Office of the president

Pursuing Excellence

Convocation address
3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27, 2004
by Gregory L. Geoffroy, President

In a university, the beginning of a new academic year is always a time of tremendous enthusiasm, energy and optimism. There's a sense of renewal and the feeling of invigoration that comes from a new beginning--new classes, new students, new colleagues, new university leaders--and everyone comes with an optimism for what we aim to accomplish this year.

Before discussing the year ahead, I'd like to briefly review the year just completed. We had many achievements and successes to be very proud of, and I want to highlight those.

Record number of new facilities

First, there were many physical changes to campus. Many projects were completed and we opened and dedicated a record 7 new facilities--

• the Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing and Conservatory at Reiman Gardens,
• Union Drive Community Center,
• Gary & Donna Hoover Hall,
• Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory,
• Extension 4-H & Youth Building,
• Gerdin Business Building,
• and the Veterinary Medicine Biosecurity Facility.

It was probably the greatest yearly change to the physical campus in Iowa State's history.

Last year, we shattered our previous record in sponsored funding with more than $274 million--a 19% increase overall and a 10% increase in funding for research.

Tech transfer leader

And, as you know, we're a university that puts a lot of emphasis on technology transfer and economic development, so let me share with you some very impressive data that illustrates how Iowa State is one of the nation's leaders in technology transfer.

Among all universities in the nation, Iowa State now ranks--

• 1st in licenses and options executed on our intellectual property;
• 3rd in licenses and options that yield income, meaning they have been put into commercial use;
• and we're in the top 3 universities in new patentable biotechnology.

Last year, we had--

• 194 new licenses executed, with 47 technologies licensed for the first time;
• 110 new invention disclosures;
• and 5 new companies were formed last year from technologies developed at Iowa State; which brings the total to 62 companies since 1990.

Banner year in private support

Last year was also a banner year in private support for the university from alumni and friends. The ISU Foundation raised more than $63 million in private gifts to Iowa State, and increase of 62% increase from the previous year, and that doesn't include the huge $144 million software gift. The number of donors increased by 14% to more than 53,000. And in athletics, the Cyclone Club set new records with nearly $3.9 million in gifts and membership of nearly 5,500, up 1,800 in last 4 years.

These are very good signs. They show that our alumni and friends care very deeply about our success.

Also this past year, we completed the $50 million "Investing in People" fundraising initiative, and we are very close to completing the $9 million fundraising drive to save & restore Morrill Hall. We're close enough that I have given the go ahead for construction to begin early in the new year.

This year, we named three new deans to lead our colleges--Mark Kushner, Engineering; John Thomson, Veterinary Medicine; and Mike Whiteford, Liberal Arts & Sciences. We also named Jim Davis as our Chief Information Officer. These are all outstanding leaders who I know will lead their units to even higher achievement.

Academic initiatives

The new academic initiatives that we established two years ago are doing extremely well. Each year, I receive an oral report from the faculty leaders of these initiatives, and we're making excellent progress, especially in recruiting great new faculty to join the programs in. Those initiatives are--

• Human Computer Interaction,
• Food Safety & Food Security,
• Combinatorial Chemistry,
• The new Bioeconomy,
• Animal Genomics,
• And Information Infrastructure.

We have continued to excel in many other areas as well, including--

• the Plant Sciences Institute,
• the Center for Information Assurance,
• our new Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities,
• our Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products (BIGMAP),
• and many, many other areas.

And we continue to make great advances in areas that are important for Iowa. Three areas that received a lot of media coverage this past year were:

• the development of a new wind simulator for studying tornados and other wind bursts by Partha Sarkar and Fred Haan, aerospace engineering, and William Gallus, geologic and atmospheric science;
• the development of a new soybean variety that produces an oil with no trans fat, by Distinguished Professor Walt Fehr and University Professor Emeritus Earl Hammond, a development that has enormous economic potential for Iowa;
• and the study of the importance of fat in the diet by Wendy White, food science and human nutrition, which is still getting almost daily media calls.

