Convocation Address
President Charles Middleton

CONVOCATION REMARKS, FALL 2007

Charles R. Middleton, President

September 4, 2007

Thank you, Jim. And thank you to all of our board members for making the time to be here today with the rest of the Roosevelt community. We know you all have busy schedules and so your efforts to attend Convocation are especially significant as a testimony to your commitment to Roosevelt 's success. The Board of Trustees is an integral part of the University and we are especially fortunate to have board members with your level of commitment. On behalf of the rest of us in the Roosevelt community I thank you for your leadership and your service to the University.

Good morning everyone and welcome. I thank you all as well for being here this morning. I hope you all had an enjoyable and productive summer and that each of you is refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to begin Roosevelt 's 63 rd year.

A special welcome to our new students, our new faculty and our new staff. Roosevelt is a remarkable University dedicated to access and opportunity and the enlightenment of the human spirit and we welcome you as the newest members of our community with the full anticipation that you each will contribute to its future successes, even as you benefit personally from being here.

Convocation is the annual event when we come together to reflect on the progress we have made in the past and to identify the immediate challenges we will turn our attention to in the coming year. Today I will highlight just a few of the many accomplishments we achieved in the past year and then I will briefly outline two major challenges for the year ahead: enhancing Campus differentiation and initiating the Wabash Avenue Development Project.

Last year's accomplishments: an overview

The Provost has already mentioned many of the individual achievements of our faculty. The good news, and it's impressive news as well, is that there are so many successes these days that it is impossible to report on them all in a single venue.

I will focus my remarks on major organizational initiatives that will help to further enhance individual and collective success. The written text of this address will be posted on the web and will elaborate more fully on many of them than I have time to do here.

I will begin with the Schaumburg Campus because with all the discussions about Chicago , I believe it is essential to remind ourselves continuously that Roosevelt has two vital Campuses , both of which must be independently successful if the University as a whole is to prosper.

One foundation of Campus success is student satisfaction, which is largely, if not exclusively, Campus specific. In order to provide the best and most responsive services to students, student life functions have been reorganized to the Campus level and are no longer centrally managed. The Schaumburg Campus Office of Student Activities (OSA) has been renamed the Center for Campus Life. Under the leadership of Dr. Bud Beatty , it is separate from the new Center for Student Involvement directed by Sarah Manzeske in Chicago . Focusing exclusively on the needs of the Schaumburg Campus, its goals are to provide a strong and comprehensive co-curricular program for Schaumburg students, promote student engagement and, strengthen the student voice on that Campus.

One of the new initiatives in Schaumburg will be the establishment of a multicultural center to provide academic and personal support for under-represented students and to plan Campus specific cultural and educational programs with multicultural themes that are developed throughout the year based upon changing demographics.

Other changes in Schaumburg are designed to enhance the unique characteristics of the Campus.

Funded by a gift from Commonwealth Edison, the Science and Math Resource Center has been created to house software for data analysis and simulations.  Tutoring will also be available. 

The Tucker Family Boardroom has been renovated thanks to support from one of our Trustees, Roosevelt alumnus Ken Tucker.  We are also upgrading the technology for that room to enhance its uses.

Phase one of the grand courtyard redesign is complete.  The planters and yew bushes and several of the walkways have been removed and the surface will soon be planted with sod.  A planning process involving students, faculty and staff will begin this fall to create a design for the courtyard that will enhance its function as a gathering place as well as maintaining its attractiveness as a significant green space on the Campus.

Other developments in the past year have University wide implications. In the spring, the Task Force on Intercollegiate Athletics, chaired by Vice President Mary Hendry and comprised of trustees, students, faculty and administrators, evaluated the possibilities inherent in expanded recreational opportunities, club sports, and perhaps even inter-collegiate athletics for true student athletes . Their initial recommendation was that the University seriously explore joining the NCAA in Division III, the non-athletic scholarship division. I have asked the Task Force to finalize its recommendations this fall and bring them forward to the Senate and in other venues for discussion and decision no later than next spring.

