FACULTY CONVOCATION ADDRESS

Aug. 21, 2000

By Chancellor and President Alfred F. Hurley

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I hope that each of you has had a refreshing break this summer from your usual routine and that you feel fully ready to start this promising, but still complex and challenging, academic year.

This is likely to be my last Faculty Convocation address as your president. At some point during the academic year, our Board of Regents will appoint, on my recommendation, a new president for this university, and I will become the full-time chancellor of the formal system that was authorized last year.

As the full-time chancellor, my principal responsibility will be to enhance the collective and individual futures of this institution, our Health Science Center partner in Fort Worth, and our System Center in southern Dallas. The center should become, some day, the University of North Texas at Dallas. Eventually, the system may include other universities as well.

My enhancement efforts will take the form of fostering closer relationships with the decision makers in Austin and in Washington, as well as with the business community and other education leaders of this region and state. A second but short-term feature of this external emphasis will be the work of my wife, Joanna, and me in support of the next UNT Capital Campaign, whose public phase should begin next spring. In that role, Joanna and I will continue to work directly, or indirectly, with many of you and other members of the faculty, the staff and the administration in helping this university win much greater support than ever before from alumni and friends. During the past 20 years, Joanna and I have come to know many of those people, and we expect to get to know many more of them. After that campaign is completed, we will be more fully available to help each part of the system to pursue its fundraising and other advancement objectives.

Incidentally, all of us should be encouraged by the award given this summer to our development office, led by Mark Moore, by the national higher education advancement organization, CASE. The award recognizes their efforts in increasing our annual fundraising from $7 million to more than $10 million in 1999; the numbers are not final for this year, but it looks as if we will exceed $11 million.

The future

The man after whom I was named, Al Smith, the popular governor of New York state and one time presidential candidate, was known for a saying that could be used on an occasion like this, one that marks the end of an era. To quote Gov. Smith, "Let's look at the record." I would prefer, however, to leave the review of all that has happened during the last 18 1/2 years of my presidency to other historians, such as Dr. Jim Rogers who is working on an updated history of UNT. Instead, I want to emphasize the future of this institution and your and my roles in that future.

Your representatives and the other members of the University Planning Council boldly stated their sense of that future last spring in the first vision statement published here.

The statement sets the expectations that, by 2015, UNT will be "one of the state's top-tier universities — a premier, educational, intellectual, research and cultural resource. As the flagship of a multi-institutional university system and the leading university of its region, UNT will be recognized for education, research, creative activities, and for public service and for advancing innovations in the enhancement of learning."

"UNT will be an inclusive and diverse institution with an international perspective; helping to create an informed citizenry, high quality graduates, and a work force well prepared for the global economy."

You will have a chance to discuss the statement in a University Forum this semester. Certainly, it will take a big stretch by everyone at UNT, along with our alumni and friends, now and in the years ahead, to reach the vision of being a "top-tier" university by 2015!

The system

Fortunately, we have a great deal going for us. This includes our location, size, number and range of academic programs, physical plant, the almost daily growth in awareness within this region and state as to who we are and what we are about, and the steady increases in our financial support by alumni and friends. Importantly, we stand to benefit from the realization among the political and business leadership of Texas that this state, in the face of mounting global competition, could sink into second-class status unless the educational level of its expanding and increasingly diverse population can be greatly improved.

By next January, the Legislature and all of us in Texas will have sharply worded reminders of this situation from both a Coordinating Board study group and the Lieutenant Governor's Commission on 21st Century Colleges and Universities. The draft Coordinating Board report is suggestively titled Closing the Gaps, with subheadings emphasizing the gaps in participation and success, as well as in excellence and research.

Our system status gives us a large role in helping to shape the response of public higher education to the expectations those reports will raise. For the last two legislative sessions, our informal status as a system gave us a place at the table where the chancellors developed rather successful recommendations to the Legislature. Now, our seat at the table is legislatively established. Indeed, only four of the state's thirty-five public universities remain outside of one of the six systems: Midwestern, Stephen F. Austin, Texas Southern and Texas Woman's Universities. Moreover, our collective strength as the only system based in this region already is winning us access to its leadership in ways not open to us before.

Finally, the system will serve both as a buffer for each of our campuses against outside interference in their development and more effectively enable administrative and fiscal efficiencies. Even if the system expands somewhat, I believe it will retain its central focus on this region. The system also will remain small enough to ensure that no campus is neglected and that meaningful collaborations can be encouraged among a wider range of academic disciplines and faculty than most campuses can have by themselves. In any event, UNT-Denton will remain the flagship university of the system.

The proposed system structure will be explained during this semester on this campus and on the HSC and System Center campuses in a series of presentations by its drafter, Dr. Henry Hays. A specialist in organization development and a professor of management and former dean of our College of Business Administration, Dr. Hays has gone far beyond the usual work requirements for modified service faculty to draft our proposed structure. After performing detailed, on-site examinations of the Texas Tech and University of Houston System organizations, he spent many hours reviewing proposals with senior administrators at UNT and the HSC, the executive committee of the UNT Faculty Senate and, of course, the Board of Regents.

