Speeches

State of the University 2009

Speeches

October 5, 2009

Thank you, Dean Dolan, for your kind words and for sharing your glorious new building for today’s address. And thank you all for taking time today to be here.

Today marks a notable event in the history of communication and presidents. On Oct. 5 of 1947, President Harry Truman became the first American president to use the new medium of television to speak to people. He spoke about a devastated economy in post-war Europe, and the role Americans could play by donating food, even after all the sacrifices they had made throughout World War II.

Harry Truman is famously known for saying, “Being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or he is swallowed.”

I wonder if he ever encountered a wolverine?

There are tremendous rewards and risks in being president of the University of Michigan, and I am eager to talk with you today – in person and through the Internet – about our achievements and challenges.

Whether in Ann Arbor, Flint or Dearborn, the University of Michigan is more vibrant than ever. I cannot say enough about the innovation and creativity of our faculty, staff and students, although I will try my best this afternoon. We have much to be proud of.

At the same time, we cannot become complacent. Our most challenging days are ahead, and we must continue to find ways to strengthen our great university. As a community, we must be more strategic than ever, in all aspects of our work – in teaching and research, in our support of the economy, and in the financial management of the institution.

Next month, our Men’s Glee Club will celebrate 150 years of entertaining audiences on campus and beyond. A long-time standard in their repertoire is the simply titled song, “The University.” In it, our students sing of the University’s mission: “To teach, to serve, to probe the unknown.”

By deepening our intellectual strength, by working together to accelerate support of our state and region, and by remaining focused and deliberate with our finances, we will more than fulfill that mission.

These are not ordinary times, but then we are not an ordinary university.

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The University of Michigan’s strength comes from its unrivaled intellectual muscle. Our faculty change lives with their teaching and their discoveries. And the students who invigorate our classrooms year after year are among the brightest and most accomplished in the world.

Our aspirations as a great research university have always rested squarely on our ability to attract great scholars with inquisitive minds.

Our vast portfolio of research activity has now reached the historic level of more than $1 billion. Two years ago, I told the campus we hoped to reach this achievement by 2012, and our faculty took less than half that time to distinguish themselves once again.

This research ranges from developing plug-in vehicles and anti-cancer drugs to a monumental study of suicide and mental health in the American military. In particular, the support we have generated from the National Institutes of Health – more than $421 million – has been staggering, with much credit going to our faculty at the Medical School.

From medicine and dentistry to public Health and engineering, research spurs discovery, as evidenced by a record-level 350 inventions created by faculty this past year.

Steve Forrest, our vice president for research, points out that while it took the University 192 years to achieve $1 billion in research spending, we could reach $2 billion by our bicentennial in 2017. It would require a tremendous effort. We typically grow at 5 percent annually, and this would require 9 percent yearly. But isn’t that a grand goal worth pursuing?

Our academic vigor extends beyond research and teaching and deep into clinical care, as embodied by an exceptional health system that serves the people of Michigan and beyond. Whether treating the most fragile of newborns at Mott Children’s Hospital or seeing patients at clinics in Jackson, Traverse City and West Branch, our practitioners improve the quality of lives and communities.

And at a time when other universities have imposed hiring freezes, we are recruiting new and experienced faculty. If there is a benefit to the recession and the fact our peers are not making offers, it is that the University of Michigan is in an opportune position to recruit great faculty.

This includes finding the best young scholars who are eager to work in faculty teams pursuing cross-cutting ideas and issues. We have an innovative $30 million initiative to hire 100 young professors by 2012. Our goals: To expand interdisciplinary work and to increase faculty connections with undergraduates.

We’re making good progress. In our first two years, we have funded 49 positions in 12 new areas of teaching and research, and the first of these professors joined the University this semester. The hiring process is somewhat more time-consuming than with a single scholar, because we are building teams and the faculty on those teams must complement each other. Teamwork is paramount.

All these faculty teams will be pursuing complex ideas and problems, ranging from climate change and HIV/AIDS, to understanding the molecular actions of cells to better treat disease.

Let me focus on just one of the teams, which will explore the humanities and the digital world, drawing on the expertise and creativity of the School of Information and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts – specifically from communication studies, American culture, and the English Department.

