Editor’s Note: After consultation with the Faculty Senate in 2014, the president’s annual State of the University report transitioned from a spoken address to a written account. Below is 2017’s edition; readers are encouraged to post questions and comments.
To the ϳԹ community:
I write this message amid a moment of profound shifts within our country, many of which carry significant potential to influence the state of our university.
This week the White House released a National Security Strategy that indicates it is considering (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields from select countries to protect this country’s intellectual property. This language, coupled with last fall’s announcement regarding the program and the year’s three versions of a not only have caused tremendous anxiety for people on our campus, but also threaten our university’s diversity—a core value for ϳԹ.
Also this week, Congress approved a $1.5 trillion tax bill widely described as the most significant measure of its kind in at least three decades. While I am relieved that the current version of the proposal for our graduate students or a tax on undergraduate-level tuition waivers or reimbursements for our employees and their dependents, I remain deeply concerned about other aspects affecting higher education—including
Finally, for the past 11 weeks, we have seen one prominent public figure after another face allegations of sexual misconduct (more than 125 by USA Today’s count this week), with many removed from or leaving their professional roles as a result. The phenomenon has involved industries around the globe ranging from news and entertainment to sports and government to, yes, higher education. Described variously as “the Weinstein effect” and “a cultural reckoning,” the developments have dramatically raised awareness of the enormous extent of the problem—as well as of its devastating effects on victims.
None of these examples uniquely impacts ϳԹ. I open with them in this year’s message for two reasons: first, they do affect our campus, and second, we should affect them.
I will write more about each topic later in this message, but first want to provide details on topics more specific to ϳԹ—including ones that I traditionally include in this update.
Undergraduate Admissions
The class that entered this August again set for total applications submitted—more than 25,000—and selectivity—33 percent. It also included our first group of students admitted through our partnership with The Posse Foundation, as well as the first admitted under our new Meet Full Need policy. We adopted Meet Full Need to reduce the large debt burden endured by some of our students and to increase the number of economically disadvantaged and underrepresented students. I am pleased to report that we saw substantial gains in the proportion of Pell Grant recipients in the entering class, and modest improvement among underrepresented students.Research and Other Academic Endeavors
The 2017 Fiscal Year saw the university receive the highest level of sponsored research funding ($337.1 million) since FY 2013—and 8 percent more than the previous year. This achievement is particularly striking given the increased competitiveness of federal grants; for example, the university’s largest federal funding source, the National Institutes of Health, saw an increase of just 2.6 percent for its 2017 fiscal year. Even more impressive are several of the achievements made possible through support from government, philanthropy and other sources, among them:- the world’s first example ;
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- the finding that , a phenomenon that costs nearly $2.2 billion in health care, lost productivity and crime.
