Office of the president

Iowa State University 2008 Fall Convocation Address

President Gregory L. Geoffroy
Monday, Sept 22, 2008

It is once again a pleasure to welcome everyone to this Fall Convocation, especially our new faculty, staff and university administrators. We're very glad you joined us, and we certainly look forward to your many contributions to our university and to our community.

I want to give a special thanks to Faculty Senate President Clark Ford, and P&S Council President Lynne Mumm for being a part of today's ceremony, and especially for taking on these very important leadership responsibilities.

A very good year

Before discussing the items on our agenda for the current year, I want to take a moment and reflect on the many achievements of the past year, which was indeed a very good year for Iowa State, perhaps the best year since I've been here as President.

First, had a wonderful celebration of our sesquicentennial, with lots of events and activities on campus, all over Iowa, and in various gatherings of alumni across the U.S. It was a great time to reflect on our accomplishments of the first 150 years of Iowa State University's history, to celebrate the university of today, and to start looking forward to the next 150 years.

Slide -- fund-raising

We also kicked off our comprehensive fund-raising campaign, "Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose." We set an ambitious $800 million goal, and saw a huge boost to our annual fund raising. Last year we set an all time record of $135.4 million raised, exceeding our $110 million goal by over $25 million. This chart shows the progress made on an annual basis, where we have seen a 253% increase in annual fund raising since 2003.

Slide -- campaign

And this pie chart shows the totals for our comprehensive fund-raising campaign, where, last week, we were at the $606 million level, significantly ahead of where we had projected we would be at this time in he campaign. And we're probably several million dollars ahead of that now.

More than anything else, this fund-raising success reflects the confidence that our alumni and friends have in Iowa State University -- in our programs, our directions and in the future of the university.

Last year, we continued to set a high priority on recruiting students, and the results have simply been astounding. Last year, Fall 2007, we welcomed the third-largest class of new students in the history of Iowa State.

Slide -- enrollment data

And this fall, we surpassed that achievement, with an entering class that is 3.6% larger than last year and the second-largest entering class on record. We saw an increase in new freshmen, in new transfer students and total enrollment. A big thanks to all of those involved in the student recruitment process, especially the staff in our Office of Admissions.

The value of an Iowa State education

These results reflect many things, but especially they demonstrate that young people and their families continue to see the great value in an Iowa State University education. And I am especially proud to brag that we continue to enroll more of Iowa's high school graduates, more transfer students from Iowa's community colleges, and more of Iowa's high school valedictorians than any other university in Iowa.

Slide -- state funding

We also had another good year in state funding, with total increase of 6.1% over the previous year, much of that in the salary bill, which is helping increase the competitiveness of our faculty and staff salaries. These good increases over the past two years certainly reflect the health of Iowa's economy, but they also signal the high regard and confidence that state leaders have in Iowa State and our programs.

This year we had an exceptionally good year in faculty recruiting, bringing in a total of 98 new faculty, exceeding by 37 the number of faculty who retired or resigned, and finally reversing the downward trend in faculty numbers that we have seen since the early part of this decade. We simply must continue to focus on growing our faculty numbers, especially as our enrollment continues to grow.

In the academic arena, and reflecting our great culture of interdisciplinary research and education, last year we launched several new cross-disciplinary initiatives ... including: the Bioeconomy Institute, CyberInnovation Institute, Egg Industry Center, Center for Carbon Capturing Crops, Center for the Study of Violence, Asteroid Deflection Research Center, Biobased Industry Center, and our new Engineering Research Center on Biorenewable Chemicals. These Centers and Institutes bring faculty, staff, and students together to work on cutting edge problems at the intersection of disciplines, and all position Iowa State extremely well for future work in these developing areas.

This past year we also completed, or nearly completed, several new building projects, including: the new Alumni Center, the addition to Coover Hall, the Dr. Eugene and Linda Lloyd Veterinary Medical Complex, the Jack Trice Stadium renovations, and the Seed Science Center addition.

Student achievements

And this past year, many members of our community truly excelled, and we will be honoring our faculty and staff for their achievements in a few moments. But I would like to highlight just a few of the achievements of our students, working together in teams and groups: the Iowa State Daily, named the best collegiate newspaper in the U.S.; our Turf Bowl Team, crowned as national champions for the seventh consecutive year; our student chapter of the Associated General Contractors and our Ag Business Club, both named the best in the nation by their peers; our Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils for the Greek system, named the best in the Midwest -- again; and our Dairy Cattle Judging Team, Agronomy Team and Soil Judging Team, all brought home first place in national contests.

