State of the University Addresses

2000 State of the University Address

Chairman Junker, members of the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff colleagues, students, alumni, and friends here at University Park or joining us via satellite throughout Pennsylvania, thank you for joining me today for my annual report on the state of our University.

I'm hoping that you won't feel like the little boy in church who, bored and fidgeting impatiently, leaned over to his mother and, in a whisper that could be heard ten rows away, said, "Mother, are you sure this is the only way to get to heaven?"

It was five years ago that I first stood before you in this forum, deeply moved by the honor of leading one of the nation's foremost universities and tremendously excited about the future for Penn State. Since then not a day has gone by that I haven't increased my affection for and my hopes about the future of this University. I am humbled to continue to work with all of you to advance Penn State's contributions to this Commonwealth, its communities, and its citizens. For me, there is no more rewarding endeavor.

It is my custom to mark the beginning of each academic year with an address because I believe it is important that our work be shaped by a mutual understanding of our progress and challenges. I am especially grateful for the continuing support of our Board of Trustees. Having them behind me reminds me of a speech Adlai Stevenson once gave. After his remarks, a woman came running to the front of the room and excitedly exclaimed, "Mr. Stevenson, that speech was superfluous!" Stevenson, with his quick wit, said, "Thank you, madame. Maybe I should have it published posthumously!" "Absolutely," the woman said, "and the sooner the better!" Before I reach that milestone, let me assure you we still have much to do at Penn State.

A Year of Record Achievement

As I begin my sixth year as Penn State's President, I could not be prouder. The past year has been one of record achievement in an institution that is leading the way in the integration of teaching, research, and service.

Penn State received the largest number of student applications ever, more than 78,000, an increase of about 5,000 over last year. Applications to the Schreyer Honors College also reached a record high, rising 13 percent over the previous year. Applications to Penn State's Dickinson School of Law, now marvelously integrated within the University, increased 36 percent last year. One out of every six students in the United States applying to medical school applies to our College of Medicine.

The increase in the number of enrolled students at Penn State is intentionally modest, in keeping with our conservative enrollment management plan. Most of our increase is in upper-division students at our Commonwealth locations. I am proud of the achievements of our campuses these past five years. Our campuses are precisely following our plans to expand selected baccalaureate programs, to enhance service to Pennsylvania's communities, and to increase cooperation with Continuing Education and the Cooperative Extension service. There is a wonderful spirit of progress.

I also wish to give special recognition to the many faculty and staff members throughout the University who continue to support and promote our commitment to diversity and our efforts to enhance the climate of civility and acceptance on our campuses. I am pleased to report that minority student admissions are again sharply up this fall. Minority enrollments at Penn State have increased every year for more than a decade.

I want to report to you some incredible news. Research expenditures last year were approximately $440 million, a record high level for the University, and a dramatic increase of about $47 million over last year. This is one of the highest single year increases in the history of American higher education.

Penn State faculty received a record number of Fulbright awards. Evan Pugh Professor of Physics Moses Chan received the extraordinary honor of election to the National Academy of Sciences. Nina Fedoroff, Professor of Biology, Verne M. Willaman Professor in Life Sciences, and Director of the Life Sciences Consortium and the Biotechnology Institute, was nominated by President Clinton to serve on the National Science Board. Alan Walker, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Biology, was named a Fellow of the British Royal Society. Anthony Cutler, Research Professor of Art History, Darrell Schlom, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Nirmal Bose, HRB Systems Professor of Electrical Engineering, received the Humboldt Research Award. Robert Yarber, Associate Professor of Art, was commissioned to create a medallion commemorating Jubilee 2000 for the Millennium Project under the auspices of the Vatican. Peter Cavanagh, Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology, Biobehavioral Health, Medicine, Orthopaedics, and Rehabilitation, was inducted as a founding member of the Olympic Academy of Sports Science. John Nousek, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, was awarded a $26 million grant by NASA as part of a collaboration to build the next MIDEX Explorer satellite called the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer.

