Southern Polytechnic State University
“State of the University Speech: A is for Accreditation…”
Fall Kick-off 2009
20 August 2009
Welcome! Whether you were away for the summer or were on campus every day, Fall Kick-off is always an exciting time for the University. This marks the beginning of a new academic year, and we are both celebrating successes and addressing some specific challenges as we prepare for the fall semester.
To begin, I want to lead with a couple of E-words. Some of this information has been shared widely enough that I doubt anyone here hasn’t heard about it. But, even at the risk of repetition, I will note for the record that, last week, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved SPSU to offer evening programs in civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering.
This vote by the Regents is one of the next logical steps in SPSU’s growth, and it was a historical moment at the Board meeting. Several Regents spoke in support of the collaboration between Southern Polytechnic and Georgia Tech in developing these evening programs, and they noted that our institutions were a model of the kind of collaboration that they wanted to see throughout the University System. It seems noteworthy that the first person to congratulate me on the Regents’ vote was the president of Georgia Tech.
This affirmative vote by the Board of Regents is the culmination of – literally – decades of work by faculty, staff, alumni, and industry supporters who established the strong foundations, created the appropriate infrastructure, and helped make the economic and educational case for offering these new programs – in an evening format targeted at non-traditional students. Tom Currin and many others on campus deserve our thanks and appreciation for helping make this happen. Significant among the people who established the groundwork is President Emeritus Steve Cheshier, who wrote to me last week to share his excitement. I invited him to be here today; although he was unable to join us, he gave me permission to quote him. He wrote:
“I just heard about the new engineering degrees. A big congratulations! My big dream during my time [as president] was to be able to offer a range of engineering degrees…. Unfortunately the timing was not good, as back then Georgia Tech was adamant about being the only public provider of engineering in the state...[and] we were just not thought of in that way by the Regents… I am thrilled to see each new degree program being announced. That really assures a great future for SPSU in my view.
I am so glad that times have changed and that you and the faculty have stuck with making the case and seeing these exciting new programs through all of the politics that I know they must have required. Great job!!”
I’d like to reiterate Steve’s appreciation and congratulations – and to add another E-word.
Excellent.
On September 2, Chancellor Davis will be on campus for one of his regular visits. He’ll be meeting with community leaders, students, and with the academic leadership, including the Faculty Senate, department chairs, deans, and other interested faculty. Some of you may remember that, about two years ago, Chancellor Davis mentioned during a campus visit that he saw a niche for Southern Polytechnic in offering evening engineering programs for non-traditional students. If you have the opportunity to thank him, while he is on campus, for his support of this University’s growth and expansion, I hope you’ll mention that to him.
In news about other E-words, Alan Gabrielli and colleagues continue to work toward an education program that will take students with interest and abilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and help them become teachers. Southern Polytechnic has been invited by the System Office to submit a proposal for an independent education program that focuses on preparing teachers in the STEM fields. Finding the right timing for submitting this is a real balancing act, given all the regulatory and accrediting agencies involved, but this is an opportunity that serves the State, addresses the strategic goals of the University System, and, not entirely coincidentally, furthers our own interests as well – because we depend on the pipeline of students who are interested in STEM fields for our future enrollment.
Ah – now that’s a fine E-word, too. Enrollment.
As of this morning, Ron Koger tells me that we have just passed the 5,000 student mark for this fall’s enrollment. The census date is not until August 27, and that number will fluctuate between now and then, but it’s likely to settle out around 5,100. That’s an increase of about 6%, and – of course – the largest enrollment that Southern Polytechnic State University has ever had.
The challenges associated with this enrollment growth are obvious – the demand for on-campus housing this fall is high. The waiting list for the apartments peaked at about 190 students, and we all look forward to the completion of the new suite-style housing, special interest housing, and dining facility on the west side of campus, in time for fall 2010.
Because of our enrollment growth, as well as growth for Georgia Highlands College, which offers classes on this campus, the demand for parking is even more obvious. Ten years ago, about a year after I arrived, our facilities master plan said that SPSU had more than enough parking through the year 2020. Not now. With some of the lower parking lots closed for construction staging, available parking has been redistributed to increase visitor and handicapped access and to provide adequate spaces for faculty and staff. In addition to the overflow space behind the Machinists’ Union, Kasey Helton has arranged for students and employees to also park at Roswell Street Baptist Church from the first day of class until October 1 – shuttle buses will run continuously from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Fortunately, the new parking deck, funded through the student transportation fee, will open on September 21 – with 863 additional spaces.
