President’s Address to the University Community, 2009

Good afternoon.  I am very pleased to see you all here today, and I will begin by confessing that I am as puzzled as any of the pundits out there about how to interpret the implications for us of the nation’s and the state’s current circumstances.  If I were given the opportunity to select a decade in which to effect the substantive growth and development of a large public university, I am thinking this decade is not the one I would have chosen.

In a recent statement I made to the NJ Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, I point out that public higher education has never, at any time in its history, been a high priority for New Jersey.  But the dramatic disinvestment in public higher education that has occurred over the last decade is unprecedented, and it has caused a major shift of the costs of public higher education from the state to students and their families, constituting an effective user-tax on a large and very important segment of the state’s population.

The fundamental principle of public higher education, the principle that is at the heart of our mission, is that individuals with ambition and ability in our state and nation should have the opportunity to go to college without regard to the circumstances of their birth or the income level of their families.  And the purpose behind that principle is that this nation needs the contributions that can be made by a broad range of its citizens.  I pointed out that seven members of that Senate Committee had been the beneficiaries of public higher education, including Senator Buono, the Chair of the Committee, who is a Montclair State graduate.

At the annual University fundraising dinner several weeks ago, we presented a short glimpse of the face and meaning of public higher education.  We pointed to our honorees, two alumni – Angelo Genova and A. J. Khubani.  Angelo graduated in 1975 with a degree in History.  Today, he is a leading member of the New Jersey Bar; he has served as an advisor to four governors; he is a highly recognized expert in election law; and he is an active and generous philanthropist.  A. J. Khubani graduated in 1984 with a degree in Business Administration.  He launched his first direct marketing business while he was a senior at Montclair State, and, by the age of 26, he had founded and was the CEO of TeleBrands Corporation.  Today he is an enormously successful businessman, the undisputed king of infomercials, and also a generous donor and philanthropist.

More recent graduates include Orlando Cabrera who entered our Health Careers Program in 2000, a program designed to recruit and mentor promising young students from less privileged backgrounds.  Orlando graduated in 2004 with a major in Biology, earned a commission in the U.S. Navy, graduated from UMDNJ, and is currently practicing family medicine at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

Meshele Scipio graduated in 2007 with a degree in Molecular Biology.  She got a job working as a Senior Laboratory Technician for the Rutgers University Cell & DNA Repository.  She has now decided that she can make her best contribution by becoming a Biology teacher and mentoring students like herself in the Newark public schools.  So she has returned to Montclair State as a Prudential Teaching Scholar.

And for a glimpse at this year’s graduating class, Ron Chicken, who happens to be the president of the Student Government Association, is graduating with a degree in Philosophy and Religion and has been accepted to the Princeton Theological Seminary where he will begin graduate studies this fall.  Erica Emmich will graduate this May with a degree in Broadcasting, and she is already well into her career as a journalist.  She covered the recent presidential election with the polling firm Rasmussen Reports, and she is now working as a digital reporter for Fox 5, providing Web-exclusive reports for college-age viewers.

It is these faces that tell the story of why we do what we do.  It is the thousands of faces absent from these pictures that pose the question, what could New Jersey be thinking as it cannibalizes its educational and cultural institutions and diminishes the opportunities available to its citizens.

Let me share a few straightforward facts to focus more specifically on what I mean:

Montclair State University has 17,475 students.  That is 4,000 more students today than it had in the year 2000.  Next year we will have closer to 18,000 students.  Montclair State granted degrees to 3,477 students last year.  That is 1,200 more degrees than it granted in the year 2000.

Notwithstanding that growth, the Governor’s proposed FY ‘10 budget provides Montclair State with direct state appropriation that is less in actual dollars than we received in 2000.  When one factors in the effects of inflation, the direct state appropriation proposed for next year represents a 34% decrease in real support over this decade.  State appropriation per student at Montclair State in 2000 was $3,366, already an appallingly low number.  In the Governor’s proposed budget, state appropriation per student drops 31% below that 2000 number to $2,411.

