by Henry S. Bienen, President of Northwestern University
March 10 and 11, 1997
Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to give this, my third ‹State of the University?address. As I start my third year as president of Northwestern, it is ever clearer to me that our success is heavily dependent on the work that all of you do, as much as the leadership I may bring to the institution. I know from my years of teaching how critical the faculty are to our primary missions of educating students and conducting important research. And I realize more every day how vital all of our staff are in supporting those missions. The work that all of you do, whether you are a member of the faculty or of the staff, is what helps makes Northwestern the highly-regarded institution that it is, and I appreciate your work.
Today, I would like to give you an assessment of the University‰s current position and also share with you my thoughts on where we are headed. I will do so fairly briefly because I know there are generally questions at these sessions and I want to leave plenty of time for those. But let me give you just a few highlights.
First, I am pleased to say that national recognition of Northwestern‰s broad academic strengths has never been greater. As most of you know, last fall U.S. News & World Report ranked us ninth overall among major research institutions for undergraduate education. And in its rankings of graduate education published last week, U.S. News rated our graduate programs in law, engineering, business, music, theater among the top 15 in the country in each of their respective disciplines. In addition, our medical school for the first time was ranked among the top 25 research-based medical schools in the country.
We intend to drive this ranking upwards in cooperation with our hospital partners. We also continue to develop closer ties with Northwestern Memorial Hospital and other members of our hospital system. As some of you know, we have established a joint committee of University trustees and hospital trustees that is meeting regularly, and we are pursuing ways that we work together even more closely. I want to give special recognition to Dean Harry Beaty for his efforts in this.
Let me hasten to add that I am not fond of the whole ratings game in higher education. But at the same time, I do believe the ratings are a reflection of the academic strength and vigor at Northwestern. When you consider the huge amount of government-funded research grants at state institutions such as Illinois and Michigan, and the much- larger endowments of some other private universities, the fact that we are rated as highly as we are is even more remarkable. This is especially true because we spend our efforts over many schools and colleges within the University.
Another indicator of our vitality is the increasing number of applications for undergraduate admission to Northwestern. As you may remember, our applications last year for the class that entered this fall increased by 21 percent; applications for next year are up another 6 percent on top of that to a record 16,500. This year‰s increase comes at a time when many of our peer institutions are seeing a decline in applications, so we feel particularly good about the numbers this year. In addition, African- American and Hispanic applications are up 12 percent and 3 percent respectively, and we are cautiously optimistic that these increases will translate into an increase in the number of students entering next fall.
More importantly, the quality of all applicants continues to improve. The average combined SAT score for applicants is 1,330, the highest in the history of the University and 9 points above last year‰s average combined score.
The University also is in excellent financial condition, thanks care we take in directing the investment of our resources in faculty, staff, facilities and new programs. We have kept pace with maintaining our facilities and have husbanded the investments of our endowment. Our development program has been very successful in bringing in gift income to support operations and the endowment.
At the same time, there is no question that we will face considerable challenges in the coming years. There are many changes in higher education nationally that will affect all institutions, including Northwestern, significantly. Among those are:
Changes in technology that will affect not just our business operations, but how we deliver education. There is no question that we are seeing an increasing pace of change in this area and one that is extraordinarily expensive, particularly during the transition period. But if we are to provide the technological support necessary for our students to receive a top-quality education and for our researchers to be at the cutting edge, we must make these investments.
The reduction or leveling out of federal funding for sponsored programs for research and training. This is particularly difficult when coupled with the increasing number of federal mandates that place new requirements on us in the areas of accounting standards, animal care facilities, Title IX, ADA requirements, etc. While we understand the need for these requirements and to a great extent support their goals, there is no question that the regulations create additional costs, none of which are funded by the federal government.
The need to rethink graduate education, particularly in light of the decreasing demand nationally for Ph.D. graduates. I will touch on this more in just a moment, but it is important to keep in mind that our graduate education is inextricably tied to our undergraduate programs.
And finally, I think we must be prepared for the changing nature of all of our jobs. Some of this is the result of technology, some stems from the changing nature of society at large and some will be driven by internal changes here at Northwestern. But clearly, there will be a need for us to be flexible and adaptive to change if we are to provide the kind of service to our students and to each other that we want to. These transitions are difficult and I think they illustrate quite clearly how interdependent we are. As a result, I would urge us all to be patient with another as we implement these changes.
I also would like to very briefly bring you up to date on the work of two important task forces, the Task Force on Ph.D. programs and the Task Force on Under- Represented Minorities. The Task Force on Ph.D. programs will issue a preliminary draft of its findings shortly. This report will include recommendations related to funding graduate students, restructuring graduate education, the use of teaching assistants for undergraduate courses and prioritizing support for Ph.D. programs. These are important issues that will affect many of our programs, so I look forward to working with the provost, the deans and the faculty in giving them careful consideration.
The Task Force on Under-Represented Minorities also is expected to give us its findings later this spring. Three open forums have been held, providing useful input, and subgroups of the Task Force are examining how we might better engage our African-American and Hispanic alumni, as well as other topics in order to increase minority enrollment at Northwestern.
Let me also give you a quick status report on several key personnel appointments:
Bill Kern, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, will retire from the University effective December 31. I have accepted Bill‰s decision with deep gratitude for the many contributions he has made to Northwestern during his tenure here. Under his leadership, research activity and funding have continued their growth and the quality of research has increased as well.