The progress of our new School of Information Sciences and Technology is phenomenal. More than 1,000 students are enrolled this fall in only the school's second year. We've attracted top scholars in the information sciences to the faculty. The school's programs are deployed at nineteen campuses this fall. We are well on our way to having one of the top IST programs in the nation, a great asset for Pennsylvania's continuing economic development.

The World Campus reached nearly 3,000 enrollments in only its second full year. The World Campus now offers 155 courses in eighteen certificate and degree programs. Penn State's model for distance education, which uniquely integrates programs and students into our University community, is being closely watched by others who venture into this arena. The partnership between the World Campus and academic departments at Penn State is an exemplary foundation for long-term success in distance education.

Having conducted what must be a record number of administrative searches in one year, we have attracted to Penn State outstanding leadership in the Colleges of Medicine, Business Administration, Health and Human Development, and Arts and Architecture, as well as Penn State Altoona and Penn State Capital College. Let me publicly welcome Darrell Kirch, Judy Olian, Ray Coward, Dick Durst, Bill Cale, and Madlyn Hanes to their new positions at Penn State.

We are in the midst of the largest building program in Penn State's history, which encompasses $700 million over five years. During the past year, we have dedicated a number of major new facilities for Penn State including the spectacular new Heztel Union Building/Paul Robeson Cultural Center and two libraries: the Paterno Library, dedicated earlier this afternoon, and the new library at Penn State Harrisburg, dedicated in March.

Other facilities and improvements that have recently been completed include an addition to the chapel at Mont Alto, a renovation and addition to the Lares Student Union Building at Abington, an Academic Support Building at the Medical Center in Hershey, and new residence halls at Berks and Erie. At University Park, we completed the Leonhard Building, the Earth and Engineering Sciences Building, the new Visitor Center, additions and renovations to Atherton Hall for the Schreyer Honors College, and a new campus signage system. In addition, we'll soon be occupying a new Multipurpose Building at Erie, an Information Commons at Berks, a new auditorium and classroom building at Great Valley, and a Science and Technology Center at New Kensington. Later this academic year we'll complete a 700-seat technology classroom addition to the Thomas Building and the White Building renovation and addition with a new pool and a fitness center that will be open twenty-four hours a day on weekends.

We have recently completed our ninth consecutive record-setting fund-raising year for Penn State. Private giving to the University totaled $171 million, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year. For the third consecutive year, Penn State led the nation in the number of alumni making gifts annually to their universities. We have already raised more than $800 million in gifts and pledges toward our $1 billion goal for The Grand Destiny campaign, more than $200 million of it committed this past year alone.

And if these numbers don't awe the most loyal Penn Staters, I want to take this opportunity to announce something that deserves to be seen as a key milestone in our University's history. Effective with the close of our just completed fiscal year, I am pleased to report that following a solid year in both the investment return of our endowment and in new fund-raising, the value of Penn State's endowment has now surpassed $1 billion.

Last year was one of the most successful years ever in the history of Penn State athletics. The publication Sporting News recognized Penn State as the top overall intercollegiate athletics program in the country -- in athletic accomplishment, academic achievement, integrity, and fan support. This year saw nineteen Nittany and Lady Lion teams participating in NCAA championships. Penn State captured three national championships -- in women's volleyball, men's and women's fencing, and men's gymnastics. Our student-athletes also had a spectacular year academically, again leading all Big Ten institutions in academic all-conference honorees.

By all of these measures and through all of these accomplishments, Penn State is in the enviable position of moving forward at a time when higher learning is among the resources most in demand by society. Our University is viewed widely as a model of excellence and engagement. We impact the quality of life in Pennsylvania in literally hundreds of ways. We served more than 5 million citizens last year, with one out of every two households in Pennsylvania having someone participating in a Penn State program. I am deeply grateful to the faculty, students, staff, alumni, and volunteers who make all this possible.

