2008 State of the University Address

Florida Atlantic University
2008 State of the University Address

Delivered by President Frank T. Brogan on September 22, 2008

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you so very much, Nancy Blosser, for that incredibly generous introduction; it was quite literally too kind. I also want to acknowledge the beautiful voices of our vocal troupe under the direction of Patricia Fleitas. They don’t get enough credit. They appear at so many functions during the course of the year and sometimes we take their beautiful voices for granted; yet what stands behind those lovely voices are the bright, shining faces of Florida Atlantic University students. Patricia, thank you again, and thank you ladies and gentlemen for your beautiful voices this morning.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank our Board of Trustees. These 13 dedicated men and women really do a remarkable job of setting the course for Florida Atlantic University. There are 11 such boards now in the State University System and, as I am fond of saying, I believe Florida Atlantic University boasts the best of the Boards of Trustees. You cannot image the amount of time, energy and commitment that they put into setting our policies, overseeing our 500-million-plus budget and making certain that our strategic plan continues to see us move forward even in a time that is very difficult economically.

This is an annual opportunity for the president to talk not only about Florida Atlantic University; but also about the organization that brings us all together each and every day to benefit our students, now and in the future. I want to start by introducing several new members of our university leadership team.

First of all, I would like to welcome the new Dean of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Dr. Manju Pendakur. Formerly of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, he arrived at FAU last spring. All you need to do is be around him to feel the energy, the dynamic personality, and the passion he has already developed for one of our great colleges, and working with that amazing faculty. We know that this university's College of Arts and Letters is going to become one of the strongest in the nation. Welcome, Dean Pendakur, we are indeed fortunate to have you.

We also have a new Senior Vice President for University Advancement and Alumni Relations. We were so very fortunate to find a gentleman who has an amazing portfolio of experience in the area of advancement. He brings his experience, his expertise and his knowledge base to a very important and formidable position that will play a key role in crafting the future of Florida Atlantic University. He comes to us from the University of Florida, where he headed up the Alumni Affairs Division. He has also been at Florida State University, so we have much to do in making sure that we imbed within him the Owl spirit, but it's happening very quickly. I'd like to introduce to you a South Florida native who is now a member of the FAU family, Mr. Randy Talbot. Randy, welcome to FAU.

Another new member of the family has joined us in the area of Student Affairs. As this university continues to grow in reach, volume and scale, we must always remember that students are at the heart of everything that we do. Our Division of Student Affairs is more important than ever before, and we’re very, very fortunate to have Dr. Corey King come on board as our Dean of Students. He comes to us from East Carolina University. Dr. King, welcome.

The world of college athletics creates a rich part of the tapestry of university life. We were also very fortunate this year to have acquired as a member of the family a gentleman who has an amazing resume in NCAA basketball. He's a 20-year veteran of Division One basketball who has led nine teams to the NCAA tournament. In 1999, when he was head coach at St. John's, his team made it to the Elite Eight. He is also community-minded and community-based. In the several years that the Jarvis family has lived in Boca Raton they've made an indelible mark on community life. We welcome to FAU our new Division One men's basketball coach, Mike Jarvis. Welcome coach, we’re glad to have you.

I also want to thank a group that is the heart and soul of Florida Atlantic University – our faculty. While they have not increased in number this semester to as great a degree as they have in the past due to budget constraints, we were very fortunate to acquire the services and the passion of some amazing new faculty members. I’d like to ask any new members of the faculty to please stand so we can welcome you to Florida Atlantic University.

I would be remiss if I did not begin with the elephant in the living room. That happens to be the budget situation that the State of Florida, and, for that matter, the entire nation is facing. It has been the common thread that has run through almost everything that we’ve done for the past couple of years, and it will be there for some time to come. We have already cut 19 million dollars over the past two years, and it appears that we’re going to have to cut millions more during this fiscal year. Nevertheless, opening the doors of this university this fall to our faculty, students, staff members and administrators, people who are completely focused on their responsibilities, is one of their most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had as a leader. To be able to see people come to work each and every day – people who have not had a pay raise in two years, people who are dealing with larger class sizes and scheduling difficulties, people whose own economic situations may be difficult and yet who still make the students of Florida Atlantic University their number one professional priority – is incredibly rewarding. We are so very proud of the people of this university, who continue to make certain that the educational opportunities provided to our 27,000 students take a back seat to nothing. You are all amazing in what you do and how you do it. Even though we will continue to face difficult economic times, we’ll do it the way we’ve done it every day for two years: We'll do it together. We’ll make certain that we plot a course for the future of this university that will not allow difficult economic circumstances to pull us down and pull us backwards. You see, failure is not an option here because our students rely on us to navigate these difficult economic times with them as our highest priority. We do not have the ability to explain to our students that the quality of their education will suffer because they happened to come through our doors at this particular period in America’s history. We will resolve this economic situation as a state and as a country. We have before and we will again. The job for us at Florida Atlantic University is to make certain that our students come out of this, that our faculty comes out of this, that our University comes out of this better, because nothing else is acceptable.

