State of the University Address
President Charles Middleton

January 28, 2004

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the annual State of the University address. Thank you all for coming. I know many of you, especially those of you from Schaumburg, had to get up earlier than normal on this bitterly cold January morning to be here, so my special thanks to you.

Let me first introduce two Roosevelt University trustees who are with us, Jim Mitchell, chairman of the board, and Phil Siegel, who also is a Roosevelt alum.

I regard this occasion as a companion to the opening Convocation that we hold annually at the beginning of each academic year. It is an opportunity to reflect on where we are and how we are doing mid-year as we collectively strive to assure that Roosevelt reaches its full potential as envisioned in our Strategic Plan.

This is my second State of the University Address. It occurs during a special year for Roosevelt University. In April we will inaugurate a yearlong celebration of the 60th anniversary of our founding, and in May, our 65,000th graduate will receive her or his diploma.

As an historian, I believe it is important for institutions to celebrate milestones. Milestones provide us with opportunities to appreciate our heritage and to honor those who preceded us. They also afford us a forum to envision our future so that we can move forward together with renewed commitment and enthusiasm.

I would like to thank everyone who is serving on the 60th Anniversary Committee, especially committee chairman and University trustee Al Golin, who graduated from Roosevelt in 1950. Al had just formed his own public relations agency in 1957 when he made an unsolicited call to an up and coming Chicagoland entrepreneur who was starting a new concept, a nationwide hamburger chain called McDonald's. That phone call to Ray Kroc turned out to be a stroke of imagination and genius, because Al's company, Golin/Harris International, has been doing public relations for McDonald's ever since. Now he's bringing his expertise to our 60th Anniversary celebration. Only the best for Roosevelt! We, too, deserve a break today!

One of the first events during our Anniversary year will be a luncheon at the University to honor the women and men who, like Al, graduated 50 or more years ago. I was amazed to learn that there are 2,995 living alumni from the classes of 1947 through 1954, plus there are at least 320 individuals on our alumni list who graduated from the Central YMCA College, Roosevelt's predecessor institution, many of whom proudly count themselves among our alumni. It will be wonderful to welcome those early students back to the University. Many of them have not been in the Auditorium Building for decades. Of course, if everyone shows up, we'll have to rent the Grand Ballroom at the Chicago Hilton Hotel, which we would gladly do!

One of our goals for the University is to honor and celebrate exceptional academic achievement. For this reason we have established the first annual Dedication Day Distinguished Faculty Lecture. A committee chaired by Phyllis Hill and Lynn Weiner will annually select a faculty member who exemplifies the excellence and quality of the Roosevelt faculty to present, in terms interested non-specialists can understand, an hour-long program on her or his scholarship.

We will inaugurate this series next fall on November 16, the anniversary of the dedication of Roosevelt College, in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt who was there, "to the enlightenment of the human spirit."

There will be other exciting activities during the year that will enable us both to celebrate our past accomplishments and to prepare for more successes in the future.

When I arrived at Roosevelt about a year and a half ago, this was a University filled with promise and high expectations. Yet it was also a University facing some daunting challenges in the highly competitive Chicago higher education marketplace.

We were - and still are - facing pressure from public universities with lower tuition rates, from for-profit institutions trying to capture portions of our primary adult markets, and from other private universities and colleges whose practices are more modern than many of ours. Thinking about this broadly, the issue was clearly enough stated: What are Roosevelt's distinctive characteristics, and how do we assure that these distinguish us in practice, and critically, in the mind of the publics we serve, from the many other excellent institutions in Chicago, in Illinois, and even the nation?

We needed in 2002 to come together as a team to develop a comprehensive and creative plan that would lay out opportunities to compete successfully in the future. Some wondered whether we could do it. Other, myself included, never doubted that we would. As the anthropologist Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a .... group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Last year our Roosevelt group of committed citizens - by that I mean the entire Roosevelt community - worked together to transform the University. We discussed our aspirations and collectively we developed our vision which we embedded in a new a Strategic Plan - a Plan that is now, as it will be in the future, guiding our thinking and directing our actions. And, we are currently in the process of making these aspirational goals even more specific by adding detailed plans for academics, marketing, finance, institutional advancement, physical plant and public relations.

