Remarks by President Gretchen M. Bataille

Sept. 1, 2009
Fall 2009 Convocation

Fall Convocation 2009

Thank you, Chairman Smith. Again, good morning and thank you again for joining us for our annual Fall Convocation.

I want to extend a special welcome to those who are joining us on video from Discovery Park and the Dallas campus. And, for those members of our community who were unable to join us this morning, this will be available online on the president's web site, along with the full text of the speech and both of the commercials that were playing during the continental breakfast. So be sure to let your colleagues know, particularly if I happen to mention them in my speech. And then you can chide them for not having been here.

This annual start to the new academic year is about us — faculty and staff of UNT — coming together to celebrate our university and renewing our commitment to expand the UNT legacy. I hope you had a chance to see the commercials as they were playing. These are award-winning commercials and they capture UNT's spirit and personality and show what we're all about.

Helping students

UNT is a place that welcomes each of our students as a unique individual, asking each of them what they would like to do in their life and who they would like to be, then helping them achieve their dreams. And when they aren't quite sure — and many of them are not quite sure when they come to join us — we help them find a path that will sustain them throughout their future.

Students are the central focus of our work. They make everything else we do possible. Without them, our research and scholarship that expands the base of knowledge and propels society forward would not happen. Our outreach and partnerships designed to take our knowledge to communities across our globe would not exist.

Every time you hear that we are a student-centered public research university it should be a reminder that students are indeed our focus. But I'm sure many of you — as have I — have wondered what do those words really mean? And how does this propel our actions to help students succeed each and every day?

Well, even before students step onto our campus as official members of our family, we are hard at work making their dreams come true. Now I want to give you some examples. If you watch America's Got Talent, then of course, you'll see one of our pianists, Jeffery Ou. Jeffery Ou has been dazzling audiences as one of the 20 performers in the semifinals. But you may not know is that he is a freshman here at UNT, an Emerald Eagle Scholar and a piano performance major who officially started here last Thursday. But because of more than a half dozen faculty and staff across campus, Jeffery will be able to pursue his first shot at stardom knowing that he has a university supporting him all the way.

Carol Pollard, a senior academic counselor, and Warren Henry, the associate dean of academic affairs, in the College of Music, coordinated with Jeffery's professors. They each agreed to let Jeffery miss what could be as much as a few weeks of classes to pursue his dream. And these professors will work with him when he gets back to get caught up. Each of these people realized that Jeffery's talent and ambition landed him an extraordinary opportunity. But they want to make sure that he can still pursue his dream of college.

This is just one of many examples of how we go above and beyond to help students succeed. Recently, Connie Smith and Ben Dearman in the Registrar's Office came into work early on the day of graduation ceremonies to make sure one of our newest graduates would get a transcript reflecting his newly earned degree in time for him to submit it for his new teaching position. Paperwork delays could have prevented him from starting his new career right away. But now, he is in his first weeks as a classroom teacher. He told us when we asked him about it that they really went the extra mile for students. That really is a compliment to the folks on this campus.

And it is what it really means to be student-centered. That is making a difference. And that is just one — another one — of the countless examples of what our valuable staff and faculty members do regularly that are life-changing for students.

Nicole Trower. Many of you know Nicole. She runs the information booth just outside of the Administration Building and is indeed one of our greatest ambassadors. Visitors, dignitaries, families, students, faculty, employees, even people who are angry at me — all come through and they are all equal in Nicole's eyes. She finds them a place to park and she gives them directions to the administration building. And I can't tell you how many people have said, "I have never been treated so well coming on to a college campus." And that's exactly what we want to have people say about us.

If you've ever received an e-mail from Maureen "Moe" McGuinness, our assistant vice president for student development, you'll know that her tagline reads, "Students are not an interruption to our work. They are the purpose of it." She, like many, lives our student-centered creed by always asking, "How may I help?" not "What do you want?"

Fostering student success

It's our willingness to serve, to go above and beyond, that distinguishes UNT. Yet, serving students and preparing them to give back, make their mark and forge new trails involves far more than the individual actions we take.