We’re also dealing with new organizational issues at the state level – a new college system and state college system. We’ve never been here before. It's very important that we work side by side with other higher education leaders to make certain that everyone shares the vision of offering greater access to baccalaureate degrees than ever before. This is not only to fill the needs of business and industry in the 21st century, but also to make certain that we provide students with a seamless system of higher education, without duplication of services, and, more important, without gaps. Everyone is relying on us to make sure that the transformation to this new system is nothing but positive for all concerned.

We have fewer high school graduates in our area and around the state of Florida. The economy has impacted the number of people who live here and the number of people moving here, so growth is slow. We’re seeing fewer students coming to us from the K through 12 system. This is happening not just at Florida Atlantic, but around the state, and that has an impact on how we plan and grow. It makes us begin to think of new and innovative ways to continue our growth into the future. The depressed housing market has seen many people leave the Sunshine State, with fewer people coming to take their place. But with crisis comes opportunity, and as we continue to plan we will simply find new ways to not only build the traditional side of this university and become more and more of a first-choice university, but also to find new recruitment opportunities. We want to bring additional students in from around the country and around the world to create a greater and more diverse population, which is truly one of the hallmarks of a higher educational experience. It is more important than ever for Florida Atlantic University, in spite of all of the change and all of the challenge, to continue to find new ways to think outside of the box.

Let me talk about one of those opportunities. Recently you’ve been hearing and reading about it: the Clearwire broadband lease contract. The world of communications is changing dramatically, giving Florida Atlantic University an unprecedented opportunity to profit from our surplus technological capability. This unneeded broadband capacity resulted from the fact that we changed direction in the way in which we approached the technological needs of this growing university. By virtue of that fact, we joined hundreds of other public education institutions, including more than 40 in the state of Florida, in being able to provide a lease opportunity to the private sector. We selected a company called Clearwire following a very elaborate, transparent and open request-for-proposal process. Clearwire now has acquired a 30-year broadband lease from FAU, which will bring some 170 million dollars of new money into this university. Now, this is non-recurring revenue, one time availability, and yet if appropriately spent will provide this university with some amazing windfall opportunities. We’ve already received the first 14 million dollars, which is now in the bank and ready to be spent. Our Board of Trustees recently heard a comprehensive proposal for its expenditure over the years to come. The mission of the proposal was to make certain that these non-recurring revenues are spent first and foremost on our highest priorities, as laid out in our strategic plan. Its second purpose was to try to create a perpetual opportunity by establishing an endowment with some of those funds to enable our faculty and students to benefit forevermore. Our plan will be fleshed out over time; the good news is that it is based specifically on our strategic plan.

First of all, dollars have been earmarked to create a stronger research platform at our university. This is a fund that will assist our advanced researchers with equipment and start-up costs. We want to make certain that we give our faculty the tools they need to take this university to the next level. Whether it's direct funding through stipends or support for additional training in the classroom or the use of technology, our faculty will receive the lion’s share of the benefit of these expenditures over time. And clearly our students will also derive great benefits as some of this funding is used to move us to the next level in areas such as retention, tutorial programs and graduation rates.

Technological infrastructure is probably the least sexy of all of these targeted expenditure areas, and yet if you don’t have the switches, if you don’t have the routers, if you don’t have the appropriate hard infrastructure in place, it is amazing how your platform is weakened and therefore not one upon which you can build all the technological opportunities you want for your great university.