Think about the explosion of digital information and information sharing in recent years. We have Facebook and MySpace; YouTube and Twitter; Google and Wikipedia; websites and texting. Some of you may be tweeting and texting right now.

All of these technologies and sites convey ideas, images, rhetoric, attitudes and biases. They deliver direct and subtle messages about culture and identity.

Our job as educators is to give students the skills to interpret this bombardment of information, analyze its meaning and credibility, and understand how it affects individuals and communities.

And we will carry on this work in a spectacular new setting: North Quad, our living-learning complex whose doors open next fall and whose classrooms and multi-media labs will be a perfect environment for this endeavor.

In celebrating the intellectual vitality of the University, our enthusiasm is heightened by the future development of the North Campus Research Complex.

Here, again, the University is capitalizing on the economic downturn. Just as we are recruiting great scholars when other universities have all but shuttered their employment offices, we are moving forward with a research expansion unlike any other in higher education.

The North Campus Research Complex is a once-in-a-century opportunity to redefine academic research in critical areas. Here, we will concentrate on the truly complex issues of our time, problems that demand collaboration and new ways of thinking.

The world looks to research universities for answers to such dilemmas as health and disease, global pandemics, and climate change and sustainability. The NCRC will be a proving ground for solutions.

It will be a home for spinoff companies launched by faculty and staff, and start-ups created by students. And it will be a space for industry and non-profits eager to partner with us, because difficult problems require solutions brought about through collaboration.

The magnitude of the NCRC – both physically and intellectually – places great responsibility upon us to be deliberate in our planning. Anyone who has walked through this massive complex comes away with two thoughts: It is an incredible opportunity, and just what are we going to do with it?

We are ready to take two important steps today.

First, under the steady leadership of Dr. Jim Woolliscroft, dean of our Medical School, teams of faculty and staff, working with local leaders, have spent months exploring the possibilities. We have listened to their dreams about NCRC, as well as their frankness about the magnitude of this expansion.

We will now begin to push those ideas into action. To move the NCRC forward, we will be recruiting a full-time executive director. This new director will provide strategic, operational and institutional leadership – leadership required to make the NCRC vision a powerful reality.

Second, the development of NCRC will add significant density to the North Campus, and with density comes the need for efficient, reliable transportation. The ability to move with ease between the North and Central Campuses is critical, and we must address this in tandem with our academic growth.

To explore how best to link our campuses, we will host a transportation technology forum next semester. We will bring in world-class vendors of alternative transportation systems to share their expertise and their experiences. We will also involve faculty, staff and students, including those involved in coursework on transportation systems.

This is not a University issue alone, and we will engage leaders from Ann Arbor and the state in our thinking.

Together, all of us will envision how to address a long-term challenge – that is, better transportation between Central and North Campuses.

Physically and intellectually, strong connections matter, and will determine the impact of the North Campus Research Complex for decades to come.

I mentioned climate change as one of the great issues of the day. When I talk with other university presidents, it is always fascinating to hear about the issues on their campuses. What strikes me most is that despite the differences in our institutions, one overwhelming concern that has completely captivated students is climate change.

Students want to know what we are doing to protect the environment, whether through teaching and research or in our operations as a large consumer of water, energy, food and paper.

Frankly, our students exhibit a passion and an urgency that I have not seen since the space race. And unlike then, when we achieved President Kennedy’s goal of a man on the moon by 1969, addressing climate change is more complicated, with no end date on the calendar. And it is not an American cause alone, but a huge global concern.

This is a university that gave the state of Michigan its first geologist in Professor Douglass Houghton. Another faculty member, Filibert Roth, created a nursery that produced 22 million trees for our state – trees that today serve as a beacon for hikers, hunters, and fans of fall color tours.

The University of Michigan helped give birth to Earth Day, as well as technologies for cleaner, more-efficient automobiles. Because of forward-thinking donors, we are home to such diverse academic centers as the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, and the Center for Sustainable Systems.

We are going to do more.

With the pressing challenge of climate change, I am pleased to tell you today that we are elevating our emphasis on sustainability at Michigan. From teaching and research, to hands-on engagement, we are going to leverage our many strengths so we can make significant contributions to a genuinely complicated problem.

