State of Clemson Address
We have a great partner in the City of Clemson, City Council and Mayor Abernathy. None of the things I list today would be possible without this partnership. We celebrate this partnership today - and everyday.
You probably know by now that it's hard for me to speak for more than five minutes without bragging about Clemson. But they say it's not bragging if you can back it up, and 2006 gave us a lot of ammunition.
We're ranked 30th among the nation's top public universities by U.S. News & World Report, and 29th among the nation's best values in higher education by Kiplinger's Magazine — a ranking that measures both quality and affordability among 500 schools..
This year's freshman class has the second-highest SAT average in history (1217), and nearly half of them were ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class. We also enrolled more than 200 students in the Bridge to Clemson program, a unique partnership with Tri-County Technical College that is increasing access to a Clemson education. Nearly 90 percent of those students are from South Carolina.
Doctoral applications increased 64 percent this year, and the current Ph.D. student enrollment is the highest ever at 1,008. Growth at the Ph.D. level is a critical component of building an economy based on scientific and technological innovation.
Nearly half of our classes have fewer than 20 students enrolled, and we have a student-to-faculty ratio of 14 to 1 - a ratio that's more typical of small liberal arts colleges than research universities. What that means is that our students are engaged in their academic experience. They are having a small-college academic experience with the benefits of being at a major research university. This structure has proven to better prepare students for the future.
This year we welcomed more than 100 new faculty members, including two endowed chairs at CU-ICAR, the former director of the National Parks Service, and the founder of the Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy. All of this is on our intellectual development responsibility.
On our economic development responsibilityIn 2006, we brought a new partner to CU-ICAR when Timken announced it would locate an R&D facility there. In 2007, we will break ground on an Innovation Center at the Center for Advanced Materials in Anderson County, which will help small companies, grow and spin-off companies get started. We are moving forward with plans to build an economic development center in North Charleston focused on the restoration economy.
External funding for research reached an all-time high of $135 million. But what's more significant than the number is the fact that our faculty members are tackling some of our nation's most pressing health, educational and environmental issues.
But despite all of these accomplishments, I believe greater accomplishments are ahead if we can seize a rare opportunity. As we look ahead to 2007, we find ourselves at an important crossroad on our journey to become one of the nation's top 20 public universities - 132 behind us and 29 ahead of us.
For context and perspective, let's look at where we were when we started. At the beginning of our quest for the Top 20, our biggest obstacle was self-concept. It took us a couple of years to actually believe that this vision was achievable and appropriate. And if we recall some of the challenges and issues we faced in the early to mid-1990s, it's understandable why we might have had some self-doubt. Morale was low. We were ranked next to last among our peer institutions. We were on NCAA probation. Applications and enrollment were up and down. And we had no clear vision for the future.
Our response, thanks to the support and hard work of many of the people in this room, was comprehensive (3 parts.) (1)We adopted a clear vision, mission and goals statement, and an academic plan. (2)We adopted the unheard of strategy of actually budgeting to a plan instead of planning to a budget. We established emphasis areas and forged stronger connections between research and economic development. (3)We developed an academic plan that addressed critical needs such as enrollment management, faculty resources, curriculum, student support, and infrastructure.
The results are impressive: Two top-30 national rankings; a record number of applications, higher retention and graduation rates, a high level of morale and commitment to the Top 20 vision, major economic development projects under way, a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, and a culture of compliance, assessment and accountability.
We're now at a pivotal point. We know the move from 30 to 20 will be more difficult because we're in the "major leagues." Our plan must chart a steeper incline. And our challenge is no longer self-concept — it's ensuring that Clemson will still be Clemson when we get to the Top 20. We need to build our next Road Map by embracing and leveraging Clemson's distinctiveness.
Think about this: There is no university in the Top 20 that looks like Clemson. If you make a list of all the Top 20 schools that are land-grant institutions without medical or law schools and fewer than 15,000 undergraduate students — you have a list of . . . . Zero.
That may give some of us pause, but guess what . . . There's also no one else like that in the Top 30. If you make a list of all schools in the Top 30 that are land-grants without medical or law schools and have fewer than 15,000 undergraduates, your list will read: Clemson University.
So we're already breaking new ground. There's no reason to think we can't continue to do so.
In fact, breaking new ground is a time-honored Clemson tradition. This year, as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Green Clemson, we are learning more about his life and his ideas - including a fairly radical idea that a university could be both a high seminary of learning and a driver of economic development. He believed that practical scientific education was a path to prosperity, but he also thought that education needed to be leavened with a proper dose of arts and humanities. It was definitely a different kind of university.
That vision and that ability to do what we now call "think outside the box" is Mr. Clemson's greatest legacy to us. It's the reason we've always ignored the naysayers:
People who might have said to Mr. Clemson:
"You can't build a college in the middle of nowhere. Nobody will come."
People who might have said to R.C. Edwards:
"You can't go co-ed; you can't enroll African American students. It'll cause a riot."
Or the experts who told the Board of Trustees:
"You can't put professional and humanities programs in the same college. That's not the way it's done in academia."
Or...
"You can't get a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. You don't even have a College of Liberal Arts."
Or the ones who said Clemson could never be ranked one of the nation's top 30 public universities because "we're a small, poor state."
We're pretty good at saying, "Well, thank you for your advise, but we're going to do it anyway."
Clemson has defied the odds time after time because we have remained true to our core values . . . our DNA. Things on the surface change frequently, but what's at the center of Clemson does not. What's at the center is:
- a commitment to individual students and their success;
- a climate of collaboration, partnership and teamwork;
- a tendency to think "big" and a strong desire to be the best at what we do;
- an ingrained sense of public service.
Because we're different, we have the opportunity to re-invent the research university and address some of the major criticisms and challenges facing higher education today. These challenges include:
- Loss of our global leadership position in science and technology;
- Decline in the quality of undergraduate education;
- Lack of accountability for student learning outcomes;
- Affordability and access to a college education.
If you were going to invent a new kind of institution to address those challenges. . . you would probably start with a research university because you would need graduate education in science and technology. a strong research infrastructure and a commitment to economic development; but then you'd add a small-college teaching and learning environment with lots of faculty-student interaction, tranquil, uncrowded outdoor rooms for quiet reflection, and the sense of community you might find in a college-town environment; and finally, you'd want it to be a public university so that it would be affordable, accessible and engaged in the community it serves.
Sounds a lot like Clemson, doesn't it?
We believe Clemson is well-positioned - perhaps uniquely positioned - to re-invent the research university and address the issues facing higher education
in the 21st century. Our greatest challenge this time is not self-concept, it's resources.At a recent administrative council retreat, we developed an ambitious list of priorities for 2007, many of which are already under way. We will enroll a Top 20 class, continue to recruit outstanding new faculty, develop a master plan for student housing and the old Douthit Hills area, upgrade our computing network, and continue to build a knowledge-based economy in South Carolina. But our overriding goal will be to develop and fund a new five-year plan that leverages Clemson's distinctive qualities and propels the final push to the Top 20.
We are doing all of this because it is our legacy and our destiny to respond to Thomas Green Clemson's charge to be a "high seminary of learning."
Thank you.