President Kermit L. Hall
Fall Faculty Address
October 6, 2005
 

A couple of items of opening business...

Be sure to pick up the materials at the door:

• Minutes of the April 27, 2005 Meeting of the Voting Faculty
• List of New Faculty
• List of New Professional Staff
• 2005-2006 Department Chairs
• Chairs Completing Service as Chair, 2004-2005
• 2004-2005 Faculty Promotion and Continuing Appointment Actions
• Commencement Information

We need to approve the minutes of April 27 meeting
a. May I have a motion to approve?
b. A second?
c. All in favor, say "yes." Opposed, "no."
d. The minutes are approved.

Moment of silence for deceased colleagues:
Joseph A. Bosco  - Educational Theory and Practice
Jarka M. Burian - Theater
Harriet Dyer Adams - University Library
William N. Fenton - Anthropology
James C. Mancuso - Psychology
Susan Seabury Smith - Library Sciences
Jack Smith - Physics
Emmett Fields - Former president

When we met in the spring, I talked about some of our initial goals and plans. Since then, we have made progress together, and are headed in the right direction.

In a moment, I will give you a quick update on developments but first I want to thank you all for your support.

Seeing all of you here today reminds me of a lesson I learned at a faculty meeting I attended many years ago as a young professor. An angel appeared at that meeting and told the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences that in return for her unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord would reward her with her choice of infinite wealth, wisdom, or beauty.

Without hesitating, the dean selected infinite wisdom.

"Done!" said the angel, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning.

Now, all heads turned toward the dean, who was seated surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of her colleagues whispered, "Say something."

There was an audible sigh from the dean and then she said, "I should have taken the money."

A few days before classes began, I had the pleasure of welcoming and helping our freshmen move in. I know many of you were also there. Altogether, in fact, some 250 faculty, staff and student volunteers turned out to help and had some fun in the process.

It was also a sign we are off to a good start this academic year. In a tangible way, we showed the importance we place on providing the best experience for our students. And in the year ahead, we will build on that spirit.

Move-in day was just one of many recent campus successes, and particularly notable in virtually all of them was the way people from across the University and beyond the campus, as well, came together to strengthen our institution.

Here are just a few:

• On our first day of classes, we launched our new College of Computing and Information to assure that UAlbany students are well-equipped to compete and contribute in our global information society.
   
• This summer, we established our Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities. This center, led by Larry Schell, is uniquely multidisciplinary, and combines faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences as well as the schools of Education, Public Health and Social Welfare.
   
• The University's Africana Studies programs ranked in the top-10 in the nation according to Black Issues in Higher Education. The graduate program at number 2, and the undergraduate program at number 10.
   
• Our Northeast Regional Forensic Institute launched the first regional DNA Academy, a partnership between the University and the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center. We'll soon be on CSI.
   
• The University was awarded the America East Conference Stuart P. Haskell Jr. Commissioner's cup for the most competitive athletic program. 161 UAlbany athletes made the America East Academic Honor Roll. And we rank in the 90th percentile and 40th in the country under the new NCAA academic progress rate.
   
• We came together as a community to respond to Hurricane Katrina, raising more than $41,000 for relief efforts.
   
• Professor of English Pierre Joris is the recipient of the 2005 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.
   
• Two renowned faculty members in our School of Education, Judith Langer and Arthur Applebee, have been selected to lead the National Study of Writing Instruction, a jointly funded project of the College Board and the National Writing Project.
   
• Our Art Museum offered a wide range of exhibits by artists recognized nationally and internationally, as well as our own students. Right now it is hosting a residency and exhibition of work by internationally recognized Chinese artist Lu Schengzhong, and I urge you to see the exhibit.
   
• The generous support of many is steadily increasing the size of our Inaugural Scholarship Fund, which now totals more than $500,000.
   
• We have a proactive, multifaceted approach to keeping our campus safe through community policing, and those efforts were highlighted in the U.S. News and World Report America's Best Colleges guide.
   
• Just yesterday, we unveiled our first-of-its-kind Nano+MBA Program - another collaborative effort that brings together the strengths of our faculty.
   
• Also this week, we announced a collaboration with an off-campus partner, the Ordway Research Institute, that will yield benefits for the East campus as well as here.
   
• And on October 18th, we officially open our Gen*NY*Sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics. This center has a vitally important goal - the rapid translation of basic research findings into clinical treatments for cancer. A very important UAlbany partner, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, was instrumental in securing $30 million in state funds to help make the center a reality.

Interdisciplinary collaborations, working together in new ways -- these are and will be the keys to our collective future.

I'd like to turn your attention now to our performance dashboard.

• Total campus enrollment is up to 17,017, still below its 2002 high.
   
• This year's freshman class, numbering 2,561, is considerably larger than last year's, and the class has a strong academic profile.
   
• Average SAT scores dipped slightly, but ninety percent of the non-EOP incoming freshmen have either a high school average of 85 or better or an SAT of 1,100 or better.
   
• The number of transfer students has also increased.
   
• This is good news. The increased enrollment gives the University financial flexibility to hire more full-time faculty and improve the undergraduate experience.
   
• We received an additional $2.5 million in state funding for this academic year, and we have a plan to achieve financial stability through a number of steps.
   
  1. Our goal is to eliminate our $5.5 million residual structural deficit over the next four years,
  2. Fund 100 new faculty lines over the next five years,
  3. And create a pool of funds for selective investment.

• We anticipate:
• increasing enrollment by 1,200 headcount over the next five years;
• launching a campaign to increase private support for the University;
• and actively making the case for governmental support.
  
   
• Our research funding, as the dashboard shows, is up dramatically. Total external funding awarded to our faculty jumped from $234 million to $281 million. This record level of funding underscores the many ways UAlbany faculty are advancing knowledge and having an impact on our communities.
   
• In the latest U.S. News and World Report ranking of undergraduate programs, we remain at the very top of the third tier.
   
• With the Princeton Review "party school" ranking, we are moving in the right direction -- namely, down - from No. 1 to No. 5. But we need to get ourselves entirely off the "party school" list.

In a moment, I will turn this podium over to our new Provost - Susan Herbst - but first I'd like to introduce several new
colleagues. As I mention your name, please stand:

• Deborah Read, Vice President for Development
• Charlie Williams, Vice President for Governmental, Public, and Media Relations
• Wayne Locust, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
• Frank D'Andraia, dean and director of the University Libraries
• James Anderson, our new vice president for student success and vice provost for institutional assessment and diversity, will be arriving in November.

Now I'd like to close with a little story.

It's a story about two kids - cute ones as you can see in the photo here (slide 31). Growing up they played together and had plenty of fun. But then they parted and headed off to make their way in academe. They moved around and moved up through faculty ranks - one sometimes faster than the other. Then they got into administration and again they moved up and up. And this summer this competitive but loving sister and brother both found themselves -- in a matter of months -- being named provosts of major universities. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing to you the sister, our new provost, Susan Herbst. As for her brother, Jeffrey, you can find him in the provost's office at Miami University of Ohio.

So please welcome Susan Herbst, former chair of the political science department at Northwestern University, former dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University, and distinguished author and commentator.