As I’m sure you’ve discovered, the new loop road is open – and you won’t be surprised to hear that a group of alumni are already talking about recreating the bathtub races, coasting down that new hill. Even the most enthusiastic alumni realize that, with a slope like that, the bathtubs won’t need motors. Gravity will do the job. The real challenge will be the left turn at Alumni Drive at the bottom of the hill.
Other physical changes in the campus environment are obvious, as well. The huge crane on the site for the Engineering Technology Center is visible evidence of our progress. That building is on schedule for a completion by September 29, 2010, which will give us part of fall semester to move in and fully occupy the building by January 2011. The new architecture design building is expected to be completed by August 11 of next year (2010). Jeff Ray and Bill Barnes have done a great job of making sure that these projects will meet the needs of our students and faculty.
Since the last fall kick-off, a year ago, the main campus entrance – another E-word -- has changed dramatically….
…and here’s where I move to a few B-words. If you were here this summer, you’ll remember the daily question about whether the orange barrels would be there each morning. The barrels are gone, but other B-words still apply to the new campus entrance -- the brick walls have been laid, the berms have been built up and landscaped, and new banners are being hung from the light poles.
Last spring, Julie Newell gave a talk about thinking like a bee – and how, by working together, we can accomplish more than any of us can individually. Recognizing how understaffed facilities is and how much had to be done to get ready for the start of classes, a group of about 50 faculty, staff, students, and a retiree banded together in late July for campus beautification day. They helped the facilities staff clean up part of the campus, doing everything from weeding to painting to cleaning windows. Patrick McCord ran the street cleaner. Ken Hill and Bobby Burk were maniacs about pressure washing this building. Mary Ellen McGee brought all her gardening tools and worked on the planter around the globe. And please admire the grass around the fountain, near the University Commons, and thank Eddie McCracken, Marquis Price, Sara Minton, Eric Miller, Ron Koger, Ron Dempsey, and Dave Hornbeck for their good work laying sod – in the rain.
In other B-words, I want to formally note that our 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year, following a series of outstanding faculty members who have been recognized with this honor, is Professor Bob Brown, from the School of Computing and Software Engineering. His qualifications are far greater than just the alliteration of his name, and we will have a chance to honor him and his work during the course of this academic year. Congratulations, Professor Brown.
At the faculty meeting yesterday, I mentioned that one of the areas in which we need to focus this year is another B-word: balance – and finding the right balance between our existing engineering technology programs and the news ones in engineering. Very few universities have successfully negotiated this, but Southern Polytechnic must. We have always been known for excellence in engineering technology. We are committed to continuing that focus – and for developing the same strong reputation in engineering programs. This will not be easy, but it is critical to who we are – and it defines our past, our present, and our future. Our success in finding this balance is fundamental to our mission. And the process depends on our sense of community and our shared focus on academic excellence and on serving students, alumni, and the state of Georgia.
We have lots of activity in the technology arena, too, and I want to go back to another E-word. E-mail. Mirapoint, the e-mail system that we have been using for several years is coming to the end of its contract. The Information Technology Division – with lots of advice – has explored multiple options for a new system, including using a system like Google mail for some or all of the University’s e-mail needs. After a lot of consideration and testing, with input from the IT Advisory Council, we have ended up with Zimbra. This is a Yahoo product that has several hundred million users worldwide, and it is widely used in academia. All the hardware and software have been installed, and a small group of faculty and staff have been testing it to find issues ahead of time. The conversion dates will be October 9-11 [note: the revised dates are October 16-18], but over the next six weeks IT staff will be working with departments to help users migrate to Zimbra. The new system will allow for greater quota sizes, improved calendaring, an enhanced web interface, file sharing, and mobile phone support. More information about this will be forthcoming shortly.
Space scheduling has been centralized so that all campus spaces are being scheduled by one person, Leigh Ann Soublis. In one of Ron Koger’s most pithy e-mails, he reminded us all that, whoever you used to call about reserving space on campus, you need to call Leigh Ann now.
In other E-for-electronically related topics:
For more than a year, Robert Forbes has made a valiant effort of trying to work with the state’s Department of Administrative Services to post an RFP to contract with an outside firm to redesign the University’s website. Over this past summer, we decided to redesign the website in house. We're going to utilize some of the outstanding talent that we have here on campus to create a website that works for us. To do this, we’re going to hire a webmaster to oversee the redesign and the on-going maintenance of the site. A Web Oversight Committee will help advise the webmaster on policies and guidelines for continuous improvement of the SPSU website. The position will be in the marketing area and will report to Jim Cooper.