We are also channeling funds into an endowment, which we expect will reach 12 million dollars by the end of the first 10 years of the lease. The proceeds of this endowment can be used for faculty fellowships, for student scholarships and other financial aid programs, not only now but also in the longer term and forevermore as the endowment's perpetual nature will allow us to do. This is an innovative, creative and out-of-the-box approach to supporting this university. That’s the benefit of being at Florida Atlantic University: it is a university that is nontraditional, it is a university that is dynamic and fluid and mobile. It is a university where people are willing to push the envelope and take risks as long as it is for the benefit of our faculty, our students, and the good name and reputation of Florida Atlantic University.

We also are allocating some of these dollars to provide additional compensation to our faculty and staff. This lease agreement affords us at least some opportunity to provide additional assistance in these difficult economic times while we wait for the state to resume salary increases for all employees in state government.

I also want to talk about the need to be nimble and mobile with existing personnel. I continue to mention our strategic plan. It really does provide the javelin point for our move into the future. It provides the priorities, the goals and objectives upon which we now operate. But we also know that a strategic plan, and I’ve been involved in many, needs leadership. It needs to be advanced every day by someone with wisdom and heart who has a passion for the task. So, within our existing organization and our existing economic constraints, and in the knowledge that if we don’t move this strategic plan forward in an aggressive and organized manner it will begin to atrophy, I’ve asked one of our great university leaders to step into this critically important role. She is a natural choice because she is widely thought of as the face and form of our strategic plan, having been the leader who worked closely with the Board of Trustees to make it one of the best strategic plans in our state system of higher education. And so I had to look no further, and yet I needed to ask her to please take on this responsibility, which means moving away from the thing that she loves very much, and that’s the Jupiter campus. So I have asked Dr. Kristen Murtaugh if she would consider accepting the role of Vice President for Strategic Planning and continue to lead the strategic planning efforts of our entire university, and she has agreed to serve in this very important capacity. When she takes the helm during the second semester the Jupiter campus will have to go under new leadership, and there again I didn’t have to look far to find the perfect person for the job. All I needed to do was to turn to Gerri McPherson, an amazingly talented and energetic individual who loves Florida Atlantic University and is invested in its future. I asked her if she would add oversight of the Jupiter campus to her other responsibilities in the northern area of our service region, and she accepted. This is an exciting time for the Jupiter campus, which is beginning to transition into a whole new world in the 21st century; it's changing, evolving and expanding its mission. To both Kristen Murtaugh and Gerri McPherson I say thank you for stepping up to the plate and allowing us to create a revenue-neutral opportunity that we hope will lead to even greater things for our strategic plan in the future. Thanks to both of you very much.

I say this about our faculty at every commencement, and I mean it: They are the heart and soul of this university. As our graduates go on to do great things, those who remain behind – our faculty – continue to dedicate themselves to the success of the next class and the next and the next. They bring their expertise and their knowledge to bear in ways that are so very, very impressive. The number of faculty is slightly up this year, 1,053 with the arrival of the new faculty members I mentioned earlier as well as the addition of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute faculty for the first time this year.

I want to give you just a few examples of the kind of truly outstanding faculty members we have at Florida Atlantic University and the important work they are doing. Dr. Sameer Hinduja of the College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs is conducting vitally important research on how we as a society can combat cyberbullying and other abuses on the Internet.

Just this month, Dr. Scott Kelso, our Eminent Scholar in Science in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, was accorded a top international honor when he was named a Pierre de Fermat Laureate by a distinguished panel in France. He will use the funding that comes with his prestigious award to develop a collaborative program between the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Science at FAU and the Institute of Neuroscience in Toulouse, France. He is there today, and in his absence we say thank you.

Libby Larsen, one of the world’s most prolific and most performed living composers, brought her unique style to Florida Atlantic University as the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Performing Arts. Last fall, the music faculty performed a concert of her works to a very appreciative audience. FAU is deeply committed to furthering the study of the arts and humanities. The success of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in attracting an internationally celebrated figure such as Libby Larsen provides evidence of our university’s expanding role as a center of cultural activities.

Dr. Sally Brown, associate professor of history on the Jupiter campus, was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture at Charles University in the Czech Republic. During her five months in Prague, she taught courses on the American Civil Rights Movement and the American South since 1900. I know that Sally is here this morning, and I’d like to ask her to stand so that to her and through her we can thank all of our amazing faculty for all they do for Florida Atlantic University.

