President’s Town Hall Meeting summary, March 27, 2008

My final Town Hall meeting for the 2007-2008 academic year was held on Thursday, March 27. During the session, I shared the following updates.

Academic Affairs

UDM’s Engineering and Architecture programs partnered with Deloitte on a development proposal for a light rail link on Woodward Avenue between downtown Detroit and the New Center area.
The Detroit Collaborative Design Center received awards from the AIA Michigan and New Orleans chapters for the design and build of a disaster relief center in New Orleans.Law School moot court teams have been very successful in recent competitions. UDM teams have placed in the Final Four in five of the past six competitions, resulting in a gold medal, two silvers, two Best Oralist awards, runner-up for Best Brief, and two finalists in the same competition.
The School of Law’s National Veterans Tour is garnering increased publicity as it provides valuable service to veterans and training lawyers to provide pro-bono counsel. The national tour has traveled to Texas, Florida and Georgia.

UDM’s student headcount this term is the largest Winter Term headcount in six years. Full-time undergraduate enrollment is the largest in 15 years, and full-time equivalent enrollment is the largest in 10 years.
Fall 2007 saw the largest freshman class in 20 years. Freshman recruitment for Fall Term 2008 continues that record-breaking pace. Student applications are up by 20 percent, admits are up by 17 percent, and deposits are up by 25 percent from the same time last year.

Autumn Rademacher was named the Women's Head Basketball coach. She is a 1997 alumnus and the third highest scorer in Titan Women's Basketball history. She has been an assistant coach at Western Michigan University and the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay.
Coach Perry Watson, who retired as the Men’s Head Basketball coach, was honored at the annual Men's Basketball Banquet. A national search for a new coach is under way with the assistance of a search consultant.
Senior Jon Goode became the 34th Titan in school history to reach 1,000 career points, ending his basketball career 21st on the school’s scoring list. He was named to the All-Horizon League Second Team after leading the conference in scoring with 19.3 points per game.
UDM is the host institution for the NCAA Men's Basketball Midwest Regional, March 28 and 30 at Ford Field; UDM hosts the Final Four next year.
50 UDM student-athletes were included on the Horizon League Fall Academic Honor Roll.
For the ninth time in the last 10 years, the UDM Men's Cross Country Team has been named a United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team.

Capital Project work continues:
- Corktown Campus (the new home to the School of Dentistry, which will be dedicated Friday, April 18)–eliminating items on punch list
- Chemistry Building–Phase 1 design is complete
- Riverfront Construction–documents nearly complete
Emergency Response Plan update has been completed. Communication, training, and drills are being planned to ensure everyone understands what to do in case of emergency.
UDM has established an Emergency Alert System in conjunction with Wayne County. After testing the system twice, voice messages through phones and pagers were successfully transmitted, but e-mail and text messages were less successful. The University will continue to adjust and test the system to ensure timely notification.

The 2008 Alternative Spring Break doubled the number of participants this year for a total of 39 providing service at six sites during the week of March 2.