EIU Media Relations

Provost Lord Brings Greetings to Faculty, As Well

As most of you know, President Hencken and I enjoy joking about having to follow one another as a speaker. Just now as he was speaking, I made a short list of the topics he covered in his remarks. They included fundraising, enrollment, our U.S. News and World Report rating, the upcoming North Central Association accreditation visit, extended library hours, the library's acquisition budget, capital equipment expenditures, and program initiatives in nursing and community service. Maybe this is how those Olympic gymnasts felt when they had to follow a killer routine by another competitor.

Let me begin my remarks by adding my welcome to those already extended to you by Dr. Carpenter and President Hencken. The intellectual capital of this institution is embodied in its faculty. It is your engagement and your contributions to the education of our students that makes it possible for Eastern to attain a favorable ranking from U.S. News and World Report, flawed though that and similar ratings may be. Thank you!

As I was thinking about what could I possibly add this afternoon which would be of interest and value to you - after following President Hencken the past three years, I had a pretty good idea I would have no announcements left to make - I thought I would ask Bob Augustine and Jill Owen, the co-chairs of the Self-Study Steering Committee, what were the most notable things that the self-study process had revealed to them during this past year. Of course, I thought I would get a half a dozen bullets, but Bob sent me three pages of information.

Sticking to a Lettermanesque Top 10 (or in this case top 5), here are a few of the items which they identified:

• We can provide multiple statistical data points on class size, freshman-to-sophomore retention, graduation rates and attitudinal measures all demonstrating the quality of an Eastern education.
• Our improvement in financial support for personnel and operations, even given the challenges of the past three years, is significant. Support for instructional equipment, deferred maintenance, salaries and fundraising have all moved in the proper direction. We, of course, need to see that they move even further.
• Student evaluations of teaching indicate very strong student satisfaction of your work with them!
• Based on survey information, our past graduates indicate very strong satisfaction with their preparation in their degree programs.
• From top to bottom, the overall quality of the education we provide our students, from the close relationship among students and their professors, the involvement of students in the intellectual work you all do in your disciplines, the individual experiences we offer our students, the opportunities to connect their formal instruction with various practical experiences, all attest to an exceptional learning environment at Eastern.

This last item probably sums up what I believe is the central message about Eastern. You've heard my vision statement enough to have it etched in your memory. However, on the off-chance that someone needs a refresher, it is simply this: "Eastern offers the best undergraduate education of any public institution in the state complemented by superior post-baccalaureate programs appropriate for our region." President Hencken has even dared to repeat this in Springfield to legislators while in the presence of our sibling institutions. No one has ever really tried to challenge the statement -- in my view because it is defensible, and folks know it. We really are seen by those beyond our campus as a superior institution.

Let me, however, give a bit of a report card on progress on those academic goals I mentioned last year at this luncheon and update them for the current year. First, I made the bold statement that we would become a first-choice institution for a larger portion of our students. While it is nice for U.S. News and World Report to rank us favorably, what is more important is how our potential students perceive us. One measure of this is provided by the record number of applications we received this year - as President Hencken just reported, over 10,600! We also secured new leadership for our Admissions Office, Ms. Brenda Ross, and she has hit the ground running, bringing experience from both a private institution, Milliken University , and a public institution, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale . Even before her arrival, we had instituted changes to make measured steps toward true enrollment management. We now have MINIMUM admission requirements which only ensure that a prospective student will be CONSIDERED for admission. Admission is NOT automatic! We also have a new comprehensive marketing plan which has been designed with the participation of many, including Admissions, and has the enthusiastic support of that office. And, we will be making MANY MORE changes to achieve this goal. We remain an institution with a significant access mission, and we will honor this tradition and support it. I would mention here that we also secured new leadership for Minority Affairs, Ms. Mona Davenport, who has hit the ground running, as well. We will, however, continue to become more intentional in selecting our students.

Second, I mentioned several initiatives which I believed we needed to pursue to enhance our educational quality. The first was to hire more faculty, especially tenure-track faculty, to ensure opportunities for our students to be mentored by on-going faculty members. Toward this end, last year I authorized 36 searches from which we were able to hire 24 new tenure-track faculty. We also hired 38 individuals as ACFs who were not on our ACF roster the year before. That does NOT mean that we are up 38 ACFs over a year ago, but we did see a net increase related, of course, to our enrollment increase. As you also have already heard President Hencken say, in this last hiring cycle we made excellent progress in augmenting faculty diversity with these new hires. We will seek to repeat our success again in the coming year. I already have authorized, with President Hencken's support, of course, 40 new searches for tenure-track hires. There will be many new ACF searches, as well. Given budget ambiguities, this has me hyperventilating in the extreme, but President Hencken keeps saying he trusts in the "Lord," so we'll see. In any event, it is my hope that we will finally make measurable progress in adding to our on-going faculty complement.

I also mentioned last year our elevation of the Honors Program to an Honors College . This year our Honors enrollment has increased to 154 new students, helped in part by the Presidential Scholars program, an important initiative of President Hencken. Honors is yet another area re-invigorated with new leadership, specifically a new dean, Dr. Bonnie Irwin, who has already brought a host of new ideas and initiatives to our already superior Honors offerings. I expect even more new initiatives as we move through the year.

I also had mentioned the engagement of students in the intellectual work of faculty and increased participation in Study Abroad. It was suggested to me recently that what I was talking about was an opportunity for many, if not every student, to have an "out-of-ordinary" educational experience before they left Eastern. I remain committed to this vision. The President's request (perhaps it was more a directive) to look at increased student engagement in community service is such an opportunity which we will explore. The new leadership in Honors, the continued initiatives in Study Abroad led by Dr. Augustine, and an institutional commitment to giving our students these "out-of-ordinary" experiences should move us toward this objective of student involvement.

Finally, I stated that we would move forward with faculty-designed faculty development initiatives. The budget has not been kind in helping us move forward on this front. However, as President Hencken has indicated, it does not appear that we are in quite such desperate financial straights as we were last year, and I will be moving ahead to identify a faculty member to assist in coordinating our initiatives in this area during the fall semester. It is my hope and expectation that we will have an individual identified to provide coordination and structure to these initiatives under the general direction of Associate Vice President Bill Weber in my office. As good as you all are in your areas of faculty responsibility, opportunities to discover a new idea can make each of us even more effective. I understand even Tiger Woods consults a golf pro occasionally.

Let me conclude by returning briefly to my overall theme: the extraordinary quality of Eastern. While many who look closely at Eastern clearly see the overwhelming quality of this institution, I believe that collectively we should own and internalize this. The world beyond Charleston looks at Eastern and sees an institution which delivers on its promise of a superior education. We ARE an excellent institution. My hope for us is that we can continue to grow in these dimensions; that we will continue to demonstrate that we are a collaborative institution, a purposeful institution, a caring institution, a respectful institution. These are characteristics the late Ernest Boyer used to describe institutions worthy of emulation, and we are most certainly worthy of emulation!

These past three years, I have been honored to have served as your provost. You constitute the heart of a truly excellent institution. Budget misery notwithstanding, we have flourished, and we will continue to flourish. With our widely recognized excellence, with the self-confidence that goes with it, we will walk confidently into our future. I remain grateful for your commitment to our students and to this institution. This is going to be a great year for Eastern !