There are more than 30,000 Penn State employees, most of them deserving of recognition. Again this year, I've invited representatives of two special units to stand for a moment of praise. These departments have been the subject of accolades from dozens of individuals who have written or, more often, e-mailed me about the wonderful service they have received from Penn State staff. I'd like to ask to stand the staff here today from Hospitality Services, which includes The Nittany Lion Inn, the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, and Catering Services, and the staff from the Division of Enrollment Management, which includes Admissions, Student Aid, and the Registrar along with their counterpart colleagues at our campuses throughout the Commonwealth.

In the midst of Penn State's recent progress, I have been thinking about how we can set the stage for the next decade of the University's achievement. On occasion, I'm reminded of the country and western song that goes, "Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug." I see two sets of forces that will have a great deal to do with any university's success in the coming years. One concerns internal forces that slow universities down. The other pertains to the external forces that slow universities down, especially the moral and financial support that we must have to flourish. I want to direct much of my remarks today to these two important influences.

The Need to Nurture Within

Deborah Tannen has written about a cherished part of the culture of academe, what she calls agonism, the ritualized opposition that characterizes so much of scholarship, teaching, and so-called collegial interaction. We tend to value tearing ideas apart, she observed, not necessarily building on them constructively.

Her piece struck a chord with me for two reasons. First, I was well schooled in this tradition as a student, faculty member, and scholar. I taught my students the merit of disproving a hypothesis and the joy of being able to replace an old theory with a new one. And I have often acknowledged that my movement into university administration at an early age had a lot to do with my thinking that change was needed, that I had a better plan, or that those who should make decisions weren't making them-at least not to my liking.

Second, our attraction to negativism also strikes a chord now from my perspective as a university president. Our ingrained tendencies toward contradiction and challenge, so fundamental to the advancement of scholarship, can also cultivate a narrow-mindedness or intransigence that is antithetical to other aspects of the university's purpose. Tannen says it makes it difficult for those outside the university to find our work useful. Outsiders, and I would observe a growing number of insiders, see a confusing collection of opposing points of view rather than an integrated body of knowledge. Furthermore, Tannen notes, this culture of animosity is highly destructive to the humanity with which our institutions go about their business, creating an atmosphere of vulnerability and defensiveness that is counterproductive.

Have we academics overdone adversarial politics? Upon entering the presidency someone told me that it would be like being captain of a ship where everyone mutinies but no one jumps ship. Fortunately, I've enjoyed a bit more tranquility than that. But let's examine what we see around us. Some of a department's biggest feuds are reserved for the debate on the desired areas of expertise and credentials of the next hire. I've seen positions go unfilled for two years or more because of a failure to reach agreement or to compromise. And we've all seen such discussions get uncomfortably personal. Some faculty approach a candidate's colloquium as a trial by fire, sometimes resulting in the unintentional humiliation of the candidate.

Moreover, some faculty members undoubtedly perceive themselves as under-valued for what they achieve by others whose perspectives are different. Some faculty may feel that supporting certain colleagues would threaten the value of what they themselves perceive as important. We all seek to make our promotion and tenure process as fair as possible, so we must guard against valued colleagues getting stuck or slowed down because their particular subspecialty, book genre, publisher, or journal is out of favor.

Our students, especially our graduate students, are impacted as well, often being pulled into such departmental politics.

Universities are the land of "we" and "they." It occurs to me that much of what I do as President is trying to foster the "we," whereas many of the meetings for which my presence is requested are focused on the "they." It is often the dividing lines that cause people to leave a university or discourage them from coming: the theorists versus the experimentalists, the quantitative versus the qualitative, the analytical versus the continental, cultural studies versus literary scholarship, University Park versus the Commonwealth campuses, tenured versus untenured, haves versus have nots, faculty versus students, students versus administration. We and they. We and they.

I am not saying that there aren't some important issues and decisions to be made in this mix. But too much time in the academic community is spent arguing, sometimes about the irrelevant. We spend a lot of time fussing about things that have little to do with enhancing our mission of teaching, research, and service. This not only slows us down, it hurts us externally. I believe that in an increasingly competitive higher education market, those universities deeply entrenched in an agonistic mode will suffer in relation to those schools that channel their energies to promoting greater collegiality and humanity. It seems to me that the most successful institutions will be the most productive, capitalizing on the robustness of collaboration, the momentum of a unified agenda, and the myriad opportunities created through engagement with the public. I see this as a critically important role of a university president.