Our student body is an amazing group of men and women who seem to navigate some of the most unique, unusual and, in many cases, difficult challenges to acquire their diplomas from Florida Atlantic University. I’d like to tell you just a little bit about some of them. Sixty-five of Florida Atlantic University's social work students raised enough money to hire a bus and go to Tallahassee for what we call FAU Days during the legislative session last year. They are going to do it again this year, probably in even larger numbers. This enthusiastic expression of support directly from our students to the legislators who allocate funding for our programs is invaluable. Several of these immensely supportive students are here this morning and I’d like to include in their introduction the key organizer, Vicky Rosenthal. I understand Vicky’s mother is here this morning as well, and I’d like to ask those students and Vicky and Vicky’s mother to please stand and let us recognize all of you. Welcome. Good morning, Mother Rosenthal. You must be very proud.

Broward-based computer arts MFA student Tiffani Thomas received the Award of Excellence from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators, winning out over a field of 500 competitors. Tiffani couldn’t be here with us this morning because she is in North Carolina, but she sent a message saying that this highly sought-after award eluded her for five years until she submitted the work that she did as a student here at FAU. She thanks all of the computer arts faculty and staff members for the wonderful guidance and support they gave her during her years at FAU.

Counselor Education graduate student Ana Maria Leon was named the Florida Elementary School Counselor of the Year by the Florida Counseling Association. A program that she developed called Passport to Peace is getting national and international attention. An FAU alumna with a master's degree in counseling, she is currently studying for her doctorate in the College of Education.

Graduate biological science student Mikki McComb's research on the visual fields of sharks was featured in a Discovery Channel documentary titled “Perfect Predators.” Her research focuses primarily on hammerhead and bonnethead sharks. She works in the Elasmobranch Research Lab of Dr. Stephen Kajiura, who is a leading expert on sharks, skates and sting rays. Mikki is here with us this morning with her three-week-old son, Nicholas MacKenzie Kobza. [Sound of baby crying in the audience.] I believe that’s him now. Will mother and son please stand so we can welcome you. I believe that was a cheer for Mom we just heard.

FAU High School student Christina Zarrilli was honored for her volunteerism by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program that shines a light on young people who are deeply committed to community service. Christina has devoted more than 4,000 hours to activities that include disaster relief, search and rescue, senior citizen aid, veteran and soldier support and youth mentoring. A cadet in the Civil Air Patrol, she plans on becoming an astronaut. That would make number two for Florida Atlantic University, by the way. Christina is here this morning with her very proud family, and we’d like to ask all of them to please stand. Well done, Christina.

And now I'd like to talk just a little bit about community engagement. This university believes strongly that universities need to be more than places in the community; great universities need to be part of the community. The amazing litany of experiences in that regard that I could give you this morning is simply too long to even imagine, but here are some highlights. The Weppner Center for Civic Engagement and Service organized this year’s Alternative Spring Break, which saw 26 students from all seven FAU campuses travel to four of Florida’s beautiful state parks to clean up the trails. Several of these students are in the audience this morning, along with some of the dedicated staff members of our Center for Civic Engagement and Service, and I’d like to ask them to stand. You can imagine the other possibilities that exist for them today during spring break, but they chose to use that time to give back to their community and the broader community. Ladies and gentlemen, please stand and let us say thank you this morning, thank you all.

Our students are part of the solution – tutoring and mentoring at-risk children, volunteering at local non-profit agencies, and playing a hands-on role in making our country a much stronger place for everyone. I'd like to give a special shout-out to Monica Jara, who recently left her position as the director of the Weppner Center for Civic Engagement and Service to take a new job in Washington, D.C. She isn’t here with us this morning, but so many of our organized student volunteer activities have her indelible prints upon them that I wanted to offer one last word of thanks. I understand that she's watching the webcast from Washington. Good morning, Monica, and thank you for everything.

This year, as you remember, Florida Atlantic University played host to a nationally televised presidential debate and provided not only great exposure for our growing university but, more important, provided us with a hands-on opportunity to actually practice what we preach. We were able to provide a compelling real-life civics lesson for our students, more than 700 of whom volunteered to work at the debate itself. Four thousand students participated in a program we called “Join It” – civic engagement events that were held prior to and following the debate. More than 400 journalists were on campus that week, providing national media exposure for FAU. It was estimated that the value of the publicity this university received exceeded one million dollars. Faculty experts had the opportunity to showcase their knowledge and their expertise while engaging students in that real-life civics lesson. For all of that and for so much more, I want to thank people like Dr. Ken Osgood, Dr. Eric Shaw and Dr. Kevin Wagner for the leadership roles they played in organizing our “Join It” program. I would like to ask them to stand, along with any of the other members of that committee who are with us this morning, so we can thank them for what they did for all of us at Florida Atlantic University.