The position has already been posted, and the search committee will be evaluating candidates very soon. Once the webmaster position is filled, work will begin in earnest, and the timeline for the project will be published to the University community. We'll be seeking campus expertise at multiple points along the way. I know that a lot of other changes have been waiting, over the past year, for the new website, and we can’t wait any longer – so we’re going to make it happen this year.
Ron Koger continues to serve as our interim CIO. We originally planned to launch a search for a new full-time person this fall, but we are still discussing the best timing for this. I am very pleased with the work that our Information Technology people are doing, with Koger’s support, and I want to find the timing for a search that maximizes the benefits to both the University and the people involved.
I think we all have a sense that we keep having more and more added to our plates, but I want to note that there is at least one thing that will take less time in the upcoming year: regional accreditation. Our review by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (known as “SACS,” for those of you who are new) was completed last spring, and our liaison, Becky Rutherfoord, has submitted all the follow-up information that was required. We now await the formal decision about reaffirmation of accreditation at the SACS annual meeting in December (2009). Thanks again to everyone who helped make the preparation for and actual visit of the team so smooth and successful. Based on our exit meeting and the visiting team’s report, I don’t think we could have asked for a better result.
As part of the follow-up to our visit, the process of implementing our Quality Enhancement Project (or “QEP”) continues. I know you can all quote the name with me: “Engaging Entering Students through Learning Communities,” also known simply as “Engaged Communities.” One of the outcomes of our visit was a request for a few revisions in our project proposal; Becky and Bob Brown made sure these were submitted to SACS last week. The initial "learning communities" in Computing and Software Engineering have been created, and the control group has been identified. The learning community linked to the African-American Male Initiative successfully began in late July during a summer session.
Supporting student success is part of what everyone does here – everyone is responsible, and we’ll be working together to pursue this research project that will help us better understand how we can improve our retention and graduation rates.
Okay. Back to a B-word. Budgets. Yes, our state budget is being cut this year. But we planned for it, we set aside some contingency funds, and our continuing enrollment growth offers a critical buffer. All state agencies – and, within the USG, all colleges and universities – had to prepare budget reduction plans of 4, 6, and 8%. Our plan is one you would expect – contingency funds, not filling positions that are vacant, as well as ones that may become vacant during the year, deferring equipment expenditures, expectations for increased enrollment and…
…here’s where we get into the F-words.
Furloughs. I don’t plan to spend much time on that topic today. I’ve held three open meetings on furloughs in the last week, including one following the faculty meeting yesterday. Information is linked to our Human Resources web page, and more detailed information, specific to SPSU, will be posted there shortly. The Board of Regents has mandated that all employees must take six days of unpaid leave this academic or fiscal year, and at least three of the days have to be taken before the end of December. This applies to all of us, faculty, staff, deans, the senior staff, me. (Yes, there are a couple of exceptions. Anyone whose salary will fall below $23,660 after a furlough day is exempt from having to take any more days. Part-time faculty whose appointments are on a per-course basis are not required to take furlough days, nor are police officers and dispatchers and anyone working under an H1-B visa. But that’s a small number of exceptions here at Southern Polytechnic. All the rest of us will be taking those furlough days.)
Presidents have the authority to determine how the furlough program will be managed. As I’ve noted in all the open meetings, some presidents are requiring everyone to take the same days and closing down the campus. I’m not. Here at Southern Polytechnic, we’ll be taking our required furlough days (defined as 8 hours) in increments of 4 or 8 hours, and the dates will be determined by you and your supervisor or department chair. You may want to take three days in a row, to lengthen a vacation. You may want to use them to create some long weekends. You may want to use them for off-campus appointments and avoid using vacation or sick leave. You may want to spread them out to minimize the impact on any particular paycheck. The department chair or supervisor needs to be sure the office is covered appropriately, but our goal is to provide maximum flexibility in planning the furlough schedule. We don’t have a choice about whether we do this, but we will have some flexibility in when we do it.
I hate telling you about furloughs, and I hate having to tell you that furloughs will be required. But we don’t have a choice. And yes, it is part of our budget plan, so those six mandatory furlough days will get us $600,000 toward our budget reduction plans.