We are going to examine the academic enterprise at all levels, to offer new courses and expand existing ones. As one example, we will be doubling the enrollment of a course on sustainability and the campus. Here, students apply ecological, social and economic theory to hands-on practice, with our own campus as their living laboratory.

It is a great way to see real change, and more students than ever will have the opportunity to take this course next semester.

As part of this initiative, I have asked Professor Don Scavia to serve as my special counsel on environmental sustainability. He has graciously agreed to take this on, in addition to his responsibilities of directing the Graham Institute.

Professor Scavia will be, in effect, the point person for sustainability at Michigan.

He will advise the executive officers and me on environmental sustainability matters, and also serve as the primary contact for students working on sustainability issues facing the campus. Working with faculty and staff, he will guide the discussion, planning, and coordination of the full range of work across campus that is focused on sustainability.

To complement our academic work, we are establishing an Office of Campus Sustainability, to be on the front line of assessing and improving how the University uses energy, recycles materials, and builds facilities.

This includes setting goals and standards for sustainable operations on campus, and then helping meet those objectives.

There are no quick fixes here, but I know our efforts will make a difference. I particularly want to thank our students, who have pushed us to do more throughout the University. We welcome your energy and your ideas. You are going to play an invaluable role in Michigan’s leadership in sustainability, both locally and globally.

The students who are so devoted to sustainability are characteristic of the undergraduates and graduate students we attract from throughout the world. Students are applying to Michigan in historic numbers, and their credentials are the strongest we have seen.

Every winter, I phone prospective freshmen who are weighing whether to enroll at Michigan. They are uncertain about U-M only because their accomplishments have attracted admissions offers from other exceptional universities, from Harvard and Princeton to Northwestern and North Carolina. I spoke with one student who had been accepted to 11 universities, including four Ivy League schools.

These are students like Mariah Moncada, who enrolled this fall after a stellar academic career at Eaton Rapids High School. As someone who graduated first in her class, with a perfect GPA, and achievements such as being president of student government, Mariah is exactly the kind of student we want at Michigan.

Of course, other top universities feel the same way.

What often helps students choose U-M is financial aid. I am proud that, thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends, we can make a difference for families with the highest levels of support we have ever offered.

What also persuades students is telling them about the diverse opportunities that await them. That includes study-abroad programs, campus interactions with visiting scholars from places such as Ghana, Poland and China; and living-learning settings like our new Global Scholars community.

We must continue to make these global opportunities abundant and affordable, and my office remains committed to matching gifts from donors who want to support study abroad opportunities for our students. They are hungry for these experiences, which will help prepare them for a world that has fewer and fewer boundaries.

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Last month, United States Chief Justice John Roberts honored us by joining the Law School’s 150th anniversary celebration. He said he welcomed the chance to leave Washington for a few days so he could, in his words, “return to the heartland and fortify myself.”

Chief Justice Roberts grew up in small-town Indiana, and he knows there is something special about this region. There is a culture of hard work, good neighbors, and community pride, all of which have deep roots in economic security.

The University of Michigan builds upon that quality of life by contributing to the economic underpinnings of our state and region.

That is more important than ever.

We all know someone who has lost a job, a home, or a business. When I travel and say I am from Michigan, the response is similar to hearing of a death in the family. You may hear it, too. “Oh,” people say, “I’m so sorry.”

But let’s not accept such condolences. The prevailing image of the Great Lakes State as down and out is, quite frankly, flawed, and it is because of accomplished scholars and engaged students – scholars and students who contribute to the communities they call home.

An educated, innovative citizenry – one that thinks and acts creatively – will form the foundation of this region in the decades to come. And our university plays a unique role in shaping that future, with our students and alumni, our faculty discoveries, and our support of both new and evolving business.

We see this at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, which is providing new scholarships for Detroit and Dearborn police officers, allowing them to broaden their education and better serve their communities.

At the University of Michigan-Flint, we are offering a new education specialist degree in direct response to area teachers who want to attend graduate school, but not at the cost of leaving their community and depriving the region of educators.

On the west side of the state, in Holland, the University is helping a family-owned business reinvent itself. S2 Yachts designs and builds boats – beautiful, high-end sailboats, powerboats and yachts. The Slikkers family has been manufacturing these boats since just after World War II, and two years ago decided to diversify business using their marine knowledge.

