State of the University 2007

As the conclusion of this academic year approaches, I am pleased to take this opportunity to share with you my reflections on our achievements of the past year.

Fiscal Strength

Willamette is in excellent fiscal health. The market value of all endowed funds, which currently stands at $262 million, has increased $87 million in the last five years with a $20 million increase last year. In order to preserve the intergenerational equity of the endowment, the Board of Trustees voted to freeze annual spending from the endowment until we "grow" into a 5% spending rate. (We are making good progress towards our targeted goal as we currently stand at 5.32%).

Although this policy could have constricted operating budget flexibility, substantial progress in our comprehensive fundraising campaign, From Exceptional to Extraordinary, and improved net tuition revenue have offset the freeze on endowment spending.

As such, we have been able to fund fully our academic excellence initiatives such as expanding the College of Liberals Arts faculty, establishing four new academic centers as well as enhancing faculty salaries, research and development in each School and College.

In a span of five years including projects to be funded with the 2007 bond issue we will have invested $65 million in much needed facility improvements, including major projects ($48 million), deferred maintenance ($4 million), strategic land acquisitions ($9 million), and technology infrastructure and equipment ($4 million). We will continue to supplement facilities fundraising efforts with low interest tax-exempt municipal bond financing for projects designated as high priority.

The Trustees recently approved a 2007-08 operating budget that reflects a 3% increase in revenues (slightly more than $2 million over the 2006-07 budget). Next year's budget includes tuition increases of 6.4% for the College of Liberal Arts, 6.3% for the College of Law, 8% for the Atkinson School and 4.5% for the School of Education as well as an additional $520,000 for advancing the University's top strategic priority, academic excellence.

From Exceptional to Extraordinary Campaign

We have raised almost $96 million toward the From Exceptional to Extraordinary goal of $125 million. We raised $23 million this fiscal year, the largest amount raised in a single year in the history of the University.

We raised nearly $4 million for scholarships, nearly $7 million for academic excellence programs and more than $11 million for facilities.

Fund-raising this year includes the following highlights:

An anonymous $8 million for a new CLA academic building, the largest individual gift in the history of the University. (A $2 million Board of Trustee match brings the gift total to $10 million towards what is projected to be a $16 million project).
A gift of $2.5 million from the JELD-WEN Foundation to endow a chair in Free Enterprise at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management (AGSM), thereby increasing Willamette's total number of endowed chairs to sixteen.
$2.5 million in gifts to renovate the Carnegie Building in support of College of Law programs, a project that is expected to cost $3.7 million.
A record $1.3 million this fiscal year for the Willamette Fund.

We have made extraordinary progress in increasing the 50th Reunion Giving program, whose annual gift had never exceeded $100,000 before I arrived as president. The Class of 1957 has endowed fully both a scholarship and funds to support the position of University Archivist; the Class of 1958 has begun its fund raising for a $500,000 technology gift for the new academic building with a $100,000 challenge pledge; and the Class of 1959 has raised more than 50 percent toward its $2.5 million goal for an endowed chair in CLA.

Our excellent financial strength has permitted us to build capacity and improve institutional effectiveness in almost every area in the University.

College of Liberal Arts

We have made good progress towards our goal of a 20% expansion of the CLA faculty and reduction of the teaching load. The Positions Committee has now outlined the probable location of the remaining twenty new faculty lines that will increase capacity for engaged research and enhanced pedagogy.

We have established four academic centers: Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology, Center for Asian Studies, Center for the Study of Democracy, Religion, and Law and Center for Sustainable Communities. These interdisciplinary centers will enhance the educational purposes of the University by strengthening opportunities for faculty development, research and scholarship.

In addition to stimulating faculty research and scholarship, it is important that the Centers have as one of their goals the enhancement of student research - independent as well as collaborative research with faculty. Centers will create student internships or, in some cases, provide summer fellowships that will provide undergraduates and graduates with opportunities to develop specialized projects in a variety of academic fields. Each Center will host conferences, colloquia and symposia as well as bring visiting scholars and prominent scholars and practitioners to our campus community.