Last week, we opened our Veterans Center, which grew out of a student organization dedicated to meeting the needs of students returning to or starting at the university after serving the nation. Many of today's veterans are coming to us after having been deployed in a combat zone. And they need our help to transition from military life to college life. The center, and the environment it offers, is one way we hope to neutralize the shock of re-entry into life at home by being a resource, a gathering place and a support network.

We are also enhancing our services for the growing number of transfer students who are admitted to UNT each year from our community college partners and other universities. It's important that we take special care to ensure that their continuum of education is seamless. And I am proud to say that we have a strong history of working closely with our partners in higher education. UNT's role in helping to organize this summer's Texas Transfer Success Conference, the first large-scale conference of its kind centered on transfer students' needs, is evidence of how we are not just a leader, but a leading authority on transfer issues. The conference included events held simultaneously in eight regional sites across the state, with presentations by experts simulcast to each site. This ensured statewide participation, and because we helped present the conference with green in mind, we also cut down on travel and costs.

It's not enough to just understand these students' needs. We must also make sure that no matter where a student's journey begins, it ends in a college degree. Our new reverse transfer agreement with the Dallas County Community College District ensures that students can move on from the community college and earn their associate's degree while completing the necessary courses and pursuing a bachelor's degree at UNT. It is one of many ways we help these students on their journey to a college degree. And, I am proud to tell you we have a 70 percent graduation rate among the juniors and seniors who transfer here from other institutions. It's also why we remain the top institution in Texas. And this year — we just found out this week — that we have risen to fourth among public universities nationally for transfer students.

I also expect that we're going to see a high graduation rate from the first class of Emerald Eagle Scholars, most of whom are now in their junior year and are on track to complete their degrees in four years. Now, this fall, with a third class of scholars, we have given more than 1,200 bright, talented yet financially challenged students an opportunity to fulfill their dreams of a college degree. Eighty percent, in fact over 80 percent, of the students in this program continue on after their first year. Alba Guerrero, who is part of the inaugural class and will graduate from UNT after four years with a business degree, says the program is invaluable to her. She has told us, "It's great to have the support. It shows us that a college education is possible."

This kind of success is due in part to the more than 230 faculty and staff mentors who are helping keep these students focused and engaged. And if you want to be a mentor, we can still use you. And it's because of staff like Lilyan Prado-Carrillo, the coordinator of the program. Lilyan, herself a child of a low-income, single-parent family, is motivated by her own experiences to help scholars overcome barriers. As Lilyan says, "All these students need is an opportunity and some guidance, and the sky is the limit on what they can achieve." Most of these students — nearly 75 percent — are the first in their families to go to college, and thanks to this program and their own hard work, they will earn a degree when they leave UNT with important connections and the tools to succeed.

Harboring high-quality faculty

One of the most important things faculty members do is encourage students to think critically and explore their talents so that they can succeed in work and, perhaps more importantly, in life. Many faculty members also have valuable contacts in industry that help students get internships and land their first jobs after graduation. This ability to help students connect the dots, both in their knowledge and their experience, is just one of the many reasons why it's important that we continue to grow our high-quality faculty. It all fits together.

This year, we are welcoming more than 100 new faculty members, many of whom are filling new positions. We also have a new dean of libraries arriving soon. Dr. Martin Halbert will be joining us in November from Emory. In another change, Maurice Leatherbury begins his appointment today as acting vice president for Information Technology. This year, we will conduct a national search for this position to elevate the importance of technology on our campus.

New members of our family join an esteemed faculty, many of whom have been singled out for their excellence nationally and among their peers.

Srinivasan Srivilliputhur in materials science and engineering recently became the latest faculty member to earn the prestigious NSF CAREER Award. That same award qualified Rada Mihalcea in computer science and engineering to become one of only 100 university researchers nationwide to earn a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. And Wes Borden, the Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry, is one of only 162 chemists from around the country to be named to the inaugural class of fellows of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

UNT faculty are earning recognition because they are finding ways to advance society and change our lives. Jim Kendra and David McEntire in Public Administration are better preparing us for wide-scale emergencies by studying the resiliency of organizations in disasters and the effectiveness of emergency management systems internationally. Dick Rogers and Kenneth Sewell in Psychology are preserving our civil rights by studying the circumstances in which people in police custody fail to understand their Miranda rights. Tandra Tyler-Wood and a team of researchers are bolstering public education by studying and developing teaching methods for first-time teachers to keep more of them in the classroom. Tom Cundari, Angela Wilson, Jincheng Du and Sandra Boetcher are improving our environment by studying the effects of storing carbon dioxide underground.