Beyond the gross decline in operating support, there has not been a bond issue for the capital facilities of the state’s public colleges and universities since 1988.  While this state spent tens of billions of dollars on facilities construction and continues to spend billions for K-12 schools, not one penny has been spent for the state colleges and universities.  Our students have built their own buildings, and despite all that we have built, we are still grossly under-resourced in facilities based on even the most conservative national comparisons.

In this environment, you can imagine my further disappointment at the fact that there has been no indication to date that any of the federal state stabilization funds will be used for higher education.  While other states are talking about how they can use these stimulus funds to secure operating support for public colleges, minimize tuition increases, and provide for facilities renovations, there is, so far, no similar discussion happening in New Jersey.

Applications to our state colleges and universities have been rising every year.  This year, Montclair State has seen a 20% increase in undergraduate admissions and graduate applications have risen by over 23%.  New Jersey citizens are voting with their feet.  They want a place in one of their state colleges.  Many of them won’t get one, and they will continue to be forced out of state.  Net out-migration of New Jersey students constitutes close to 40% of the total net out-migration in the nation.  We’re talking about a net loss of about 29,000 students every year.  No other state in the nation does that. New Jersey stands alone in systematically and blithely escorting out the door the very young people who represent our future, after having spent more dollars per student on their primary and secondary education than any other state in the nation.  How nice for our competitor states, who, by the way, welcome them in gleefully.

More specifically, as we look ahead to the next fiscal year, the portion of the proposed cut applicable to Montclair State is a reduction in our direct State appropriation from $45.5 million this past year to $43.2 million next year, a loss of $2.3 million.  In fiscal year 2010, general appropriation as currently proposed would drop to an estimated 26% of our total revenues.

In addition, the State has cut all funding for the state-negotiated salary increases, an additional $1.6 million cut for Montclair State, and the governor’s modest proposal to us is that we simply furlough our employees to make up this cut.  We cannot be certain at this point in time how the budget and the furlough issues will be resolved, but we will be following the situation closely and making sure that the Governor is aware of our concerns.  My principal concern is that Montclair State, as an operating entity, is not anything like a state agency and cannot be treated like one.  We are not contracting or failing.  We are an expanding enterprise with a balanced budget and sound operating practices, and, far from laying people off, we are hiring new faculty and staff to serve our students, enhance our programs, and develop and maintain our new facilities.  It is just that, despite being a so-called public university, we are relying increasingly on non-state revenues, principally tuition and fees.

Even as State investment in public higher education has been shrinking, Montclair State has moved forward to create better educational opportunities for more New Jersey students.  From fiscal years 2000 through 2009, the University’s operating budget has more than doubled, growing from $133 million to $282 million.  This increase reflects enrollment growth, increased full-time faculty positions, and enhancements to information technology, facilities, academic support, and student housing.  Next year, the University’s operating budget will grow once again as we hire new faculty and operate expanded facilities.

To compensate for the reduction in State appropriation, we will continue to focus on using available resources as wisely and efficiently as possible, and on generating additional revenue from non-State sources wherever feasible.  To the greatest extent possible, we will observe the following principles:

• Budgets will be developed with a long-term view and will protect core academic programs.
• We will continue to recruit highly qualified faculty in response to enrollment growth.
• We will protect the workforce of the University, which deserves the credit for our extraordinary achievements over the last decade.
• We will provide the facilities and equipment necessary for high-quality academic programs.

To observe these principles, we will have to exercise discipline in a number of areas.  We must:

• apply the highest standards to every hire we make;
• use every human, physical, and financial resource we have, every instructional, administrative, and student service resource as efficiently as possible;
• continue to improve both academic and business practices, seeking out additional efficiencies that will also improve quality; and
• eliminate programs and activities that, while beneficial, constitute areas for which there is less demand, or where we cannot achieve high quality, or that are lower institutional priorities.

