Dr. Linwood H. Rose
President, James Madison University
Annual Address to the Classified Staff
Friday, May 11, 2001

The first thing I do when I begin to prepare my annual remarks to you is to reconsider what I said to you last year. After all, I wouldn't want to say the same thing twice, would I? I don't know if you will recall or not, but last year I spoke to you about "Dragons be Here," among other topics. Ancient mapmakers assigned the phrase to unknown territories. The point I tried to make was that we shouldn't be afraid of uncharted waters; we shouldn't be afraid of dragons. When I said that, I just didn't know that we would face so many of them this year and that the majority of them would be generated internally. As it turned out, they weren't so much dragons, as they were diversions. Events or actions that diverted our attention and our energy from our primary objectives.

I won't try to chronicle them all, but about a year ago we began with the torching of the Bridgeforth field turf, we then had the terrible news of the death of an infant parented by JMU students. That was followed by the opening weekend "unpleasantness," or "riot" as some called it. Then came the arrest of students for assaulting others, the publication of the Turf and its expected public response. The burning of the American flag, not unheard of on college campuses, was out of character for JMU, as was the unfortunate interaction between students over sexual orientation now labeled a campus "hate crime." Much of the spring semester was spent in the examination of our intercollegiate sports program including Title IX and the funding requirements for 28 sports teams. We also experienced the untimely and heart-wrenching deaths of four students a phenomenon never easily accepted, no matter the cause.

Then we had the Commonwealth's budget situation. Never before has there been such a level of acrimony among the Governor, the House of Delegates and the Senate in Virginia. Their stalemate over the car tax refund has resulted in the unprecedented position of defaulting to the second year budget approved in last year's General Assembly Session. The major consequence, as we all know, being no salary increases appropriated for December 2001 for state employees. I will say more about University finances in a few minutes. At least we didn't experience the calamity of buildings destroyed by fire as Longwood did. The buildings will be rebuilt but it will take years to recover from the personal consequences of such tragedy.

Given all of this negativity, it would be easy to conclude, and to defend, that we are all now worn out, devoid of energy, in search of a quiet place to lick our wounds and to seek solace from those who care about us. However, as we know there are always two sides to every story and to every coin.

In this year in which the "downs" seemed to predominate, we also experienced some "ups."

The number of applicants to our institution increased by over 400 to 14,330 for the freshman class, an all time high. Certainly testimony to the continuing popularity of our university. Mark Warner, Michael Walsh and the admissions staff are to be commended for these excellent numbers. This year's Choices program for prospective students was outstanding.

The quality of the speakers who were attracted to our campus for various events was of the highest caliber and they served to enhance the national recognition of JMU. Hurricane Carter, Julian Bond, Sarah Wettington, Jack Rakove, Ralph Nader, Wendy Pennington, Justice Thomas, and William Safire are but a few of the names who interacted with our students, faculty and staff.

The celebration of James Madison's 250th Birthday was a splendid event enjoyed by all who participated. Barbara Castello, assisted by the University Relations staff, and most of the rest of the campus deserve our thanks for what I am repeatedly told was the best single event we have ever hosted at JMU. Thanks are also due for this past Saturday's commencement programs. Many of you make an extra effort for our students for this program and you should know that it is appreciated. I have already received a number of thank you notes from students and parents. Two parents wrote, "My husband and I just wanted to let you and all at JMU know how thoroughly we enjoyed graduation Saturday the hospitality tents, the beautiful grounds (especially the class of 2001 flower display), the flags, and the way you were able to move such a crowd from the stadium to the satellite ceremonies all was great! We brought along nine members of our family from PA to see our son graduate and they were all very impressed with JMU. We look forward to next year when our daughter, Beth, graduates from JMU!! Thank you for a wonderful ending to a wonderful college experience for our son!!" You see excellence matters and is appreciated.

Charles King and his staff, along with the occupants/managers of the facilities, opened the second academic building at CISAT and began construction on the Conference Center, the Leeolou Alumni Center, and the Parking Deck. Appropriations for Harrison Hall and CISAT A3 architectural planning were also approved and planning is under way. We added over 600 surface parking spaces and completed badly needed renovations to offices in Medical Arts and to the machine room and offices in Frye. Aramark was welcomed to JMU as our dining services provider and David Long and his staff have joined in partnership with those who were on the University's payroll to provide superlative service to our students.

Increasing private support has become a significant goal and we experienced early success in increasing annual giving by a half-million dollars over the previous year. With the Baird's generous gift to support our efforts in addressing the needs of those with learning disabilities we added another million dollar plus gift to our portfolio and we will be announcing other seven figure gift commitments that have been made in the near future. Mitch Moore and his staff are also working diligently to establish the infrastructure necessary to initiate a major campaign to conclude in our centennial year.