I have high expectations for the Centers, which, as you know, are rare for a small independent university with a liberal arts focus. I am confident that they will establish Willamette as a place of distinction.

The Office for Faculty Research and Resources (OFFRR) is ending its second full year of operation. OFFRR was established to complement the reduction in CLA teaching load. It has provided faculty with additional resources to secure funding for original research and creative teaching programs. OFFRR staff members assist faculty in identifying potential funding sources, applying for grants and fellowships, and managing post-award reporting. The Office also prepares applications in nomination of faculty members for local, regional, state, national, and international awards. OFFRR accomplishes its mission through educational programs for faculty and through the development of activities, resources, procedures, and policies that support its mission.

Nearly $1.4 million in external funds were awarded to more than 20 CLA faculty this year. Most recently, Assistant Professors Inga Johnson and Colin Starr, leaders of the Willamette Valley Consortium for Mathematics Research, received a $491,400 National Science Foundation (NFS) grant to support to an eight-week summer research experience in number theory for undergraduates, faculty and one teacher from the K-12 or community college level. Grants -both funded and proposed-represent a substantial increase in the CLA faculty research pipeline.

The College Colloquium has concluded a successful first year. The evaluations show improvement in student satisfaction when compared with the latter years of its predecessor, World Views. Faculty responses suggest that those who teach in the College Colloquium are committed and pleased by the program.

Undergraduate Research opportunities are being enhanced on campus. The Presidential Scholars Program, the Science Collaborative Research Program (SCRP) and the Carson Scholars Program continue to be strong, producing excellent student projects. (We are very pleased to host the Murdock Undergraduate Research Conference on our campus in the Fall).

Additionally, we have enjoyed the growth of student research through Lilly Grant projects in vocation, through Keck Grant projects in arts and technology, through the Math Department's summer research group, and through the Sustainability mini-grants program. The President's Discretionary Fund recently awarded a Hewlett Grant to support a two-year pilot project to pursue an undergraduate research program in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

Kaneko Commons has been well received by student residents and faculty associates. The programming themes of Community Outreach, Japanese Culture and Sustainability have begun to build a vital living/learning community that will guide the formation and evolution of our first residential commons.

The Office of International Education continues to work to increase the number of students and faculty studying abroad each year and to enhance the range of programs and locations where our community studies. Our 40 year relationship with Tokyo International University (TIU) continues to be strengthened, both in the nature of the programs offered and in the depth of the exchange. An increasing number of faculty and staff are able to teach or present their work in Japan each summer.

With the arrival of Willamette's first archivist, the Library has focused on establishing a full-fledged program for collecting, organizing and preserving the historical records and memorabilia of the University as well as a select group of Oregon political and artists' papers. Visionary individuals on campus who have preserved parts of Willamette history have begun transferring them to the Library archives. The other item of note is the establishment of "Game Plan," a Library program that now reaches all first-year student athletes. This eight week evening course develops information literacy and research skills in support of a successful academic experience. It has received positive reviews from coaches and student athletes.

The Hallie Ford Museum continues to grow in strength. It received a significant donation of Chinese and Japanese art from a private collector in Ashland, Oregon; presented a number of exciting temporary exhibitions over the past 12 months, including "Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation", "Frank Boyden: Prints and Books", "Recycled Art", and "Fay Jones: Painted Fictions"; graduated its first docent class and recruited its second docent class; offered dozens of lectures, films, tours, and symposia in conjunction with temporary exhibitions, attracting participants from throughout Salem and the mid-Willamette Valley; published two major books, "Frank Boyden: Prints and Books" and "Frank Boyden: The Empathies"; received general operating support grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem; hired a new collection curator; developed a partnership with the Salem Art Association's Arts In Education program to bring more K-12 students from the Salem-Keizer School District to the Museum; and completed the design phase for the remodeling of the museum conservation and storage space, which will begin this summer.

School of Education

The School of Education (SOE) also is working to build the capacity of its programs. A new associate dean has been appointed to provide leadership for the SOE as it develops long range plans for increased autonomy as well as program expansion and diversification.