Supporting research

This research and scholarship is critical to our future growth as an institution because it enhances our student's learning experience. Part of growing as a research institution means ensuring that students have a chance to get hands-on research experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

I am really proud to report that the dean of the Honors College, Gloria Cox, is overseeing a new university initiative to support more opportunities for undergraduate research. This will give undergraduates a strong foundation of skills and experience for graduate school. This fall, five departments will each receive awards of $8,000 to promote undergraduate research thanks to funds provided by the Provost's Office.

Already, UNT students have important opportunities to explore scholarship firsthand. We are the only Texas university taking part this year in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science Education Alliance, which involves college freshmen in complex research early in their academic careers to spur their interest in science.

And to encourage more students from all walks of life to pursue graduate education, we continue to create partnerships such as our new joint initiative with Haskell Indian Nations University, which allows Haskell students to continue graduate studies in environmental sciences at UNT. We will also be the lead sponsor for a conference this October organized by SACNAS, an organization dedicated to getting more Native Americans and Hispanics into science, to raise awareness about the lack of minorities in science at the graduate level.

Building the pipeline

In our McNair Scholars program, which is one of only 185 in the nation, we focus on getting first-generation, underrepresented college students on track to doctoral education. And we're succeeding. Nearly three fourths of UNT's McNair scholar graduates enroll in graduate school. They are aided by faculty mentors such as William Acree in Chemistry; Mark Vosvick in Psychology, Martin Yaffe in Philosophy and Religion — just to name a few.

And within our graduate programs, we are doing even more to compete for the brightest master's and doctoral students. This begins with a fundamental shift in how we fund our graduate students' education, an effort that is being led by Dr. Michael Monticino, who took over as the graduate school dean after Dr. Sandra Terrell became our vice provost for academic outreach.

The centerpiece of this effort includes $2.5 million invested in paying more competitive stipends, offering more attractive fellowships and restructuring the funding model for graduate students. A vast majority of our graduate students will see their pay increase and through compensation incentives, they will be rewarded for completing their degrees in a timely manner.

This effort is critical because of the important role that graduate students play in our quest to become a top tier research university. Graduate students make it possible to expand faculty research efforts while making their own important contributions to their fields.

Nurturing research collaborations

Our commitment to invest $25 million in collaborative research clusters, which I announced last fall, already is building our momentum toward achieving our goals. Our investment is funding new faculty lines and infrastructure, as well as expanding our most successful research endeavors. We already have hired faculty within the scope of our clusters initiative.

It is my pleasure to welcome David Stout, a new senior level faculty member and artist who is joining our Initiative for Advanced Research and Technology in the Arts cluster, as well as Qunfeng Dong, who specializes in bioinformatics and will be joining the Developmental Physiology and Genetics Research cluster, and Zhiqiang Wang, who is a computational materials scientist and will be joining the Materials Modeling Research Cluster.

We continue to hire incredible faculty and the research clusters are giving us that opportunity. In the coming years, UNT will expand our research clusters and hire additional leading researchers whose work will complement our faculty's existing expertise and extend our research strengths. I want to thank Wendy Wilkins, our provost and vice president of academic affairs, and Vish Prasad, our vice president of research and economic development, for leading this clusters initiative.

Gaining ground

Our clusters are already distinguishing us in many ways. First as an institution that is inherently collaborative both on and off our campus. Second, they signal that UNT is growing and moving forward with vision and purpose at a time when other research institutions are having to downsize and put on the brakes. For instance, so far, we have created 30 new faculty positions and expect to open more in an array of disciplines. This is in part due — no doubt — to good timing and to a good local, Texas economy that has fared much better than the rest of the nation. But I'd like to think that it's also the result of very careful planning.

With this cluster initiative and our investments in faculty, infrastructure and programs, we have positioned ourselves well as an emerging research institution and we are producing results.