Athletes shine in class and out

It was an usual exciting year in Cyclone athletics, highlighted by the advancement of both the men's and women's basketball teams to the semifinals of the NIT, Zach Roberson winning a national championship in wrestling, and, of course, crowning Cael Sanderson as a Gold Medalist at the Olympic Games in Athens this summer.

We're especially proud of the academic achievements of our student-athletes. They consistently rank at or near the top of the Big 12 Conference. Our women's basketball team achieved a very notable distinction by earning a team GPA last fall of 3.47! That's basically Deans List for the team. That achievement ranked them 3rd in nation.

These kinds of accomplishments are especially significant in light of the several challenges we faced last year.

There was the continuing challenges with the budget, with the 2% mid-year budget cut, which brought to 7 the number of consecutive budget reductions over the last 4 years.

Overall, I believe we dealt with these effectively, but with great difficulty. I truly appreciate everyone's understanding and willingness to work together to manage these cuts. We were a lean and efficient university before these budget cuts. Now we're very, very lean, and hopefully, very efficient.

In the final analysis for this year, we received a completely flat budget--no increases, but no cuts. And we did receive funds to initiate two important capital projects--renovation and an addition to Coover Hall, and renovation and expansion of the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital.

Then there was the riot after last spring's VEISHEA celebration ended, which caused considerable property damage, hurt our student recruiting, and generally gave the university a very black eye. It caused me to make the difficult decision of canceling VEISHEA for this year, while we work to evaluate what can be done to minimize those kinds of problems in the future.

Even with the VEISHEA and budget challenges, I believe that last year was a very good year for Iowa State, mainly because of the great work of our faculty, our staff and our students. I congratulate all of you and your colleagues for making it so.

Now let's turn to the year ahead. I'd like to outline some of the most important agenda items for the university.

Important year of planning

First, this is a very important year of planning for the future of Iowa State.

We must complete work on the university's Strategic plan, and submit it to the Board of Regents early next Spring. I want this plan to be a good roadmap for the future; to be ambitious; to be inspiring; and to really focus on what we need to do to raise even further the excellence of Iowa State.

This plan will be the basis for collegiate and other unit planning--for many future decisions, for the investment of new resources, for redirecting existing resources, for fundraising priorities, and for much else.

As you know, the first draft of the Plan was released about 3 weeks ago and the planning committee has received many very good suggestions for improvement. I especially appreciate the civility of the discussion that occurred both in public and in private, and the respect given to the planning committee for their hard work. It is a very good beginning.

All of those suggestions are being taken into consideration by the planning committee, which is now putting together the 2nd draft. That draft will be distributed on Oct 11th for another round of review and comment by the university community.

We want this plan to be broadly understood and widely endorsed, so please read it carefully and send in your input and suggestions for improvement. This will be the last opportunity for public comment before the plan is finalized.

In a related effort, this year we also must complete the first draft of our institutional self-study to prepare for the North Central Association accreditation visit that will take place in the Spring 2006. This also is extremely important to Iowa State's future, and I again encourage your involvement as this process moves forward later this year.

Also this year we must complete the planning and evaluation associated with the proposed combination of our colleges of Family and Consumer Sciences and Education. The Planning Committee and its subcommittees are still hard at work, and plan to distribute their results by October 18th . In proceeding to the final decision on this very important organizational matter, we'll follow exactly the university's policy for academic reorganizations, including advisory votes by the faculty in the colleges and the Faculty Senate, before reaching me for a final decision. That will probably occur early in the new year.

Enrollment challenges

Another very important priority area this year, and that will likely remain a priority in future years, is to reverse the recent decline that we've seen in our enrollments.

We enrolled 26,380 students this fall, which is 1,000 fewer than last fall. Lower enrollments have many undesirable affects, including:

• the loss of tuition revenue to the university; for example, the loss of 200 students is equivalent to a budget cut of $1.5 million;
• underutilization of the residence system, which has created very serious financial stress in that system;
• and significant negative economic impact on the Ames community, because, on average, each student spends about $18,000 per year here in Ames, and the fact that we have 1,000 fewer students this year compared to last translates into an $18 million negative economic impact for the community.