The fiscal year 2010 budget process has begun and will continue over the next two months with the participation of all the University’s many units.   Please feel free to contact your division and department heads with ideas and questions.

Although we have been repeatedly disappointed with New Jersey’s declining commitment to higher education, we will continue to work with the other state colleges and universities to advocate on behalf of our students.  At stake are both the futures of our students and New Jersey’s long-term economic competitiveness.  Along with our sister institutions, we have developed the “Nine Strong for a Stronger New Jersey” campaign and its New Jersey College Promise Action Network.  Our key goals are to:

• make state colleges and universities a higher priority by pointing out how critical they are to our students and the prosperity of the state;
• provide more students with the opportunity to attend affordable, high-value state colleges and universities in their home state;
• help students graduate from state colleges and universities with manageable levels of debt; and
• provide the state with a better supply of well-prepared college graduates to keep our economy strong.

Each of you can help in this effort by registering on www.njcollegepromise.com and by getting friends and neighbors and members of organizations and clubs and churches to which you belong to do so as well.  The Action Network is open to anyone interested in strengthening New Jersey by supporting our state colleges and universities.

While external advocacy for our academic programs, our students, and the institution that sustains them is, in different ways, the responsibility of all of us, the primary focus of our attention is, of course, on our University and professional contributions.  In that regard, despite the difficult external environment, the University community has had an extremely productive year.

The continued renewal and expansion of our faculty is the central activity that will have the most impact on defining the future excellence of the University.  We are now finishing the annual process of the recruitment of new faculty, and I am pleased to report that a number of highly qualified scholars will be joining us in the fall from some of the nation’s most distinguished institutions.

The achievements of the faculty this year have been impressive on a number of fronts, and there has been a noticeable increase in the dissemination of scholarly work in numerous important publications and venues.  Among the very large number of books by faculty and staff that have been published over the last year are:

• • A New Language, a New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945, by Nancy Carnevale of History (University of Illinois Press; February 27, 2009)
  • To All Gentleness: William Carlos Williams, the Doctor Poet, by Neil Baldwin of Theatre and Dance (Black Classic Press; May 1, 2008)
  • The Supreme Court and Whistleblowers: Teachers and Other Public Employees, by Joseph Oluwole of Counseling, Human Development, and Educational Leadership (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller; December 16, 2008)
  • Data Warehousing and Mining: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, by John Wang of Management and Information Systems (Information Science Reference; May 23, 2008)
  • A God or a Bench: Sculpture as a Problematic Art During the Ancien Regime, by Anne Betty Weinshenker of Art and Design (Peter Lang Publishing; November 14, 2008)
  • Explicit Instruction: Strategies for Meaningful Direct Teaching, by Jennifer Goeke of Curriculum and Teaching (Allyn & Bacon; October 23, 2008)

• The Contributions of Martha Hill to American Dance and Dance Education, 1900-1995, by Elizabeth McPherson of Theatre and Dance (Edwin Mellen Press; May 2008)
• A Place in Politics: Sao Paulo, Brazil, from Seigneurial Republicanism to Regionalist Revolt, by James Woodard of History (Duke University Press, 2009)
  

I am pleased to announce that Provost Gingerich has planned a reception for all faculty and staff on April 28^th in the Library to celebrate our University authors, and Sprague Library will be displaying all faculty books published since 2006.

This past year has been very productive for research- and grant-active members of the faculty.  As of the start of March, new external grants totaled $4.5 million.  Among many others, I would note the following examples:

• Sarita Eisenberg of Audiology received a two year $366,644 grant from the National Institutes of Health for “A Domain-Referenced Assessment Strategy for Differentiating Pre-School Children with and without Language Impairment”.
• Constance Gager of Family and Child Studies received a $144,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for “The Effects of Parental Marital Discord on Adult Child Outcomes.”
• Mark Kaelin received a five year $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for “Epidemiology and the Energy Balance Equation,” to implement a curriculum that develops middle school students’ understanding of the science of epidemiology.
• Robert Reid of Family and Child Studies received a five year $2 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for the Paterson Minority Substance Abuse and HIV Prevention Initiative.
• Donna Lorenzo of Health Careers again received a grant of $250,000 for the Upward Bound Project which builds the skills of low income and first generation students to help them pursue post-secondary education.