Fortunately, I believe that Penn State has far less such dysfunction than most other universities. Our multitude of interdisciplinary programs and initiatives are a shining example of the positive impact of collaboration. Shared governance at this University is the best I have seen anywhere in American higher education, enabling the faculty and administration to work together to advance Penn State. There is no university in the nation with a more extensive outreach effort, built on an impressive level of faculty leadership.

I ask you to join me in building on these qualities, creating a nurturing environment for discovery and learning that is free of the negative forces that are endemic to universities and that potentially alienate our students, their families, our alumni, and the public.

A Covenant for the Future

I wish to turn now to the external considerations I mentioned earlier. Penn State must continue to rise to the challenge of being the top university in America in the integration of teaching, research, and service. Our history and foundation, our current progress, and our potential suggest that we not settle for a lesser goal. Because we are already acknowledged as one of the most efficient, respected, and well-managed universities in America, this goal will be realized only through continued faculty commitment and excellence, exceptional leadership, and careful management. But of course, it also requires adequate funding.

Although there is much we can do to help ourselves in creating a worthy future for Penn State, we cannot do it all alone. The Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities ended its work a few months ago with a call for a renewed covenant between public higher education and the American people. "In return for our institutions' commitment to meet society's needs," the commission wrote, "the general public (including the governments elected to act in its name) should recognize and reaffirm its responsibilities to provide the resources essential to carry out our mission of learning, discovery, and engagement."

The educational marketplace in which we operate is rapidly exacerbating funding challenges in profound ways. Higher education has come to be viewed by many in our society as a commodity. It is seen as a necessity for many, a credential, a boarding ticket to prosperity, but at the same time something increasingly produced for the mass market and often delivered for profit. Legislative and citizen bodies rarely ask us about the quality and competitiveness of our programs, the research discoveries of our faculty, our impact on the quality of life in our society, or the platform for success of our alumni. Regrettably, we are more often asked about tuition increases, faculty workloads, and student or faculty actions that conflict with someone's values or politics. Rarely in my career, in any state, has someone other than a trustee or major donor asked me what it would take-indeed what the University and I needed-to move us to the top.

John F. Kennedy said, "To govern is to choose." It is my responsibility to persuade those who govern to choose Penn State as a priority, to egg us on, to defend the merits of what we are and can become. By the same token, it is my duty within the University to set priorities. I am choosing to set the bar higher in virtually all of our endeavors. I ask for your support of this paradigm.

The new educational enterprises that are emerging, many of them Internet-based, underscore the value of higher learning to contemporary society and meet important educational needs. But the underlying missions and motivations of these new enterprises, many of them for profit, fall short of adding the full value that land-grant and public higher education institutions have to offer. High-end quality education-enriched by an interplay of missions and disciplines and significantly enhanced by advancements in technology-will continue to characterize Penn State. I'm talking about the kind of intellectual resources that give rise to invention and discovery, enhance understanding of culture, address social needs, promote human development, and contribute to progress for businesses and communities.

High-end quality education is what public universities like Penn State provide for the greatest good. Yet I fear that our institution and others like ours will be held to a model of commodity education. I do not dispute the need for efficiency and cost effectiveness. Penn State is exemplary on these issues. But at some point, the wrong questions are being asked. Instead of asking how Penn State and others can continue to do more with less, we should be asking how we could do a lot more with a little more. Or dare I suggest that the question should be: "How could you change the world with a lot more?" We should be asking how far we can go in research discoveries that will alter the course of history, create the scientific breakthroughs of the twenty-first century, make our graduates even better employees, be more responsive to community and industry needs-indeed how we can further enhance the quality of life.