In fact, UNT's research awards are up 56 percent since 2007. Dr. Prasad and his team, which includes Ruthanne Thomas and Kenneth Sewell and a host of others who are newly hired in that office, have been instrumental in leading our research charge and I certainly thank them for their efforts. Would those of you in the research office stand because this is an incredible number.

This year, we have a state program that will give us even more traction by creating a clear pathway for us to become a national research university. The program contains a crucial element designed to match 50 to 100 percent of the gifts we bring in over the next two years to bolster research through endowed chairs, professorships, facility improvements and graduate fellowships. This allows us to leverage the contributions we receive from our alumni and partners and extend the impact of those dollars. In fact, today, likely at this very moment, we are in the process of depositing checks that we hope will qualify for some amount of matching funds.

This includes a personal gift of $1 million from UNT alumnus and regent Don Buchholz to fund the Mike Moses Chair in Educational Administration. This is on top of a recent $1 million scholarship endowment that Mr. Buchholz made through his company, Southwest Securities, to support our College of Education's superintendent certification program, which helps school administrators advance in their career and earn a doctoral degree.

It's gifts like these, which we anticipate the state will match, that will support graduate education through fellowships, will support faculty through endowed chairs and professorships and will augment our research through infrastructure and facilities. This is just the start. We will take advantage of every opportunity we can through this incentive. I also urge you to pay attention to the November election because there will be on the ballot a constitutional amendment to put more money into research support for the seven emerging research universities, and of course, we are one of those universities.

Investing in education

This program signals a sea change for the state. It allows universities like ours to compete on a national level for federal dollars and top students and faculty. It is also recognition that investing in public universities is a way to give us a competitive edge. And it's important for the health and welfare of the people of Texas and for the industries and the economy of Texas.

This program was one of several positive outcomes of this year's legislative session. We fared relatively well this legislative session and expect to see a $3.16 million increase in state funding for each of the next two years. We will also — no doubt — be getting incentive funds, which we hope will be at least $4.9 million for the biennium. That was the amount allocated to UNT and to the Dallas campus in the past on performance criteria that measures the number of students we graduate. So it's not just about admitting students; it's about ensuring their success.

This means we will be able to support new opportunities for our students and our faculty. And while we didn't get the bond authority from the Legislature to build a much-needed new home for our College of Visual Arts and Design, we remain committed to finding ways to meet their needs.

Despite the mostly good news that came from the session, we all must remain mindful of the economic climate and the impact it has on our students and our families. That is why we have carved out more dollars in need-based student aid for scholarships to ensure that these students can attend college. I want to make sure that we can continue to pride ourselves on providing access to higher education.

Beyond providing access, we must ensure that our students' education evolves. We are constantly assessing our degree programs with an eye on their relevancy to today's marketplace. We are adding where it makes sense, exploring new opportunities, such as a school of pharmacy, and are elevating when the time is right. Creating the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism as the 12th school or college is a reflection of UNT's strong reputation for journalism studies. It also will put us in a better position to compete for outside dollars while continuing to attract top journalism students as well as faculty who will make sure our students are ahead of the rapid changes facing this industry.

Cultivating a stimulating environment

And we want to continue to offer students a rich environment, strengthened by a diversity of cultures and perspectives and amplified by connections to the world beyond our campus. Our students have great opportunities to see the world differently, either through our campus community's rich tapestry or through one of our 52 study abroad programs. For the second year in a row, we offered study abroad opportunities to the Emerald Eagle Scholars. This summer, they learned about environmentally sustainable development in Costa Rica.

At the same time, our One Book, One Community program fosters diversity of perspectives about issues that matter to students and affect our quality of life, our environment, and our society. This year, we are exploring the topic of America's energy future through Jeff Goodell's Big Coal. I hope that you are all reading along and are planning to join us on Oct. 6, when Jeff Goodell will be on our campus to speak.

UNT is addressing the environment in other ways, from our products to our campus practices, which includes recycling, using electric vehicles and making and using biodiesel. Last year, we recycled another 400,000 pounds of material. And we've saved over $13 million during a 10-year period just through energy savings! While it takes our campus community to see these efforts through, the great ideas and hard work often start and end with staff in facilities, student development and purchasing and payment services.

