by Henry S. Bienen, President of Northwestern University
February 23 and 24, 1999
I appreciate the opportunity to give my annual report on the state of the university and also discuss briefly some of my thoughts on Northwestern's future. I also very much appreciate your taking the time to be here today. I'll answer any questions that you may have at the end of my remarks. I won't speak for long, but I do want to share some key points regarding what's ahead.
Before I do so, however, I would like to extend my thanks to all of you for your consistently good work. Whether you are a member of the staff or the faculty, what you do is critically important to our educational mission. I very much appreciate your dedication to Northwestern and its students.
Let me discuss briefly several issues that I think are key to the University. We now are at an important point in Northwestern's nearly-150-year history. Through the collective efforts of our faculty and staff, we have begun an ambitious program to improve our undergraduate, graduate and professional education. It will unquestionably require a significant effort on all of our parts, but if successful -- and I am confident we will be -- it will truly transform education here at Northwestern.
We want to intensify Northwestern's undergraduate education. By this, I mean that we expand our faculty selectively and devote more faculty time to undergraduate seminars and supervision of independent work.
I want to make available more resources for undergraduate research during the academic year and during summer. Hopefully, this research can be connected with and supervised by faculty in our research centers such as the Center for International and Comparative Studies, Institute for Policy Research, the Institute for Health Services Research and Policy Studies, the Kaplan Center for the Humanities, etc.
I want to invest in co-curricular life on campus.
I want to provide better per capita funds for graduate student support and have already committed some significant funds to the graduate school to accomplish this end.
Of course, much of what we do will be dependent on the success of Campaign Northwestern, the Universitys fund-raising campaign. In support of those efforts, I am pleased to report that our campaign is off to an excellent start. As you may remember, we announced the campaign publicly last May with a nucleus fund of $456 million. Total gifts and pledges to the campaign now stand at approximately $622 million, which means that we have raised about $167 million in the nine months since the campaign's official kickoff.
That success is obviously very gratifying. But what's more important about it is the faith that it represents in Northwestern on the part of our donors. For the past two years, I have spent a great deal of time traveling the country talking to alumni, potential donors and others about the institution. In doing so, I am struck by the positive response that I get. The depth of genuine affection that exists among our alumni and friends is extremely encouraging even beyond what it means financially.
Campaign Northwestern is slated to last five years, until 2003. I am confident that we will reach our total goal prior to then, thanks to the leadership of Campaign Chairman Don Perkins, our trustees and the development staff. But another important component of the campaign is to broaden our base of support. As a result, we will, over the next few years, be asking more of our alumni -- as well as our faculty and staff -- to join us in supporting Northwestern financially. Being successful in this effort will be critical to the long-term health and financial stability of the University.
I'm also pleased to report that Northwestern is in good shape financially. Part of that results from the increase in gifts we are seeing as a result of the campaign, but a great deal of it is the result of prudent financial management of the University. We clearly have a number of institutional priorities, all of which have budget ramifications. But the fact that we have been able to improve our educational offerings while at the same time staying within our budget parameters is a tribute to the budget management throughout the University. Our underlying fiscal strength is a key component of our plans for the future; without it, we would not be able even to consider the ambitious plans that we are now undertaking.
One other area that Im pleased to report continued success in is our undergraduate admissions. Applications to Northwestern rose slightly this year to 15,422, third-highest total in our history. Interestingly, nearly 15 percent of our applicants used some form of electronic application this year, and we expect that number to grow.
In addition, the average SAT score of our applicants increased by seven points from last year. While applications from African-American students were down slightly, the number of Hispanic applicants rose by 5 percent to nearly 700, also the highest in our history. As some of you know, Northwestern last year took several measures in our student recruitment efforts to attempt to increase the diversity of our students, and we are hopeful that the results of those will be apparent in next fall's class.
I anticipate that we will once again have an entering class made up of exceptionally talented students from across the country. In my discussions with faculty colleagues recently, several have commented that the gains in student quality are noticeable in the classroom.
Northwestern also reached another important milestone last year, when our research volume exceeded $200 million for the first time, a 17 percent increase from the previous year. This increase was substantially more than the 7 percent national increase in research and development expenditures as reported by the National Science Foundation and also well above increases reported by other institutions in the Big Ten and Chicago. I think it is indicative of the growing strength and reputation of our faculty researchers that we were able to receive such a substantial increase in research funding in a wide variety of fields.
Some of you, particularly on the Evanston campus, have seen the construction projects now under way. We're building a new residence hall and Transportation Center. Both are making excellent progress and should be completed this summer, but theyre really just the first of many important construction projects to come. Over the next 18 months we will undertake more than $250 million worth of construction projects on both campuses, the largest building program at Northwestern since the construction of the lakefill buildings in the 1970s. Let me give you just a quick overview of whats ahead in terms of building.
On the Evanston campus, we will finish the Transportation Center and Kemper Residence Hall this summer, along with the Gleacher Indoor Golf Center, which was recently completed. In addition, a buildout of the fourth floor of Annenberg Hall for the School of Education should be completed by fall as well. That project will provide a computerized classroom for use in studying how computer-assisted learning affects the educational process.