Another University wide initiative with broad implications also began this summer. Some of you will recall that last fall in my convocation remarks I acknowledged that the creation of "buzz" about Roosevelt was a very important step in our strategic plan to become nationally known as a high quality, academically competitive University. In order to accomplish strategic goal #6 , which states "create an overall image and reputation of distinguished quality" we need to move beyond "the buzz" into the next phase which is sustained visibility across a broad front. Accordingly, this summer I established the Office of University Communications (OUC) by consolidating Public Relations and Marketing under the leadership of Vice President Michael Durnil. The charge to this group is to deliver, in collaboration with the other units in the University, a more coherent, purposeful and coordinated communications approach leading to an array of comprehensive communication strategies organized and operating around Roosevelt 's image and reputation.

The OUC will leverage and maximize the use of our resources, while planning and executing new ways to project the strategic image and reputation of the University. Positive steps have already been taken. The OUC has a new internal slogan, "Does it bleed green?" By using this question, the OUC staff are critically analyzing all of our materials to evaluate the ways we deliver the message of our mission. The question is pragmatic, as well as philosophical. I challenge each of you to work with the OUC to make sure all your materials positively reflect the University's image and that they communicate in all we do our commitment to social justice and academic excellence.

A critical component of our new communications strategy is the use of our website, where positive changes are already taking place, with more to come. Make sure you visit the new Human Resources website to see an example of what lies ahead. These well-designed pages will provide current employees with an easier way to access our many useful resources as well as providing great information to prospective employees who may consider working at RU. There are some pretty nice testimonials on the site also, so make sure you take a look.

On the basic issue, let me be plain. Green and white must be synonymous with Roosevelt University the way that orange and blue, purple and white, and blue and red are for other Universities in the area.

Another all-university initiative began a year ago with the reorganization of the Human Resources function. Our most important resource is our people and so the work of this area lies at the core of all we are striving to accomplish.

Much change is in the air. The new Electronic Recruitment System (PeopleAdmin) will go live soon and many have already or will soon be trained in its use. This dynamic new tool promises to streamline internal processes for hiring and provide improved feedback to candidates during the recruitment process.

The HR team has also been very busy creating new policies to reflect current practices in higher education and/or revising outdated policies to make them more positive and more pertinent to our mission and our community. These include, to date, Equal Employment Opportunity, Anti-Harassment, Whistleblower, and Alcohol on Campus policies. Currently, the team is preparing an updated administrative handbook and working on an Employment policy that will provide assistance to leaders at all levels who are seeking to fill open positions.

My thanks to Vice President Gretchen Van Natta and the Human Resources team for their hard work and dedication to getting this done.

Much has been said over the past five years about our online programs and I want to take this opportunity to thank Associate Provost Karen Gersten, who is leaving us this month to take up a Provost position elsewhere, for her imaginative leadership in establishing Roosevelt as a national leader in this area.

Many more faculty members now utilize technology to enhance quality in their classes than a few short years ago. We have more online courses than ever with more under development, and most significantly, we have whole degree programs available on line, again with others in development. This last activity is key to the successes we had last year in establishing a partnership with the Houston Community College System which began accepting applications this summer. Preliminary numbers are positive with 53 inquiries received as of August 15 th . We expect a dozen or more new students to be enrolled in this partnership for fall, with growth each semester as the program becomes better known.

Online programs are not just the second cousin to our classroom-bound programs but rather an essential part of Roosevelt 's outreach to underserved individuals and communities. In the Houston case, students whose technical and applied degrees are not transferable in the usual way, and who now have an opportunity to earn a bachelors degree based upon learning outcomes, not seat time.

We have received awards and recognition for the high quality of our online programs. Other colleges and universities turn to us for advice, and it is imperative that we work to make sure that we remain competitive and at the top of our peer group.

National assessments of our progress are important in helping us to benchmark our progress in important ways. Two in particular are interesting this year, one involving students and the other, overall rankings.

