the future is always in our sights even as we respect the past and work to overcome present challenges.
Since then, working together, we have transformed WVU into a stronger university with new and updated facilities, a focused and balanced mission, a commitment to core values including student-centeredness, and a clearer view of the present and future needs and goals of the people we serve. We are in a period of accelerated change that is strengthening and improving our University in many important ways.
The result of our work is a new West Virginia University. Yet, our traditions are intact. Our history remains that of a land-grant university fulfilling its mission to serve the people of our state. But things are happening at WVU now that will benefit individuals and society in ways never imagined in 1895 or 1995?and in many ways we cannot imagine today.
The University, of course, is older than any of us will ever be. It is probably wiser than any of us. And it will outlive every one of us. Everything we do now to advance the institution helps to guarantee the advancement of generations to follow. Ours is a noble cause, and a vital one.
The most obvious and inescapable evidence of the new West Virginia University that is rising upon well-established foundations is the new look in facilities here in Morgantown. The buildings taking shape downtown and in Evansdale are not replacements for structures that have outlived their usefulness. They are state-of-the-art facilities designed to give new capabilities to a rapidly evolving, student-centered research University.
The new Downtown Library Complex will be technologically advanced to meet the research needs of the 21st century. The Life Sciences Building will foster collaboration among two important disciplines, biology and psychology. These superb facilities, along with the recently opened Student Recreation Center and computer laboratories, and the soon-to-open interactive Visitors Resource Center at One Waterfront Place, demonstrate our commitment to our students? success.
Moreover, each is a new point of pride. Each makes an unequivocal statement that West Virginia University is among the nation?s forward-thinking, progressive institutions. This truth is echoed by improvements at our regional campuses across the state. The new West Virginia University dispels old stereotypes. It replaces these with newfound awareness of West Virginia?s vibrant culture, economic potential, and growing commitment to excellence.
Even as these new structures rise, dramatically changing the face of our campus, we are reminded of our past and our traditions by the stately older buildings standing beside them. Woodburn Hall, Oglebay Hall, Colson Hall?these facilities and others resound with the footsteps of past generations. We owe a debt of gratitude to my predecessor, President Neil Bucklew, and his administration, for their efforts in preserving these historic facilities for use by new generations of WVU students.
Accelerated evolution is occurring in many other areas of the University, also.
Our new capacities in research would astound the bearded professoriate of a century ago?and even the faculty who served their tenure in more recent times. In the 2000-2001 fiscal year, we set a new record for sponsored programs at WVU: $88.7 million. The figure is up 14 percent over the previous highest level, $79 million in 1993. This achievement is due in part to the significant improvements in WVU?s research infrastructure that we have fostered, led by Dr. John Weete and the Research Corporation?s Board of Directors. More importantly, the new record is the result of the pathbreaking work of outstanding faculty members in our research focus areas.
Evolution has changed WVU?s public service programs for the better as well. Our rural health care programs are a model for the nation. They link tertiary care here in Morgantown with numerous rural health delivery sites across the state. In economic development, business expansion and retention, community planning and design, firefighter training, 4-H and child development programs, and in numerous other ways, we serve thousands across our state and nation.
New forms of technology have also evolved. They help our campus run more efficiently and foster computer literacy among our students and faculty. Ours is one of America?s most “wired” campuses. Last year, 83 percent of students brought a computer into the residence halls?and the Technology Support Center had all these students connected to the campus network within four days. In an exciting new development this winter, we will launch the Mountaineer Information Express, a WVU-only web portal that links students to each other and to the faculty, as well as to the world outside.
We also have attracted private support to help achieve the University?s mission that would have been undreamt of just a few years ago. The Foundation?s capital campaign, “Building Greatness,” is proving a great success. We are on target and on track to raise $250 million in new gifts and endowments for the University. As of today, the campaign has attracted $175 million. These funds?which are given to us mainly by generous alumni and friends?support endowed professorships, graduate and undergraduate scholarships, new program development, facility enhancements, and many other improvements.
Just last week, I was pleased to announce an extraordinary $18.4 million gift from two Morgantown sisters, Gladys Gwendolyn Davis and Vivian Davis Michael. In their wills, they made the largest donation from individuals in WVU’s history: $16.2 million for the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences, and $2.2 million for the College of Law, Creative Arts, and the new downtown library. In honor of the sisters and their mother, Estelle Conaway Davis, WVU is now home to the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences. We are very grateful for the Davis family?s loyalty and support of WVU over many years.
As our institution evolves, we are finding new, more holistic ways to educate students, inside and outside the classroom. Among these are distributed education, web-based courses, service learning, and the student-centered programs of Operation Jump-Start. Educational needs, delivery methods, and content must evolve, but at the heart of each new learning initiative remains the treasured relationship between student and teacher.
Gail Galloway Adams, who has influenced many students in the WVU creative writing program through her outstanding teaching and guidance, shared a noteworthy observation with the Student Affairs Task Force several years ago. “In the move to a student-centered university,” she said, “the first thing to remember is that students in ancient times met in a square, under a tree, on a hill, to engage in conversation with a single teacher who hoped to convey the joy of ideas, the deep satisfaction of the intellectual life.”
As WVU changes to meet new needs, as we grow stronger and are called upon to deliver more and different services to more people, we will not forget that we are first and foremost an institution of higher learning. This commitment to education is the fundamental essence of our being. It is present in everything we do, everywhere we go.
Today, I urge everyone to think about the ongoing evolution of West Virginia University. Think about making dreams come true. Think of how WVU might better fulfill its vision of being a student-centered learning community and meeting the changing needs of West Virginia and the nation through teaching, research, service, and technology. It is interesting and even fun to speculate as to what our University might become.
Here are my own speculations.