Creating a healthy physical environment is important to what we do, but it's the intellectual environment we cultivate that ultimately defines us as a place of higher learning. Our campus environment is filled with thought-provoking lectures, world-class concerts, exhibitions, dance and theater performances, athletic events and outreach programs to connect our university with the greater community and the world. This fall, we are sponsoring an online audiocast series being presented by the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth and The Economist — we're in pretty heavy company. It's called "Global I.Q. with The Economist." This series will focus on topical global issues and will feature presentations by the magazine's correspondents.

Discussions such as these provide our students — and each of you — with opportunities to learn about other cultures, other parts of the world and other points of view. I hope you take advantage of all of these activities.

We are also committed to providing opportunities for the greater community to participate in intellectually-stimulating endeavors. This summer, our Center for Achievement and Lifelong Learning, CALL, offered our first-ever Grandparents University so that grandparents and their grandchildren could explore knowledge together. This program offered a first glimpse at college life for many of these young students and we hope to see them return as freshmen in the years to come. Later this fall, we will launch our new Emeritus College aimed at those 50 and older who want to take noncredit courses and continue lifelong learning.

Building for tomorrow

Everything we do must be designed to provide our community and our students with opportunities to grow. We aim to foster success by creating an environment that promotes learning and self exploration.

This is why we upgrade and build new facilities. And today, we are committed to growing in a way that honors our green culture. As the students say, "We Mean Green." Our campus will soon be home to several new buildings. They each will be designed to foster success while achieving LEED-Gold certification, one of the highest green building standards. The Life Sciences Complex, which will contain our first LEED-certified building, is nearing completion with an opening set for June. And this winter, we'll break ground on our second LEED-Gold building, the Business Leadership Building.

Perhaps the most visible will be our future stadium. We expect to open the first LEED-Gold certified collegiate stadium in time for the 2011 season. All of these new facilities underscore UNT's quality and stature as a comprehensive university dedicated to providing the complete college experience.

That's also why we are investing $1.7 million to construct and upgrade our laboratories and other scholarly facilities to support our faculty's work in an array of disciplines. For example, we've upgraded our sleep studies laboratory, where researchers study the causes of and treatments for insomnia. And our visual art and animation "render farm" will now have more powerful computers and the latest sophisticated software that will allow faculty to create state-of-the-art animation and graphic arts. We also have new state-of-the-art computer visualization capabilities in our Computational Epidemiology Research Laboratory. And we are opening a new disability and well-being lab in Chilton Hall.

Our new $2.2 million high-performance computing facility will put us at the forefront of research. Our researchers will be able to do more complex calculations and work with large data sets to perform invaluable research in fields ranging from aeronautics to carbon sequestration. And our new clean room, which is a major part of our developing Nanofabrication and Analysis Research Facility, will help us put theory into practice. The renovation of the music concert hall will result in a modern venue for our world-renowned music programs.

Pursuing new opportunities

These new and expanded and upgraded facilities will aid many of our faculty in their work and will expand our possibilities. We must build for tomorrow, not yesterday. But to do that, we must continue to look for other ways to support our mission. Finding other funds to supplement the state's support is increasingly important because declining state support has been a longstanding reality in public education — even in spite of a bump in state funding this last session.

Educational spending consumes 44 percent of the Texas budget, but only about a quarter of that — around $10 billion a year — is related to higher education. Our endowment, and its health, is a critical measure for UNT. We are in the process of seeking a new leader for our Advancement division and we are stepping up our fundraising efforts, not just for research but across the board, so we can continue to offer the latest technology in the classroom and the best environment across the campus.

Our new director of orchestras, David Itkin, who holds the first Anshel Brusilow Chair in Orchestral Studies, shows how powerful fundraising can be. David Itkin brings the prestige of the orchestras he conducts, which include the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, to his role at UNT. We will continue to seek gifts that will support our students, our faculty and our institution.