Dr. Scott and Dr. Doherty have worked with staff of the Madison Media Lab to develop a Comprehensive Planning Process reporting system that will become available campus-wide over the next few months. The system will enable universal access to the University's Defining Characteristics, as well as the goals and objectives that will support our pursuit of those defining characteristics for 2008. Tremendous effort has gone into the creation of the software to make the broader communication of our planning process possible, and when fully implemented it will be a system that I am convinced will be the envy of college and universities everywhere.

During the past year we have made several key appointments in the academic division. I am pleased that Doug Brown was selected as the Vice President for Academic Affairs and that Jerry Benson recently accepted the position of Dean of the College of Integrated Science and Technology. This past Saturday we graduated our first students who completed requirements as Physician Assistants, and as occupational therapists in addition to the first doctoral student in the country in learning assessment. I am proud that we continue to strengthen traditional academic disciplines and explore innovative and emerging fields as well.

Allow me to return to the topic of finance. As you will recall, this meeting was originally scheduled for March 7. We postponed it because of the uncertainty over the operating budget for the state in the 2001-2002 fiscal year. We delayed the meeting so that we could learn more about the budget and share that information with you. Well it's a month and four days later and guess what we still don't know anything definite about the budget for next year. I know better than to predict the political decision-making process, but I will say that I am doubtful that a new budget will be agreed upon.

Let me set some context for the situation in which we currently find ourselves. The decade of the nineties is best characterized by extremes in higher education funding. State support for operating budgets for public colleges and universities in the first half of the decade dropped $37 million. The reversal began to correct itself in 1996 and by 2001 annual appropriations to higher education increased by $524 million. This was a net increase for the system of 58 percent. Over the eleven years, this is an average annual increase of 5.3%. Compare that to JMU's general fund increase for this period of 94 percent, $34 million to $66 million. These figures do not tell the whole story, however. In that same period of time, college enrollment in Virginia increased by 26,000 students, and by 3,804 students at JMU. Today, the amount the state allocates to JMU in constant dollars is about $700 more per student than in 1990. That's the equivalent of $7.5 million per year. In 1989-90 we had one faculty/staff member for every 10.1 students, today we have one for every 9.2 students. Not where we want to be - a ratio of one-to-eight would be much better, but progress has been made and assuming that we don't experience substantial degradation of the economy, I believe that we will continue to make progress in addressing our funding problems at JMU.

I was elated in December when the Joint Legislative Subcommittee on Higher Education Funding Policy officially recognized a funding deficiency for Virginia higher education of $200 million annually. Why would I be happy about a deficiency? Because that announcement was linked to the adoption of a funding methodology for higher education that would finally recognize the academic programs that we offer and the number and type of students that we enroll in those programs. JMU's deficiency was demonstrated to be larger than any other institution's, at $24-26 million per year.

Proposed budgets in the House and in the Senate signaled that the leadership of the General Assembly was sincere in its desire to implement a new funding plan. The House included $3.4 million for JMU and $4.1 million was in the Senate budget. Even at a hypothetical compromise figure of $3.8 million, I think you can imagine what a difference that money could mean to operations at JMU. I have referred to this budget as "the best budget that never was." Being able to count on future allocations based on the new methodology would allow us to begin to realize many of the dreams we all share for this University.

In discussions with legislative leaders I sense no retreat from their commitment to this new funding approach though they are stymied by the immediate political environment. I hope that I have successfully conveyed my reasons for optimism even in the face of the current stalemate. It is true that we may have to wait for the economy to pick up steam again before we reap the benefits, but I remain convinced that we will indeed improve our funding profile.

Please understand that my first priority will be to meet the salary needs of our current faculty and staff, but then we must improve base funding so the work that you all do can be shared by more shoulders than just your own. We simply need more people to teach the classes, order materials, pay the bills, and keep the campus safe and clean. Mr. King and I will meet with legislators this summer to impress these needs upon them. The Governor has suggested that he might introduce emergency legislation in January that would provide for retroactive salary increases. We will encourage the members of the General Assembly to pass such legislation.

As I meet with smaller groups around the University, and even in sidewalk conversation, I continue to be amazed that people believe that we are going to grow the undergraduate enrollment. I am not going to sacrifice the quality of services we provide to current students by dividing the resources required to provide those services among even more students. The Board of Visitors, at my request two years ago agreed to a "stabilization" of enrollment, and I have no intention of recommending another approach. I hope that clarifies my position on this matter.

I referred to defining characteristics, goals and objectives earlier. Let me discuss those for a moment; not as individual items but as a set of aspirations. Bear with me. This may be a little complicated. We have had a hard time describing what we want to be. Who is it that we want to emulate? Defining what is our target?