And let's not forget our student-athlete Lisa Koll, who won the NCAA 10,000 meter championship and set a national collegiate record. But she's also an outstanding student, graduating in just three years with a near perfect gpa. She's now a first-year veterinary medicine student, First Team Academic All-American, and she still has two years of athletic eligibility remaining!

Looking ahead

Last year was, indeed, an exceptionally good year for Iowa State, one that we should all be very proud of. But now it's time to look ahead to the current year and our goal is to make it even better!

Let me begin by outlining some of the most important items on our agenda.

Slide -- 4 Regents' priorities

To start with, our Regents have set four priorities this year for the entire Regents enterprise. Those are:

1. Strategic Planning: 2009-2014
2. Developing a Communications and Public Relations plan
3. Addressing Affordability and Student Debt
4. Sustainability

We will, of course, have a very high level of involvement in all of these activities as the year passes, but today I want to focus on just the first one -- strategic planning.

This is the year the Regents starting another Strategic Planning cycle, with the goal of completing their overarching strategic plan by the end of this academic year. That sets the stage for us to start the process of thinking about our next Strategic Plan. To begin that, I have done two things.

First, I have asked Provost Hoffman to take the lead, and over the course of this year, develop the process that we will use and the timeline for generating Iowa State University's next strategic plan, and go ahead and get the key committees appointed this year so that they are ready to begin their work in earnest next academic year. Second, I have given important high-level guidance about what I want to see in that plan, and I want to share that with you today.

Looking ahead to mid-century

I want us to take a very long range view of what it is that we at Iowa State want to achieve, and write our next strategic plan with the steps that need to be taken now as we work toward that long-term vision. Following the lead of two of our most prominent colleges -- Engineering and Agriculture and Life Sciences -- I want to look out to mid-century ... to the year 2050.

It's not too likely that too many of us will be here in 2050, but there are a few overarching goals that I believe the university must keep firmly in front of us as we look to that long-range future, and I have asked Provost Hoffman to emphasize those goals in our next Strategic Plan, and to outline action steps that will move us in those directions.

Slide -- 2050 Magnet goals

First ... by 2050, I strongly believe that Iowa State University must be a powerful magnet for attracting truly outstanding students to join us to study and learn. The key words are "magnet" and "truly outstanding." If we are to be successful in 2050, we must be a magnet for attracting students, from Iowa, the nation and the world.

Second, we must be a magnet for attracting world-class faculty to teach, conduct research, and advance their scholarly interests, with the support of staff who are among the best in their areas of expertise. Again, the key words are "magnet" and "world-class." If we are to be successful in 2050, we must be a great place where faculty want to come. We must work to bring in the very best faculty. It must be a prime goal for 2050.

But we need to go further than that.

Slide -- 2050 Impact goals

By 2050, Iowa State should be known around the world for the significant impact that our faculty, staff, and students have made, and are continuing to make, in addressing the major problems facing our planet, especially those listed, dealing with food, energy, infrastructure, water, and sustainability.

Slide -- 2050 treasured resource

And finally, by 2050, Iowa State University must be regarded as a treasured resource for Iowa, our nation, and the world, because of the impact we have in improving people's lives.

It's an ambitious vision, but one that I strongly believe we can achieve, and need to work toward, and start now with this strategic planning cycle, laying out plans and action steps that will take us in these directions. Provost Hoffman has discussed all of these with the Deans and her leadership team, and I know they all are ready to begin this important and exciting quest.

Planning for the future -- especially the long range future -- is extremely important for the university, but so is accomplishing a number of other, much more immediate tasks, and I would now like to turn to some of those items on our agenda this year.

As always, this year we need to keep the recruitment of top quality faculty and staff firmly in front of us, with a focus on continuing to increase our faculty numbers, and on pursuing our top priorities -- one of which is the bioeconomy where we have tremendous momentum, especially with the launch of our new Engineering Research Center, and the construction of our new Biorenewables Research Laboratory.

This year we will be working hard to achieve full funding of the Regents legislative request.

Slide -- Operating appropriations request

Funding priorities

Our priorities are:

• full funding of the Salary Bill
• funding of our $4M request for the Bioeconomy Institute
• funding for the full $4M for the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab appropriation
• and $300,000 funding for our new Egg Industry Center

Slide -- Capital appropriations request

On the Capital front we are asking for:

• full funding of Phase II of the Veterinary Medicine teaching hospital renovations
• and planning money for the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Complex, to be build along side the new Biorenewables Research Laboratory

And I am very pleased to report that last week the Regents endorsed all of these requests at their meeting.