In 2002, and again in 2007, Roosevelt participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement, better known as "Nessie" (NSSE). The study evaluates the extent to which freshmen and seniors are actively involved in academic and extra-curricular activities which can help students gain the most from their college experience.  While NSSE does not directly assess learning outcomes, findings from the study are intended to raise awareness about the quality of an institution's undergraduate educational experience and to stimulate discussion about the effectiveness of its educational practices.  

A preliminary analysis, comparing findings from the 2002 and 2007 NSSE studies, indicate improvement at RU in many activities that engage students.  Most notably, improvement occurred in providing a supportive academic and social environment for our students and in collaborative learning practices in the classroom.  In 2007, scores from our freshmen students in these two categories were at or above those from all of the benchmark comparison groups -- urban institutions, institutions in our Carnegie classification, and all institutions which participated in the study.  Improvement was also apparent in questions related to social justice.

Thanks to Joe Regan for providing that preliminary analysis. Complete findings of the NSSE study will be released by Institutional Research later this semester.

And then there are those pesky national rankings. In spite of my oft-stated misgivings about such things, it has become an annual tradition for me to note Roosevelt 's ranking in the U.S. News and World Report . Overall this year we have basically maintained our position in the third tier. That said, in two critical categories we have attained first tier status. These are first, our overall financial resources, and second, the level of faculty support as measured in compensation (salary plus benefits) and funding for research and other professional development opportunities. This latter accomplishment is really important, as overall excellence derives to a great degree from the accomplishments of the faculty. Indeed, in the rankings, our academic reputation has moved into the second tier, an indication that our investments in the faculty have begun to pay off.

Finally, given our first-year retention averages, if our graduation rates progress as they have, it is within our reach to move to the second tier soon. To assure that they do, this year we will be working to enhance student success after the freshman year. Retention of sophomores into their junior year, where improvement is necessary, will be addressed in part through Provost Reid's sophomore seminar program. Junior to senior transition rates, which still lag behind our aspirations, will focus on providing more academically challenging opportunities in majors to above average students who are not in the Roosevelt Scholars Program.

Before I turn to the opportunities that will engage us both this year and into the future, let me make a few comments about the summer session. As you know, for the three years 2004-2006 there was a substantial decline in summer school enrollments. Some of this is a reflection of the changing demographics of our student body. Other factors are also at work. I applaud Provost Reid and the Deans and Department Chairs for accepting the challenge I enunciated last year to reverse the trend.

Overall, we were successful in doing so. Summer enrollment headcounts were up slightly but credit hours were up almost 3%. These numbers reflect the same patterns we are experiencing in the academic year. There remains a need for more daytime class options in our summer programs in order to meet the needs of our growing full-time student population. This is especially true on the Chicago Campus and particularly in Arts and Sciences and Business. An adjustment as small as 20% in the pattern of our course offerings could make a noticeable difference in the attractiveness of our summer offerings. We will be holding further discussions on this and making further changes as we plan for the summer of 2008.

Our summer programs were successful in other ways as well. I especially want to recognize and applaud the unique summer programs that are offered on our campuses and the dedicated faculty and staff who devote their time making them happen and ensuring their success. Programs like the now annual "Hands Together Heart to Art" camp led by Brett Batterson ; the Summer Bio-Tech program for high school students, under the leadership of Cornelius Watson; and our always perennially successful Gear-Up programs, led by George Olson, Cheryl Rogers, and Darlene Pearlstein are an important component of Roosevelt's profile.

This year they were joined by new programs like "Hopera" in Chicago , created by one of our own CCPA students, Adrian Dunn , and "RU Glamorous" in Schaumburg , which was the result of the imaginative and hard work of Jocelyn Yarbrough. I know there may well have been others but I use these to illustrate my point that diversifying our summer offerings in both credit and non-credit activities is a key component of future success with an added bonus being the excellent coverage these programs receive in the media, and that's always a good thing for us.