As the furlough plan was evolving, presidents were given the opportunity to raise questions and provide feedback. I consulted with Staff Council, with the senior staff, and with faculty. One of the questions that came up was whether we could create a furlough “pool,” like the sick leave pool, to help others who may be even more adversely impacted by days of unpaid leave. I passed this question along to the System Office – and our colleagues there seemed to be impressed at the generosity reflected by this question. I want to thank this University community for the spirit and the concern behind that question.
But the answer is “no.” We can’t do that. However, we’re on record as caring, and that means a lot to me. I think it says a lot about who we are as a community.
So, if you have questions about furloughs, look for more information on the HR website, ask HR, ask your supervisor, ask your chair, or ask me.
In truth, I thought – briefly – about organizing all my remarks this morning about F-words, but I was afraid that’s all anyone would remember about it. So I will limit myself to only two others – another bad one, and then two good ones.
So let’s try flu. We received an update this week from the Chancellor and the Community Health Department of Georgia about the H1N1 influenza virus. Some other universities in Georgia are already seeing significant numbers of confirmed cases. When I mentioned to the faculty at yesterday’s meeting that the Department of Community Health has asked us to develop a plan to report any 10% decline in class attendance, they laughed. But we will be expected to find ways to track increased absences – of faculty and staff, as well as students. Faculty will also be asked to plan for ways to continue teaching if the University has to close for a period of several weeks – although I expect that the most that can be planned is a mode of communication if the University does have to close, by informing students in your classes that they should check WebCT/VISTA – or a particular website – or their e-mail – or someplace else. More information will be forthcoming soon on these topics. From my perspective, the good news is that, under any currently anticipated scenario, the final decision about whether or not to close an institution will be with the president, with input from local and state public health officials. As the Chancellor has noted, our goal is to avoid institutional closure and disruption of classes unless there is a significant change in the severity of the illness associated with the H1N1 virus.
A good F-word is funding. All of our strategic plans involve fundraising and the resources necessary to realize our vision. Yes, the Foundation will be having a faculty/staff fundraising campaign this fall. The theme will be “Go Green,” which has multiple meanings, including the green of currency and our efforts toward sustainability. In past fundraising campaigns, faculty and staff received five pieces of paper and an envelope. In the “Go Green” campaign, the only paper will be your printed receipt. In light of the current economy, the emphasis in this campaign will be on participation – at whatever level you can manage – rather than setting a dollar-amount target. And in support of this “green” theme for the campaign, the faculty and staff co-chairs will be Julie Newell and Jim Cooper.
The other f-word is one that is always a favorite here at SPSU: food.
As many of you are already aware, we have a new food service provider on campus: Chartwells Higher Education. Chartwells is planning a number of innovations over the next year, including the addition of a new 16,700 square-foot cafeteria, nationally branded retail operations, and expanded hours of service to include continuous service in the cafeteria and later evening service in the Student Center Grill. New catering menus are available now on CD in the Auxiliary Services office. Chartwells is providing lunch today, and I think you’ll be impressed.
So – that does it for the F-words. I’d like to finish up with a couple of S-words.
The first is sustainability. We have done more in sustainability than is readily evident – and we have much more to do. We need to consider the sustainable solution in every decision-making opportunity. You can all look for more of what has happened or will happen to be communicated to the campus and placed on the web. (For instance, we'll have bike sharing and carpool matching programs this fall.)
Based on what we learned from the waste audit last spring, we can do a much better job of reducing, reusing, and recycling. We learned that 56% of our trash is compostable or recyclable. This year, we'll be improving recycling with new bins and better marketing of our recycling program. We have completed the preliminary calculations of our greenhouse gas emissions, and we are fine-tuning that inventory. This fall, we'll be calling on many of you to help develop a climate action plan.
One of the more visible projects this coming year will be an effort to capture some of the energy-saving designs that were programmed into our library building when it was originally constructed. Michael Sizemore, the original architect for the library, is working with us to fully realize the original sustainable design, including passive solar heating, daylighting, and solar energy generation. Michael’s design – and the library itself – were way ahead of their time in sustainable building design. Joyce Mills and the library staff are wonderful partners in this effort, and although we may not be able to take the building entirely off the grid, we can take advantage of many of those design elements. And the next time you walk by the library, take a look at the bell tower and recognize that it was originally intended to hold solar panels, not bells.