In April, work will begin on a major addition to Andersen Hall for the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, with completion of that project by fall 2000. The addition will provide faculty offices, classrooms and study areas for Kellogg.
This summer and fall, we will start on two other major projects: a new broadcast journalism facility near Fisk Hall for the Medill School of Journalism and a significant expansion of the Block Museum of Art. The new journalism facility, funded to a great extent by a generous gift from the McCormick Tribune Foundation, will provide a state-of-the-art broadcast television facility and digital media center. And the addition to the Block will increase display space, as well provide room for lectures and classes. Both projects will be exciting additions to our campus, helping us bring more people to Northwestern and the Northwestern name to a wider audience.
Then late this year or early next year, we will begin construction on two new buildings that are critical to our efforts to move forward in scientific research on the Evanston campus. One is a nanofabrication center where our outstanding chemistry and engineering faculty can collaborate on projects that are at the forefront of science. And the other is a new life sciences building in collaboration with Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. Although we have received initial funding commitments for both of these buildings, we are actively seeking additional donors for both projects.
We also hope to expand the Norris University Center and, hopefully, construct a social sciences building.
Finally, on the Chicago campus, we are planning a major new medical research facility. It will include space for research and offices in a variety of areas, including cancer research, genetics, biomedical engineering, neurosciences, aging and cardiovascular research. When it is fully developed in phases, the new facility is planned to have a large amount of research space and is expected to house about 150-160 new researchers and more than 1,000 support staff.
Constructing these new buildings is a costly business, particularly the scientific research facilities, which are even more expensive because of the necessarily specialized construction and equipment. And taking on this extent of construction in such a short time period will undoubtedly test our project management capabilities. But I am confident in our staffs ability to handle this challenge and I believe it is important that we move forward with these projects expeditiously for several reasons.
First, the need clearly exists. If we are to attract first-rate faculty researchers in the sciences, engineering and medicine, we need to provide them with research space. If we truly want to educate our journalism students for the 21st century workplace, we need to do so in modern facilities. And if we want to be responsive to student interest in more on-campus housing, we need to provide it for them.
Second, by undertaking all of these building projects now, we will in the long run reduce both the costs and the inconvenience associated with them. I realize that those of you who may be hearing noise from construction and struggling to find parking for the next year or two because of the construction may find that little comfort, indeed. But construction costs inexorably increase at a rate even faster than we can expect giving to increase. Therefore, delaying the start of this work would only increase our costs.
Finally, and most importantly, we have an opportunity that we should seize. We have received critical lead gifts for several of these projects and a significant federal appropriation for the nanofabrication center. By moving forward as quickly as we can with these projects, I believe it sends a message to our donors and other supporters that Northwestern is indeed a place that is on an upward trajectory, where good things are occurring. That, in turn, will help attract additional support.
For these same reasons, Im very pleased with our progress in implementing the priorities and initiatives outlined in The Highest Order of Excellence, the University's vision statement that was created last year. I'm particularly encouraged by the level of faculty involvement in this. We've held several domain dinners, most recently the Management and Policy Studies Group, where faculty members from a wide range of traditional disciplines come together to discuss common intellectual interests. The reaction to these initial discussions has been very good. I look forward to continuing these conversations as we consider together how we can best reshape education and research here at Northwestern.
I am pleased we have engaged in thoughtful discussion with several student groups on how to best honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy. Also, we have effectively considered students' comments in the budget process.
Another encouraging recent development was the strong response to the call for proposals for cross-school academic initiatives. A total of 60 proposals came from faculty for a variety of new academic programs. A special committee of the deans will soon announce funding for several of these initiatives, which will provide academic experiences for our students that cross traditional school boundaries.
Regarding the Dental School, we have sold the Northwestern University Oral Health Center, with the new owner providing job offers for all of the centers employees, or if they preferred, layoff benefits and help in finding other university jobs. All of the NUOHC employees have been provided for. In the Dental School itself, we have been successful in retaining faculty and staff to help in winding down that operation. We will also be providing benefits and help in finding other University jobs for those people as well. It is our intention to provide an orderly transition for the school and for each individual.
At this time, let me recognize several members of our faculty and staff for their outstanding recent accomplishments.
· Chad Mirkin, professor of chemistry, has been honored with the 1999 Outstanding Young Investigator Award by the Materials Research Society. This award is given to the most outstanding researcher in the field of materials science under the age of 36.
· Linda Hicke, assistant professor of biochemistry, has been selected to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This is an exceptionally distinguished honor in recognition of her accomplishments and promise.
· The work of Frank Galati, professor of performance studies, in bringing the wonderful musical, "Ragtime," to Chicago last fall.
· Brian Hoffman, professor of chemistry, has received a five-year award of $2.1 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study coboglobins.
· Susan Gapstur, assistant professor of preventive medicine, has received a four-year award of more than $1 million from the National Cancer Institute. The goal of her study is to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by studying the variation of steroid hormones among men.
