by Henry S. Bienen, President of Northwestern University
February 13, 2000
Thank you. I appreciate the invitation each year from NUSAC and the GFC to deliver these remarks on the state of the University. I appreciate their work in organizing this event and giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with all of you, who are so important to Northwestern’s success.
I am particularly pleased to do so this year, when Northwestern is celebrating its Sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of our founding. An occasion such as this gives us the opportunity to reflect on our history and heritage, as well as our goals for the future.
As a result of the Sesquicentennial, we have had the opportunity to learn more about Northwestern’s history. I must admit I was a little disconcerted to learn that our first president, Clark Hinman, died suddenly only a year after taking office and before a single student enrolled. What made it really hit home was that Hinman’s death was attributed, at least in part, to the fact that he was traveling constantly in order to raise funds for the University.
On a more serious note, the other thing that strikes me in examining our history is the realization of just how much vision and determination the founders had. The land purchased for the Evanston campus in 1853 was empty farmland and with no train line, Chicago was a long wagon-ride away. And in 1919 when the land for the Chicago campus was purchased, the Streeterville area was almost completely undeveloped. In both instances, Northwestern’s leaders took a risk and not only created outstanding academic centers, but spurred the development of the communities around them in Evanston and Chicago.
I believe that vision and determination still define Northwestern University today. As many of you know, two years ago, a group of faculty and administrative leaders crafted a truly visionary document, The Highest Order of Excellence. This statement set out four broad priorities for strategic investment: the faculty, undergraduate education, graduate and professional education, and the infrastructure necessary for teaching, learning and research. In laying out this vision for the future, The Highest Order set specific objectives for each of those goals, including hiring additional faculty, encouraging undergraduate research, increasing our support of graduate education and building the facilities required to achieve those ambitious goals.
Thanks to the determination of all of you, I am pleased to report progress in all of these areas. To be sure, much remains to be done, but I believe Northwestern is in excellent shape and making significant strides toward these goals.
The most obvious symbols of our progress are the many buildings now under construction or planned to begin soon. I realize that for many of you, the construction may be a bit of a headache, particularly in terms of parking, but I assure you that these new facilities are extremely important to the future of the University. The construction of the Pancoe-ENH Life Sciences Pavilion and the Nanofabrication Center on the Evanston campus and the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center on the Chicago campus will provide badly needed research space in medicine, life sciences and chemistry. Having these facilities is absolutely critical to our success in attracting and retaining the best faculty in these fields, one of the key goals in The Highest Order of Excellence.
Similarly, the new addition to Andersen-Leverone, which is nearing completion, will give us significantly more space for Kellogg and the economics department. The McCormick Tribune Foundation Journalism Building, which will begin next month, will provide state-of-the-art facilities for Medill in broadcast and new media journalism.
We also will be able to start work this summer on a major addition to Kresge Hall. This project will provide offices for 120 faculty members in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. This means that we can add new faculty positions to the college, enabling us to strengthen our undergraduate and graduate programs.
I’m particularly pleased that with the construction of a new residence hall, Slivka Hall, it looks like we will be able to accommodate all undergraduate students who wish to live on campus. This has been a goal of mine for years, as I think a lottery system that forces some students to live off-campus is detrimental to our undergraduate community. I hasten to add that the additions of Slivka Hall and Kemper Hall, which opened last year, don’t guarantee that every student is necessarily going to get exactly the room he or she wants. It should mean, though, that students would at least get a room in our residence halls if they want one.
Managing all this simultaneous construction is a difficult task, and is about to get even more so once all the projects move into high gear this spring. I would like to thank our Facilities Management staff for their good work so far and ask everyone in the University to be patient in the next couple years. It will be worth it, I assure you.
All of these buildings would not be possible without the success of Campaign Northwestern. Late last year we reached the $1 billion mark in gifts and commitments to the campaign. That means we surpassed our original goal, which we expected to take us five years, in about half that time. This would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of our trustees, alumni volunteers, and other friends, as well as everyone in the Development office. I thank them for their tremendous efforts. One area where we have successfully raised funds is for undergraduate financial aid endowment. We need to increase funding for graduate fellowships to also have these critical areas permanently supported.
We’ve now raised the bar for the campaign considerably higher by increasing our goal to $1.4 billion by August 2003. This is by no means a slam-dunk, particularly in light of the recent softening economy and stock market slump. We’re about $35 million over $1 billion now and there are about 800 days to go, which means we now need to raise about a half-million dollars a day, a somewhat sobering calculation. We’ve received tremendous support to date and I’m confident we’ll reach our goal, but it will require a great deal of effort on the part of many of us. So I expect, like President Hinman, I’ll be traveling in the coming months, probably farther afield than he went, talking with alumni and other friends of the University.
We have also been very successful in obtaining federal and state government support for our building and research efforts.
