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Vision of Iowa State UniversityRemarksPresident Gregory Geoffroy Ames Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002 It's a pleasure to be here tonight. I really appreciate this opportunity to be with you -- to remember the year that we've just concluded, and to look ahead to the year we have before us. And despite the many trials and tribulations of the year that has just ended -- indeed, a year that will be remembered as one that tested our very resolve as a nation and a people -- we have many reasons to celebrate. The most important reason is that not only did we endure the trials, but we emerged stronger -- stronger as a nation, stronger as a people, stronger as a world community. Indeed, that is why we have much to look forward to. We are stronger. We are closer. And we are more resolved than ever to work to build a world where the only place you will read about terror, war, hunger, and want are in the history books. This is indeed a very special night. It's special for me because it's my first Ames Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, and because it comes on the eve of my seven month anniversary as president of Iowa State. And it's special for Ames because it's the first annual meeting to be held following the achievement of two very significant milestones for the city, both of which involve the number 50 -- 50,000 population, and on Tuesday morning, the 50 millionth rider of Cy ride. My congratulations to (name to be added 1/29) for being the 50 millionth rider. I'm also glad it was an Iowa State student. With tuition going up 18 percent next year, he/she can use that $500 gift certificate. And since he/she will spend it at one of your businesses, you win, too. I know how hard Ames has worked to reach the 50,000 population milestone. Congratulations to everyone involved -- from the city, and the university, which I'm proud to say, played an important role thanks to record numbers of students. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, once you reach a threshold to qualify as a city, someone decides it's time to raise the bar. So now we find ourselves in somewhat of a metropolitan "limbo land" as we wait to see if the federal government is going to change its definition of an urban area. I know Mayor Tedesco and others were working very hard on this issue, and they're enlisting the help of our Congressional delegation to help bring it to a satisfactory resolution. I have a suggestion they might want to consider:
In a university community, that's what we call "town and gown." Here in Ames, the "town and gown" relationship is one of the best in the nation. Indeed, it's one of the things that attracted me to Iowa State. I knew that it was one of the best in the nation before I came, and everything that has happened over the past seven months has only reinforced that feeling.
All of you should be very proud of the way this relationship has grown and developed, and how it continues to develop. And I want to tell you how much we at the university appreciate the cooperation and the support for Iowa State that the Ames community provides. I also appreciate having this opportunity to talk with you tonight about my favorite subject. That subject is Iowa State University. In past days and weeks, we've had the President's "State of the Union" address, Governor Vilsack's "State of the State" address and Mayor Tedesco's "State of the City" address, which, by the way, was truly exceptional, and should make all Ames residents proud and appreciative of the leadership he, the council and the city staff are providing. Tonight, it's my turn. It's time for a "State of the University" address, and I consider it a great honor to be the president of this great university and to bring this message to you. The state of the university is good -- all things considered. Indeed, it would be excellent were it not for one thing -- something that is affecting all of us in Iowa, whether we're in the public sector or the private sector. That, of course, is the economy. The recession is causing all of us considerable difficulty, so I'm not going to spend time talking about how budget cuts are making life difficult for the university. They are, but our difficulties are no more serious than the problems being experienced by the city government, schools, county government, and the businesses and industries throughout Ames. We are working our way through these difficulties, as you are, and I believe we will all emerge from this process stronger -- as a university, as a city, and as a business community -- stronger and better positioned than we were before this difficult time began. And one of the good things about recessions is that by the time economists figure out we're in one, we're usually half way through it --which means that you've hit bottom before you know it, and you're already on your way up by the time you realize it. To repeat, the state of the university is good. With the exception of the state budget, nearly all important indicators are moving up. As you know, we have a record enrollment -- not just this past fall, by nearly a thousand students, but also this spring, by almost that many, and the first time ever we've been over 25,000 in the spring. This says a couple of things. One, that Iowa State is still the university of choice for most Iowa high school graduates, as well as increasing numbers of students from other states. And two, that we're doing a better job of keeping those students here. There's always a drop-off in enrollment from fall to spring, but this year's decline was one of the smallest percentages ever -- possibly the smallest ever. This is good news for Ames, because students bring money into the community. And the more students who stay, the more they add to the local economy -- especially when they bring their parents to town for games, concerts, graduations