We are, I hope, very close to bringing in a new dean for the School of Medicine. The provost and I are currently meeting with the finalists and look forward to resolving this search shortly.
We also are making good progress in our searches for new deans in Medill and the School of Education.
And finally, the personnel decision that will undoubtedly get the most media attention, we have hired Kevin O‰Neill as our new head men‰s basketball coach. I think he will be an excellent leader for our men‰s basketball program, and I look forward to having that program reach the level of success that we demonstrate in so many of our other men‰s and women‰s athletic programs.
I assure you I could have gone on at much greater length. Northwestern is indeed a very special place, and one where a great deal is happening. And, as I said at the start of my talk, that is the direct result of your efforts.
At this time, I‰d like to note several members of our faculty for the recognition they have recently received:
The American Psychological Association will honor Thomas D. Cook, faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, by awarding him the 1997 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for his work in research methodology and program evaluation.
Robert A. Lamb, John Evans Professor in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology, received one of 15 MERIT awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Although normally only one MERIT award is made to an investigator, Professor Lamb is receiving his second award, which will provide continued support for his work on the structure and function of the influenza virus genome.
Leon Keer, Walter P. Murphy Professor in Civil Engineering, and Julio Ottino, Walter P. Murphy Professor in Chemical Engineering, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. This brings the number of our faculty who are members of this prestigious group to 18, which is 8th in the country.
I‰d also like to recognize and extend my thanks to several staff groups for their outstanding work recently:
First, all of those who are involved in creating and implementing the Human Resources Information System, including representatives from all the colleges and schools and the staffs of Human Resources and University Management Systems. This task force has provided leadership both in examining how we can deal with technological change and how we can provide better service to all the members of the university community.
Second, a note of thanks to all the University Police officers who were part of a special task force dealing with a recent string of burglaries from offices on the Evanston campus. Through their efforts, which included many long, cold nights spent on stakeouts, we were able to make an arrest last week that we think will end what had become a truly aggravating and potentially dangerous problem.
Third, my sincere appreciation to the staffs of the offices of admissions and financial aid. Those offices have continued to function remarkably efficiently, despite the flood of applications they are now reviewing. For the University at large, this is a nice problem to have, but I am aware of the real pressure it places on those offices.
In recognizing these specific individuals and groups I know I am inevitably leaving out others of you who also have made significant contributions to advance Northwestern and improve the broader community. I know that NUSAC has been working on a program to recognize those Northwestern staffers who provide exceptional service on the job and I look forward to those awards in May.
Now if I could just take a few moments to share with you some of my thoughts on the direction for the University. I believe that we have an unusual opportunity in the next five to 10 years to take Northwestern to the truly highest level of student and faculty excellence, placing it among the very best universities in the country. To be sure, doing so will not be an easy task -- incremental gains at this level are both difficult and expensive. If we want National Academy of Science members on our faculty, we must make investments in salaries and facilities. If we want to attract the best graduate students, we need to rethink how we can better fund graduate education. If we want to prepare graduates of all our schools for productive work in the 21st century, we need to provide the technology that will equip them for doing so. In short, we must now make the investments for change that will allow us to meet the challenges of the coming years.
As a key part of this, I feel strongly that we need to intensify the quality of undergraduate education offered at Northwestern. This means having more faculty and fewer teaching assistants teaching undergraduate courses. It means more seminars, more faculty-directed independent work. And it means bringing our undergraduate students closer to the research endeavors of our faculty in all fields. It means strengthening our undergraduate advising services. If we do these things, then Northwestern will provide its students an education that will indeed be among the best in the world.
To accomplish these goals, we must find additional resources. We are now engaged in intensive planning to evaluate the feasibility of launching a comprehensive fund- raising campaign. I have just received the results of that feasibility study, and we will bring the issue to the Board of Trustees for their advice and counsel. Such a campaign will require a significant investment of our current resources. But it is one that clearly would be well worthwhile in the long run despite the short-term cost in time, effort and even dollars.
I also would like to re-emphasize my commitment to building a stronger sense of community here at Northwestern and recognizing the extraordinary efforts of many of you, both in the workplace and in your communities. The vitality of this University is dependent on our surrounding communities of Evanston and Chicago and they are critical to our ability to attract not only students, but top-rate faculty and staff. I am directing Vice President Fischer and Associate Vice President Miller to work with NUSAC and the General Faculty Council to develop and implement a plan to recognize faculty and staff at all levels for their individual volunteer contributions in Evanston, Chicago and their home communities. As an institution, we have honored the volunteer work of our students, and I believe it is time for us to recognize the efforts of our faculty and staff as well.
I also believe that in order to be a successful community, we must value tolerance, civility, diversity and free expression. As we have learned in recent months, this is not easy. The issues that arise on a university campus are ones that challenge our basic beliefs and occasionally result in tension between different groups on campus. But I remain committed to the principle that a university is a place where free and civil discourse should be encouraged and individuals with a wide variety of beliefs can co-exist.
In conclusion, I enter my third year here with a strong sense of optimism and an admiration and appreciation for everyone who has worked so hard to bring Northwestern to the point where it now stands. The coming years now offer us the opportunity to take the next step, one that will lead to greater national prominence for this institution. I hope you will join me in doing so.
Thank you.