Commencement 2009
Read President Bassett's address to the Class of 2009.
State of the University Address 2009
Highlights from the address given by President
Bassett to Clark University faculty and staff on February 12, 2009
Good morning! This is an unusual annual address for me to give. All of my others have been dominated by upbeat reports on admissions, research, new facilities, great new staff, publicity and overall quality. This year I can and will give upbeat reports on all of those things; but it is hard for my address and our gathering not to be strongly influenced by the bleak state of the economy.
As we prepare the budget for fiscal year 2010, Clark University cannot avoid the working assumption that its net revenues for next year will be substantially less than those for this year. Meanwhile the financial aid needs of our students are increasing rapidly. Parents have lost jobs; homes have lost equity; savings are sometimes in peril; and there is much uncertainty. Mindful of the financial difficulties many of our families are experiencing, the Board of Trustees approved only a modest tuition increase for next year.
The Clark endowment has lost value, and undergraduate applications this year are down as many parents seem to be telling sons and daughters that they must limit their applications to public colleges. So before we finish today, I will review where we are in preparing a budget for next year, the economic facts that we are facing, and the calendar for making the necessary decisions.
But first let us remind ourselves that there is reason for great pride and optimism at Clark. We enter the financial turmoil in as healthy a condition as Clark has seen for many years and therefore with more flexibility than we might have had several years ago. We have a stronger base applicant pool of excellent students; we have better facilities; we have a more engaged Board of Trustees; we have recruited a new generation of excellent faculty and many splendid new staff members; and Clark has stronger national visibility.
So with both of these things in mind—Clark's overall health and the economic turmoil—let us begin to look at the actual state of the University in February 2009. How many students applied for the first-year class that just entered? Associate Provost and Dean of Admissions Harold Wingood reported 5,299 applicants, the largest number ever. Of that group, 56.4 percent were offered admission, the lowest percentage in decades. The yield remained at only about 20 percent, but that provided a first-year class of 591 this fall, one of the largest classes ever and with the same high quality of the two previous years. These three classes have been the strongest in over a quarter century. We also had 59 new transfer students this fall.
Our first-year retention rate in 2008 was 90.6 percent, a goal we did not believe even possible before 2010. Everyone can take some credit for attracting such strong classes and for keeping them at Clark. We pledge ourselves, of course, to do even better in the future. The six-year graduation rate has been trending upward. In 2005, it was 70 percent for the class entering in 1999; this summer it is projected to reach 78 percent for the class entering in 2003.
By the way, the number of presidential and merit scholars entering this year was 97, in comparison with 80 last year. They are an impressive group, particularly when put together with our Global Scholars from around the world.
However, this year's applicant total is expected to be only about 4,250, a large decline from last year but actually about the same as in 2005. In 2005 the first-year class turned out to be 528, so perhaps this year's class will be that size. There is enormous uncertainty at least until the first of May when students have to make their decisions.
The total number of undergraduate college students this fall was 2,235, compared with 2,159 in fall 2007 and 1,878 in fall 2000. Last year, we talked about Clark having reached its capacity for undergraduates. This year, that is not our biggest worry. Clark also has 415 students in the Graduate School, including 197 doctoral students. In addition, the Graduate School of Management now has 374 students, the highest number ever.
There are currently 153 tenured and tenure-track instructional faculty members as well as 36 other full-time faculty and 125 part-time faculty, including those in COPACE. There are 626 full- and part-time staff members.
The budget for the current fiscal year is $102 million. For the sake of comparison, when I came to Clark in 2000-2001, it was about $65 million. The endowment, which was about $290 million a year ago, is now just above $200 million. That was also its approximate value back in 2005. Clark's losses are comparable in percentage to the losses at most other universities.
But there is much good news also. The most exciting development for students and faculty returning after the holiday vacation and for me was the opening of the new Academic Commons at Goddard Library. It is beautiful, and along with the renovations in the library, it adds a dimension to Clark University of which we can all be proud. Jim Collins, vice president of planning and finance, has reminded me of all the improvements provided by the project. Here are a few:
Goddard Library has been converted from a cold 1960s building into a user-friendly 21st-century facility built to accommodate new learning styles. New study areas have been created with new furniture and technology. Late-night study areas have been upgraded. Seating has been improved, and shelf space increased. The Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and other support units have been brought together. Student computing resources have been upgraded, and network-enabled devices are now pervasive and have been made central to the learning environment. The Academic Commons area, and its new Jazzman's Café, has proven to be a magnet for members of the campus community. There are 11,000 square feet of new usable space. The wind tunnel is gone, and the main entrance is more visible and accessible. The roof has been replaced; lighting has been improved; temperature is being better managed for our comfort; acoustics are better; and the landscaping is improved. And there is much more.