and other activities. The enrollment numbers were particularly good in terms of our diversity efforts. We have the largest class of minority students at Iowa State ever. That's good for the university, good for the community and good for Iowa, as we seek to increase our population and our diversity. Now we need to find ways to keep more of these young people -- minority and non-minority -- in Iowa after they graduate -- and we're working on that, too, which I will get to in a moment. For the past six years, Iowa State has ranked among the top 10 public universities in the nation in the number of academic superstars we enroll, and this year was no different. Indeed, our standing has improved. Our 110 National Merit Scholars ranks 7th in the nation among public universities, up from 9th last year. Our 15 National Achievement Scholars ranks 5th, up from 7th last year, and it's a new record for us. And our 11 National Hispanic Scholars is our second-highest number ever. There are three reasons why students are coming to Iowa State in record numbers. One is the excellent work of our recruiting staff. Another is the quality of the programs offered by Iowa State. And the third is the quality of the environment. We're doing a lot to improve every aspect of Iowa State's living and learning environment. Hoover Hall and the Gerdin Building will enhance undergraduate programs in engineering and business. The Jischke Honors Building will enable us to improve and expand honors programs. The Student Answer Center in Beardshear Hall is completely changing the way we address student needs -- not to mention the image of a building that was formerly avoided at all costs by students because of its sometimes cumbersome bureaucracy. The newly renovated Student Services Building provides much improved space for student services and activities. We were very pleased to learn that in his budget proposal, Governor Vilsack is supporting our request for more than a million dollars to upgrade and modernize classrooms and auditoria throughout the campus. Then there's the huge renovation of our residence facilities -- well over a hundred million dollars worth of improvements. I would point out that the goal of this project is not to increase the capacity of the residence halls, but rather to make them more attractive to students -- indeed, to make them as attractive as much of the new housing that is being built all around the campus and the city by private developers. We do not want to take business away from private housing providers, but rather to bring more students to Ames, which will actually increase business for private housing. The community of Ames plays a very important role in providing a high-quality living and learning environment for our students. CyRide and the new ice arena are the result of formal partnership agreements between us. Reiman Gardens, while a university facility, certainly benefits from strong community support, and is a major attraction for students as well as groups we want to bring to Ames for conferences and meetings. The quality and variety of the businesses in Ames is a major component of this environment, as is the quality of professional services, such as the hospital and clinics. And the quality of the public places in and around Ames -- streets, new intersections, schools, bike paths and recreations areas -- also plays a critical role in a young person's decision, maybe not so much in coming to Ames, but most definitely in the decision to stay. Ames has outstanding public places -- and the addition of the Ames Quarry as a public recreational area will greatly enhance this environment, for everyone. Iowa State's research and development enterprise is strong -- indeed as strong as it has ever been. One measure is sponsored funding, which set a record last year at $218 million, and is on a pace to equal or surpass that this year. For example, just this month we received a $5 million grant from the USDA to Extension and the College of Agriculture to establish an Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, and two grants totaling $5 million from the US Department of Energy to the Ames Lab for projects in biorenewable energy and forensics. These grants were the result of efforts by two of Iowa's Congressional delegation -- Senator Grassley and Congressman Latham, who along with Senator Harkin, Congressman Ganske and the rest of Iowa's congressional delegation are also very supportive of our efforts. Other major grants we've received recently support our leadership work in such areas as -- studying the social psychological and familial influences on the health behavior of African American children; and developing new programs in food safety for consumers and larger food service operations. Our faculty continue their impressive results with these grants. We received two more R&D 100 Awards this fall, bringing ISU's total to 24, second only to MIT in what are called the "Academy Awards in applied science." Professor Ed Yeung's R&D award was not only his fourth, but his was named "Editor's Choice" as the most promising technology of all 100 of this year's winners. Iowa State's biggest and probably its most important research initiative ever is the Plant Sciences Initiative, and it, too, is progressing quite well. We've hired a dozen new faculty and initiative leaders, including director Steve Howell from Cornell and Robert Jernigan from NIH. We broke ground for the Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory, the first major facility and the physical centerpiece for the Institute. Faculty associated with the Institute have been obtaining sponsored funding at the rate of $20 million per year, and earning patents at the rate of 17 per year. The fundamental goal of research is to add to our body of knowledge, but Iowa State's research does more. It also strengthens the economy. Two examples. First is plant sciences.
