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6/11/2004
Contact:
K.E. Schwab -- 724-738-2199; e-mail:
karl.schwab@sru.edu
SRU TRUSTEES
REVIEW GOALS OF NEW PRESIDENT ROBERT SMITH
AS HE TAKES
OVER LEADERSHIP OF 7,800-STUDENT CAMPUS
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University’s council
of trustees today welcomed Dr. Robert M. Smith as the
university’s 15th president at their regular
quarterly meeting, with council chair Dr. Robert Marcus saying,
“We have enjoyed a productive 17 months during your
leadership as interim president, and we certainly look forward to
working together with you on future projects at The
Rock.”
Trustees
individually commended Smith for his leadership skills and work as
interim president. Several also thanked members of the
presidential search committee for their efforts.
In
respect for last week’s death of President Ronald Reagan,
Marcus called for a moment of silence in opening the
session.
Following the trustee’s welcome,
Smith said, “I am excited to be your president. I am
humbled by the responsibilities, but elated by the opportunities.
As I said to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education
board of governors when I accepted their appointment, I was doing
it not for myself personally, but as affirmation that the faculty,
administration, staff, students and community constituents of this
university have come together as one united team moving the
institution forward in a positive direction and that their decision
was that we continue together to build a great university. Thank
you for your confidence in my leadership and your commitment to
support the promise of this university.”
Smith,
who had served as interim president for 17 months and prior to that
as provost and vice president for academic affairs since joining
the university in 1999, quickly set the agenda for his tenure in
his report to the council by establishing three primary goals for
the university community.
President’s Report:
In
his first official report to the council as president, Smith said,
“First, we must continue to raise the academic value of a
Slippery Rock University degree,” explaining the university
will continue to build on the academic rigor behind the degree.
“We are attracting more talented students, and we should
expect more from them. They come to us expecting to be challenged
and to be prepared to compete against the very best. The value of
our degree is directly proportionate to the quality of our
faculty.” He said in the future the university should assure
faculty the resources and development opportunities are available
to ensure they can meet and exceed expanding demands from our
students.
In
further detailing the academic value of an SRU diploma, Smith told
trustees, “We want to provide the world with a graduate who
has ‘effective habits of the mind’ and can serve as an
engaged citizen of his or her community. As a public university, we
have a special role to develop capable citizens as well as people
prepared for their first career.”
“We are in a time when it is far
more important to have graduates leave us knowing how to think
rather than having been taught what to think,” Smith said,
adding, “We still hold the conviction that Slippery Rock
University has a responsibility to the citizens of the commonwealth
to serve as a community and state educational resource. Over the
next year, we have to focus our liberal education program around
those simple goals.
“Second,” he said, “we
need to assert our presence as a premier, regional, public
residential university. Success in the modern economy necessitates
a tight focus on three dimensions: what a campus is passionate
about; what it can be best at; and what best drives a sustained
economic engine. We know best how to be a single campus where
traditional students in the 18-22-age range come to live and
learn….we are at our best as a classical residential
campus.”
While noting there were risks in
centralizing the university’s focus, he added, “As long
as we make an unswerving commitment to be the best possible
competitor and provide the most value to our students, we can
continue to be successful. After all, we have 115 years of practice
at being one specific type of institution. It is not reasonable to
expect us to abandon our core competency.”
In covering his third objective, Smith said,
“It is imperative that we intensify our efforts to generate
alternative revenue sources to ensure our ability as a public
institution to control our destiny.” He pointed out public
universities and colleges across the country, including
Pennsylvania, are struggling to cope with dramatic reductions in
state funding, and increasing tuition to meet the shortfall.
“There has to be a better way, and we have to find it,”
Smith said.
He noted, “Each year for the past two
years, we have found creative ways to reduce costs and improve
efficiencies. Our report to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher
Education chronicles hundreds of thousands of dollars saved and cut
through innovative efforts. We have proven ourselves to be nimble,
responsive, and prudent. Our financial viability and ongoing health
will be dependent on our entrepreneurship and
ingenuity.”