One of the other efforts, in the upcoming year, will be to increase the ways in which sustainability is incorporated into the curriculum. Julie Newell attended a national workshop on this topic over the summer, and I’m honored that she has invited me to be part of the sessions that are planned this fall to talk about sustainability in the curriculum. I hope we’ll have a great turn-out for these conversations.
The other S-word is strategic planning. Our current strategic plan had a three-year time horizon, and we’re ready for a new one – or at least an update of the one we have.
The University Institutional Effectiveness Council, which is now responsible for strategic planning on campus, had several meetings over the summer. The group reflected on the existing mission and vision statements, previous planning documents, and the group’s own discussion, and they identified some areas of strategic interest. I want to emphasize that the strategic plan is a work in progress, and some of this information will be news to members of the committee who weren’t able to attend some of this summer’s meetings. The process will include opportunities for input from all segments of the University community – so please understand that this is a status report.
These are the major goals that the group has identified to date:
1. Increased engagement in the life of the University by faculty, staff, students, and alumni;
2. Academic excellence (and we’ve been talking about metrics that will help us understand what success looks like in this area);
3. Services and activities that meet the needs and interests of all students (including strong integration of student life and residence life);
4. The resources – funds -- needed to support our goals;
5. Increased enrollment (not just numbers, but with the right students, who are interested in learning and who will benefit from SPSU’s programs);
6. Strong external relationships (including employers, alumni, advisory boards, and other external groups); and
7. Clear identity and excellent visibility, with SPSU being known and recognized for who we are and what we do.
In the next month or so, the Institutional Effectiveness Council will be collecting comments and feedback about these ideas. I hope everyone who is interested takes the opportunity to be part of this conversation.
The last topic I want to mention links our previous strategic plans with an E-word. One of our goals, even before the 2006 iteration of our strategic plan, was to develop a strong sense of place. We’ve talked about this in a variety of different ways – collective responsibility for student success or pride in Southern Polytechnic as a place to work or teach or study -- but we keep defaulting to the short-hand description of “a sense of place.” And we haven’t had a very good way to measure how we are doing in accomplishing this goal…
…until this spring, when SPSU participated in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “2009 Great Places To Work” survey. Everyone on campus who is classified as faculty, administrator, or professional staff received an e-mail invitation to be part of this survey; over 50% of the 297 people who were invited chose to participate.
In the 15 categories of the survey, the responses for 7 were considered “very good to excellent” and another 7 were “good.” In 14 of those 15 categories – all but one – the people who responded rated SPSU as better (and sometimes significantly better) than the average for comprehensive universities. I am delighted to share with you that the category with the most positive response – with 82% giving a positive answer – was “Connection to institution and pride.” The next categories with the most positive answers, in order, were “Job satisfaction and feeling supported” (79%), “Supervisor or department chair relationship” (78%), “Facilities and security” (78%), “Career development, research, and scholarship” (78%), and “Respect and appreciation” (77%).
I also want to note the one category, out of the 15 major groups in this survey, in which the responses for SPSU fell into the “fair to mediocre” category. This category was “Compensation and benefits.” I received the results of this survey on the same day that I was asked for feedback about a draft of the Mandatory Furlough Plan. You can be certain that I described the results of this survey – and this one area that had already been highlighted as an issue – in my response to the Chancellor. I’ll be sharing the full results with him during his visit next month – and I plan to share them on our website with the University community.
Overall, I think those summary responses describe a downright excellent place to work. And I consider these results to be the baseline against which we can assess our progress in continuing to develop community, pride, and an even stronger sense of place.
So – in summary, the state of the university is strong. There’s no question that we are working in a challenging environment, in which we are dealing with increasing enrollments and expanded programs. We are trying to find the balance among programs that represent our traditional strengths and our new opportunities. It’s an environment in which we are dodging barrels and berms, fighting furloughs and the flu, supporting fundraising and enjoying food and fellowship, migrating our e-mail, and wondering whether our new e-mail system is named Zimbra, with a “Z,” because it shares a consonant with so many members of our University community – like Zeigler and Zia and Lipschitz and Frinzi and Niemczyk and Szafran and Skopitz and Bentzen and Cortiz and Mirza and Ziada and Shpuza and Itzkowitz.
I think I’ve made my point with alliteration – probably an overextended point. We have a mission statement and a vision statement that talk about the fusion of technology with the liberal arts. We focus on educating students about problem-solving, about communication, about analysis and critical thinking, about team work, and about relevance. Our students understand alliteration and algorithms. I’m proud to be part of this University community – and I thank you for this opportunity.