I want to thank so many of you for making this success possible: Paul Bottis, director of the physical plant, and his entire team, who worked so hard and so well to make the library and the Academic Commons both beautiful and functional. Paul and Jim Collins provided excellent leadership to bring the project in on budget and on time. They were joined by many others, for example by those on University Librarian Gwen Arthur's team; by Chief Information Officer Pennie Turgeon and her fine technology staff; by Vice President of University Advancement Andy McGadney, whose staff has been raising money for the project; and by the many donors—individuals, families and foundations—without whose support this would not have happened. I certainly do not want to leave out the task force and committee that we set up several years ago—Doug Little, David Angel, and many faculty, staff and students. The students were among the first Clarkies to emphasize the need for a renovated library and an Academic Commons that would once again give Clark a true academic center.
So the Academic Commons joins the Lasry Center for Bioscience, Traina Center for the Arts, Blackstone Hall, the Dolan Field House and adjacent fields, a beautifully furnished and enlarged International Development house, a renovated Higgins University Center building, a renovated physical science building, and several other projects as evidence that Clark is committed to giving students at this people-centered university first-class facilities to complete their learning environment. To be sure, the next generation of projects is temporarily on hold while we address the current economic situation. Many of us had wanted to start work on a facility across Main Street—possibly a visitors and Admissions center—along with parking and a new streetscape. We hope those are not long delayed. Many want to close off Downing Street one day, in no small part for safety's sake. We will have to see when that is possible. But for now we do have some excellent facilities, and we do have a physical plant that is kept in very good shape.
This past year Clark has also established an emergency notification system. We also have committed ourselves to having as green a campus as is fiscally responsible. Clark has both a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certified building and a LEED Gold certified building and is committed to reducing our carbon footprint and to overall reduction of energy usage in line with the President's Climate Commitment.
Meanwhile it has been a remarkable 12-month period for the life of the mind at Clark. It was a year ago that Clark was hosting Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Deval Patrick and found itself fully engaged with a memorable election cycle that ran through the primaries into the general election in November. The excitement followed right up through the Inauguration hoopla last month in the Academic Commons, Dana Commons and the Dining Hall—a time when several Clark students, Harrington Fellows, were also able to be in Washington to witness this historic Inauguration first-hand.
This has also been the year when Clark really celebrated the first activities of the new Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise. Last November, institute director Jim Gomes hosted a splendid first conference that focused on use-inspired research in areas of education, health care and the environment with a whole host of distinguished speakers and a President's Lecture by Governor Michael Dukakis. Many of you have also read Jim's series of op-ed pieces running recently in the Boston Globe. Next month, Mosakowski Distinguished Visiting Professor Richard Freeland will direct a second conference, with other outstanding speakers and panels, focusing on Liberal Education and Effective Practice. It will seek to initiate a broader national dialogue about transforming the relationship between traditional models of liberal education and the practice of solving real-world problems. The visibility of the conference will be enhanced by our joint sponsorship with the American Association of Colleges and Universities. We do know that after the conference we will be handing off Richard Freeland to Governor Patrick, so that he can be the new Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts, but we also know we have cemented a permanent relationship with this outstanding leader in higher education.
Those of you who took part in our Convocation events, moreover, were privileged to hear Pietra Rivoli speak about the topics she covered in her delightfully engaging book, "Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy." The other two President's Lectures this year have also been most engaging and stimulating. Last November, we had the first Alex Drapos Memorial Lecture on the law, funded by the Fallon Clinic Foundation and honoring the late Clark alumnus and trustee. role-model and Worcester citizen Alex Drapos '58. The speaker was Alexander Aleinikoff, dean of the Law School at Georgetown University and probably America's most original current thinker on issues of immigration law. We were also fortunate to have Lewis Hyde, author of "The Gift" and "Trickster Makes This World," who spoke in September on how we distinguish between those parts of our heritage that can legitimately be placed under copyright and royalty for a period of time and those parts that we hold, after a certain period, in common. That event was co-sponsored by Difficult Dialogues, directed by studio art professor Sarah Buie, an initiative originally sponsored by the Ford Foundation and now maintained by our Higgins School for the Humanities. Difficult Dialogues hosted a whole series of engaging seminars and forums this past year and more recently a series about race in the age of Obama. Sarah's leadership is infectious. She now has underway a series on Israel and Palestine. Robert Johnston, director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute, has also commenced a series of talks and forums at the institute on environmental issues that are also most stimulating.
