2011 President’s Convocation
Good morning and welcome to the 2011-2012 academic year. And I hope you have had both a productive and restful summer. I begin today by thanking many of you who have welcomed me with your kindness and hospitality over the last two months. You have made me feel very much at home, and it has been wonderful getting to know many of you by face and by name. If you think that I may not know your name yet, or if you want to challenge me, just tell me your first and last name and your department when you see me and that will help me to remember who you are the next time we meet.
Let me share with you a quick overview of my remarks this morning. First, I will tell you about some of the progress that has been made on several projects over the summer. Second, I will share some thoughts on how UDM can advance even more from being “good” to “great” as we focus on major initiatives over the next few months. And third, I will share highlights of some important events that will be held over the next three to six months.
University Initiatives
Facilities Enhancements — As a newcomer to the University, I want to thank all of the members of the President’s Cabinet and many staff at a variety of levels for the work that has been accomplished over the past year, and especially this summer. I begin with some of the already completed and on-going facilities enhancement and renovations on the Corktown, McNichols and Riverfront campuses. From infrastructure improvements in the School of Dentistry to the School of Law, from the Architecture to the Chemistry and Briggs buildings, and from renovations in the Registrar’s office to the Residence Halls—just to name a few projects—much work has occurred on the three campuses since October 2010 and through this summer. And some of that facilities work will continue in several places for a few more months.
Student Fitness Center — Construction on the University’s most exciting new project will begin in about six weeks: the 40,000 square foot Student Fitness Center, the first free-standing building to be constructed on campus in more than 40 years. We will hold the groundbreaking ceremony on September 22, immediately following Celebrate Spirit, at 1 p.m. And I hope as many of you as possible will be there. Our students are already excited about the new facility that will open in August 2012. Instead of me pretending how much I know about these facilities enhancements, I asked Tammy Batcheller, Associate Vice President for Facilities Management, who along with her dedicated staff knows the real details of every project, to provide us with some photographs so you can see some of the extensive renovation work. Take a few minutes and marvel at the major improvements that have already occurred or are nearing completion.
Facilities Enhancements: 2010-11, Present, and Beyond (PowerPoint .ppsx)
Enrollment and Retention Projections — With a couple of weeks to go before the semester begins, the Enrollment Management Team is optimistic about the possibility that we may enroll our largest freshman class since the consolidation in 1990. A class between approximately 600 and 610 is the goal, but we will know for sure if we reach that target in a couple of weeks. Since we all know how prospective first-year students can change their minds a week or two before the semester begins, your assistance with a friendly phone call to a prospective student can reassure him or her that UDM is the best place for a personalized college education. Based on my enthusiastic conversations with prospective students and their parents (as well as grandparents and siblings) this summer, I know that the majority of our first-year students are ready to get started.
With respect to our first-to-second year retention, preliminary expectations indicate that the rate for this year may be at 80%, which is good compared to similar types of institutions. It is too early to predict what the ratio of full-time and part-time enrollment will be, but it is anticipated that overall graduate enrollment and professional school enrollment will be stable. Enrollment and retention are two critical areas that we need to focus on, but we will all need to work collaboratively to increase enrollment at both the undergraduate and graduate areas in particular. I have already begun to make some contacts with local and regional schools, as well as others around the country, so that we can enhance our first-year and transfer enrollment numbers. Based on my conversations with members of selected McNichols Faculty Assembly Teams and Committees, I think that we will be ready to focus on these key issues as soon as the semester begins.
Advancing UDM from “Good to Great”
As you know, I began my duties at UDM on June 1. After a brief time on campus that Wednesday morning, I drove to the Mackinac Policy Conference with Greg Cascione, where several Trustees introduced me to many important Michigan leaders. And many of those state leaders were alumni and friends of University of Detroit Mercy. Over the three days that I was there, I consistently heard positive comments about UDM; and they were also very enthusiastic about our future.
At Mackinac, the keynote speaker was noted organizational theorist, Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall, and a forthcoming book that is due to be published in December. I heard Collins twice this summer because he was also the plenary speaker at the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers (NACUBO), where I have been one of the few at-large Board members over the past five years who was not a Chief Business Officer. After Collins’s speech to the 2,000-plus participants, he engaged the two dozen NACUBO board members in private for an hour and a half to talk about some of the most pressing challenges of higher education and how we planned to solve them. After our conversations about the rising costs of postsecondary education, declining public financial support of higher education, competitiveness among traditional colleges and universities, for-profit institutions and online institutions, the public’s perception of higher education and other critical topics, we vigorously discussed whether and which institutions would be able to survive in the next 10 years. Michigan was a good test case for this discussion, especially since one of our newer at-large members of the NACUBO Board is the Provost at the University of Michigan. Irrespective of what you think about these issues, the fact is that we at UDM will control our own destiny and must strive to be “great.” And as we continue to provide a high quality education at an affordable price, we must also be able to make that case cogently in order to remain competitive with other local and regional institutions.
I reference Jim Collins’ remarks here because his scholarly research is based primarily on the premise that institutions that are “good” must be “great” if they expect to survive. And our aptly-phrased UDM motto of “We want great things for you” prompts us to pause and begin to establish the framework of “Advancing UDM from Good to Great.” UDM, fortunately, is already “good” in many ways – excellent faculty and staff like you, very talented students, outstanding alumni, a national and regional reputation, a strong Jesuit and Mercy Mission, and more. However, we can become even better and advance from good to great with some prospective thinking and aggressive work on our part to accomplish several bold goals over the next three to five years.
Jim Collins’ opening sentence in his popular 2001 book, Good to Great is:
“Good is the enemy of great.”