I want to thank all of you for helping to create our Strategic Plan and for your commitment to change during the past 12 months. I know that change doesn't come about easily, nor without risk. But I also know, as you do, that to stand still is to slip backwards and that taking comfort in the present enhances the likelihood that great opportunities for future success will be missed.

One of the advantages of being here at Roosevelt for a while is that I now know most of you. I have come to appreciate your talents and your dedication to the social values of Roosevelt University. For example, many of you participated in the canned food drive held in conjunction with our holiday parties and others of you gave clothing and toys to more than 100 children living in Wentworth Gardens.

Those and other acts of generosity show the true Roosevelt spirit, and help foster a climate of community involvement. I deeply value activities for social justice and community engagement, and I look forward to participating with you in our second New Deal Service Day, which will be held on April 17, 2004, as part of the 60th Anniversary celebrations.

In the Roosevelt University Mission Statement, we renew our commitment to academic excellence, equal opportunity and social justice, values that are now routinely emulated by other institutions.

One of my favorite words in the Mission Statement is "aspire" because it means "to have great ambition, to reach higher." There's nothing more satisfying than to pursue and achieve your dreams, especially when so many people benefit from your efforts.

I believe we are making real progress on many of the objectives in the Strategic Plan, starting with student success. That's good news for the entire University because it demonstrates our commitment to attracting, maintaining, and graduating talented students.

Last fall, our overall percent growth in enrollment was higher than almost all Chicago area universities, including DePaul, Columbia, Loyola and Northwestern. We had 7,524 students, the second highest total in Roosevelt history, surpassed only by the 7,731 students we had in 1975. Overall credit hour count was the highest ever. Growth was strongest in the graduate division of the College of Education where enrollment jumped 27%, reflecting the strong demand for teachers.

Academic quality indicators were up in the fall semester in all categories for new students. The grade point averages of our new freshmen, transfer, and graduate students were significantly higher than the year before. In addition, the average ACT score of incoming freshmen was 21.9, one point higher than in 2002. On average, Roosevelt freshmen are at about the 64th percentile nationally. Part of that increase is due to students in the Roosevelt Scholars Program. They have an ACT mean score of 26.7. Fifty students joined the program last fall, compared to 45 in 2002 and 35 in 2001.

Recruiting students, however, is only the first chapter in the story. Once we admit a student, we want her or him to graduate and so we are taking steps to improve our retention and persistence rates.

For example, we are providing additional help for at-risk students and students on probation, and we are expanding our orientation programs. I'm pleased to say that we are making progress. Retention rates of first-time, full-time freshmen increased from 52% for the 2001 cohort to 68% for the 2002 cohort. That is Roosevelt's highest known retention rate. Retention rates of full-time transfers also increased, though less dramatically, from 72% for the 2001 cohort to 75% for the 2002 cohort.

As encouraging as these numbers are, however, they still fall short of what we can and must do to be a leader in this area.

To help meet student scheduling needs, we implemented request registration in the fall of 2003. The word is out; students now know that they can get into classes at the times they want if they register early.

One of our biggest challenges arises from one of our most enduring legacies - the continuous enrollment of large numbers of students who are the first in their family to go to college. Nationally these students have one of the lowest graduation rates of any category of undergraduates, largely because they and their families lack the understanding of what it takes to engage fully the myriad services and educational opportunities universities like Roosevelt put before them.

Therefore, consistent with Goal Two, to assure student success, I ask that the faculty give serious consideration to granting credit to students who enroll in a first-term rigorous course on how to succeed in college, and on making this course a requirement for all first-time, full-time freshmen, beginning in the fall of 2004. Many prestigious universities have required such a course, with predictable improvement in student success and student satisfaction, and we should, too.

I say this because we are making excellent progress toward our goal of enrolling more younger students. In 1997, 28% of our undergraduates were traditional age, that is under the age of 24. Today they make up 36% of our undergraduates and take 46% of undergraduate credit hours. They are heavily concentrated in Arts and Sciences, with Business second in numbers, followed by Performing Arts. Because they tend to enroll full time, they are driving our credit hour growth. Indeed essentially all of the student credit hour increase since 1998 is a consequence of the increase in their numbers. They deserve greater attention in all aspects of campus life, and they are getting it.