It is worth mentioning some of its notable achievements during the past year:

The first class earning an Administrative License through the Center for Excellence in Teaching of the SOE graduated in May 2006. The New Directions in Educational Leadership program continues with a 50% increase in enrollment.
Larry Conley, a 1999 MAT graduate, received a $25,000 Milken National Educator Award.
Through the SOE Professional Action Groups (PAG) each student must complete a minimum of 6 contact hours in a community service project over the course of the first semester. The PAG opportunity helps put students into contexts in which they gain awareness of the tension between their prior realities and current experience working with the community.
A group of MAT students traveled to Jaconia, Mexico to live for a week teaching literacy courses and literacy/art connections to the children, parents, teachers and people of the village.

The School's Center for Excellence in Teaching has been active in several areas. In May 2006, it hosted a colloquium for law and education leaders focused on the topic, "Should Superintendent Training and Certification in Oregon Change to Meet the Complex Needs of Today?"

The College of Law

The College of Law continues to grow in strength and excellence in several areas.

Applications for admission to the College of Law rose by almost 150% from 2000-2005 (a record year for the College of Law). Even though applications decreased slightly in 2006, this past year nevertheless represents the second highest number of applicants in the school's history.

Acceptance rates have improved significantly with an all time low of 35% in 2005. In 2006, the acceptance rate rose slightly to 37%.

The academic profile of admitted students continues to improve. During the past seven years, the LSAT scores of the entering class have risen by:

three points at the 75th percentile;
four points at the 50th percentile; and
four points at the 25th percentile.

The College of Law established a goal of "raising the entering-class LSAT median from the 59th national percentile (in 2000) to the 65th percentile by 2003, and to the 70th by 2007." It met the 2003 benchmark and achieved the 2007 benchmark ahead of schedule.

Increases in financial aid for the entering classes have supported improvements in the academic profile of entering students:

Tfhe financial aid budget for the entering class grew by 130%. It declined gradually in subsequent years but rose again in 2006-07 and is now more than 150% higher than it was in 1999.
Aid per admitted student rose by almost 100% in 2000-01 and, after declining in the intervening years, it rose again in 2006. It is now 160% higher than it was in 1999.
The discount rate for first year students grew from 18% of tuition in 1999 to 40% in 2000-01 and, after declining in subsequent years, it rose again to 36% in 2006-07.

The bar passage rate for College of Law graduates has improved significantly, rising from 61% in 1999 to 79% in 2003, 85% in 2004, and 83% in 2006.

The dean has used academic excellence funds to support competitive faculty salaries, which now exceed the average of the Northwest, West, and Great Plains regions, in all categories, thereby increasing marketplace competitiveness.

Academic excellence funds have also been used to make substantial increases in the resources available to faculty members in assisting their scholarly endeavors. Funds available for research stipends and the other research support, such as research assistants, have grown more than tenfold in the last seven years.

Atkinson Graduate School of Management

The Atkinson Graduate School of Management (AGSM) has made considerable progress towards this goal under the leadership of Dean Jim Goodrich, who recently resigned to take on new and exciting business graduate school opportunities in Southern California.

AGSM's long-term strategy is to be recognized as the leader in management education in the region and to establish itself as a nationally renowned center for leadership training.

The University has made a substantial financial investment in the Atkinson School's growth strategy as part of a thoughtful ten-year business plan to strengthen existing programs, develop new programs and increase net revenue. Successful achievement of financial self-sustainability will give the Atkinson School the resources and flexibility to achieve its goal of being the preeminent school of management serving the Pacific Northwest.

As a first step towards this effort, Atkinson established Professional MBA (PMBA) programs in Portland and Salem, both of which enjoy considerable success. Additionally, it hired a full-time Executive Development Center (EDC) director to facilitate the growth of its executive education programs. The EDC program enhances AGSM's offering of services and visibility in the business community.

AGSM utilized public relations to showcase faculty expertise, cross-promoted programs that serve specific market segments (industries and companies) and sponsored professional organizations and local events to expand awareness in Portland.

