Transcript

Determined.

Sometimes – too big for our britches.

But we call ourselves Tigers – Clemson Tigers – and we believe the bigger the idea, the better.

We see it in our rankings. U.S.News & World Report placed Clemson as number 23 among the country’s 164 public research universities and number 12 among all universities – public and private – for our commitment to undergraduate education.

Students want quality. And in 2010, Clemson once again had a record number of undergraduate applications and enrolled our best class ever with the highest SAT and ACT scores in our history. This year, nearly half of our freshmen were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class. Graduate school applications were up by more than 19 percent from the year before.

Nowhere is Clemson’s commitment to education more clear than in the classroom where 51 percent of our classes have 20 or fewer students, and our faculty are outstanding and constantly looking for better ways to help students think and learn. As a result, Clemson students and faculty have taken home some of the country’s top academic awards this year.

Building our economy has been a major focus for 2010. We broke ground for the wind turbine drivetrain testing facility in Charleston, which promises to be a magnet for a new wind energy economy for the state. Proterra announced it will produce electric and battery powered buses on the CU-ICAR campus and bring with it 1,300 jobs. We also broke ground for The Center for Emerging Technologies, which will be a launching pad for new companies in the transportation and energy business, provide more jobs and keep Clemson and CU-ICAR in the forefront around the world.

Our faculty and students have done amazing work to improve lives through innovation. Research at Clemson has grown tremendously over the past 10 years. In 2010 Clemson’s total research funding was the highest in University history -- over $187 million dollars.

Clemson students continue to reach out to help others. Four civil engineering students traveled to Haiti after the earthquake to help provide clean drinking water. Clemson’s Dirt to Food program partnered with sororities to provide garden boxes, helping women at local domestic violence shelters grow their own vegetables. MBA students built a computer lab for a Greenville homeless shelter. The list is long.

2010 was filled with many great and record breaking moments for our student athletes. Clemson was one of only eight schools in the nation to be selected for a bowl game, the NCAA men's basketball tournament and the NCAA baseball tournament in the 2009-2010 academic year. In Men’s Basketball, the Tigers won 21 games and made their third straight NCAA Tournament Appearance giving Clemson a school record four consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins and three consecutive winning seasons in ACC play. Five of Clemson's spring sports teams ranked in the final top 20 for only the second time in history. Tiger Baseball finished the season ranked 4th after reaching the College World Series for the 12th time in school history. The Tiger program also collected ACC Championships in women's indoor and outdoor track & field. Clemson was also one of only two schools in the country to produce a first-round draft selection in baseball, basketball and football in 2010. Then, in early December, DaQuan Bowers won the Bronko Nagurski award as the top defensive player in college football.

Clemson continues to move forward as a university of excellence . . . as a university making a difference . . . and as the university we love because of the support of our alumni and friends.

This year, Clemson kicked off The Will to Lead campaign to raise more than $600 million by 2012 to support scholarships and fellowships, fund professorships and endowed chairs, provide programs and services that engage students, improve learning and drive innovation and economic development.

Clemson could not be Clemson without the support of our donors, and we thank them for believing in us and investing in our futures.

As students, we have inherited the determined spirit of the Clemson family. Like the Tigers who have come before us, we will carry on the tradition of thinking big, working hard and doing something of real value. We will go out into the world. We will do great things. And, we will never forget where we have come from. Go Tigers!