Accomplishments:
In a continuing effort to update trustees on campus activities,
Smith detailed the success of negotiations with the Association of
Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty, and the
university’s success is gaining approval for a Phi Kappa Phi
national honorary on campus. The honorary’s formal
installation ceremony will be Nov. 4. The president pointed to the
recent re-accreditation from the Accreditation Association for
Ambulatory Health Care, the award success of The Rocket, the
student newspaper which swept 25 top journalism honors, and the
success of both the SRU accounting team at the Pennsylvania
Certified Public Accountants Business Plan Challenge and the School
of Business team’s fourth-place award at the American Express
Financial Planning Invitational. He noted a number of individual
students who received national recognition in recent
months.
Smith said enrollment would continue to grow fall semester to stand
at 8,100, up from 7,830 last fall. “Retention efforts are the
primary source for exceeding our original projection,” he
said, adding transfer student enrollment was also higher than
expected.
Trustee
actions:
Council
welcomed Angele Waugaman, an accounting major from Kittanning, as
the new student trustee. Waugaman, a senior, has been involved in
the SRU Student Government Association serving as vice president.
Trustees elected Suzanne Vessela to serve as secretary, and
re-elected Marcus as chair, and Dr. Dennis Murray as vice chair, to
their second, one-year terms. Trustees approved a resolution
honoring Gary Rose, a trustee from 1995 through 2003, for his
dedicated service, including work as secretary, chair of the
finance committee and a member of the advancement
committee.
A
vote of approval was also given to a plan to increase the
University Union Fee paid by students to $70 effective for the
2004-05 academic year, then reduced to $50 per year starting in
2005, once the current $20 bond indemnity has been fulfilled. The
move brings SRU in compliance with the state system board of
governor’s policy requiring all student unions to be
self-supporting in auxiliary enterprises. The 34-year-old building
is in need of upgrades and maintenance, and there are contingent
plans for building an entirely new facility.
In
reviewing capital projects, council agreed with Smith’s
recommendation regarding renovation of the campus central
boiler plant at an overall cost of $7 million. Built in 1949, and
last renovated in 1986, the plant supplies heat to all campus
buildings. Trustees approved funding plans for Phase II and Phase
II of the three-part plan.
Trustees
also approved contracts, fixed assets, and service and supply
purchase orders, and agreed to recommendations provide by the
intern audit related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of
2002.
Trustees
were informed of instructional and staff appointments, tenure
approvals, and the naming of
Dr. Paul Black, 31-year professor of secondary education and
foundations of education before retiring in 2003, as a professor
emeritus.
Council
was also informed of the following faculty retirements: Dr. Barbara
Blackstone, associate professor of communication from Cranberry
Township, 34 years; Dr. George Force, professor of government and
public affairs from Slippery Rock, 34 years; Dr. Deborah Hammond,
associate professor, sociology/anthropology/social work from
Butler, 27years; Dr. Thomas Hannon, professor, geography, geology
and the environment from Slippery Rock, 34 years; Dr. Parameswar
Krishnakumar, professor, School of Business from Slippery Rock, 30
years; Jennifer Lindsay, assistant professor, physical education
and sport management from Volant, 31 years; Fred Livingston,
assistant professor, special education from West Middlesex, 33
years; Sandra Grosky, manager of employment services, Office of
Human Resources from Slippery Rock, 25 years; Eric Thomas, director
of University Police from Slippery Rock, 32 years.
Staff retiring from the Office of
Facilities and Planning are: Patricia Anderson from Portersville,
34 years; Berardino Andreassi from Boyers, 14 years; Mary Jane
Andreassi from Boyers, 15 years; Linda Barnes from Slippery Rock,
32 years; James Colosimo from Slippery Rock, 35 years; Richard
DeMatteis from Boyers, 35 years; Larry Hilliard from Slippery Rock,
32 years; William Lees from Volant, 28 years; James Leone from
Slippery Rock, 43 years; Gary Reeder from Slippery Rock, seven
years; William Watson from Grove City, 30 years; and Lydia Tiche
from Slippery Rock, 35 years.
Other staff retirements include Emelie
McFarland, Central Receiving from New Castle, 37 years; Donna
McKee, history department from Slippery Rock, 34 years; Nancy
Speer, Office of Information Technology from Slippery Rock, eight
years; and Richard Wetzel, Office of User Services from Knox, 32
years.
Trustees
will hold their next regularly scheduled meeting at 1:30 p.m. Sept.
10.
PN, WPN,
PR, PT,
S
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