Your own reviews of that structure will show that we are initially asking the Legislature to fund a small system operation. An operation so small that most administrative position holders in the new structure will do double duty at the system level and on the UNT or HSC campuses.

New classification

Last week, in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the classification system of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, readers learned about the breadth of the academic program base we can draw on to respond to state policy concerns and, at the same time, move toward the realization of the vision statement. That program base, plus our productivity in awarding at least 50 doctoral degrees a year, earned UNT and five other Texas universities (UT, A&M, Houston, Tech and UT-Arlington) inclusion among the highest profile institutions in the nation, such as Harvard and Princeton. In this major revision of the Carnegie Foundation's classification system, we are now identified as a Doctoral/Research University — Extensive (our previous classification was a Doctoral I).

Please note that the Carnegie Foundation intends these to be classifications, not relative rankings. For the first time, federal research and development expenditures were not used as a benchmark. Rather, the new scheme emphasizes educational roles, in response to long standing concerns that an emphasis on federal research dollars in themselves had distorted the mission of some institutions through the neglect of their educational responsibilities. Those concerns have grown stronger as the economic and political imperatives of increased access to public universities and requirements for the more effective teaching of diverse populations have demanded larger shares of the energies and other resources of university communities.

On the one hand, the Carnegie Foundation's action will encourage us and others about our potential, but on the other hand cannot be allowed to obscure our responsibility as a major public university to help respond to the demands of access and the effective education of a changing population. Also, strongly stated regional and state needs for increased research in support of the high-tech economy will not permit us to be content with our current research levels in high-tech related areas. We will remain committed to, and the state still will expect us to continue, our long-standing work in the preservation and transmission of culture and other knowledge through research and creative activity and in the preparation of a well-informed, broadly educated citizenry.

These high-tech support needs have provided a rationale to seek the authority to offer engineering as an outgrowth of our nationally accredited role in engineering technology. To the extent we are successful in this regard, the better will be our chances for "top-tier" status, some day.

The University of Houston and Texas Tech Systems are vigorously pursuing "top-tier" status through special funding in the next legislative session.

But, last Thursday (Aug. 17) I had discussions in Austin with the lieutenant governor's staff and in Dallas with a Dallas Citizens Council committee about state and local regional support for at least one "top-tier" university in this region (preferably UNT). During those meetings, I detected both a reluctance to single out any university in this area for such status and a developing expectation that only an, as yet, undefined "collaboration" among UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas and UNT would be supported by the state's political leadership and the regional business community. We will have to wait to see how such a "collaboration" might be defined. In the meantime, we at UNT should press on with our vision, but be conscious of this new, ongoing discussion.

Retention rates and scholarships

As you know, the official fall enrollment figures will not be available until next month, but indications are that a continuing rise in first-time freshman students will spur an overall enrollment of 27,000, or better, this fall.

That increase has many plusses, but it masks two persistent problems. Pending new data, our retention rates seem unimproved and graduate level enrollments are declining. Both problems are complex. The revamped organization, now known as Student Development, is more closely allied to Academic Affairs than the former Student Affairs was, and has an array of new retention efforts under way. The growing numbers of staff advisers for students should also help retention. Similarly, the graduate school has been trying many new ways to boost graduate enrollment. Happily, one such way is showing results; international graduate student enrollment has jumped.

To solve fully these retention and graduate enrollment problems, I believe that greater faculty involvement is needed. More faculty involvement in retention undoubtedly can significantly supplement the impact of staff members. Likewise, in our heavily decentralized graduate-level recruiting work, more faculty can make a major difference in attracting master's and doctoral students.

The power of what you can do now shines through each year in the work of the some 30 volunteers associated with Dr. Jim Duban, the head of the Office of Postgraduate Fellowships, in the extra-curricular work of preparing promising students to compete for national scholarships and fellowships. This past year, we had a Rhodes Scholarship semi-finalist, three Goldwater Scholarships in mathematics and science, the first National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in our history, four generously supported Rotary Scholarships for study abroad, a Mitchell Scholarship finalist, an Intel Talent Search semi-finalist and finalist, and an honorary mention for a Udall Scholarship, with potential successes for three students selected as candidates for the new, impressively funded Gates Millennium Scholarships.

This string of successes by those faculty volunteers encourages the hope that the faculty on a similarly vigorous, new graduate enrollment management committee will provide equally powerful help. Also, individual choices by more faculty to participate actively in retention will help us in that area.

Those scholarship successes may well be expanded by the work of the newly admitted, 16 National Merit finalists — an all-time high. Much better scholarship funding ranks as a major objective of the Capital Campaign at the university and unit levels, with another significant objective, the funding for a much more substantial honors program. Of course, improved faculty support through more endowed chairs and other actions will also be a major campaign objective.

Outside Denton

The vision statement anticipates the need for more and more of us to teach away from this campus, so as to reach potential students who cannot conveniently come here. Our new agreement with the Collin County Community College District assures us of space on its Frisco campus. Our faculty can teach there in person or deliver courses electronically, at both the upper division and graduate levels, to those students whose work situation and/or determination to avoid traffic congestion keep them place bound. Similar agreements are in prospect with campuses in the Dallas and the Tarrant County Community College districts.