I foresee that the demand from our constituencies and governing bodies for increased accountability will grow even greater. According to the College Board, tuition and fees at public, four-year colleges increased 53 percent over the last ten years. This is creating serious concern about the value of a college education. As Professors Willimon and Naylor wrote in their book The Abandoned Generation: “Faced with decades of unrelenting tuition increases, more students and their parents are asking: What are we getting for our money? . . . It is unwise for faculty and administrators who have asked students to go into considerable debt and to make major financial sacrifices to criticize [them] for asking: Is college worth the sacrifice?”
We will make certain that the educational experience we offer at WVU is one that truly merits spending one?s life savings or going into debt in order to attend our University. While the student will retain ultimate responsibility for making the most of what we offer, our offerings must be ones that students need to achieve their educational and future career goals.
And, while they are enrolled here, we must take care to provide a comfortable, safe, supportive environment for our students. The Mountaineer Parents Club, 8,300 families strong, is just one mechanism whereby we can gauge how we are doing on a daily basis and act rapidly to improve.
In addition to taking good care of our students, we will make certain that we continue to be good stewards of the public?s investment in us through state appropriations. I should note here that, since state appropriations and tuition account for only about half of our revenues, we have built the magnitude of this University largely by earning the confidence of external sponsors, donors, and others. But being accountable to the state remains vitally important. In fact, it is now required of us, through mechanisms such as the Campus Compact we presented to the Higher Education Policy Commission earlier this year.
High-performance leadership will be required to keep WVU?s academic, administrative, and service functions operating at peak efficiency. When we consider that the WVU system with its medical centers and hospitals includes almost 30,000 students and about 12,000 employees, it is easy to see how important leadership is to us. I foresee an increasing need for faculty and staff to learn “best practices” for what they do, and to model them for colleagues, students, and the people of the state. Universities are complex organizations and they are getting more complex, so it is inevitable that the leadership practices that make them run well will become more valued?inside higher education and in organizations outside our campuses.
In the future, we will see more and more benefits accruing from our leadership in leveraging the investments made in us. I foresee the evolution of more nationally recognized research and service centers and institutes at WVU. Just like the vision we had for developing a world-class health sciences center years ago, we now have, for example, the seeds for the Center for Renewable Resources and Economic Development.
Like the current centers, the new ones will achieve excellence by focusing on areas that are important to the state and nation, such as economic development, health, technology, and the arts and humanities. At the heart of these centers will be dedicated faculty members, including some who are new and some who have been here a long time. The result of their efforts will be dollars for the University, jobs, patent income, spin-off businesses, social progress, cultural enrichment, and many, many more benefits for the institution, state, and nation.
As this transfer of technology and knowledge occurs, our University will gain wider recognition as an “economic engine for West Virginia,” facilitating job creation and community enhancement throughout the state. This will be an important part of our mission in the future, because the public will demand it of all public universities across the nation. WVU is uniquely positioned for this role in our state. We offer the collective strength of our multi-campus system, expertise in issues with local and regional implications, and educational programs that meet economic needs. At last count, in 1998, the economic impact of WVU?s people and programs in the state and region totaled $1.3 billion. The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges released a report in August that highlighted some of WVU?s economic impact, including a $4.78 return on every state tax dollar spent on WVU, and the generation of 6,368 jobs in addition to the approximately 12,000 that are directly related to the University. There is no question that having a vigorous, responsive flagship institution improves the fortunes of West Virginia.
Additionally, I foresee West Virginia University evolving into a more inclusive, diversified educational center. It will always provide traditional student experiences, but it will also be a vibrant enterprise comprising many distributed, customized, and technologically advanced systems. A freshman from Shinnston may sit in a residence hall room and take a class with a non-traditional student from California. Their classmates may be in China, Mexico, and Germany. Technology will bring them together, and the result will be a global wheel of knowledge with its hub at WVU. Of course, we will not undermine the residential programs of the University. But, as new ways of learning evolve, we will make good use of them at WVU.
Related to this broadening of our reach, I foresee a change in our conception of WVU. In the future it will be not just a place, but also a community of interested persons connected across their lifetimes in an enterprise worthy of financial support. The Alumni Association and the Foundation will be instrumental in creating a positive attitude toward the University and higher education that brings alumni and supporters into a symbiotic relationship with WVU. We have much to share with one another.
And, through it all, while much will change, I foresee that the core mission, vision, and values of the University will remain the same as they are today. They are enduring and worthy of constancy. WVU is a student-centered learning community. It is meeting the changing needs of West Virginia and the nation. Our goal remains to do an excellent job in each of our mission areas and to be better recognized nationally as a group of individuals and an institution that has achieved appropriate balance in teaching, research, and service. WVU?s enhanced reputation will bring many benefits to individuals and society.
Now that you have heard some of my ideas on the subject, I ask you: How do you anticipate your role in WVU?s future? I invite you to share your ideas with me, your colleagues, your students, anyone with an interest in keeping WVU strong in the future. All great ideas were once new ideas.
West Virginia University is surely a marvelous place. It is self-renewing and constantly renewing, and one of the joys of service to the institution is to see that the University is constantly evolving. I hope that my message today has helped you to recognize some of the many ways it is, indeed, becoming a new West Virginia University.
“What is now proved was once only imagined,” said the poet.
I looked into Dr. Miller?s eyes that day as he gazed across the Evansdale and Health Sciences campuses. I saw in them tears of joy at the recognition that he and his generation, good men and women doing their best, played an important role in the evolution of West Virginia?s flagship institution. Their dreams of a stronger, more capable University have come true.
I trust that 40 years from now, you will have the same feeling when you see what has become of the institution you are transforming by your ideas and actions today. With continued hard work, devotion to helping others, and commitment to achieving greatness, your dreams, too, will come true. May we never stop dreaming of a better West Virginia University.