There were many other special achievements by members of our faculty and staff.  I will mention just a few, the tip of the iceberg:

• University Chief of Police, Paul Cell, was elected president of the Passaic County Police Association.
• Along with the likes of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer, Larry Londino of Broadcasting was featured in the new documentary Uneven Fairways, a portrait of black golfers who never got a chance to play against their best competitors because of the PGA’s old whites-only rule.
• Robert Taylor of Earth and Environmental Studies won a Fulbright Scholar grant to work at De La Salle University in the Philippines.  He is researching the topic “Sustainability, Urban Redevelopment and Environment: The City of Manila, Philippines.”
• Gregory Waters, professor of English and director of our honors program, was recently named chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

And as is so often the case, a number of our athletics coaches have received numerous honors and Coach of the Year awards by our various conferences and associations, including women’s basketball coach Karin Harvey, softball coach, Anita Kubicka, assistant football coach Rich O’Connor, women’s lacrosse coach Nicol Parcelluzzi, and men’s soccer coach, Brian Sentowski.

Our new Student Recreation Center received an outstanding design award from the New Jersey Recreation and Parks Association.

Montclair State’s Counseling and Psychological Services was approved for full accreditation by the International Association of Counseling Services.

On the program front, 8 new programs are slated to begin this fall.  At the doctoral level, we crossed the Rubicon of the PhD this year, winning approval for PhD designation for our new doctoral program in Counselor Education, and our program in Environmental Management.  At the master’s level, we will be offering several new programs this fall, including:

• a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Community Health Education;
• a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Biochemistry; and
• a Master of Arts in Public and Organizational Relations.

At the undergraduate level we will initiate:

• a Bachelor of Arts in Child Advocacy, the first such program in the country; and
• a B.F.A. in Industrial Design;
• a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre, which promises to be nationally competitive may also complete the state-wide process this spring and be ready for the fall.

Currently moving through the State approval process is our sixth doctoral program, an Ed.D. in Teacher Education and Teacher Development, and a third Ph.D., in Family Studies, has received Board approval and will also go to the State.

These curricular activities represent an enormous commitment of time and effort on the part of scores of individuals: the people who create the programs, and the many committee members who review and approve curricula up through the Undergraduate University Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Council.  I very much appreciate your efforts.  We are becoming a stronger and more deeply developed institution as a result of the ongoing curricular work done each year.

In that regard, the University’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee, which is chaired by Provost Gingerich, has been meeting regularly to reconsider the strategic goals of our last strategic plan and to reshape them in terms that will respond to the opportunities and challenges of a new decade.  The Committee is in the process of preparing a draft of the goals that will be posted for commentary from the full community.  The Committee is also reconsidering the benchmark institutions, both peer and aspirational, against which we will compare and measure our progress.  All of the University’s academic and administrative units are engaged in the strategic planning process, and divisional plans are due for submission by April 30.

One guiding principle that was part of our last plan and that will continue to be incorporated across all goals is that the University will embrace the pervasive and transforming use of technology in its many activities.  To that end, over the course of this past year, as in preceding years, the University’s IT team has persisted in efforts to deliver the equipment, applications, and support services necessary to advance our core learning mission and meet the administrative needs of the University’s various operating units.

Guided by Patty Kahn, the Blackboard Learning and Content Management system was upgraded to the latest revision and in-sourced to address the service and support deficiencies that resulted from our hosting arrangement with the vendor.  Several new online offerings were developed, including an Advocacy Certificate Program and courses in “The Business of Art” and “Clothing and Culture.”  The University maintained its reputation for technological innovation and excellence by being cited for the third consecutive year in the Horizon report, this year for Prof. Enza Antenos-Conforti’s use of PageFlakes to manage instruction in the Italian curriculum.

