Hall addresses infinite ambitions of USU
Utah State University needs to keep the main thing the main thing. That was how President Kermit L. Hall described his vision for USU to the academic community at the annual State of the University Address on Thursday.
Members of the boards of Regents and Trustees, faculty, students and Cache Valley residents laughed as Hall warned them not to mistake vision for hallucination.
The president’s vision rested on his description of universities as “places of infinite amibitions, but finite resources.”
His vision – the main thing – is for USU to become a place where academics come first.
“There should be no confusion,” he said. “We need to be stronger academically.”
The president’s means of bringing this vision to fruition center at the concept of compact planning.
“[Compact planning is] the most intense and thorough self-examination of Utah State in its history,” he said.
In light of the $9.5 million axed from USU’s budget, Hall asked one question about the students, who he said “breathe fresh life” into the university.
“Have we created an environment that will give them a great learning experience?” he said.
He pointed out that the university’s prospects for success are highly contingent upon the surrounding academic environment.
“There are a host of variables in the state and nation that shape Utah State’s opportunities,” he said.
The president explained that an increasing number of students desire higher education.
“The national percentage of high school graduates going on to college has risen in twenty years from 49 percent to 63 percent,” he said.
The state budget’s percentage of tax support for higher education has fallen 23 percent in the last 25 years, forcing tuition to compensate.
“To put the matter starkly: Without the second tier tuition dollars generated at Utah State over the last two years, we would have been unable to meet our educational and fiscal obligations,” he said.
The president said House Bill 331 has added to the problem for USU.
“The state has, in short, built a system of higher education that endures, because it fails in a critical responsibility to retain and graduate the students that it admits,” Hall said.
He said Utah higher education has three choices: Find new public revenues to offset increases in tuition, limit access by increasing academic standards, or maintain the status quo and watch quality erode irreversibly.
The president took a stand for the university.
“Utah State, as a community of scholars and students, casts its vote for quality,” he said.
Hall next took a look at USU’s environment in light of compact planning.
He said location is everything, and only 14 percent of students commute to campus from their parents homes.
USU has one of the highest student-to-faculty ratios in the state, he said. The student numbers have doubled in the last 15 years. Faculty size has remained stagnant.
“Our faculty and staff are paid almost one quarter less than colleagues at peer institutions,” the president said.
Furthermore, female faculty are significantly underpaid in relation to their male counterparts, he said. However, on a per capita level, USU has the 16th most productive research faculty in the nation.
The president described the university as an “open-admissions institution, with low retention and low graduation rates.”
“We have developed the pernicious habit of valuing what we can measure, rather than measuring what we value,” he said.
Celestial Bybee, president of the Associated Students of USU, said after the speech that although it’s difficult for most people to talk about what’s wrong with their university, Hall can admit the weaknesses and move on.
“Where there’s a gap, he’ll build a bridge,” she said.
The president introduced compact planning and its budget reforms as tools of combat.
“Our first and most significant goal is to enhance the reputation of the university for learning, discovery and engagement,” he said.
He said the colleges are rallying to support compact planning in their respective areas of study.
A provost initiative has been designed to recognize and reward outstanding teaching, he said.
The president cited the building of a new library as the most important capital initiative in boosting academic quality.
“[It will be one] where academics comes first and fire hazards come last,” he said, generating applause.
Expanding revenue is another compact planning goal, which can be achieved by increasing state appropriations, tuition, research grants and private fund-raising, he said.
USU must support the Board of Regents in its commitment to a funding formula that takes into account the differing missions of Utah’s higher education institutions, Hall said.
Nolan Karras, chairman of the Board of Regents, said the formula funds more than just growth and student access.
The board is “on track” in this issue with the president, who is “top-flight,” he said.
Hall said adopting new business models is another part of the planning process.
“Utah State has a hard time internally getting the correct numbers, making sense of them, and then acting on them, whether enrollment, revenues, or human capital,” he said.
The president said his own initiative will provide for meaningful evaluation of every administrator.
Administrative Services plans to make USU more compatible with the environment by how it uses water, heat and electricity, he said.
Hall explained that compact planning is geared toward strengthening recruitment, retention and graduation rates.
“In the next five years, unless another House Bill 331 alters the playing field, we expect Utah State’s enrollment will grow from its current headcount of roughly 23,000 students to 25,000,” he said.
Furthermore, by 2006 USU will reduce the student-to-faculty ratio to 20 to 1, he said. Percentages of students living on campus should increase from 18 to 25. That would require renovation and creation of dormitory space, he said.
The number of academic advisers should double, and the average ACT score should be 25 by 2007, the president said.
Initiatives will be taken to enhance faculty and student diversity. This includes foreign-speaking missionaries.
“USU has failed to make use of the language abilities of its returning missionaries,” he said.
Hall said the university needs to look at the big picture.
“If Sept. 11 tells us nothing else, it is that understanding the cultures of others may be the best hope for securing our own,” he said.
USU plans to enhance its doctoral programs, as well, he said. Seventeen percent of students are graduates.
Karras said there may be some tension with requesting more doctoral programs, especially if they are ones already offered at the University of Utah.
Hall said the university plans to foster new internal and external relationships.
“Utah State cannot go it alone,” he said. “If we leave to the generation that comes after us a better place for teaching, learning, research and service, we will have succeeded.”
-amarie@cc.usu.edu