AGSM has made progress in other areas as well:

Placement statistics improved for the 4th year in a row to 88% in the first 90 days after graduation;
GMAT scores of the entering class also continued to rise to almost 600 –a 60 point rise since 2002.

The University has launched a national dean's search. The new dean will have the opportunity to lead AGSM at a time of significant market opportunity. He or she will be responsible for developing a strategy to build and diversify programs to meet the growing demand for high quality graduate business education in our region and beyond. Program expansion and diversification will create new revenue streams that will, in turn, strengthen Atkinsonïs academic core.

The challenge for the next dean will be to develop a business strategy for growth and program development that helps the Atkinson School to become financially self-sufficient, in part by becoming more nimble, entrepreneurial, and focused on creating value for its diverse student "customers."

Diversity and Social Justice

As you well know, the campus community has been engaged in thoughtful and, at times, emotional discussions about diversity and social justice at Willamette. The creation of the Council on Diversity and Social Justice (CDSJ) will help to provide direction for the University on a set of very complex and difficult issues.

The landscape of higher education is undergoing rapid changes that will undoubtedly have an impact on how we conceive of our educational purposes at the University.

Demographic trends suggest that increases in college and university applications will come largely from members of underrepresented groups. The Educational Testing Service predicts "by 2015, more students of color will be enrolled in higher education than white students in three states-Hawaii, California, and New Mexico-and the District of Columbia. Six other states will have populations of students of color over 40 percent, and Texas will be evenly divided between white students and students of color."¹

The U.S. Department of Education has similar news: up to "80 percent of these new students will be minorities and students of color, many from low-income families, … many [of whom] will not have taken a demanding high school curriculum and will need supplemental help to enroll, persist and succeed."²

Our commitment to diversity must be co-joined to our commitment to social justice, which includes not only underrepresented minorities and students of color but low-income students, many of whom are finding it increasingly difficult to afford the college of their choice.

The New York Times columnist David Brooks provides a stark picture:

"Especially in these days after Katrina, everybody laments poverty and inequality. But what are you doing about it? For example, let's say you work at a university or a college. You are a cog in the one of the great inequality producing machines this country has known. What are you doing to change that?
"… [W]e live in a country stratified by education … You see the results in the college graduation data. In the 1970's, when the information age was young, kids from poorer, less educated families were catching up to kids from more affluent families when it came to earning college degrees. But now the gap between rich and poor is widening. Students in the poorest quarter of the population have an 8.6 percent chance of getting a college degree. Students in the top quarter have a 74.9 percent chance.
"… The most damning indictment of our university system is that these poorer kids are graduating from high school in greater numbers. It's when they get to college that they begin failing and dropping out."

Brooks is on the right track, even though he doesn't have all of his facts right. The unavoidable point is this, however: we should commit our community to doing a better job of making a college education available to those who are at or below the middle stratum of the economic ladder.

There is plenty of good news to tell in the independent and private education sector:

Eighty percent of dependent full-time undergraduate students at private institutions receive some form of financial aid and most of that aid comes from the institution's resources-not state or federal governments. On average these students pay less than two-thirds the published tuition, and families who demonstrate the greatest financial need pay only about a quarter of the published tuition.³

However, according to federal statistics it is also true that middle income and high-income students at private institutions are now more likely to receive institutional aid than students from the lowest income quartile. They also receive greater amounts of aid. In addition, students from the highest income quartile are as likely to receive aid as students from families with the lowest incomes.⁴

The most effective college and university programs are those that reach out to both underrepresented and low income students when they are in high school or, even better, when they are in middle school.

As you know, five years ago, we established the Willamette Academy to encourage bright, motivated young people from historically underrepresented groups-in grades 7 through 12-to attend college. We designed this program to remove barriers-social and personal-that stand in the way of these young people succeeding academically and, ultimately, in life.

Willamette Academy is one example of how a higher education institution can fulfill its role as a civically engaged university, a role that selective universities ought to assume routinely if we ever hope to make a real difference in the lives of young people.