During the past few months our admission staff has been aggressively recruiting students from cities throughout the Midwest to attend Roosevelt and live in the University Center of Chicago or the Herman Crown Center.

When University Center opens in August, 2004, Roosevelt will have approximately 600 mostly traditional age students living on-campus, 300 more than this year, which, by the way, was a record year for the number of students living in University housing.

These additional students will enliven our hallways and take more daytime classes. More importantly, the experience of living in a residence hall will be good for them both academically and socially. Studies show that students who live on campus generally earn higher grades, are more engaged in university activities, and critically, are more likely to graduate than commuting students.

Sometimes when you're in a transition period, you spend a great deal of time talking about the future and neglect to appreciate the present. At Roosevelt, I believe we often take for granted the fact that many of our academic programs already have a national reputation. For instance, do you know that Roosevelt ranks second in Illinois and 26th in the nation for African-American students receiving master's degrees in all disciplines?

We're also second in Illinois and 12th in the nation for African-American students earning master's degrees in business, and fourth in Illinois and 45th in the nation for Hispanic students earning master's degrees in business.

Our new Chicago School of Real Estate has grown from zero to over 100 students in two years. And, our Computer Science Program graduates more African-American graduate students than any university in Illinois.

In addition, last year our doctoral program in Psychology and the Walter E. Heller College of Business Administration were both accredited by their professional associations. Specialized accreditation serves three valuable purposes. First, it provides an external reference point against which we can measure the quality of our programs; second, it provides external validation of our work; and, third, it provides national recognition.

I congratulate the faculty in Psychology and Business for bringing distinction and honor to their programs and the entire University. And, in the months and years ahead, I look forward to congratulating other faculty members when your programs are accredited or reaccredited.

Finally, we should all be proud of the fact that of the nine Roosevelt students who applied to medical school last year, eight were accepted.

All of these accomplishments are important, but they are only first steps. There is much to be done as we aspire for our collective success in the future.

We have begun that work in a very critical area, the two other interrelated markers of academic excellence, the curriculum and the workload and academic achievements of the faculty. These are not easy matters to discuss as they involve both the daily lives of our faculty and students, and they define the very nature of professorial and student success at the University.

A faculty committee is developing a process for academic review so that every academic program is carefully examined on a regular basis, and so that we can invest our resources wisely and strategically in ways that will promote our overall goals embedded in the Strategic Plan. As I've said before, we are trying to do too much, in too many locations, at too many times, with too few faculty to attain overall high academic quality. We intend to have the program review procedure in place by the middle of the semester and to implement the first round of reviews next year.

Similarly, we are working with another faculty committee to determine how we can move the standard teaching assignment from seven courses over the academic year to six, in a fiscally responsible way. This means that we have to examine the nature of faculty work, including advising, teaching and expectations for tenure. We also will be taking into consideration the way we schedule courses over two campuses, goals for average class size, and the optimal number of full-time faculty. If all goes well, I believe that we can implement a 3 plus 3 teaching load in the fall semester of 2004.

In anticipation of that change, I'm pleased to report that the Planning Committee has endorsed our proposal to seek funding for 245 full-time faculty lines for fall 2004, the largest number ever.

If we do all these things, we'll be well on our way to being ranked in the second tier of the U. S. News and World Report Survey. That goal is important to me not because of some mystical advantage that occurs because of scoring high in the magazine's annual rankings, but because the indicators the magazine uses are actually the ones we ourselves have identified as being critical to our success -- indicators such as graduation rates, ACT scores, student-faculty ratios, the percentages of faculty who teach a full-time schedule, alumni giving, and academic reputation among peers.

As you know, outstanding students are attracted to outstanding faculty members, so I'd like to make one other point on academic excellence. And that is when faculty positions become available, deans, department heads and individual faculty members must go the extra mile to find the best person for Roosevelt. We must look for individuals with diverse backgrounds, for individuals who are committed to making a significant difference in the lives of their students and communities, for individuals whose academic preparation is recent and whose degrees have been earned from a wide array of institutions all over the country. And, unless we recruit a more diverse faculty the overall quality of our academic programs cannot attain their full potential.