· David Protess, professor of journalism, and his students who were instrumental in helping free a wrongfully convicted man from Illinois' death row. This latest effort follows a conference on the death penalty that was organized by law professor Larry Marshall, a national leader in overturning wrongful convictions. The work of these two faculty members on wrongful death penalty convictions is having a significant impact on public policy.
· Ursula Oppens, John Evans Professor of Music Performance Studies, whose brilliant performances have earned national recognition for the University as well as for herself.
· And of course, the stellar achievements in the past year of Professor John Pople, who won a Nobel prize, and Professor Garry Wills, who received the National Humanities medal, and Associate Professor Mary Zimmerman, who received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Now I'd like to acknowledge a few members of our staff for their contributions as well. I'd like to recognize the top earners of the service excellence awards for 1998:
- Ellen Barnes, University Services
- James Jaeger, Instrument Shop
- Ernesto Perez, Law School administration
- Rodney Greene, Surgery Department
Congratulations to you and thanks again for your good work.
Id also like to mention the important work of other staff members:
· The Development staff for their efforts in launching Campaign Northwestern. Undertaking a campaign of this magnitude is a huge project, yet it has gotten off to a remarkable start, thanks to a great extent to the work of our extremely professional staff, as well as outstanding volunteer leadership.
· All of our facilities staff who helped handle snow removal in early January, doing an outstanding job in very difficult conditions.
· Also, kudos to the staff of the new Northwestern magazine for our much-improved alumni magazine. I think many of you have received the new magazine, which has been completely revised and is now being sent to a larger alumni audience, as well as parents of undergraduate students. I think the new magazine does a much better job of communicating all the good things that are happening here on campus to an important audience.
· Id also like to extend my thanks to everyone who is involved in our computer system upgrade projects -- continued work on HRIS, the new Voyager system in the library, bringing the CUFS system into Y2K compatibility, the new development records system, our entire Y2K task force and the Student Enterprise System. All of these are major efforts and all are important to our ability to keep the University functioning efficiently. We all know just how detailed and difficult these computer system projects can be, so I appreciate the dedication of all those involved.
· University Police Detective Ron Godby, who received recognition from the FBI for his investigative work and assistance in the Unabomber case.
· Thanks to the many staff members, including those in HR, Auditing and the General Counsel's office, for their efforts in developing the new Business Conduct and Ethics program. The HR training course will be launched this spring.
· And special thanks to NUSAC for their research and HR for their development of the new short-term disability plan, the sick child care program and flexible work schedule options for staff.
All of these recognitions, as well as other achievements that are not so public, demonstrate one of Northwesterns most important assets -- its people. While our programs, finances and facilities are measures of progress, it is our faculty and staff who are the foundation of that progress. I want to add my personal appreciation to all of you.
I am also pleased to announce the continuation of last year's policy regarding pay for staff. As you may remember, last year we established an additional pool of funds for merit increases above and beyond the normal range of salary increases. It has come to be known as the super merit pool. Using this pool of funds enables us to provide appropriate recognition for those deserving individuals who truly do outstanding work. We will continue this policy again this year with increased funds, in order to allow managers to better compensate their top performers.
We also are studying carefully our current structure of benefits for our staff. As you know, we recently announced that we would begin providing retirement benefits for faculty based on their summer earnings. Staff always have received retirement benefits based on their summer earnings; we finally are recognizing the need to provide the same for faculty. We plan to turn our attention next to staff retirement benefits to determine what, if any changes, may be appropriate.
In summary, I am very encouraged by where Northwestern stands today and I am confident of our future. The year 2001 will mark the 150th anniversary -- the Sesquicentennial -- of Northwestern's founding. We have already started planning how best to celebrate that occasion, with a campus-wide committee meeting this week. However, even before we reach that milestone, I think it is worthwhile to assess our progress. We have made tremendous strides in the past few years, building on this institutions historic assets. With both cutting-edge research and a strong commitment to undergraduate education, Northwestern is somewhat unique in higher education. And both of those strengths will be enhanced significantly in the coming years as we increase the number of faculty, offer more cross-disciplinary courses and improve our research facilities. We want to intensify undergraduate teaching and better fund graduate education.
Northwestern is not immune to the significant challenges now facing higher education. Students and their families more and more demand that we demonstrate the value of an undergraduate education. We face increasing scrutiny from the federal government in how we conduct our research activities. And the competition with other institutions, many of them stronger financially than Northwestern, to attract and retain top faculty members and students will only continue to grow.
Nevertheless, I believe strongly Northwestern has an opportunity to achieve even greater distinction in the next few years. Through the support of our alumni and friends and the leadership of our Board of Trustees, we are increasing our financial resources. Our students at all levels -- undergraduate, graduate and professional -- are succeeding during their academic careers here and as they graduate. Our faculty and staff members are earning some of the highest honors in their fields. Northwestern is indeed a special place and through all of our continued efforts, I believe it will be even more so in the future.
Thank you.