Florida Atlantic University is dedicated to providing ever-increasing access opportunities through its campuses in Broward and Palm Beach counties and on the Treasure Coast, where people in many different life situations can study for their undergraduate and graduate degrees. There is not another model like this in our State University System, and we are also quite a model for others in the nation. At the same time, we've been trying to develop the traditional side of the university. It is possible to do both, you know. We want to make certain that the entire university experience is available to all of our students, be they commuter or residential students. We are creating more dormitory space, creating greater opportunities in intramural and recreation programs, creating the things that are needed for FAU to become that first-choice university we know it is capable of becoming. I want to tell you about some of our recent successes in that regard. First of all, we received more than 11,000 freshman applications this year for some 2,400 spots; this was a record. Transfer applications were up by 9 percent, and graduate student applications were up by 23 percent. Indeed, more and more people are hearing about and wanting to be a part of what we’re doing here at Florida Atlantic University.

As a result of this increased interest in FAU, we've now passed the 27,000 mark in enrollment. Our incoming freshman class is the biggest ever at 2,828, and that's in the middle of this difficult economic time that we are facing. Within that class, average GPA is up to 3.25, average SAT is up to 1057 and average ACT is up to 23. Forty-four percent of our 27,000-member student body is made up of minority or international students – an amazing tribute to the issue of diversity. This demonstrates that FAU not only provides great access, but also gives students of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds the opportunity to rub elbows with people from all over our country and all over the world as they acquire the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the global economy in the 21st century.

Attracting students from outside our local geographic area has become quite an art form, and we can quantify it. The number of applications that we received this year over last from the Brevard County is up 30 percent; from Miami-Dade, up 32 percent; from Duval, up 53 percent; from Hillsborough, up 77 percent; from Pinellas, up 28 percent; and from Seminole, up 66 percent.

Our graduate student enrollment is up 7 percent. The undergraduate retention rates and six-year graduation rates are both up. A dozen strategic programs are now in place to support student success, including freshman learning communities, living learning communities, and the supplemental instruction program, which grew from one class to 22 classes in a single year. Under the leadership of our new Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Ed Pratt, we’ve begun to work with our faculty to reorganize our core curriculum. That is something, ladies and gentlemen, that in many comprehensive research universities is left out of the equation. It is an important priority at this university, and next fall we will introduce a newly reorganized core curriculum that we will put up against any other in the country and on the face of the Earth. And I want to thank Dr. Ed Pratt for his leadership in creating that, along with our faculty and staff. Dr. Pratt, thank you so very much.

Our Wilkes Honors College continues to excel and is now celebrating its tenth year. The incoming freshman class there is the strongest class academically that we’ve ever had. With an average SAT of 1270, an average ACT of 28 and an average high school GPA of 3.9, these students set a high standard of academic excellence. University-wide, we are continuing to promote higher incoming admission requirements and to build new and innovative retention programs to make certain that we not only see them come as students but also see them graduate from Florida Atlantic University.

At the other end of the age spectrum, our Lifelong Learning program continues to grow. And I have to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it is an amazing model. Enrollment on the Boca Raton, Jupiter and Treasure Coast campuses passed 34,000 this year, which is an all-time high. It provides a demonstration of how people thirst for continued educational opportunities regardless of age or station in life. Our Lifelong Learning Society course offerings continue to expand and are very obviously highly attractive to those who seek access to those opportunities. On a sad note, we lost our Dean of Lifelong Learning this year when Ely Meyerson passed from us. He will always be remembered as the gentleman who took Lifelong Learning at this university to a nationally recognized high. As we continue to build for the 21st century, we will build in the name of Ely Meyerson. Ely’s longtime associate Ginny Huntzinger, has been named Interim Director. Ginny, would you please stand and let us say thank you to you and all the people from LLS who are here this morning.

This year we formed the Graduate College, under the leadership of Dr. Barry Rosson. He's working with the Provost and with our faculty to build the organized graduate front that will provide us with the development in graduate studies that we desperately want and need as our entire university grows. A graduate recruitment coordinator, Gregory Gayle, came on board last December and he has already been promoted to Assistant Director. I'd like to ask Dr. Rosen and Dr. Gayle to both stand and let us recognize them for their leadership in the area of graduate studies. Thank you.

