Message to the MU community
To the Campus Community:
There could be no better kick off for the year than when Anne and I, along with Marching Mizzou, the spirit squad and the Mizzou Alumni Association, greeted our new freshmen as they ran through the Columns. This year the university recorded the largest opening day enrollments in its 170-year history: 30,831 total and 23,659 undergraduates. It was especially gratifying to see a 14.7 percent increase in African-American freshmen, a 16 percent increase in Hispanic freshmen, and a mean ACT score of 25.6 (our highest in eight years) against a national average of 21.1. And more are here to stay; our freshman retention rate is at a new high of 85.4 percent.
Thanks to MU staff who work so hard to make the campus an inviting home, a number of students are enjoying life in new and renovated residence halls - Dogwood, Galena, Hawthorn and Defoe-Graham. All students plus faculty and staff can look forward to the completion of phase 2 of the Student Center project in spring 2011. Faculty start-up companies have a new home in the Life Science Business Incubator; Psychological Sciences will open the Brain Imaging Center on Oct. 29; and the College of Engineering will dedicate new classrooms and research facilities in Lafferre Hall on Nov. 5. It's also very exciting to watch MU Health Care's Missouri Orthopaedic Institute going up on Hospital Drive.
As we face the challenging budget years ahead, it is critical that we sustain our momentum as one of the nation's leading land-grant, research universities. We have chosen to do so with focused investment in unique strengths that make MU and Missouri nationally and globally competitive. Led by Provost Brian Foster, Mizzou Advantage encompasses our competitive assets in Sustainable Energy, Food for the Future, New Media, Understanding and Managing Disruptive and Transformational Technologies, and the Convergence of Human and Animal Medicine. Concurrent with this effort, Dean Mills, dean of the School of Journalism, is chairing a group of faculty and staff representatives who are at work on the next iteration of the MU Strategic Plan that will prominently feature Mizzou Advantage. The plan will be finalized in consultation with the Strategic Planning and Resource Advisory Council (SPRAC) that continues to be led by John David.
Related to the budget and our state appropriations, I recently convened the MU Advocacy Roundtable, which consists of representatives of our chief constituencies, both external and internal, including the Mizzou Alumni Association, the Flagship Council and the MU Retirees Association. Attendees received information related to the legislative process and the 2010 session of the General Assembly. They will be contacting their memberships regarding communication of the university's legislative agenda, with a primary focus on the operating and capital budgets. The group will meet again prior to January. We anticipate especially challenging years in FY 2011 and 2012 and want to be prepared to communicate MU's priorities and its value to our state.
We welcomed 51 new ranked faculty this fall, both tenure and non-tenure track. It is very exciting to see the incredible credentials MU is attracting, primarily thanks to the reputations of the current faculty. To further increase the stature of MU within the academic community, the Provost's Office has initiated "Get Connected," a networking effort that will bring outstanding academics to campus to lecture, participate in conferences and learn about the exciting work taking place on campus. MU faculty will be encouraged to do the same on the national front.
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation recently designated MU as a 2009 Truman Foundation Honor Institution in recognition of the university's promotion of public service values and sustained success in helping students win Truman Scholarships. Frederick Slabach, the executive director of the foundation, will be on campus next week to help us celebrate this honor. On the federal front, MU faculty members have been awarded $16.3 million from stimulus funds for 36 projects in areas such as human health, education and agriculture. We also continue our momentum in private fundraising with the Journalism School receiving $15 million from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation for the Reynolds Journalism Institute. The foundation made the largest contribution in our history in 2004 with the RJI founding gift of $31 million.
We are hearing from many parents seeking information about the current H1N1 flu situation on campus. I appreciate the immediate response from staff and faculty to accommodate students who have been and will be affected and want to compliment Dr. Susan Even and her staff at the Student Health Center for providing the highest level of service to our students. Current information related to the flu epidemic is posted and updated on MU Alert, the site that communicates campus emergency information.
It seems appropriate to close with a salute to our Landscape Services crew as we observe the 10th anniversary of the Mizzou Botanic Garden - which extends across the entire campus with a beauty unique to each and every season. We will be so proud to welcome our guests for Family Weekend Sept. 11-13 and hope you will extend your own personal greeting as students' families celebrate the Mizzou experience.
With great pride in our Tigers,
Brady J. Deaton
Chancellor