Two major challenges for the future

Nearly two years ago we began a deep and expanding conversation about the nature of our two campuses and the programs we offer on each. In broad terms that conversation has been driven by changes in the composition of the student body in Chicago and the continuing softness in enrollments in Schaumburg .

I will begin my discussion with a brief enrollment update: Overall, as of yesterday, credit hours are above last year's totals for the same date and appear to be above the budgeted level for this fall by about 1.5%. While total headcount projects to be as much as 3% below last fall, headcount for new students exceeds last year's totals, continuing a welcome trend with positive intermediate and long term implications.

New online headcount and credit hours are both up significantly over a year ago.

I will return to graduate student enrollments on another occasion. They appear to be generally healthy, though overall more robust in Schaumburg than in Chicago , compared to last year and stronger in some programs than in others. Let me be clear, graduate education is very important to our mission and deserves serious consideration as a topic on its own, so I will return to this issue in the near future.

For today, however, I will confine my remarks to our undergraduate programs because this is both where the greatest challenges and the greatest opportunities lie.

What is really significant is that the growth in this area is in full time students. This is a true statement not only for Chicago, which we have come to expect, but it is now equally accurate for Schaumburg, where we have not been focused on systematically recruiting them.

This two year trend puzzled me and others as the summer went on and it piqued my curiosity about how we might better plan for our future by more fully understanding our past.

Thanks to Lynn Weiner , with whom I share a taste for archival digging, my summer research has enabled me to bring clearly into focus the enrollment history of the University.

In the archives is a remarkable document entitled A Handbook for New Teachers at Roosevelt University published in the fall of 1968. It stated that forty years ago, in 1967, "60% of undergraduates were full time-registered students." The average age for males was twenty-two and for females, twenty-one; so much for the myth that Roosevelt has always been an older adult and part-time place.

These data more or less hold true for the first 20 years of the University's history, alumni from the period being overwhelmingly still in their 60's and 70's. You do the math.

The second phase of Roosevelt's enrollment profile, in which we focused more and more on adult and part time students as we adjusted to the growing presence of UIC and the aggressive growth of DePaul, Loyola and Columbia College, reached its apogee in the late 1990's. This, of course, was when we opened the Schaumburg Campus which was particularly well-located to take advantage of what was then seen to be the new trend of university education with a long horizon.

While I was pondering what to make of these data and this history, last week the Chronicle of Higher Education published a report on the part time adult student.

Under the headline Most Part-time Students Leave¹,the article noted that, and I quote, "Three years into their college careers, more than two-thirds of part-time students had left the higher education system without a degree, according to a new federal report."

Joe Regan has analyzed our data and finds that at Roosevelt our part-time students leave at a slightly greater rate than the national average.

When you couple these data with Roosevelt's enrollment history, and add all the things that we have learned over the past months in our internal discussions about the future, the conclusion seems self-evident: changing enrollment and demographic patterns at both Roosevelt and nationally, point us, and indeed propel us, in some significant new directions.

We already know this in Chicago from experience. The new pathway in Chicago opened up by the University Center three years ago, is now clear and ready for vigorous development along current lines. The pathway in Schaumburg , by contrast, may seem less certain, but it is not, and the evidence is accumulating, albeit slowly, to make the point. The growth there is in full time undergraduate students as well, though less pronounced because less actively pursued -- so far.

The only conclusion that I can draw, after thinking deeply about these matters over several months, is that the two campuses are united by a common opportunity as well as a common value system. But Schaumburg , by its very nature and its past dependence for success on those adult learners mentioned above, lags.

This must change and it can only change in a timely manner if each campus is developed separately in many, though not all ways.

Campus Differentiation is not only desirable, it is imperative if we are to assure our overall future. Wherever possible, we must make programs, both academic and support, campus specific if our two campuses are both to flourish.