The problem I believe is that we are already among the best of what we are, and what we want to become doesn't currently exist. If we aspire to be the very best comprehensive university in the country then we would have to be better than Truman State, Trinity University, California State at San Louis Obispo, The University of Richmond or Rollins College. I mean no disrespect to those very fine institutions, but I don't find them particularly inspiring. Do you?

I believe that what we want to be is a combination of the best qualities of the collegiate experience that one might have at a liberal arts college and those that one might have at a research university. I concluded this the other night as I helped my 17-year-old think about the kind of experience he wanted from college.

We want to offer the breadth of programs, the world-class-faculty, the state-of-the-art facilities, the benefits of scale and mass, the research and discovery opportunities, the independence and challenge, the programs of distinction, the exposure and diversity, and the bright students one finds at the better research universities.

We also want to offer the student-centered climate, the liberal education, the personal community, the high level of service, the high level of support, the opportunities for character development and civic responsibility, and the exposure to superlative teaching afforded by attendance at a better liberal arts college.

Now, if you compare that list to the 29 defining characteristics for JMU in 2008, you get an amazingly similar list. We are trying to create something that does not now exist. We are going to define a new type of American University for the 21st Century. Personally, I find that much more exciting, than emulating something that we know today. I hope you share those sentiments.

The kind of institution I described will have tremendous appeal to students who will want to attend, to faculty who will want to build their careers in such an environment, and to staff who will want to be part of our pursuit of excellence.

In such a place, the groundskeeper or landscaper doesn't exist to mow the grass or shovel the snow. His/her job is creating a beautiful and safe environment where people can prosper. The counselor isn't just one who listens to problems, but one who frees the mind of conflicts so that the student can take full advantage of a learning culture. A procurement officer isn't just a buyer, but one who acquires furniture, equipment or materials to create the optimal learning or teaching experience. The housekeeper isn't just here to keep things clean, but as we learned at the All Together One Program a few weeks ago, is someone who makes students feel comfortable and at home when they are away from home. The faculty member isn't just here to teach or conduct research, but to make people free. Because through education, people will be free to choose from among more options, to establish their own identity, and to create their own legacy.

To accomplish all of this will take the right people, a will to accomplish the goals, and the resources to make it possible. If that is the right list of ingredients for success, and if, when I began, I couldn't have all of the ingredients I would ultimately need it would be the money on which I would choose to wait. I don't think that there is a more talented and committed group of faculty and staff in the country to realize our aspirations than the one that exists right here, and we have a long-standing track record of delivering on our dreams. I would not bet against the will of our people after all look at what we have done already with very little money!

I have told our students who think that they are finishing something when they graduate from this University, that they are wrong. The word "commence" means "to begin." Webster's doesn't define commencement as "take a break, or a deep breath after substantial accomplishment."

One of the aspects of higher education that I have always found appealing is the notion that it operates in cycles. One cycle has ended, we have graduated almost 3,000 students, and the academic year is over. Now we begin anew. I said earlier that we might have every right to be tired or discouraged by the events of this year, but I don't plan on taking out my disappointment about the budget or salaries, or a student's poor judgment, on those I supervise or those I serve. In fact, I intend to work that much harder to correct previous problems so that working conditions might be improved and service might be enhanced.

By beginning anew, I want to emphasize that I am not sweeping the problems under the mat, nor am I ignoring shortcomings. We have to work to provide more funding for employee training and skill development. Why wouldn't we want too? Our motives are unselfish to the extent that we want our employees to grow as individuals, but we also want our employees to be better trained because it makes for a better university. The more talent and skill we have on our staff, the better our university will run. Our university goals include a commitment of 3% of our personnel budget to training annually. We cannot achieve it overnight but we will get there. A knowledgeable workforce is key to our success as an organization.

One doesn't have to be the proverbial rocket scientist to know that it doesn't do much good to have the delegated authority to make in-band salary adjustments if you don't have the money to fund them. Competitive salaries are critical if we are to attract new talented people and retain the skilled and trained staff we have in place. We have implemented the initial phase of this program and we will work to allocate more funding for this purpose so that we can continue to address salary adjustments as they are needed.

In just a few weeks we will begin Summer Orientation for new transfer students and freshman. In a few short months they will be joining us to learn from us and to live with us. Almost a fourth of our student population will be new to JMU. Whether we have one hundred dollars or a million dollars, they are expecting the best undergraduate collegiate experience in the country. I don't think they deserve anything less. They don't know the inputs; they just know our reputation. I intend to do all that I can to provide what they deserve, and I hope that you will join me. I look forward to seeing all of you at employee appreciation day, next Thursday, May 17. As always, it will be a fun day in the life of the University. Thank you.