With those efforts paying off, 5,000 graduate applications were received this past year. Our goal is to increase that number to 9,000 by 2012. It is do-able. Factors that will help us meet that goal include the attractiveness of our medical education program; our partnerships with the Scripps Institute, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies and the Max Planck Society; our merger with the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and our continued efforts in marine research and ocean engineering; and the introduction of new doctoral programs, such as the Ph.D. in geosciences, which will be submitted to the Board of Governors for their approval in December. This new Ph.D. program is aimed at producing high-level scientists who will be able to solve South Florida’s environmental problems, especially those related to water. Five FAU colleges as well as several outside agencies are involved in this unique program.

Our library continues to be the informational spine that runs through the body of Florida Atlantic University, providing critically important resources to our faculty, our students, our scientists and our researchers in an accessible way despite the challenges posed by our distributed-campus system. In addition to making a very rapid transition into the electronic age, the FAU Libraries have become a site to view the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute's visual history archive. This is a collection of testimonies from survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. The number of hits that we’re beginning to receive is astounding as people take advantage of the opportunity to actually see and hear from survivors of the Holocaust. This acquisition has been underwritten by the League for Educational Awareness of the Holocaust, LEAH, a great partner of this university.

We must remember that Florida Atlantic University is still very young as an institution, having opened its doors just 44 years ago. Researching in an organized way has been limited to a handful of years in the relatively recent past. Dr. Michael Moriarty is our Interim Vice President for Research. Our Office of Technology Transfer can be a significant revenue generator for this university if we hit a home run. Consider what the University of Florida did many years ago with Gatorade and what Stanford University did more recently with something called Google. Research provides amazing opportunities to create resources that can be plowed back into the future of Florida Atlantic University. Over the past five years FAU’s cumulative sponsored research expenditures have surpassed 238 million dollars, and last year we reported a total research portfolio of nearly 92 million dollars. But even more important, we're updating our approach so that we are aligned with the system used by the National Science Foundation, which is based upon annual research expenditures. By that calculation, we’ve average 47.6 million dollars in annual research expenditures over the past five years. That’s something in which we can all take a great deal of pride, as our scientists work to unlock the mysteries of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other debilitating illnesses. Our researchers are also plying the sea, looking for ways to create clean, sustainable energy in a world that's desperate to find it. It's great to know that Florida Atlantic University continues to help lead the charge on both of those fronts.

As population grows on all campuses, so does our focus on safety issues. The FAU Alert system is in place and functioning. We will be testing all components of that system once a semester, so please make it a personal priority to keep your emergency contact information always up to date. Our safety efforts are led by the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, where we have suffered another loss. Wayne Landowski, the director of that office and a gentleman who quite literally made "Safety First" the culture of Florida Atlantic University, recently passed away. The baton is now passed to Tom Bradley and his dedicated staff. I have the good news to report that FAU was recently designated as Storm Ready by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – or NOAA. While we never want to see any storms come our way, it is great to know that we have such a talented group of people who have done all the preparatory work to make certain that should it happen, when it happens, this university is ready. I’d like to ask Tom Bradley and all of the staff of EH&S who are here with us this morning to please stand and let us say thank you.

You know, you can’t tell everything about a university by its physical growth and construction, but if you stop to think about what new facilities mean to the people who will be using them you can begin to appreciate how much they add to the university experience. The Davie Student Union is now open for business; it's not just a beautiful building but a center of student government and student activities that will serve this entire university well in the years to come. We are also preparing for a new building on that campus, one that will help us serve our ever-growing student body in Broward County. The Broward College/FAU parking garage will open in about a year as well.

If you haven't visited the Jupiter campus recently, take the trip off I-95 at Donald Ross Road and you will not believe what you see. What once was a very small and beautiful little campus nestled in the bosom of the Abacoa development has become a large and thriving enterprise. The 350,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Scripps research facility is about to open, and a 100,000-square-foot home for the Max Planck scientists will be coming on line in about a year. All of this is directly tied into FAU, and it is helping our university grow and gain visibility and importance in the life sciences, biotechnology and bioengineering. Growth is taking place all across our university, but the Jupiter campus is an especially good illustration of how we’re evolving.

