President’s Town Hall Meeting summary, March 30, 2010

To the UDM Community:

New Board Chair

At its quarterly meeting on March 26, UDM’s Board of Trustees elected John D. Lewis as Board Chair. Mr. Lewis has been on the board for the last five years and has served as chair of the finance committee of the board. He has an MBA from UDM, spent many years with Comerica Bank, and is currently a partner of an investment advisory firm. He has served on a number of other boards in the area, notably the Detroit Institute of Arts, Oakwood Hospital, and Grosse Pointe Academy. Mr. Lewis succeeds William Young as Chair.

Presidential Search

The UDM Board of Trustees has engaged Academic Search to serve as consultant to its presidential search process. The board is in the process of identifying a search committee with a majority of board members. Combining the backgrounds of board members with those of representatives from the UDM community, the board hopes to constitute a search committee that gives voice to a broad cross-section of the University. They hope to have the committee assembled within the next couple of weeks. The committee will then develop a profile of the desired candidate and work with the search firm to begin surfacing candidates that fit the profile.

The board is aware that I intend to finish my time as president at the end of June. While there is a possibility that a successor can be found before then, they are aware of the likelihood that they will need to appoint an interim president. At this point they are focused on beginning the search process. If necessary, they will address the interim question as the end of June approaches.

Board Chair John Lewis and the entire board are committed to transparency and open communication during this process to keep the entire University informed of its progress and how the University community can participate in the selection of UDM’s next president.

Enrollment Quality and Growth

Our target of 3,000 full-time undergraduates by 2013 continues to be a key strategic initiative related to growth in all of our programs. From fall 2002 to fall 2009 we have grown our full-time undergraduate population by 30 percent and our first-year class by 75 percent while raising the average freshman ACT score three points from 20.8 to 23.9 and reducing the percent of conditionally admitted freshmen enrolled from nearly one-quarter of the entire class to under six percent. These results clearly demonstrate a commitment to growth that does not sacrifice quality. Given this record and commitment, there should be no fears that new enrollment initiatives will somehow lower our standards.

“Grow or Die.”

This is an expression commonly used in the spirituality literature, but it is relevant for our situation as well. We are in the early stages of budgeting for next year, and it is painfully obvious that without significant enrollment growth, we will all face some very hard choices. Since employee compensation accounts for about two-thirds of UDM expenses each year, the three main ways to fill budget gaps are new revenue (enrollment), employee positions (layoffs or the removal of unfilled positions), and employee compensation (wages and benefits).

I understand that growth often requires us to stretch the way we offer our programs beyond what we are comfortable with, but I cannot say strongly enough that it is only with continued growth—where growth in quantity does not sacrifice quality—that we can achieve our objectives. Growth provides the revenue we need to invest in academic programs and faculty. It provides the revenue we need to invest in our campus facilities. It provides the critical mass of students living on campus to enhance the co-curricular and extra-curricular life of the University and thereby attract more students.

Academic Programs

Part of reaching our goal is to have new programs to attract students. I have used "five programs in five years" as a way to capture this idea. Again, there is nothing magic about the number five. Over the last several years we have added faculty and provided other resources to programs that are growing in quality and quantity—such as nursing, sciences, financial economics, counseling, and architecture—as well as to the liberal arts and sciences that provide the core courses for these students. However, the only new undergraduate program in the last two years is the Bachelor’s in Architectural Engineering. It raises some questions about how we can be more creative in seizing opportunities or revising an approval process so it encourages rather than discourages new program submissions.

I also believe that UDM also has an opportunity to offer select graduate programs online, not because I want UDM to become a University of Phoenix lookalike, but because we have unique programs that are not readily available from other schools. Offering them online is a way not only to make them available to people who would not be able to come to campus, but also to enhance the image of UDM on a national and even international level because of the excellence of our offerings. In the 1990s UDM was a leader in serving its students by offering—alongside its traditional curriculum—a Weekend College that had compressed schedules and required innovative pedagogy. Sadly, today UDM lags behind many other institutions in its ability to provide online learning that again offers different schedules and requires innovative pedagogy. Given the excellent curricula built by our faculty in several cutting-edge master’s programs, I am disappointed that we have not taken the extra steps to make these programs available in an online format.

To ensure UDM’s viability, there is a real urgency about growing enrollment each year if we are to realize our vision for the future. Unfortunately there are a number of areas around the University that do not share that sense of urgency. And this is not just because of our financial situation, as important as that is. Fifty years ago the University of Detroit had twice as many students as UDM has today and I am sure it did not have twice the administrators, twice the staff or twice the faculty. Many things have changed in 50 years, but we still have an outstanding education to offer, and we should not be satisfied until we have done all we can to make that outstanding education available, whether mid-day on campus, at an inconvenient time on the weekend, in blended courses across the state, in hybrid programs or online in other countries.

Please know that I make these challenging statements to propel us in reaching our vision for more and greater things at UDM.

Haiti

The recent Haiti project supported by the University is one of the many things that makes me proud of UDM. Architecture Professor Gilbert Sunghera, S.J., was contacted by the Jesuit Refugee Service in Haiti to partner with other organizations in inspecting schools after the earthquake to determine which are usable, which need repair, and which need to be torn down. With training from Architectural Engineering Professor Alan Hoback, Fr. Sunghera was able to use our alumni networks to find civil engineers and architects willing to go in pairs to do this work on very short notice. Fr. Sunghera himself was on the first team during spring break. While UDM’s involvement in this project did not last as long as originally envisioned, it will likely open up further opportunities for professional service in Haiti. This melding of professional competence and availability for service captures so much that is UDM.

Mission Awards

Last fall I asked Shared Governance’s Mission/Urban/Social Justice Team to propose a new award to be given at the McNichols Commencement to recognize two graduating students who live the mission of UDM in an exemplary way. This would replace the student Magis Award. I am very grateful to this team for all the work they did to create the awards. They developed the Vivere ex Missione (“to live the mission”) Award for students, set up a process, and criteria. To announce this award in time for Commencement, May 15, we need nominations by April 12. The criteria and nomination forms are available at www.udmercy.edu/mission/. We have a lot of students who live out our mission in wonderful ways. I know this is a short time line, but please take the time to submit nominations for this honor.

The team also converted the Mission Leadership Award for faculty and staff into the Agere ex Missione (“do do the mission”) Awards. These awards will continue to be conferred at the President’s Convocation in August. The criteria and nomination forms are also available at www.udmercy.edu/mission/. These also need to be submitted by April 12. Please take the time to recognize your peers for their great work that accomplishes the mission of UDM.

Finally, my last Wine, Cheese and Conversation will be Monday, April 19 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Fountain Lounge (note the earlier start time and change of venue). Please come so we can say our good-byes before I depart to Washington, D.C.

Thank you again for all you do for UDM and our students.

Sincerely,
Gerard L. Stockhausen, S.J., Ph.D.
President
University of Detroit Mercy