The truly engaged university, to borrow a phrase from Sandra Day O'Connor, must make certain that the "path to leadership" is visibly open, to students of color and economically disadvantaged students whose backgrounds cut across racial and ethnic borders.

Our nation is entering a new era in higher education-one as significant in its scope and impact as what we faced after the Second World War.

Let us not retreat from the social compact that we once made with this nation a more than a half a century ago with the Service Members' Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights.

Let's get it right. We did the first time and we can do it again.

Foremost, as we renew our commitment to diversity and social justice it is important that our perspective extend beyond the notion of diversity as an end related merely to the composition of the student body and include an ideal that embraces diversity as a core value intrinsically connected to our educational mission.

How is Willamette doing in this regard? We have made gains in several areas including undergraduate admissions, small increases in faculty of color, a nascent living wage initiative, Lausanne Fellows program and a variety of out reach programs.

And yet, Willamette does not have a comprehensive strategy or plan that connects diversity and social justice to our educational enterprise.

No doubt, we are fortunate to have faculty, students and staff of goodwill who support a more inclusive educational environment.

However, good will alone cannot produce good outcomes.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) recently published the results of a joint project with the James Irvine Foundation that examines diversity initiatives at more than two-dozen California independent colleges and universities. It establishes a four-point framework in which to develop, consider and monitor diversity efforts:

Institutional viability and vitality characterizes an institution's capacity to plan, implement and evaluate comprehensive diversity work (e.g., centrality of diversity in the mission and institutional planning, diversity in the composition of faculty and staff, history of diversity issues and incidents, and so on).
Education and Scholarship involves establishing courses with significant diversity of content as well as faculty engagement with diversity issues and student learning outcomes related to diversity.
Access and Success relates to the ways in which institutions measure student success using a variety of benchmarks (e.g., graduation performance, retention and honors, pursuit of advanced degrees).
Campus Climate and Inter-group Relations encompasses the type and quality of social interactions among students, faculty and staff.⁵

While it is clear that individuals, groups and offices at Willamette are engaged in each of these key areas, their work is neither coordinated nor linked to a well defined and clearly understood set of goals that are habitually measured and assessed.

Under the leadership of Charlie Wallace, the CDSJ has gotten off to an excellent start. Yet, it does not have the capacity to oversee a University wide diversity and social justice plan, which necessarily involves the interplay between various offices and groups responsible for student access and success, campus climate, curriculum and institutional planning.

What is needed is a broader conversation and action plan of what we hope to achieve in the areas of diversity and social justice, and for what purpose in support of the good work being undertaken by groups and offices that are moving forward with thoughtful ideas and projects to enhance diversity and social justice.

Towards this end, during the course of the next academic year I will be meeting with the CDSJ as well as deans, faculty, students, staff and Board of Trustees to harness our good ideas and best thinking on diversity and social justice on behalf of a compelling and hopeful vision of inclusive excellence. Next spring I will report on the ideas and findings that emerged from my discussions.

I am confident that we have the capacity to become an even better institution of higher learning.

I want to extend my thanks to the faculty, students and staff, to the Board of Trustees and to the University's many alumni and friends for your individual and collective contributions to making Willamette University the distinctive place of excellence that it is. Your continued support and commitment to the University's strategic goals are essential to our success, and much appreciated.

M. Lee Pelton
President
Willamette University

¹ Quoted in Leadership Strategies for Advancing Campus Diversity: Advice from Experienced Presidents in Unfinished Agenda: Ensuring Success for Students of Color: Second in a Series, Adrianna Kezar and Peter D. Eckel, American Council on Education, 2005, p. v.

² Quoted in Public Policy Paper Series: Ten Public Policy Issues for Higher Education in 2005 and 2006, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, 2005, p. 10.

³ See Independent Colleges and Universities: A National Profile, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, pp. 7 – 9.

⁴ Public Policy Paper Series, p. 9.

⁵ Making a Real Difference with Diversity: A Guide to Institutional Change, Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Sharon Parker, Daryl G. Smith, Jose R. Moreno, and Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi, Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007)