This year, as in the past, we must also continue a strong focus on student recruiting, student retention and our overall enrollments. We will be working hard to achieve, and ideally exceed, our admissions targets for next fall of:

• 4,100 new freshmen,
• 1,500 transfer students,
• and an overall enrollment in excess of 27,000 students

Private fund raising will remain of high importance for Iowa State, since those gifts from our alumni and friends allow us to do so many great things beyond what we can do with state funding alone. They create student scholarships. They help us reward our most outstanding faculty. They assist with faculty recruitment and retention, with capital projects, and on and on.

This year our private fund-raising goal is $125 million, and by June 30th we aim to pass the $700 million mark in our overall "Campaign Iowa State."

Leadership positions to fill

This year we have a number of important leadership positions to fill, including deans of three of our colleges -- Engineering, Design and Human Sciences. Those searches are all underway, and our goal is to have new deans appointed in each college by the end of this fiscal year.

Another extremely important leadership position that we're working to fill is the vice president for research and economic development. This is a very critical position for Iowa State, and we need to identify a person who will truly be a great champion for the research enterprise, for advancing the research agenda, for raising our research profile even further, and, of course, doing all of that in very close partnership with our college deans and other university leaders.

Research is extremely important to Iowa State. It's what defines us and sets us apart from so many other colleges and universities. It is a major component of what it means to be a land-grant university, along with our important educational and outreach missions.

Maintaining a high research profile is a high expectation among our state and national leaders, and it's my personal high expectation that we will continue to increase Iowa State's impact in the world through the research that we do to address important challenges and problems, to advance the state of knowledge, and to explore the unknown.

It is the primary way in which we will advance the international reputation of Iowa State, and it must be a strong focus of this university, along with our educational programs and our outreach programs. And it must be a focus of all university leaders, and most certainly our faculty and staff.

The position of vice president for research and economic development is critical to that success, and it is so very important for us to recruit a truly outstanding person to lead our work. I encourage all of you to be active in the interviewing of candidates when they are on campus, and in giving feedback to Provost Hoffman and the search committee.

Another very important area of emphasis this year, and one that must be ongoing every year, is the broad area of sustainability and energy conservation.

Many sustainability goals

Last year we launched the Presidential Advisory Committee on Energy Conservation and Global Climate Change, which led to a number of important action recommendations, including the appointment of a Director of Sustainability Programs, which we are searching right now to fill; the creation of a revolving loan fund to support campus energy conservation and sustainability initiatives; and the establishment of sustainability and energy standards for all of our facilities. All were launched under the "Live Green!" banner, which you will continue to hear much about as the year goes on.

I could give a long speech just focused on this topic of sustainability, but I won't. But it is important to remind you of our key goals for our work in this area:

1. promote sustainability as a concept, to ensure that we don't compromise the lives of future generations, and to infuse that notion in our students;
2. promote energy conservation all over campus, in part because of the rising cost of energy and it's impact on our budgets, but mainly because it is simply the right thing to do; and
3. do everything we can to minimize our impact on global climate change through minimizing our own carbon footprint.

Slide -- energy cost increases

We are seeing very rapidly rising energy costs, as I know each of you are at home and at the gas pumps. And the impact of that on Iowa State is illustrated by the data on this slide, where you can see that our energy-related costs for this year will exceed the amount we had budgeted by over $3 million. And it is climbing.

And while we are talking about budgets, this is the first full year of implementation of our new budget model, and we will be working hard all year to help units adjust to the new model and the new ways of thinking that come with it. A very special emphasis will be on ensuring that our great culture of cross-disciplinary research and education is not compromised, and, indeed, prospers, under this new budgeting approach.

We also have a number of important capital projects underway ... and we need to make sure they stay on schedule and within budget, including the King Pavilion addition to our Design Building, the new Biorenewables Research Laboratory, Hach Hall, our new chemistry building, and the improvements being made to our Maple-Willow-Larch student dining facilities. We also have a lot of planning to do for the second phase of our Veterinary Medicine renovations, and the new recreational facilities for our students.

In Athletics, we are very proud of the academic achievements of our student-athletes, who again last year had a grade point average and a graduation rate higher than the overall Iowa State University student body. In athletics, it is important that we emphasize not only competitive success, which is clearly important, but make sure that success goes hand-in-hand with academic success and with the personal success for our student athletes.

A wave of momentum

In closing, we are riding a tremendous wave of momentum, building on the wonderful successes of last year, with a lot of great things already happening at the beginning of this year. This is a truly great university, and I know it will not only remain so, but that we will continue to achieve at even higher levels, because of our terrific students, our tremendous alumni and the support they give us, but most of all, because of the outstanding work of our faculty and staff, like those we are honoring today.

Thanks to all of you and everyone in the university community for everything you do to make Iowa State the great university that it is!

Streaming video of the convocation

• Full convocation (president's address and awards)
• President's address
• University awards

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Slideshow

• Fall convocation powerpoint