I am pleased to report that the IT group, in cooperation with our college and school technology units, was able to complete the audiovisual upgrade of an additional 29 classrooms this year.  In addition, 325 faculty and staff received new laptop or desktop computers as a part of our systematic life-cycle computing program.  Our students, too, are enjoying additional computing resources, and we have added 40 loaner laptops to the overflow computing lab on the fifth floor of University Hall and the laptop lending lab in Sprague Library.

The IT group is assisting the University’s assessment agenda by collaborating on a successful award from FIPSE to support the use of ePortfolios and by significantly expanding the online system for evaluating classroom instruction.  Led by Steve Johnson in the Office of Institutional Research, a total of 9,300 course evaluations have been conducted over the last year using this system.  The Institutional Research team also published the University’s first College Profile as part of the nation-wide Voluntary System of Accountability, an effort to produce a national standards-based template for comparing colleges and universities.  You will find the College Profile and a rich array of other reports and resources on the Institutional Research website, which has been completely renovated.

As we await the final contract and imminent launch of the massive Bell Tower Project, which will revamp and revitalize all of our administrative systems, Carolyn Ortega and her team in IT continue to work on the University’s aging SCT/Plus system to keep it useful until the new system is in place.  In addition, recent changes and innovations have enabled IT to stay ahead of our community’s insatiable appetite for storage, computing power, and bandwidth, and Jeff Giacobbe’s group continues to exploit virtual machine technologies to improve the manageability, performance, and resiliency of our computing infrastructure.  Our storage area network resources now consist of 90 terabytes of storage space, and, within the next several months, the University will transition to a dark-fiber backbone for Internet connectivity that will provide even greater bandwidth and dramatically reduce our reliance on vendor-supplied connections and services.

Moving from clicks to major bricks, we have two new construction projects and one major renovation under way.  New construction and major renovation of the old Chapin Hall will yield for next fall a brand new home for the John J. Cali School of Music.  The facility will have wonderful instructional and practice spaces for faculty and students, a beautiful recital hall, and specially designed practice halls for our largest choral and orchestral ensembles.  Also scheduled for completion in the fall is a brand new and urgently needed 309-bed student residence hall on Clove Road, adding a fifth residential building to our Village at Little Falls complex.  Following in the tradition established for the Village, and based on the campus-wide plebiscite that was conducted over the past month, the new hall will be named to recognize a worthy, but definitely deceased New Jerseyan.  Stay tuned for the announcement.

Also ready for the fall will be a completely renovated Panzer gym, which will, when it reopens in September, bear the grander name of Panzer Athletic Center.   To restore the sites surrounding Panzer and what will be the Cali School of Music, we have developed a design for the main Normal Ave. entrance to campus that will enhance the roadway from Normal Avenue to the Red Hawk Deck on both Carlisle Road and College Avenue while improving pedestrian pathways from Normal Avenue north to Kasser Theater and College Hall.   As a result, that entrance to campus will soon become a construction site, and we can anticipate temporary revisions to traffic flows.

Once the new Cali School opens in September, McEachern Hall will be refurbished to accommodate the Graduate School and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.  McEachern will also provide for some clearly identifiable study and gathering space for graduate students.

In other renovations, a large facility at 1515 Broad Street in Bloomfield, just a quick 5-minute ride from the campus, is being renovated to accommodate the very specialized needs of our graduate programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders, including the clinical facilities needed by those programs.  It is anticipated that this new space will be ready in August.  Once that move happens, as the dominoes continue to fall, planning is underway to renovate the portion of the Speech Building currently occupied by CSD to accommodate the needs of our growing program in Fashion Studies.