Iowa State has been a leader in refining and producing pure rare earth materials since the early 1940s and its role in the Manhattan Project. Indeed, it's what led to the Ames Lab. And it's this expertise that has fueled the development of this revolutionary new technology and the recent breakthrough -- about which Karl Gschneider, distinguished professor and one of the leaders of this effort, said, "We are witnessing history in the making." The last time a huge new industry was started from Iowa State research was when John Atanasoff used electronics to do computing, and, unfortunately, Ames and Iowa never capitalized on that one. This time, we will. There are lots of other examples of the excellent state of the university. Support from our alumni and friends is most definitely one, and I want to thank the many people who are supporting our "Investing in People" initiative to raise private money to enable us to bring the best faculty, staff and students to the university. Another example of the university's progress is athletics. Going to Shreveport last month was great, and we came so close -- literally inches -- to beating Alabama in the Independence Bowl. The wrestling team is doing very well, and Cael Sanderson is setting a new NCAA record every time he steps on the wrestling mat (over 140 victories without a loss). The women's gymnastics team is ranked in the top 10. Men's and women's basketball teams have been up and down, but we expect them to be a factor in the Big 12 race and in post-season play. And speaking of our women's basketball team, not only have they been ranked as high as fifth in the nation, but here's another impressive statistic. Since Bill Fennelly took over, 15 of the 21 students who completed their eligibility under him have graduated, and the other six are still enrolled at Iowa State and are on track to graduate in the next year or year and a half. That amounts to a 100% success rate. We're very proud of that. We're bringing top people to the university -- people like Cathie O'Connor Woteki, the new dean of Agriculture. We're moving forward with plans to improve parking on campus. Reiman Gardens continues to grow with the new Conservatory and Butterfly Garden project. We recently had two programs in the College of Design -- Architecture and Interior Design -- ranked among the top 10 in the nation in a leading national survey of design professionals -- and animal science was ranked second in the nation by a major trade publication. Our students continue to do exceptional work, including two apparel merchandising and design students whose fashion creations won major international design awards. We had their creations on display at a recent meeting of the President's council and they are indeed stunning. Indeed, the indicators continue to move up, and we're even optimistic with the budget that Governor Vilsack has proposed because it does not reduce our funding any further. All of us just have to keep our fingers crossed that the recession has indeed bottomed out, and that we can begin to move that indicator back up as well. These indicators tell me that Iowa State continues to make progress. We are moving in the right direction, despite temporary setbacks and challenges. We're moving ahead because we have our eyes clearly focused on our larger goals and objectives, which for us are:
We've been able to make progress for several reasons: an excellent faculty, staff and student body; a very supportive family of alumni and friends; strong support from Iowa's leaders, who, I believe, are doing all they can under very difficult circumstances to support education in Iowa; support from our Congressional delegation in Washington; and exceptional "town and gown" support from our partners and friends here in Ames. Our aspiration to become the best land-grant university in the nation goes hand-in-hand with what I believe is your aspiration -- to become the best University City and Community in the nation. My thanks to all of you for making my first semester as an Iowa Stater, Cyclone fan and resident of Ames so successful and memorable. President's homepage |
Office of the President, 1750 Beardshear Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 (515) 294-2042, president@iastate.edu Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111 Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu Copyright 1995-2002, Iowa State University. All rights reserved. |