Our Second Century

If William Brandenburg were here with me today, I wonder what he would say. Would he even recognize the university that he helped to shape? Russ Hall, Porter Hall, McCray and Whitesitt would be familiar to him, but so much more has changed.

Last year we marked PSU’s centennial year. It was a great year and we had much to celebrate. Pittsburg State University’s rich heritage is something to be proud of and it is the foundation for the great university we are today and the greater university we hope to become. I want to thank all of you for the energy and enthusiasm you showed during the celebration of Pittsburg State’s centennial year.

This year, we turn our attention to PSU’s second century and we ask ourselves this morning, "What challenges lie ahead and how do we meet them?"

One thing is undeniable: the world is a vastly different place today than when William Brandenburg was here. It has changed dramatically is just the past three years and there is no reason to believe that the pace of change will do anything but increase.

• The old rules no longer apply. The level of state support for higher education is not a "given" in this new world. Stress on the state budget and competition for scarce public funds means that the cost of a university education continues to fall more and more on students and their families. That can’t continue to happen. We must find ways to ensure that every qualified student who has a desire to earn a degree can afford to do so.
• Demographics are changing. PSU’s traditional base in the counties of southeast Kansas is eroding as the region’s population ages, young people are drawn to metropolitan areas and high schools in the region see their enrollments shrink.
• Technology – graduate programs on-line
• And perhaps the most dramatic change of all – a post-9-11 world in which America has become more insular and Americans feel less safe than ever in their history. In a matter of hours on that dark day, our nation was changed in ways we still struggle to comprehend. Just one consequence of the attack is that international students who once flocked to our shores are finding it increasingly difficult to make their way to PSU and other American universities.

If William Brandenburg were here with me today, I believe he would agree that the world of 2004 looks much different than the world he surveyed in 1913. I think, however, that he would not be dismayed by the difficulties ahead. Instead, he would be encouraged by the strength of the university and the tremendous talent and energy available to meet the challenges of this new century.

We have a plan for meeting the challenges ahead and we are already hard at work implementing that plan.

• We have worked and will continue to work with our local legislators to strengthen the state’s commitment to higher education. The creation of the Kansas Biosciences Authority and PSU’s role as a research institution is just one example of the ways in which the state and the university can work together to serve the citizens of the state.
• We must increase endowments for scholarships and academic support and the current capital campaign will do just that. One of the ways that we can make sure that all students can afford a college degree as tuition costs rise is by increasing endowed scholarships and that is an important part of the first phase of the current campaign. In order to do that, we have added two major gift officers in the Office of Development and redoubled our efforts in that area. Although these new staff members are charged with cultivating private funding, let us not forget that each of us has an important role to play in generating private support for our university.
• At the same time we strive to increase our resources, we also must find ways to manage the resources we have more efficiently. This year we have restructured the university’s administration. We now have one fewer vice president, one fewer dean and one fewer department chairperson. The restructuring not only makes us more efficient, it also better meets the needs of the university as it is today.
• We are going to strengthen our recruitment and retention efforts with a goal of managed, measured and sustained growth.

Part of that effort includes a communications audit now underway that will help us determine how we can better reach our potential markets. We will continue to aggressively market PSU to students in our traditional southeast Kansas base. We will strengthen our efforts in the important Gorilla Advantage counties in Missouri and Oklahoma and we will look for more opportunities in the growing districts served by the Kansas City Metro Center.

• We are going to insure that we not only protect the university’s high standards of quality, but actually enhance them. One of the ways we will do that is through a set of five performance indicators. Because funding is tied to reaching these goals, success is not just a matter of quality, but also absolutely necessary in order to receive the maximum funding available.
  
  Those indicators or goals are:
  
  1. To enhance the diversity of the university.
  2. To enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of academic and administrative units by continuing to implement document imaging across campus
  3. To enhance the intellectual integrity of the university through the recruitment of high-performing students through a structured scholarship program
  4. To design flexible academic programs for the changing workforce, for students transferring from community colleges, and for students with highly specialized needs.
  5. To enhance the assessment of student learning; a process in which we have already made significant progress, but which can always be improved.
• Conclusion
  
  If William Brandenburg were here with me today, I think he would be excited about the great university Pittsburg State University has become. I believe that despite all the changes, he would see something very familiar: a university where faculty and staff first and foremost care about students – a place where learning is valued – a place in which opportunity abounds. I think Dr. Brandenburg would be excited about the great opportunities that lie ahead. I hope you are excited, too, and I invite you to join me and your colleagues in making PSU’s second century its best century.

Thank you and best wishes for a successful academic year.

DRAFT – 8-10