Just as Mr. Itkin's new role, along with the appointments of Steve Wiest as director of the One O'Clock Lab Band, Tim Brent as director of vocal jazz and John Murphy as chair of the jazz studies, maintains the College of Music's hold as one of the top music programs known throughout the world, other activities that are supported by gifts continue to put us in the forefront. This past summer, the One O'Clock Lab Band gave its first international performance under Mr. Wiest at one of the world's largest gatherings of saxophonists — the 15th World Saxophone Congress in Thailand. Our fame is going around the world.

Nurturing student excellence

UNT students are making an impact in other ways, as proven by the growing list of national awards they are earning. These distinguished students include three Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars; a Fulbright scholar; and 10 Hispanic Scholarship Fund Award recipients — just to name a few. Seven had coveted internships with the National Institutes of Health this summer and five earned National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates awards.

All told, UNT students earned about 60 high-profile scholarships this past year alone, due in part to the support and encouragement they get from our many faculty mentors and staff such as Dr. James Duban, the director of the Office for Nationally Competitive Scholarships, Maria Beck, Mary Beth Butler, Nathan Edgerton, Denise Simmons. Denise just joined our research development team last fall and is already involving in mentoring students. They all see to it that our students' successes are duly recognized and rewarded.

And of course UNT's TAMS students are continuing a 22-year track record of success. You may have heard about Wen Chyan, who was a student in our Texas Academy for Mathematics and Science. Last spring, he racked up a number of honors including first place in the national 2009 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. I'm sure his father, Oliver Chyan, one of our chemistry professors, is very proud. We had 15 other Siemens semifinalists or finalists and seven other TAMS students were semifinalists in the Intel Talent Search. UNT equaled MIT when four students were named 2009 Goldwater Scholars. And a TAMS student was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar.

Despite this incredible talent of our students, they don't excel on their own. A core group of 45 faculty members from across our campus mentor and nurture these young students, transforming an aptitude for math or science into research that could improve our lives and better our world.

Many of our students are earning multiple distinctions. Marcelo Ostria, an Honors College student who founded UNT's UNICEF chapter and raised money for children of Darfur, has won the President's Volunteer Service Award two years in a row. He was a Truman Scholar finalist and landed an NSF Undergraduate Research Experience award.

This is a dizzying list of awards. And they are only a sampling. And they prove that we have incredible students here at UNT. They are making a difference for our society through the research they conduct and through the work they do for others. And we can expect our list of annual accolades will grow since this fall we welcomed nearly 50 valedictorians and salutatorians and 10 new National Merit Scholars as part of our freshman class. Our freshman class continues to have higher SAT scores than the state and national average.

A "school to watch"

When I joined the UNT in 2006, I committed to growing our reputation. As we embark on our fourth year together we do so with a national ranking that recognizes our hard work and progress.

I hope each of you is as excited as I am about U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges, 2010 Edition, that includes UNT as one of the top National Universities to watch because of our commitment to innovation. We tied for ninth in the nation among public National Universities on the magazine's "Top Up-and-Coming Schools" list, which singles out schools that are making — and I quote from U.S. News — that "the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus or facilities." Change can be good.

We were Texas' only public university on the list. This distinction is based on peer assessments and it speaks to our rising stature in the eyes of the higher education community. Yet, we can't underestimate the impression it will have on the public.

Coupled with a Best in the West ranking from The Princeton Review and being named by The Chronicle for Higher Education as one of only five universities that is thriving despite the challenges facing higher education, it is clear that UNT is standing out and people are noticing.

They are seeing that we are a student-centered public research university that is adapting, growing, evolving and innovating. We are a university that is letting 119 years of history propel it forward, not hold it back.

Universities are by nature conservative, but UNT has been willing to run ahead of the pack. So let's be sure we keep leading the race.

It takes every single one of us to make a student a success. Faculty who teach and provide hands-on experience open students to knowledge and discovery. Staff in every area — from financial aid and admissions to the career center to computing to academic departments — make sure our students have the help they need stay on track. Our crews in facilities and grounds provide an environment where students can thrive. Individuals in housing and dining give them a home away from home and look after their well-being while our police and parking officers and those in risk management and compliance ensure their safety.

I encourage each one of you to continue to live our student-centered mission. Don't just support students. Take every opportunity to change their lives so that they can change the world.

Thank you.