Opening Assembly

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Opening Assembly

• August 17, 2006

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Letter from President Bowles
How are the University of North Carolina and its
16 campuswith our limited resourcesgoing to be
able to effectively meet the needs of our state
and its regions over the next several decades,
such that our citizens can (1) compete for and
secure the jobs that will be created in this new
knowledge-based global economy and (2) add to
the well-being of our communities, state, and
nation
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Retention Rates
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System-wide Issues

• Review the needs of the people
• Efficiency study
• Increasing retention and graduation rates

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President Spanglers Goals for Western

• Grow the University
• Increase its Quality and,
• Do something for that region

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Highlighted Actions

• Set aggressive enrollment and retention goals and
  to do everything possible to meet them
• Continue to focus attention on the economic
  development of the Western region of the state
  since we will play such an important role in its
  future and,
• Continue to improve the quality of our academic
  programs with particular emphasis on continuing
  to increase the quality of our faculty.

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Dual Economic Trends
Globalization
Regionalization
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Megapolitans by 2050

2005 Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech
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Regional Conditions South Piedmont Megalopolis
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Median Housing Value - 1990
Knoxville
Asheville
Charlotte
Median Home Value of Owner-Occupied Housing
Units Source US Census Bureau
Atlanta
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Median Housing Value - 2000
Knoxville
Asheville
Charlotte
Median Home Value of Owner-Occupied Housing
Units Source US Census Bureau
Atlanta
Median home values are dramatically increasing in
the corridor between Atlanta and Jackson County.
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Metropolitan Statistical Areas-1990
Oak Ridge National Lab
Cullowhee
Charlotte
Greenville Spartanburg
Atlanta
Green designates MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical
Area)
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Urbanized Areas-2003
Oak Ridge National Lab
Cullowhee
Charlotte
Greenville Spartanburg
Atlanta
Green designates Metropolitan and Micropolitan
Statistical Areas
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Program Goals

• We have made great strides in assuring that
  programs can be completed in four years. We need
  to keep working on this issue.
• We need to continue to develop distance education
  options. One key area that needs attention is
  how we offer general education for distance
  education. As we become bigger players in
  distance education we must make sure that we can
  offer all courses that a student will need.

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Hierarchy of Education
Synthetical Education
Vocational Education
Vocational Training
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Secretarys Commission on the Future of Higher
Education

• there are also disturbing signs that many
  students who do earn degrees have not actually
  mastered the reading, writing, and thinking
  skills we expect of college graduates. Over the
  past decade, literacy among college graduates has
  actually declined. Unacceptable numbers of
  college graduates enter the workforce without the
  skills employers say they need in an economy
  where, as the truism correctly holds, knowledge
  matters more than ever (p.2).
• - U.S. Department of Education (2006)

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Our Underperforming Colleges

• Without a compelling, unifying purpose,
  universities are charged with allowing their
  curricula to degenerate into a vast smorgasbord
  of elective courses. Knowledge itself has
  splintered into a kaleidoscope of separate
  academic specialties with far too little effort
  to integrate the fragments, let alone show
  students how they might connect. Hence, the
  education offered undergraduates has become
  incoherent and incapable of addressing the larger
  questions of what we are and what we ought to
  be (Bok, 2006 2).
• - Derek Bok, Our Underperforming Colleges

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Our Underperforming Colleges

• A strong college education must include
• The ability to communicate
• Critical thinking
• Moral reasoning
• Preparing citizens
• Living with diversity
• Living in a more global society
• (Developing) a breadth of interests and,
• Preparing for work (2006 67-81).
• - Derek Bok, Our Underperforming Colleges

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AACU

• The data in the AACU report shows us how
  spotty the attention to liberal education
  outcomes remains in 2005. It also raises some
  warning signs, since the data that have been
  collectedin such areas as reading/critical
  thinking or mathematicsappear to contradict
  students own rather positive perceptions of
  their learning gains from college (AACU, 2005
  5).

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Growth of Knowledge
Time
Volume of Information
2025
2025
2025
2025
2006
2009
2025
2025
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Seven Dwarfs
Zogby International, July 2006
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Supreme Court vs. Seven Dwarfs
Zogby International, July 2006
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Retention Rates
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Specific Curricular Actions

• Increase science and math teachers
• Significantly increase the numbers of community
  college transfer students
• The potential for undergraduate distance
  education is growing and Western must be a major
  player
• Consider developing a flexible degree program for
  honors students
• Address the older adult student

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Four-Fold Model of RD
Basic
Applied
Purpose- Driven
Knowledge- Driven
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Distribution of Research Funds

• The top 200 institutions account for
  approximately 96 percent of all RD expenditures
  
• Top ten institutions account for approximately 17
  percent of all RD expenditures
• Top 20 institutions account for approximately 34
  percent of all RD expenditures
• Institutions ranked between 101 and 200 accounted
  for approximately 20 percent of RD.
• (NSF 2004 data)

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Expenditure of RD
Federal RD Expenditure 1970-2002
NSF 2006
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Expenditure of RD (NSF 2006)
Academic RD Expenditure 1970-2002
Current university expenditures
Disproportionately Big R Little d
Basic Research
Applied Research
Development
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Federal RD in UNC System 2002
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Focus University Policies

• Expedite the tenure policy review in the Senate.
• Minimize the time it takes to modify existing, or
  approve new, curricula (re HB 1264)
• Reorganization plan location of programs
  (College of Innovation Entrepreneurship)

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SACS
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• Thank you for making Western a leader in
  developing education for the 21st Century.

Have a great year!