Several changes have occurred in College Hall.  The Honor’s Program, under Prof. Water’s direction, has moved into newly renovated space on the east end of the first floor, and the Admissions Office has moved into newly renovated space on the west end.  The Provost’s Office has migrated to the east end of the third floor, where you may now find Provost Gingerich and his crew.   A number of renovations have been completed for the College of Science and Mathematics, including faculty laboratories, the laser lab, and a new microscopy suite, and other research lab renovations are underway, including new research greenhouses that will be going up in the space between McEachern Hall and the Speech Building.

Several major new projects are now in early stages.  Asbestos abatement and demolition necessary to begin the renovation of Finley Hall should begin by summer, creating our new center for foreign languages and linguistics by fall 2010.  Design is being completed for a 1,500-car parking garage on what is now Parking Lot 25, which should be complete for the fall 2010 semester.   A selection process for an architect has begun to review the space requirements of the College of Science and Mathematics and to design a new life sciences building.   Design of a new facility for the School of Business is underway, with a very active design team from the business programs. Scheduled completion of that project is fall 2012.  Other major projects include working with a private developer to accomplish a major student residence project in downtown Montclair and the implementation of a campus energy plan, including the replacement of our co-generation plant as it reaches the end of its useful life.

During the summer, we will, as always, undertake a number of major renovation projects, the largest of which will be major repairs and renovations in several residence halls and improvements to the HVAC systems in several buildings, including Science and Richardson Halls.

Our Development staff, anticipating the recent wave of economic anxiety, adjusted their plans this year to give even more emphasis to reaching out to our graduates.  They talked to alumni to acknowledge past contributions and to call attention to our continued need for support.  Each college and school has a dedicated development professional visiting alumni and conducting on-campus tours and events.

The results are encouraging.  New alumni affinity groups are forming around former student athletes, alumni who have celebrated their 50^th reunion, alumni in theater and dance, and alumni in accounting.  In addition, Development staff are working closely with Alumni Relations to reactivate the Black Alumni Chapter.  Development officers have encouraged alumni in Washington, DC, Florida, and Virginia, among other places, to gather informally and to create or strengthen regional alumni chapters around the country.  These efforts will deepen our graduates’ connection to Montclair State, building relationships that will better position us to raise the funds we will need for future initiatives.

Planned giving is a recession-proof means of giving.  Encouraging alumni, retired employees, and friends to provide for the University in their wills and other estate plans has resulted in some of the University’s largest gifts, and we now have a website dedicated to helping alumni and others learn more about estate planning and how they can use it to support the University.  I invite you to familiarize yourselves with the site at montclair.edu/plannedgiving, and please remember that some of our largest donor gifts have come from associations and connections identified for us by our faculty and staff.

This year we were pleased to celebrate the establishment of the University’s fourth endowed professorship, the Theresa and Lawrence R. Inserra Endowed Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies.  And many of you will have heard of the recent and spectacular $5 million gift we received from an anonymous donor, the largest portion of which will be devoted to student scholarships for minorities and women. 

On the student front, last fall’s largest incoming class of 2,722 first-time freshmen boosted total enrollment to 17,475.  Who are these new students?

The results of the national 2008 Cooperative Institutional Research Program or CIRP study identifies the key characteristics of our freshmen in comparison with their national peers.  Here are a few highlights about freshmen who joined us last fall:

• 42% are members of a minority group;
• 77% of their families live within 50 miles of the University;
• 13% do not speak English as their native language;
• 32% report family incomes below $50,000;
• 32% report family incomes of $100,000 or more; and
• only 38% of their fathers and 40% of their mothers have a college degree.

Montclair State was the first or second choice college of 88% of our incoming freshmen.

The four most important reasons influencing their choice of Montclair State were, in order:

• its very good academic reputation,
• the good jobs its graduates get,
• its cost, and
• its nearness to home.

By far, the most important life goals of our students are:

• being very well off financially,
• raising a family, and
• helping others who are in difficulty.

The next most important goals are:

• obtaining recognition from colleagues for contributions to their fields,
• becoming an authority in their fields, and
• improving their understanding of other countries and cultures.