A brand new classroom building is about to open on the Treasure Coast campus, and it will virtually double our capacity in an area of the state that is continuing to grow. In other locations, the newly opened Palm Pointe Educational Research School at Tradition, very near our Port St. Lucie campus, is a partnership between the St. Lucie County Schools and FAU. The students who attend this school will have innovative and ground-breaking educational opportunities, ultimately in a K-through-12 setting. Aspiring educators coming through the doors of FAU will have a cutting-edge environment to get the experiences they will need to pursue their careers. At the Pine Jog Environmental Education Center in West Palm Beach, a brand new magnet school has just opened. This school is the first elementary school in Florida to be built to the Silver LEED standard. The children and teachers there have environmental education as the common strand in their curriculum. Again, this is a place where our aspiring educators can go to get hands-on experience. Also, working professionals from all over Palm Beach County will have the opportunity to rotate into this school for a year’s time, acquire a master's degree in environmental studies and then go back to their own schools to become a teacher of teachers. This is another illustration of how Florida Atlantic University is part of the broader community.

On the Boca Raton campus, our new Office Depot Center for Executive Education is now complete, and we will be dedicating it within a week. Our Computer Center expansion and renovation will continue, not only to provide improvements in high technology but also to give us a jumping-off point to better coordinate all things technological at this university in the future. This week we will have the ground-greening for our new College of Engineering and Computer Science building; it's being called a ground-greening and not a groundbreaking because that particular facility is the first and only building in the state of Florida that is being designed to meet the Platinum LEED standard. That is an incredible accomplishment and an example of what the dean and the faculty of the College are doing to reinvent themselves to meet the challenge of environmental sustainability in the 21st century. Please come to the ground-greening on September 26. That will mark the day that FAU truly dons the green mantle of leadership in environmental engineering and education.

All of that fits under our “Mission Green” slogan. Recently I had the great opportunity to sign the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment on behalf of Florida Atlantic University. This is a compact among universities across the country committing us to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. In addition to teaching students about environmental sustainability and the importance of their stewardship in the future, we also must make certain that our university continues grows in stature as a place where environmentally friendly and sustainable policies are in place.

We began our environmental initiative with the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing building, which meets the Gold standard of LEED certification. This is not only a beautiful building, but a sustainable one, and every new building at this university from this point forward will be designed to meet at least the Silver Leed standard. I would like to thank the dedicated and hardworking Campus Sustainability Committee under the leadership of the Azita Dashtaki and Shannon Clounts of the Office of Space Utilization. Azita could not be with us this morning, but her excuse was as good as any you will find. She was married this weekend and is on her honeymoon. So I would like to ask Shannon Clounts and the rest of the Sustainability Committee to stand and let us recognize them for all they are doing for FAU. Thank you all.

I’m off script, which terrifies my staff, but I will tell you that there are no trays in our cafeteria any longer. The committee came up with that idea, and its research showed that if we eliminated the trays from our university cafeteria we would not only see less waste – and we have, up to 300 pounds a day, I am told, of food that was being thrown away – but we would also eliminate the need to wash those trays, which significantly reduces our water usage. This might seem like a small example. But when you line things like this up, they can really make a difference. We're just beginning to put systems in place to make sure that this university practices what it preaches.

Innovation Village and the football stadium are central to our efforts to develop the traditional aspect of the university. This is important not only to students living on the Boca Raton campus, but also to our large population of commuter students. Never should a commuter student – and I was one, during my undergraduate years – have to sacrifice the entirety of the university experience simply because they are not campus residents. These opportunities are for everyone, traditional and non-traditional alike. They also create a greater sense of community for alumni, faculty and staff, and those who are friends of the university.

Our new Marleen and Harold Forkas Alumni Center will be dedicated in October, during Homecoming activities. For the first time in its history, our young university will have a gathering place for all current and future alumni. How exciting it’s going to be on Game Day to see our alumni gather at the new Alumni Center and then walk across the street to the new football stadium. The Alumni Center will also be used to house classes for existing students. This will help cultivate the alumni mentality and make certain that they begin to develop their sense of connectedness to this university even before they leave us. We would not have been able to build our Alumni Center without the invaluable support of Marleen and Harold Forkas. They were unable to be here today, but I want to thank them for their great generosity. They’re not alums; they're just people who love this university and who have provided the means for us to establish an on-campus home for more than 100,000 FAU alumni. I’d like you to join me, even in their absence, in thanking not only Marleen and Harold Forkas, but other people like them who are providing opportunities at FAU in a day and time when money is harder than ever to find. Thank you, Marleen and Harold Forkas.