Many factors have contributed to the drop in enrollment, including:

• tuition increases, which made ISU less affordable for some students;
• budget cuts, which caused elimination of some degree programs, which caused some students to look elsewhere;
• the international situation and the drop in new international students; and while undergraduate international students actually increased slightly, that was more than offset by a huge drop in graduate students;
• the VEISHEA disturbances, which cost us a few hundred students;
• and on the positive side, our increased rate of graduation, which is actually a good thing for students.

But ultimately the biggest long term factor ...fewer students graduating from Iowa's high schools. Let me show you some data

This map shows the projected change in high school graduates from 2003-2012. The states decreasing are shown in purple, which include nearly every state in the middle of the nation. In contrast, the growth is projected to occur on the coasts and in the Sunbelt. Iowa is projected to decline 8%, and every state around us is projected to decline, except Illinois, which is due almost entirely to the Chicago suburbs.

Think about what this means for student recruiting. Our natural source of students--Iowa high school graduates--is falling, and the drop is particularly acute in rural Iowa, from where we draw lots of students. The fall-off will also occur in our neighboring states, from which we also draw large numbers of students, particularly Minnesota which has long been an important source of out-of-state students.

This chart shows the details for Iowa, with the low occurring in 2013.

This chart shows the different trend in Illinois, and this one shows the overall situation in our neighboring states. One thing that's apparent here is that any focus on increasing out-of-state students should include Illinois.

This chart shows our enrollment history and our enrollment projections. It's important to note that these projections are based on historical trends. They assume we will maintain our historical capture rate for Iowa high school graduates, and for transfer students, and that we will maintain our historical persistence rates and retention of our existing students. It shows our enrollment peaking in 2002, declining for several more years, and leveling off in 2007 at about 25,163 students.

These projections are based entirely on doing "business as usual," but we cannot just do "business as usual" because of the many negative ramifications of a falling enrollment. We need to aim for a total enrollment of around 26,000 to 27,000, and with at least 8,000 students in our residence halls.

So this year, I appointed and am leading an Enrollment Leadership Council, to give special attention to three areas:

• first, increasing the effectiveness of our recruitment of new freshmen; it includes improved marketing of Iowa State and our programs, ensuring that our financial aid program is optimized for our enrollment targets;
• second, increase the effectiveness of our recruitment of transfer students, particularly those from Iowa's community colleges, with a goal of making transfer to Iowa State more seamless for qualified students, and helping community colleges and their students understand what's necessary to meet those qualifications;
• and third, increase the persistence of our existing students; to keep them here and help them along the path toward graduation.

This will be challenging in the face of the Iowa demographics that I showed, and it will require an increased effort by all of us--administration, admissions staff, student affairs, and by the faculty and staff throughout the university. I am personally visiting about 10 high schools across Iowa this year, to speak to students, and, of course, encourage them to join us at Iowa State.

To focus our attention on this important issue, this year we will be developing enrollment-based budget incentives and disincentives. The aim is to put into place for next fall so that those colleges that increase their enrollments will receive a budget boost, and those that see a decreased enrollment will see budget adjustments in a downward direction. The details have not yet been finalized. Provost Allen has been assigned to work with the deans to do that.

Let me now turn to the university's budget status. I am very optimistic that we have seen the end of the kind of budget cuts that we have had to endure over the last four years. There are a lot of signs that indicate Iowa is in better shape. The economy is improving and tax revenue is up. There's an increased appreciation of the importance of higher education & the Regents Universities by our elected leaders, something I sense when I talk with them. And we have focused, strong leadership from the Board of Regents.

Regents' four-year budget plan

The Regents have endorsed a very aggressive public policy program that will be led by the Regents and the university presidents, working closely together under a tightly focused and coordinated government relations program that is now centralized in the Board Office, and coordinated by Regent Forsyth, president of the board.

The central component of this public policy agenda is the Regents' Partnership for Transformation and Excellence plan, a 4-year budget plan for institutional transformation, educational excellence, and moderating tuition increases, in partnership with Iowa's elected leaders.