Given the realities of today's competitive environment in higher education, our long term future depends on aggressively pursuing the enrollment of traditional age undergraduates not just in Chicago but in Schaumburg as well. While we should, and still can, succeed in a limited array of undergraduate programs in both locations that focus on adult learners, we must build undergraduate programs on both of our campuses primarily around the needs and aspirations of full time students.

In historical terms, this means that we must return to the early decades of our history and replicate them in ways appropriate for the circumstances of the twenty-first century, not in one but in both locations.

Accordingly, I have met with the Academic Deans and asked them to engage the faculty of each college on how best to respond to these challenges. I have also asked Mary Hendry to develop an Enrollment and Recruitment plan for each campus separately in order to take full advantage of our opportunities in both locations. I envision that in five years, if not sooner, the distinctions between the two campuses will be quite significant and that both will be truly exciting and dynamic places.

The pathway to the future is clearer in Chicago than it is in Schaumburg . Before I turn to my final discussion on the Wabash Development Project, therefore, let me suggest some questions that will help shape the college level discussions, especially about Schaumburg .

To what extent does program development and differentiation in Schaumburg depend upon identifying individuals who wish to make the success of that campus their primary, if not their exclusive responsibility?

Another way of asking this question is, given all that must be done on both campuses, can we succeed if we do not focus the attention of at least some faculty and administrators exclusively on one or the other campus?

How much of our Schaumburg success depends on the development of new degree programs (Nursing, Pharmacy and Criminal Justice, for instance) and how much on re-envisioning current undergraduate programs, especially in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business?

How do we establish an orderly timeline for the transformation of the campus and what markers will be important indicators of success?

How do we better schedule our classes to respond to the clear student interest in Schaumburg, as expressed in the scheduling survey conducted this spring which had well over 500 student responses, in having more options available to them earlier in the day?

I am sure that the Deans and the faculty will think of other and perhaps even more important questions to ponder in these discussions. Not all will change, and even those things that do, will not immediately take place. But over time, consistent adaptation will, because it must, become an integral part of the Schaumburg Campus culture.

And of the Chicago Campus culture, too. The Wabash Avenue Development Project, as the replacement for the Herman Crown Center is now known, is coming to the critical decision point this fall. Given all the hard and intelligent work of the past several months, both internally by the Campus Redevelopment Committee chaired by Tanweer Hasan and Paul Reis, and by various committees of the Board of Trustees, I believe we are well-positioned to build an exciting new facility on Wabash .

Envision this new building as Roosevelt 's statement of leadership for the success of the twenty-first century Loop Educational District. Imagine it, as I do, as our version of the statement of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler about the importance of the arts in Chicago when they built the Auditorium Theatre Building in the late nineteenth century.

As important as the new facility will be, however, its primary purpose will be to provide space in which to house high-quality instruction, faculty and departmental offices for some of our programs (especially those growing most rapidly), and a student center with recreational and other student-oriented facilities designed to meet the demands of a residential student body, the likes of which has never been seen in downtown Chicago.

The new building will have another, less noticed consequence, but one that is equally powerful. Coupled with the acquisition of additional floors in the Gage Building and renovations in the Auditorium Building itself, there will be new and reallocated spaces in several locations to enable us to address in exciting new ways our rapidly expanding needs in Chicago.

I know that some may wonder how we can afford this facility, but to me that is not the central question, challenging as the finances will be. Rather, I ask, if we are to create the kind of Roosevelt University Campus in Chicago that is envisioned in the strategic plan, how can we succeed if we do not build a facility worthy of that endeavor and of the students and faculty who will make it a reality?

This work is not for the faint of heart -- or for the timid. We must dream without being merely idealistic, be bold without being reckless, and maintain our commitment to our founding ideals without abandoning our pragmatic approach to problem solving.

So it's going to be an exciting year for many reasons, not least of which because of the successes that will ineluctably follow.

Thank you again for coming and for all you do, individually and collectively, to assure our common success at Roosevelt University.

Have a great year!

¹The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Most Part-Time Students Leave,"