Universities across the country are recognizing that people want more and more in the way of campus amenities. Facilities such as our new Recreation and Fitness Center are not only good to have, but also help make the campus a destination point that can hold people throughout the day by providing a broad range of activities. Phase one of our 11-million-dollar Recreation and Fitness Center will open in January of 2009, and construction will begin immediately thereafter on phase two. The second phase will include a very large swimming pool. This will be a great destination point for everyone in the FAU community.

I'd like to say a few more words about our stadium. You know I was in Minnesota this weekend. Beautiful place, Minnesota. The University of Minnesota, which has been in existence for well over a hundred years, is in the process of building a new football stadium on campus. Even though they've played football for much longer than we've been in existence, they recognize the fact that having an on-campus stadium brings a spirit of camaraderie and connectedness to a university; and so next fall they will be taking up residence in their new stadium. By 2010 Florida Atlantic University will boast a brand new stadium of our own on the Boca Raton campus, a calling place for all of us. When you have the opportunity, as I do, to travel to other universities, it's easy to see how those stadiums are not just places in which football is played. They're also places where the great work of faculty is showcased, where great musical performances such as the one we heard this morning are presented. Stadiums are about a lot more than football. Every time those lights go on, they're about bringing people together to celebrate the university community.

And now I'd like to say a quick word about our student athletes, 450 amazing young men and women who all have a God-given ability that’s brought them to Florida Atlantic University. They are student athletes, and developing them as students is our highest calling. I tell all of those who want to bring their athletic talents here that my national championship in every sport takes place on the day they walk across that commencement stage and receive that diploma and take it out into the world and do amazing things with it. If they manage to win an intercollegiate national championship en route, so much the better. At the end of the day these amazing young people, who have the discipline to navigate a full load of course work, a travel schedule, a training schedule, a game schedule and still ultimately walk this stage to claim their degrees, are to be congratulated not only for what they do individually and for their teams but for what they continue to do for the reputation of Florida Atlantic University. It is possible to be a great academic institution and have great student athletes. There are just too many examples across the United States to deny that: Notre Dame, Stanford, Michigan and so many others. This university is not only dedicated to winning games, it is dedicated to graduating students and helping them lead the way to a better tomorrow for the entire world. One of our student athletes, football player Zachary Wichner, recently received his bachelor's degree in biological science from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. He has been accepted to medical school. That’s what we like at Florida Atlantic University.

During the spring semester, 173 of our student athletes earned GPAs of 3.0 or higher, and we’re very proud of that. Here's a quick commercial message: the football team comes home on Tuesday night, October 7. The game will take place on a Tuesday night because it's being broadcast on ESPN. That means that the name Florida Atlantic University will be in millions of households across the country, just as it was when we won the New Orleans Bowl last year. Exposure such as this attracts the attention of many people who are hearing about FAU for the first time and who go online to find out more about us. Some of them, as you heard in those amazing application numbers, then decide that they want to be part of this wonderful, dynamic university.

Ladies and gentlemen, FAU is meeting the challenges laid out for us in the first part of the 21st century. Many challenges still await us; but it is wonderful to come to our jobs every single day and know that we are working side-by-side with people who are dedicated to the proposition that good is not enough. We will never stop until this university is recognized as GREAT because our students deserve no less. Each and every one of us brings our own experience and passion to the table every day to make certain that this, indeed, will be the case.

On a personal note, I want to express thanks not just for my new employment contract, but for all of the things that this university has provided to me personally and professionally since the year that I graduated with a master's degree in education. Just as it does for students today, that degree opened doors for me that I never could have imagined when I was a little boy. I remain president of Florida Atlantic University because I am committed to making certain that student after student has the same life experiences that I’ve been fortunate to have because they chose Florida Atlantic University to be their port-of-call for their university experience. That’s the kind of university that we have, and that’s why I am so very proud to be its president. As I consistently say, the best days of FAU are yet to come. We are the people who will make that so. Thank you for a phenomenal year and, more important, thank you in advance for the phenomenal year I know we are about to embark upon.

I would now like to ask you all to please stand as we are joined once again by Dr. Patricia Fleitas and the FAU Vocal Troupe. Please join them in singing the Florida Atlantic University Alma Mater. Thank you, and have a wonderful day.