It consists of 3 key elements:

• A request to the Governor and the Legislature for a $40 million increase in state funding for the Regents enterprise, in each of the next four years, of which ISU's portion would be about $15.4 million per year. These funds would be used to help retain and attract high-quality faculty, in part by increasing the competitiveness of our faculty salaries, which have declined in past years and our aim is to increase these into the top one-third of our peer group over the four years; increase class offerings in areas of high student demand; strengthen important academic areas that were ravaged by the budget cuts of the past four years; and develop new education and research programs vital to the economic needs of Iowa.
• For each $2 in new funding, ISU and the other Regent universities will commit to $1 in strategic redirection of existing resources. This means that internally we will need to redirect about $7.7 million per year for 4 years to our most important strategic priorities by cutting the budgets of other important areas. I say that because there are no unimportant or soft spots left. It will be very challenging, but we have to do it to get our share of the appropriations increase. The Regents have made it clear that universities that fail to meet this target will not get their share of the increase.
• If the Legislature and Governor fully fund the $40 million appropriations increase, the Board of Regents will commit to limiting the annual rate of tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students to no more than the rate of inflation, as measured by the Higher Education Price Index, which is projected to be around 4%. This will provide a moderate and much more predictable tuition rate for students and their families.

The Regents will also be asking for funding of a 5-year capitals plan to address the most important deferred maintenance needs, and they will be requesting relief from many burdensome and unnecessary state mandates.

Overall, I believe this is an excellent plan, one that has excellent potential to be enacted, based on the conversations I have had with elected officials, and the potential to really make a difference and allow us to address our most important funding needs. This will be the focus of all of our lobbying efforts, and I'll keep the university community well informed as this moves forward and evolves.

And as always, we will aggressively continue to seek private funds to support our drive for excellence, through the good work of the staff in the ISU Foundation. We are now planning for the next large and comprehensive fundraising campaign, which I expect will have a very strong focus on investing in people, raising funds for student support and faculty endowments, but also for selected program support and for several important capital projects.

Let me now turn to the campus infrastructure. Unlike this year, we only have a couple of building dedications--the Steve and Debbie Bergstrom Indoor Practice Facility, earlier this month; and later this fall, Martin Hall, the new residence building next to Eaton Hall, named for Nancy and Archie Martin to honor their many contributions to helping African-American students succeed at ISU when segregation was all too common in our nation.

Important renovations planned

Even though we have only two dedications, this will be an important year for facilities planning, and for beginning projects and renovations. We must complete the planning and fund raising for the renovation and expansion of Veterinary Medicine Complex and Coover Hall; finish planning for a new Alumni Center and a new Student Success Center. As I mentioned earlier, we will begin the renovations on Morrill Hall early next year, along with renovations of the Memorial Union, Pearson Hall and Carver Hall, with the latter two to provide enhanced space for several of our academic departments, particularly in Liberal Arts and Sciences.

And then there's VEISHEA, a great Iowa State tradition, but marred so deeply by the riots that occurred after last year's celebration. The VEISHEA task force and the Commission on Improving Relations have been working diligently since their appointment last spring, and I am hopeful that they will be successful in generating recommendations that will be helpful as we go forward. I expect to receive those recommendations in late November and I will make a decision on a 2006 VEISHEA early in the new year.

In the meantime, our students are planning a number of events all throughout the academic year, building on the past successes of VEISHEA but under the theme "Leaders Inspiring Connections." Later this week they will disseminate their schedule of events.

Plans for progress

Finally, there are many other areas that we want to make progress on this year--

• continuing to grow our entrepreneurship programs and related educational opportunities for students;
• strengthening even further the university's marketing and public relations efforts ...also important for recruiting;
• responding to the recommendations of the Battelle report on the Biosciences;
• and enhancing our investment in student services and activities.

Most important of all--in everything that we do--we need to continue our strong focus on increasing the excellence of Iowa State and our programs, with a strong focus on creating and strengthening centers of excellence throughout the university, and on faculty recruitment and retention. It is the most important thing we do.

In closing, I truly believe that we have much to be very proud of ...thanks to the terrific work of our faculty and staff and students, and, in particular, the faculty and staff we are honoring today. I believe that we have much to look forward to in the year ahead, and it will be a busy one.

Thanks for all your support and congratulations to everyone who is being honored today.