Let me now report on other areas of the university. I’m very pleased to report that the amount of sponsored research last year exceeded $250 million for the first time in the University’s history and increased by 8 percent from the previous year. We started three new research institutes, including two ?the Nanotechnology Institute, under the direction of Professor Chad Mirkin and the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanoscience in Advanced Medicine under the direction of Professor Sam Stupp ?that will place us at the leading edge of these important new fields of science. These centers, which will cover a wide spectrum of inquiry from electronics to human health, will bring together faculty from many departments and schools, help make the University highly competitive for federal funding and link us with other prominent universities and federal laboratories.
Other key research initiatives recently awarded include renewed funding for the Materials Research Center, which is the oldest such center in the country, and a new research center at Argonne National Laboratory in partnership with the University of Michigan. The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center also recently received a five-year $13 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for studies aimed at the prevention, early detection and treatment of breast cancer. The Center early had received a $2.2 million grant from Avon Corporation to enhance clinical breast cancer services for underserved minority women and to expand basic science and translational research programs in breast cancer.
Within the next month, Joe Takahashi, professor of neurobiology and physiology, will receive one of the largest research grants in Northwestern's history, a $20 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund the NIH Mouse Mutagenesis Center at Northwestern. This major new research initiative could lead to a more complete understanding of the human nervous system and behavior.
At the same time, I believe there is ample opportunity for substantial growth in sponsored research at Northwestern. Federal funding for basic research through the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation had double-digit increases last year and is expected to continue, but the amount of research funding we were awarded increased much more slowly. Having started several new science buildings and renovated the Technological Institute, it is now critical for faculty and staff to increase our efforts to compete successfully for such funding.
Turning to our undergraduate programs for a moment, let me comment on several areas that have been the focus of our attention in recent years. First, we have an increasing number of students taking advantage of the study abroad programs. We now have affiliated programs with nearly 100 universities overseas, including those in Asia, Africa and South America, as well as Europe. As a one-time international relations scholar, I think it’s important for undergraduate students to have the experience of learning and living in another culture, so I’m pleased to see so many students taking advantage of these programs.
We also had more than 50 students participate last summer in our new undergraduate research program, which provides financial support for talented students. A similar program to encourage research projects by undergraduates during the academic year is under way and we expect an increasing number of applications for next summer’s program. I want to increase available resources for undergraduate research.
The new Academic Advising Center has been well-received by our undergraduate students, and the provost and deans are working on further improvements. We will begin a degree audit program over the next year that will allow students and their advisers to see what degree requirements have been completed.
I also find it encouraging that students are taking advantage of opportunities to participate in dialogue on important current issues in settings beyond the classroom. The Crain Lecture Series at Medill has brought in some very thought-provoking speakers that have attracted students from across campus. The new "Great Debate" program, which began this year, also is off to a good start. I note that the next debate is next Wednesday, Feb. 21, and pits our law school faculty and students against the political science faculty and students on the question of whether Al Gore really won the presidential election.
We’re also seeing progress in our efforts to increase diversity here at Northwestern, although our work clearly is not complete in this important area. It was very encouraging last summer when Northwestern was honored as one of the top 25 institutions in the country in the number of doctoral degrees in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering awarded to minorities. In addition, we are now in the second year of the Chicago initiative, an effort to reach out to the African-American and Hispanic communities in the Chicago area. That has been going very well. And the excellent work done by our Multicultural Center has been instrumental in bringing students from varied backgrounds together.
I believe strongly that Northwestern’s institutional responsibilities include creating an environment that welcomes students, faculty and staff of all races, nationalities and religions. In doing so, we offer our students the opportunity to learn in a diverse community, thereby preparing them better for their careers. This is particularly true in the 21st century, when the United States is becoming increasingly diverse and the working world increasingly globalized.
On another subject, I am very pleased to note that again this year we had two students selected for Marshall scholarships. This is the second year in a row that two of the 40 students in the country selected for these prestigious scholarships are from Northwestern. And in only the second year of the Mitchell scholarships, which provide a year of graduate study in Ireland and are open to graduate students as well as undergraduates, one of the 12 students selected is from Northwestern. The fact that our students are able to receive these highly competitive scholarships is a tribute to them and to our faculty as well.
In undergraduate admissions, it appears that the number of applications dropped slightly from a year ago. Nevertheless, we again attracted an extremely strong pool of applicants ?SAT scores are up from last year ?so I anticipate that we will once again enroll a class of outstanding first-year students next fall.
We also are seeing the benefits of our increased support for graduate students, including providing full-year funding for graduate students in the social sciences and humanities. These initiatives have enhanced our ability to bring some of the top graduate students in those fields to Northwestern but as I noted earlier, we need to do more for graduate support.