The anticipated choice of fields of study were 24% in Education and Human Services, 18% in the Arts, 18% in Business, 15% in the Social Sciences, 13% in the Humanities, and 12% in Science and Mathematics.

73% of Montclair State students intend to go on to earn a master’s degree or other advanced degree beyond the baccalaureate.

Just over half of our students describe themselves as politically middle-of-the-road.  Of the remainder, about 30% describe themselves as liberal and about 14% as conservative. An overwhelming majority of both male and female students believe that:

• A national health care plan is needed to cover everybody’s medical costs (84.8%).
• The federal government is not doing enough to control environmental pollution (83.3%).
• The federal government should do more to control the sale of handguns (83.2%).
• Through hard work, everybody can succeed in American society (81.6%).
• Addressing global warming should be a top federal priority (81.1%).
• Same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status (78.7%).
• Only volunteers should serve in the armed forces (71.1%).

A smaller majority, but still a majority, believe that:

• Wealthy people should pay a larger share of taxes than they do now (67.6%).
• Abortion should be legal (64.1%).
• There is too much concern in the courts for the rights of criminals (59.2%).
• Dissent is a critical component of the political process (55.6%).

The following data continue to astound me:

Despite all evidence to the contrary, our male freshmen rate themselves significantly more highly than our female students in:

• ability to discuss and negotiate controversial issues,
• intellectual and social self-confidence,
• self-understanding,
• academic ability,
• physical and emotional health,
• computer skills,
• popularity,
• public speaking ability, and
• mathematical ability.

Our female freshmen rate themselves significantly more highly than our male students in:

• cooperativeness,
• drive to achieve,
• writing ability, and
• spirituality.
  
  

So those were the backgrounds and the attitudes of our freshmen when they joined us last fall.  Presumably, their time at the University will have an impact on their views and on their understanding of themselves and others, hopefully and most particularly in regard to the troubling differences in self-confidence and self-assessment by young men and young women.

Looking ahead to the students of tomorrow, we continue to execute our strategic enrollment management plan, implementing retention initiatives to support student persistence and graduation.  We are working diligently at  helping our students to succeed by enhancing our advisement approaches, providing innovative supplemental instructional programs, and increasing early intervention for first-year students and other student populations who can benefit from additional support.

These strategic approaches are bearing fruit.  The six-year graduation rate for entering first-time, full-time freshmen continues its steady improvement, and for the first time in recent decades, it broke the 60% mark: 61.2% of the fall 2001 cohort of first-time, full-time freshman earned a bachelor’s degree within six years of entry.  That figure far exceeds the national average of 46.7% for institutions in our Carnegie classification.  The one-year retention rate for entering first-time, full-time freshmen also rose for the second consecutive year, with 81.9% of the fall 2007 cohort returning in fall 2008.  I am hoping that, with all of our efforts as we bring this term to a close and over the summer that we will get that 81.9% up another notch for fall 2009.

As I bring this lengthy epistle to all you Romans to conclusion, I will leave you with some words by Christopher Marlowe, one of the world’s great architects of lavish language.  Into the mouth of his monumental character, Tamburlaine, he put these words:

Nature that framed us of four elements,
Warring within our breast for regiment,
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds:
Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world,
And measure every wandering planet’s course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And always moving as the restless spheres.
Will us to wear ourselves, and never rest,
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,
That perfect bliss and sole felicity,

And to Tamburlaine, perhaps because he was a hugely ambitious Scythian shepherd, that perfect bliss and sole felicity was:

The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.

Let me slightly amend the passage for us:

Will us to wear ourselves, and never rest,
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,
That perfect bliss and sole felicity,
The sweet fruition of earthly work well done.

I commend your hard work over this past year and your collaborative spirit, which, despite the vicissitudes imposed by external forces, has enabled us to improve every key aspect of Montclair State University, keeping us on track, on mission, and with every reason to be proud of our progress. I am grateful to have you all as colleagues.

Thank you.