I would also like to make you aware of other activities going on at the University. In addition to implementing the Strategic Plan, we are currently preparing for the 2005-2006 renewal of University-wide accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association.

Roosevelt will be one of the first institutions to seek re-accreditation under the Higher Learning Commission's five new criteria. Because meeting these objectives is predicated on fulfilling our own mission statement and strategic goals, we could not have wished for better timing.

The Provost's Office, under the leadership of Louise Love, has created a Steering Committee and several subcommittees to gear up for a visit by the accrediting team. More than 50 people from all sectors of the Roosevelt community are serving on the subcommittees. I thank all of you involved in this critical effort for your time, ideas and energy.

By the way, you can follow the re-accreditation process online through a site linked to the Provost's homepage.

A critical ingredient to sustaining high-quality academic programs is the Fifth Goal in our Strategic Plan: Maintain the University's Commitment to Financial Sustainability. Thanks to a robust stock market and the investment of some of the cash reserves in the long-term investment pool, our endowment today stands at about $47 million, the highest ever. In addition, we were up 3.6% in credit hours last semester and we anticipate that this semester our total credit hours will be above budget as well.

But, despite these promising trends, until we have an endowment that is equal to the annual operating budget, we will not be counted among those institutions whose future is secure.

This is one reason why fundraising remains so important. The task is challenging, but under the leadership of Tom Minar we are revamping our alumni and development programs. These are essential initial steps in our proposed campaign to raise money to enable us to build new programs and to reduce our excessive dependence on tuition.

Although we once again will complete the fiscal year with an operating surplus, Roosevelt's future remains too dependent on how we do each and every year in the competitive marketplace we discussed earlier. Our wants and needs still far exceed our current capacity to fund them. We can and will do better, but we must be prepared to make the initial changes that are necessary to attract that financial support.

When all is said and done, however, after my first 18 months here, I am pleased with the steady progress we are making in enrollment, retention and attaining academic excellence. You can see and feel the difference. We are an institution on the move. People in Chicagoland are talking about us in new and positive ways. This is a stronger University today than it was a year ago, and it will be even better in the future. Not everything we try will work, but not trying is a prescription for stagnation -- or worse.

Before we end, allow me to read excerpts from a letter we received in November from Virginia Lee Hines, an alumna who lives in Rochester, New York. This wonderful letter eloquently reminds us all how professors can and do have a lifelong impact on their students, and how some students never forget their Roosevelt experience.

Ms. Hines, who is a poet and an essayist, was a Roosevelt student from 1946 until 1952 when she graduated with a degree in English. And yes, she is one of those alumni we will be inviting back for the 60th Anniversary luncheon.

"Recently," she wrote, "I've wondered whatever became of some of my professors. How long did they teach at Roosevelt .... What happened to them after they retired?"

"In 1958," she continued, "I moved away from Chicago though I continued to visit from time to time. Like many of us I got involved with other things in my life and never got around to visiting my college. It has been good to get news of Roosevelt through the alumni magazine and the book Roosevelt University: From Vision to Reality by Theodore Gross."

Ms. Hines then goes on to describe her recollections of several Roosevelt professors -- among them Otto Wirth, Lorenzo Turner, Leo Lerner, and Helmut Hirsch -- and her description of their important impact on her life is, in every case, crisp and fresh as if the events she describes took place yesterday.

I mention this letter because embedded in her comments is a powerful truth. It is that the academic quality of the University was one of the defining characteristics of the University from its inception thanks to the dedication of the faculty.

And so was its commitment to social justice.

Ms. Hines concludes her letter by saying that she chose Roosevelt because it was open to all students. "As a white Protestant I could have gone elsewhere," she wrote. "I still feel very proud that as a young woman I made this choice based on my beliefs."

I share this letter with you because we all know that what Roosevelt has always been about is excellent professors connecting with inquisitive students in an atmosphere committed to social justice and mutual respect.

As we begin our 60th year, we're carrying forward the traditions and accomplishments of our founding students and professors. Let us stay the course so that 50 years from now others will write similar letters talking about all the outstanding professors and transformational experiences they had in the years 2004 and following.

Thank you for your attention and for your dedication to the mission and values of Roosevelt University.

Please join your colleagues for a reception in the Ganz Hall foyer, after which it's time to go to work.