One other area where Northwestern has had significant accomplishments this year has been in our athletic program, both on and off the field. I’m sure many of you, like me, enjoyed the somewhat unexpected success of our football team this fall, which captured a share of the Big Ten championship and went to the Alamo Bowl. But I also want to note the remarkable spring we had last year, when five of our six teams ?softball, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s and women’s golf ?advanced to the NCAA playoffs and the women’s tennis team won the Big Ten for the second year in a row.
Most importantly, data released in December from the NCAA show that Northwestern has the highest graduation rate of all Division I schools ?93 percent -- for students playing intercollegiate sports. At a time when Division I athletics is increasingly ?and rightfully ?under scrutiny for the too-often bleak record of student-athletes completing their college educations, our record at Northwestern is outstanding. The academic success of our student-athletes is a credit to them, to their coaches and to the entire athletic department.
On a less pleasant issue, as many of you know, we are currently engaged in a lawsuit against the City of Evanston regarding the inclusion of many Northwestern properties in a new historic district. Because it’s a pending lawsuit, I’m somewhat restricted in what I can say about it. However, I’d like to reiterate that the university tried very hard to resolve this without having to go to court and offered compromise proposals throughout the process. Unfortunately, those offers were rejected.
It appears that the historic district and the recent discussions of a "head tax" on Northwestern employees are part of the city’s efforts to extract payments from the University because it is exempt from property tax. As we have said on many occasions, Northwestern currently pays millions of dollars annually to the City of Evanston in other taxes and fees. In addition, the university is a tremendous economic engine in many ways, including being the largest employer in the city. We also provide numerous other services to Evanston residents ranging from financial support for special programs at both school districts to thousands of hours of volunteer service by our students, faculty and staff. Therefore, we do not believe it is appropriate for Northwestern to provide annual unrestricted operating subsidies to the city.
A major part of any institution’s success is having good leaders in key positions throughout the university. In the past year, we have made several key decanal appointments ?Dr. Lewis Landsberg in the Medical School, Barbara O’Keefe in the School of Speech, and most recently Loren Ghiglione in the Medill School of Journalism. Dr. Landsberg and Dean O’Keefe already are providing strong leadership and valuable guidance in their respective schools, and I’m very much looking forward to working with Dean Ghiglione, who I think will be a wonderful leader for Medill.
We have searches under way for three other key leadership positions ?the dean for Kellogg Graduate School of Management, the university’s general counsel and the vice president for student affairs. Although they haven’t left their posts yet and we’ll have special occasions to recognize them later, I’d like to thank Don Jacobs at Kellogg and Mike Weston, our general counsel, for their years of truly admirable leadership here at Northwestern. Don has -- to a great extent through the force of his intellect and determination ?made Kellogg the model for business education. And Mike’s consistently wise counsel during his tenure has aided not only me, but many others throughout the University as well.
The searches for a new Kellogg dean and a new general counsel are proceeding well. I anticipate that we will have many good candidates for both positions. We recently restarted the search for a vice president for student affairs and have retained an outside firm to help us in the process. This is an extremely important position, so I believe it is worth taking the time to find the right person. In the meantime, I hear from many quarters compliments about the able leadership of interim vice president Bill Banis.
Northwestern is fortunate to have so many of those "right persons" among our faculty and staff. One of the things I enjoy about giving this speech each year is the opportunity to recognize a few members of the staff for their contributions. Would the top earners of the service excellence awards for 2000 please stand and be recognized:
Evanston campus
Patricia Adams
Kare Berg
Moha Bouacha
Kimberly Gilliam
David Hicks
V. Daniel Rebac
Gregory Schrader
Karl Spencer
Daniel Terket
Sharri Townsend
Bruce Tripple
Chicago campus
Gina Green
Rodney Greene
Kathleen Harris
Zenobia Robinson
Kaye Sodt
At this time I’d like to ask everyone to join me in giving these members of our staff a round of applause for their good work. Congratulations to you and thanks for your efforts.
One other person I’d like to recognize this year is the director of our Sesquicentennial, Monica Metzler. She has been coordinating all the celebration events, including the great kickoff weekend held last fall, plus overseeing production of the history book and video, and she has done a wonderful job in all of it.
I also thank all other members of our faculty and staff for their continuing excellent work. When our founders began Northwestern 150 years ago, they envisioned "a university of the highest order, complete in all its parts." Today, Northwestern embodies that vision, a university that combines innovative teaching and pioneering research in a highly collaborative environment. We are indeed fortunate that our trustees had the acumen to purchase land on the shore of Lake Michigan first in Evanston, and 70 years later in Chicago, as that has resulted in two beautiful lakefront campuses. But the University’s success also is the result of the dedicated efforts of not only those founders, but also all of you today. While our Sesquicentennial allows us to reflect on this institution’s remarkable and unique history, it also gives us cause to consider Northwestern’s future. And with your continued assistance, I believe that future to be extraordinarily bright.
Thank you. I now will be glad to answer any questions you may have.