We are caught in the middle between a burgeoning demand for access and an unwavering commitment to quality. Penn State is caught between prevailing commodity education thinking and the reality of high-end education costs. While both access and quality are in Penn State's tradition, it is the qualitative aspect of our learning community that makes access to our University worthwhile.

But we shouldn't have to choose. In the year ahead I plan to redouble my efforts to develop an improved financial foundation. It is not sufficient to prevent erosion of our position. Rather, we must seek to advance. The formula is simple. We have two basic sources of support for University operations: tuition and state appropriation. We will do our best to persuade Pennsylvania that it should have the best public university in America-a Penn State whose quality and access are unsurpassed. I know millions of our citizens support this goal, as do their elected representatives.

We must, I regret to say, continue to plan for tuition increases that adequately support the level of quality worthy of the Penn State name. I reiterate my philosophy that quality must be put first, even if it means tuition increases that exceed inflation. In return, we pledge to seek increased student aid to mitigate the financial impact for our students.

Our funding priorities for this coming year will focus on competitive faculty and staff salaries; deployment of information technology; deferred maintenance, renovation, and capital construction; environmental compliance; and the College of Medicine, which I'll say more about in a moment.

We will also continue to seek the margin of excellence that comes with a successful capital campaign. We will set our sights even higher for private fund-raising, and will use these funds to grow our endowment, to support faculty chairs and professorships, to increase undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships, to invest in new facilities, and to support innovative programs.

The College of Medicine

I want to say a special word about The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Our College of Medicine has been one of the great success stories in American higher education. In just over thirty years, it has become one of the nation's most respected medical schools. Its research funding is among the highest of the newer of the nation's medical schools. The hospitals and clinics that surround the College of Medicine have become among the most respected in the nation. Make no mistake about it, the Medical Center is a great asset for Penn State-and we must see to it that it continues to be.

The twenty-first century will be the century of the life sciences. Advances in health care will continue to flourish, life expectancy will increase, and the quality of life for citizens will improve with each passing year. These advances will come about through research and education at places like Hershey, through scientific breakthroughs in genetics, pharmaceuticals, technology, and communications. Our College of Medicine, in partnership with other Penn State colleges participating in the Life Sciences Consortium, is prepared to participate fully in the life sciences revolution, and we must create a proper foundation of support for this enterprise.

Academic health centers across the nation face a financial crisis resulting from the growth of managed care, reduced reimbursements for the services they provide, and the impact of the federal Balanced Budget Act, which sharply reduced Medicare payments and support for training medical residents. All of the nation's academic health centers are affected. These developments have greatly limited the College of Medicine's ability to rely on clinical income to offset the costs of medical education. Our situation is exacerbated by the fact that we are young and do not have the legacy of a major endowment that is characteristic of older medical schools. Nor do we receive the state support of other public medical schools in America, which average over $40 million in annual state appropriations.

This evolving financial crisis is what led to the establishment of the relationship between Penn State and the Geisinger Health System, a relationship that ended on June 30 after we determined that it threatened the integrity of our dedication to teaching and research. We will not settle for any erosion in the academic quality of health affairs at Penn State. Thus, we will be giving serious attention to increasing support for the college while enhancing the clinical enterprise at the Medical Center.

At this important juncture in medicine, I am pleased to announce a number of very exciting developments that will be of great interest to the Penn State family. First, I am pleased to announce that we will be extending the College of Medicine to Centre County, with a strong satellite presence for education and research programs on the University Park campus, as well as an academic and clinical presence at Centre Community Hospital. We will offer expanded educational opportunities for College of Medicine students at University Park, including opportunities for undergraduate medical education and additional joint M.D./Ph.D. programs.

We will expand research ties between Hershey and University Park through the Life Sciences Consortium, facilitated by newly deployed telecommunications technology, and through our initiatives in materials science, environmental studies, and children, youth, and families. We will expand opportunities for patients to participate in clinical research studies of new drugs at Hershey and at other affiliated sites, including Centre County. We will encourage an even closer partnership between the medical school and the School of Nursing, the College of Health and Human Development, and the Eberly College of Science.