The family began making monitoring buoys, using a licensed U-M technology developed by Professor Guy Meadows, who directs the University’s Marine Hydrodynamics Lab. The federal government loves what these buoys can tell us about the health of the Great Lakes, and has ordered dozens from S2 Yachts.

The diversification of this long-time Michigan business, using a technology created here at the University, is expected to create as many as 1,000 new jobs.

Universities drive economic development.

In the past nine years, faculty have launched 83 start-ups. That’s roughly one new business, every six weeks, since 2001. This past year, when we were expecting a slowdown and anticipated three, maybe four, new start-ups, faculty responded – with eight.

Our faculty are looking the recession in the eye and moving forward.

We also continue to support the regional economy through Michigan’s University Research Corridor, our partnership with Michigan State and Wayne State universities. We know that combined, the URC has an economic impact in this state of $14.5 billion – a 10 percent increase since a year ago.

The URC also has hired its first executive director in Jeff Mason, who brings tremendous experience from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

With a new director and an office in Lansing, we are showing decision-makers that the URC expects to be part of the state’s economic development strategy for many years to come.

And we should not forget the role our students play in innovation and entrepreneurship. Whether they are huddled in a basement launching start-ups – as with an incubator known as TechArb – or honing their entries for business competitions, students are innovating at Michigan.

We often think of science and technology when we talk about economic development, but students like Alan Gao know there is an entrepreneurial power to the arts.

Alan appreciates both numbers and notes. He is a sophomore studying actuarial mathematics. He brings to his studies a love of music that comes from parents who are professional classical musicians and his own experience of playing the violin since age 3.

Alan is a member of Arts Enterprise, an organization of undergraduate and graduate students from here at the Ross School and the School of Music, Theatre and Dance. Arts Enterprise is all about harmony. Students connect the worlds of art and business, with a goal of inspiring creativity across campus and beyond.

It’s a way of thinking that others are emulating. Arts Enterprise started at Michigan in 2006 and now has a regional presence, with chapters at the University of Wisconsin and Bowling Green State University, and more in the works.

If you want evidence of the power of creative work to sustain a community, look no further than our own Museum of Art. In recent years, about 120,000 people have visited the museum annually. Since re-opening this spring after a renovation and expansion, the number of visitors has skyrocketed.

At our current pace, we will easily double our annual attendance.

Thousands of people are coming to Ann Arbor not only to enjoy art, but also to dine, to shop, and to experience this community we all call home.

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All of this activity – record-levels of research and discovery, innovative teaching, the vision for NCRC, and the force of creativity – all this is advancing the University at the same time we face extraordinary budget challenges.

There is a wonderful story about Gerald Ford and hockey legend Gordie Howe – two great ambassadors for our state – playing a round of golf.

Now I don’t play golf, but I think have this right. When the president’s ball landed two feet from the hole, Gordie Howe was gracious and conceded the putt.

The president refused the offer, lined up his shot – and missed the putt.

Gordie Howe was again gracious, saying, “We won’t count that one.”

The president pointed at the nearby media and said: “Maybe you won’t, but they will.”

I offer that story because numbers matter, and fiscal responsibility is more important than ever when you are a leader.

We know from friends and colleagues at other universities that they are facing freezes in pay and hiring, layoffs, and suspension of new construction.

Our University has performed remarkably well given this economic downturn. We have shown great discipline in our fiscal practices, resulting in a relative stability that has softened the economic blows being felt elsewhere in higher education.

In fact, universities from throughout the country are calling us, eager to understand – and replicate – what is becoming known as the Michigan Model.

But we have not gone unscathed and should not pretend otherwise. The numbers are there in black and white.

Our endowment – one of the largest among public universities – is down more than 20 percent. No organization can absorb a 20 percent loss in investments and not feel it, but we are slowly recovering, because of an investment strategy that is conservative, highly diversified, and squarely focused on long-term performance.

Private giving, which is increasingly vital to the institution, also is down.

Our donors have been remarkably generous in recent years. The Michigan Difference campaign was a stunning success that continues to transform our university. This auditorium and beautiful new building are living proof of philanthropy at Michigan.

But donors’ investments have decreased just as have ours, and private support for the University declined 22 percent this past fiscal year.