Our long partnership with the Dallas district contributed strongly to the speed with which we won support for our System Center in Dallas, which draws its students primarily from the district's lower-division programs. Only 11 months ago, Gov. Bush and other dignitaries broke ground for the System Center on Hampton Road, just south of I-20. Remarkably fast construction created some 34,000 square feet of usable, leased space in 104 days, equipped with state-of-the-art classrooms, that allowed us to enroll more than 200 students last January. Some 500 are expected to enroll this month, with 44,000 additional square feet of finished space now available.

This quick success could not have occurred without the participation of our faculty. Great credit must also go to the small staff at the center, very ably led by the interim executive director, Dr. Virginia Wheeless, and many staff members from this campus. All those staffers showed marvelous efficiency in handling the myriad details of a "startup" venture some 50 miles from here.

The warmth with which the leadership of the City of Dallas, the entire area's business, civic and education activities, and local residents have embraced UNT and this work is extraordinary. For example, the Dallas City Council has directed the city manager to find $3 million in city and/or private funds to support the purchase of land and/or infrastructure improvements for the as-yet-undesignated site of the future UNT-Dallas. Businesses, foundations and communities have provided $2 million to date toward a $2.6 million goal for these first two years and we already have begun work on a $10 million goal for the System Center across the next five years. The Dallas area Olympics 2012 Committee has pinpointed the future site of UNT-Dallas as the location for a massive Olympic Village. The invaluable infrastructure that an Olympic Village could leave to UNT-Dallas, if this area wins the bid, would create a marvelous legacy and propel the new university's development.

The impressive virtual library at the System Center, reputedly the first in this region, signals the continuing wave of change that our vision statement anticipated. The data on participation by our current students in this form of education substantiate the wisdom of the UPC in forecasting in the vision statement the two markets open to us by 2015: one, traditional residential students; two, the commuting student transformed into the student taught by electronic means by faculty members (not necessarily one of our own) or taught at one of many new satellite sites by our faculty.

Campus growth

Those of you who worked so well together with other UNT community members in guiding the creation by architectural planner James Toal of our master plan must take great satisfaction every day in seeing that plan coming to fruition. I am sure everyone who arrives via Avenues D and E has seen the progress in the construction of the Gateway Center that will help us have a better-defined main entryway. The Gateway Center will feature a conference center, 22 classrooms, a distributed learning center, a student operated restaurant, and a visitors' center with an exhibit hall. The Gateway Center's completion in late 2001 will be preceded by the completed renovation of the Drama Building late this year with improved space for the long overcrowded radio/TV/film program and faculty, in addition to similar, improved space for the Department of Dance and Theatre Arts.

Our appropriations request to the 2001 Legislature went to Austin today, with as a top priority, the funding of tuition revenue bonds to finance new science, business and visual arts buildings and the purchase and renovation of a Denton property. That site would house many of our non-academic functions to free up space for academic activities on campus. We will be looking for other funding sources to support the construction of a new residence hall and a long sought Student Recreation Center that will be funded, if approved by the 2001 Legislature, with student fees.

The proposed science building reflects yet another commitment to improving our research posture. It will replace the obsolescent Masters Hall that will be converted into a classroom building. We also are asking for new funding above and beyond the formulas to support three new science initiatives and an expansion of the School of Community Service's unique work in autism.

Legislative outlook

In approaching the next Legislature, our long-standing top priority for the improvement of faculty and staff salaries will continue. During the last three years, a mix of state dollars and increased tuition revenues permitted us to improve average faculty salaries over 3 percent in FY 1999, and more than 5 percent in both the current and upcoming fiscal years. Importantly, in the most recent two budgets, 25 new FTE faculty lines were funded at a cost of some $1,445,000.

You should know that we could encounter a 2001 Legislature that still will be working its way through the results of the upcoming national and state elections. Also, redistricting could be a major distraction for many legislators throughout the session.

What little we know so far came primarily from a meeting in Mount Pleasant with Sen. Bill Ratliff, probably the preeminent authority on the workings of the state budget. The other chancellors and I, along with Walt Parker and his Governmental Affairs counterparts, heard the senator predict that the surplus in 2001 will be smaller than in the last session. The senator believes that the costs of a growing population, health care funding, public education needs and a larger prison population will be much in evidence this time. He still seemed certain that our growth will be funded, along with some of our construction requests.

The senator promised to meet with us in December when the political and financial pictures should be much clearer than they are now.

In the meantime, you may be sure that all the chancellors and the many supporters of higher education, to include our Regents, will be spotlighting at every opportunity those needs that the Coordinating Board and commission studies will soon be publicizing.

In conclusion

In conclusion, let me make two points.

I know all of you will join me in seeing to it that this campus continues to be a welcoming environment for all the people here, especially our students. Most certainly, discrimination and racism have no place here. Above all, let us treat each member of the university community as each of us would want to be treated.

Secondly, Joanna joins me in saying how grateful we are for our good fortune; in my case, to have served as your president, and, in her case, as my full-time partner in advancing this university. Each of you has our respect, admiration and gratitude for all you have done to position this institution to enjoy a marvelous future.