I'm also pleased to report that The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center will expand its affiliation agreement with Centre Community Hospital. This is an affiliation, not a merger, but will allow for much closer ties in the sharing of clinical expertise, academic appointments, continuing medical education, training of medical students and residents, and joint research. We will also be cooperating with Centre County physicians and with Centre Community Hospital with the goal of establishing a cancer center funded by the National Cancer Institute. It is our hope that this could lead to a new facility associated with Centre Community Hospital.

I would like to share that an affiliation agreement to support our College of Medicine missions is also being established between Centre Medical and Surgical Associates and The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Centre Medical and Surgical Associates, based in State College, is one of Pennsylvania's premier physician groups.

Finally, I am delighted to report that our Life Lion emergency medical service, one of the most respected in the nation, will expand in Centre County. A third Life Lion helicopter, now being fitted with state-of-the-art lifesaving equipment, will be based at the University Park airport.

I ask all Penn Staters to join me in welcoming this exciting new era for our College of Medicine, and I also ask all Pennsylvanians to join me in supporting an enterprise that will benefit the quality of life and health for all citizens.

A Word to Students

I have been speaking today about some of the ingredients needed to advance Penn State. Penn State would not exist were it not for our commitment to undergraduate education. Thus, I wish to conclude with a word to our students.

Three weeks ago, it was my privilege to speak at the annual convocation for new students at University Park, an occasion where freshmen are introduced to the opportunities and responsibilities of being a student at Penn State. The convocation is a special moment for me, because it gives me an opportunity to impart some thoughts to a group that is full of hope and enthusiasm. The next day, I had the opportunity to speak at our Graduate School convocation, where we focus on the richness and diversity of the intellectual opportunities at Penn State.

I talk to the incoming freshmen each year about how they can get the most from their education-about planning ahead and making good choices, about taking school seriously, and about having some fun. I talk about the importance of getting to know faculty and staff. And I talk about citizenship and social responsibility. I'm not sure that the messages students hear when they first arrive at Penn State are emphasized enough throughout the entire time they spend here.

This is reflected humorously by the message on the answering machine of a junior. The recorded voice says: "Hi. This is John. If you are the phone company, I already sent the money. If you are my parents, please send money. If you are my financial aid institution, you didn't lend me enough money. If you are my friends, you owe me money. If you are a female, don't worry, I have plenty of money."

I especially wish to reiterate for all of our students the importance of academic and social responsibility, the rewards of getting involved, and the impact of one's actions on those around us. Through both in- and out-of-class experiences, students have tremendous potential to make a difference-for themselves, for our communities, and ultimately for Penn State.

I want particularly to encourage students-undergraduate and graduate-to take greater advantage of the fine and performing arts at our campuses, to attend public lectures, and to become more involved in some of the hundreds of student organizations at Penn State. These opportunities extend and enhance a college education in highly meaningful ways. They are a laboratory for the development of cultural appreciation, leadership skills, personal values, recreational interests, and lifelong friends.

Recognizing the substantial impact of this broader educational framework, we are committed to improving student activities and support services at all of our campuses. Later this academic year we will build on our successful Late Night Penn State programming, which provides entertainment in the HUB on weekend nights, to provide new recreational and fitness facilities at the White Building twenty-four hours a day on the weekends for University Park students. All of our other campuses will benefit from expanded student support services as well.

We also have taken the lead in developing a newspaper readership program that is being adopted at many universities throughout the nation. I believe that nothing sets the foundation better for being an informed citizen than reading a newspaper every day. The newspaper readership program has been expanded to all Penn State students at all twenty of our undergraduate campuses this year.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve a Penn State education, and we welcome suggestions from students. Similarly, I wish to ask our students to think about ways you can improve the University, while you are here today and in the future as alumni. I invite our students to join with faculty, staff, alumni, administration, and friends in moving Penn State forward. By working together and FOR THE GLORY, we can preserve the best of the University's traditions, meet the challenges of the present, and realize Penn State's promise for the future.