And near the end of that first chapter with the same title he states:
“That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem. If we have cracked the code on the question of good to great, we should have something of value to any type of organization. Good schools might become great schools. Good newspapers might become great newspapers…. And good companies might become great companies.” Good to Great, 2001.
I will not devote much attention to Collins’ principles here but it is worth mentioning his five issues that form the framework of “good to great,” particularly as they relate to the social sectors:
- Defining “Great” – Calibrating Success Without Business Metrics
- Level 5 Leadership – Getting Things Done within a Diffuse Power Structure
- First Who – Getting the Right People on the Bus Within Social Sector Constraints
- The Hedgehog Concept – Rethinking the Economic Engine without a Profit Motive
- Turning the Flywheel – Building Momentum by Building the Brand
I am told that some of you have used Collins’s Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005) before, and your familiarity with Collins’ work may be useful in our strategic planning work this year. To that end, over the summer I have had several productive meetings about where UDM is now and where UDM wants to go with a variety of constituencies, including: President’s Cabinet; the leadership teams of the McNichols Faculty Assembly and the UDM Professors’ Union; the Academic Leadership Team; the co-chairpersons of the Strategic Planning Team; the chairperson of the Undergraduate Retention Committee; the leadership of the Student Senate; and students who have been working on campus in the Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR) program. In most of those individual and group meetings, I had the opportunity to ask questions about various aspects of the University, and also request institutional data, to obtain a better sense of how we fare in areas such as enrollment, retention, fundraising, community outreach and relationships (especially with our closest neighbors), partnerships with schools – public and private, as well as school districts; other non-profit organizations; businesses; and other related items. These conversations were not only informative, but they also provided a chance to ask: “If we wanted to do more in a particular area, what more would we need in order to make that a reality?” These are the kinds of questions I hope all of you will begin asking, and formulating answers for, as we chart the course of our future during this academic year.
The two individuals who will be leading the Strategic Planning Team are Dr. Ken Hillenberg (School of Dentistry), Chair, and Vice Chair, Dr. Greg Ulferts (College of Business Administration). Drs. Hillenberg and Ulferts and I met last week and talked about the logistics for how their team will proceed this year. I plan to attend many of the Strategic Planning Team meetings, as will Executive Vice President Michael Joseph, and the Committee will meet more often than in the past. It is my hope that the Strategic Planning Team will have a first draft of a five-year plan completed by January 2012, or earlier, so we can have the opportunity to vet it among the entire University community, suggest changes and recommendations, and even add objectives and/or goals. Additionally, the Team will be developing metrics for each of the objectives and goals so that we will be able to assess our progress on an annual basis.
The Strategic Planning Team will not be starting from scratch. The goals and objectives that have been developed in the past will be closely reviewed and considered for inclusion in the new Strategic Plan, along with new goals that are identified. Critical to this process will be prioritizing the most important items for the next three to five years. Among those critical areas will be:
Strategic Planning;
increasing enrollment, retention and graduation rates;
increasing fundraising and building the endowment;
expanding our engagement and partnerships with the community; and,
continuing to strengthen UDM’s Mission and Identity.
As you might imagine, I have many thoughts and ideas of my own; but I do not want to preclude any of your suggestions and recommendations as we begin this important process.
Planning for A New Campaign — At the Board of Trustees meeting in June, I expressed to the Board the need to begin the development of a new campaign very soon. They responded by giving their approval to the initiation of the planning for a feasibility study for a new campaign. To achieve the kinds of goals that we want to achieve before the end of this decade, it is critical that we increase our endowment from its present level of about $26 million. We will engage a fundraising consultant to assist us in this effort over the next few months with the goal of identifying a campaign target by the end of the academic year. In FY 11, there was a 76% increase in cash over the previous fiscal year, with nearly $8.5 million dollars in private support from 8,000 donors. But we will need to increase that amount substantially by generating more participation among our 83,000 alumni.
Provost / Vice President for Academic Affairs Search — As you may recall from my June memo to the UDM Community, the Vice President for Academic Affairs now reports to me; and I will be reinstating the former position of Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs in the 2012-13 Academic Year. Therefore, early in the semester, we will begin the formal search process for the Provost / Vice President for Academic Affairs position. Preparations are being made to have an external consultant assist the search committee. If you are asked to serve, I hope you will accept the invitation.
Highlights and Announcements
Student Fitness Center Groundbreaking — We have several other major events that will occur over the next few months. In addition to Celebrate Spirit on September 22, where our speaker will be Jim Paul from Engineers Without Borders.
Engineering Centennial — We will hold the Centennial Gala of the College of Engineering and Science at The Henry Ford.
Co-op Centennial — On February 14, 2012, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Education Center Program with a luncheon in the Student Ballroom. There are not many institutions with this notable distinction, so I hope you will come out and join us for this celebration.
New Early Alert System — University of Detroit Mercy is pleased to partner with Rave Mobile Safety to provide an emergency alert system capable of delivering timely messages to users by text and prerecorded voice messages on your cell phones, landline phones, text pagers or emails. This system will allow the University to notify users in case of campus security issues, cancellation of classes or other emergencies. All faculty, staff and students are enrolled in the free program but must register to confirm contact information and choose notification preferences.
The new system will be available in September for individuals to register onto the system. Additional communications will be available about the registration process in the coming weeks.
The University is still linked to Wayne County’s Homeland Security Alert System for the 2011-2012 school year. However, registered users of Wayne County’s system should also register with the new Rave Mobile Safety system.
Thank you again for all of your hospitality, and I look forward to getting to know many of you at the picnic this afternoon and over the next few weeks. It will be an exciting year as we develop our plans to advance UDM from “good” to “great.”