And, as we all know, the state’s ability to support its public universities has been hampered. In the past seven years, state support has declined some $42 million, or 10 percent.

And so we have adjusted, by aggressively attacking these challenges.

We have reduced spending by $135 million in the past seven years. We are doing everything, from reducing how many flowers we plant and re-negotiating contracts with suppliers, to streamlining information technology practices and asking employees to pay a greater share of their health benefits.

By being more efficient, we have reduced natural gas consumption – and spending – for the first time ever, at the same time our space and levels of activity are growing.

Our Board of Regents has been laser-like in its focus on the University budget and how decisions affect our three campuses. Their engagement has been beyond compare in my experience as a university president, and I thank them for their leadership.

I feel just as strongly about the contributions of budget administrators, department heads, directors and deans, who have been asked to do more with less and have responded admirably.

I particularly want to express my gratitude to our staff and faculty for their hard work and sacrifice in our cost savings.

Now, we must double our intensity. Double it.

I know this is hard. There is a human side to every budget decision we make. We will continue to be strategic in our approaches.

Work already is underway by task forces of faculty and staff exploring more ways to reduce spending and increase revenue. We are looking at offering more classes in the spring and summer semesters, which makes greater use of classrooms and buildings, generates tuition income and, most important, helps students complete their education in a timely fashion.

We will explore shared staffing and more centralized services. We’ll examine the concept of offering non-traditional programs and classes. We will explore best practices for academic centers and institutes.

As I said, we must redouble our efforts.

And we will do all of this with the foremost objective of maintaining the quality, breadth and access of a University of Michigan education.

I mentioned Harry Truman and the importance of communication at the start of this talk. In his first TV address, he asked Americans to set aside some of their food purchases to help the hungry in post-war Europe.

“Our self-denial,” he said, “will serve us in good stead in years to come.”

I am asking every member of this community – whether you are a freshman, a department chair, an accountant, or a doctor – to continue to help control costs, all the while maintaining the excellence that distinguishes this university.

We know how to do this.

Our university has been recognized nationally for strong relationships between faculty and administrators, and rightly so. Our staff members consistently step forward to support the goals of the university. Our student leaders push us with their ideas and enthusiasm.

We must rely upon these bonds of collegiality and cooperation more than ever in the upcoming months and years. I believe that through our shared contributions, this university will grow and prosper in ways that will be the envy of others in higher education.

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Today is the 80th anniversary of the University naming its seventh president. Alexander Ruthven became president on October 5, 1929. Three weeks later, the stock market crashed.

I draw no parallels between today and what might happen three weeks from now, other than to say there has been no time in this university’s history like the Great Depression. To compare today’s challenges to those of the 1930s is unfair and insensitive. Rather, we should look at how faculty, students and staff of that era met those dark days, and draw on their dedication and resolve.

The University created new scholarships and loan programs, knowing students and their families were desperate for financial aid.

We built iconic facilities – buildings we know today not only as campus landmarks, but also as symbols of unparalleled academic achievement and collegiality. The Depression gave rise to the Law Quadrangle, the Rackham Building, and a family of residence halls for students’ personal growth.

The American Council on Education recognized the University as among the nation’s best in terms of scholarly distinction, joining the likes of Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Chicago.

And let’s remember those who graduated from this university during the Depression: Mike Wallace, who redefined broadcast journalism; Arthur Miller, who transformed the American theater; Raoul Wallenberg, the great humanitarian of the Holocaust; and President Ford, whose integrity lifted our nation from one of its darkest periods.

There was yet one more small but significant event on campus during the Great Depression.

Up until 1930, the campus fell dark at night. The only light trickled out of classroom windows.

The University decided to install lampposts along the Diag and walkways, so students and faculty would have a brighter environment when crossing the campus.

Today, nearly 80 years later, the University of Michigan burns bright.

Our teaching and treatments, our scholarship and service, our achievement and ambition – all transform lives, whether a freshman from Eaton Rapids, a police officer in Detroit, a teacher in Flint, or a boat-builder on the shores of Lake Michigan.

We are here to teach, to serve, to probe the unknown. We are here for our students. We are here for our state.

We are on the cusp of 200 years of leadership as the University of Michigan, and through our creativity and collegiality, we will be stronger in 2017 than we are today.

Thank you.