This is the first year that Clark students and staff are benefitting from the second-largest gift made by Dick and Polly Traina, this one to put in residence at Clark a string quartet or other chamber group every other year. QX Quartet is in residence this year, and its major concert will be on March 19. Dick and Polly, you will remember, also made a similar gift to theater, which brings a Shakespeare company to Clark every other year, including last year and next year.
Let me also not forget to remind you that next fall is the 100th anniversary of Sigmund Freud's visit to America, to Worcester and to Clark. In October, there will be not only academic but also more popular celebrations of the 1909 event when G. Stanley Hall brought to Clark great minds in physics, anthropology and other fields in addition to psychology, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Clark University opening its doors in 1889.
One of the reasons I tell people that I have the best job in America is that our faculty accomplish so many wonderful things, and I can boast of them; and our alumni accomplish great things, and I can boast of them. But I always say, "Wow," when I look at some of things our students accomplish, and I sure do boast of them. We have had for several years a superb program started by alumni Tom '56 and Barbara '56 Anton called the Anton Fellows. The funding allowed students to go off and complete a self-generated project somewhere in the world to answer a significant question or address a real challenge. The program has been continued by former Trustee Stephen Steinbrecher '55 and his wife Phyllis as a memorial to their late son, David '81, a Clark graduate. Again you have to hear these students describe their projects to appreciate them. I promise you that if you come to Academic Spree Day in April, you will see what I mean. You will also get to learn more about the outstanding research completed by students in the HERO (Human-Environment Research Observatory) project, funded in part by an endowment established through the estate of former trustee, the late John O'Connor '78, and more recently in part by a National Science Foundation award.
Students receive remarkable opportunities at Clark. I was reminded of that last week during the trustee meeting when Rhys Townsend talked about—and showed pictures of—his project on restoring an ancient Roman temple in southern Turkey. Last summer, seven Clark undergraduates had a memorable educational experience working with him there. I also think about the undergraduate students that geography professor Karen Frey had with her last summer when she took off to Siberia to study the impact of climate change on the permafrost. And I think of the undergraduate students that Susan Foster and John Baker take off to Alaska each summer to study stickleback fish.
Our students also continue to be involved in the United Nations aids2031 project, as well as the large research project on children's health in which we collaborate with UMass Medical School. Our education students, moreover, continue to be a major part of Clark's successes at University Park Campus School and now Claremont Academy.
Clark students have the opportunity to study on campus next to fellow students from around the world. This year Clark was especially blessed to have 21 United World College Davis Scholars come here as first-year students. They are enriching the academic experience of all our students and faculty.
You will also note that after talking about students and faculty we have to talk about the importance of philanthropy in building so many of Clark's wonderful programs, such as those in education run through the Jacob Hiatt Center. Generous donors provide endowed professorships including the new Henry J. Leir Chair in Foreign Languages and Cultures and the new Leffell Endowed Professorship in History. They make possible scholarships, new buildings, research programs and so much more. We are grateful to the many donors who believe in Clark's mission and commitment to quality and access for hard-working students to higher education.
Now is also a good opportunity to mention some highlights of faculty accomplishments this past year. Paul Posner, a specialist on Latin America in the Government Department, recently published a very timely book called "State, Market and Democracy in Chile." Fern Johnson came out with "Imaging in Advertising: Verbal and Visual Modes of Commerce," where she takes a closer look at how the verbal and the visual work together to create a language of advertising that speaks effectively to audiences and moves them to action. Sarah Michaels' co-authored book "Ready, set, science" won a distinguished achievement award for its breakthrough contribution to science education. Hot off the press this month is a book co-authored by Nancy Budwig called "Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language."
It is not possible to mention all new faculty grants, but let me highlight a few. One is the $500,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation for science equipment that will help us to refresh and improve undergraduate science education. Luis Smith in chemistry meanwhile received a prestigious career grant for a $500,000 from NSF. Physics professor Chuck Agosta and a partner have received over $2 million in venture capital funding for a start-up company addressing significant energy issues. Biology professor David Hibbett has a well-funded project on bioremediation.
Clark meanwhile welcomed to the faculty this year 13 new tenure-track colleagues, three of them actually to endowed professorships. Taner Akçam holds the prestigious Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies and History in the History Department. He is the author of several major works on the Armenian genocide. Olga Litvak is the holder of the new Leffell Endowed Professorship in History and is an expert on Russian history with a book on the conscription of Jews in Russia and current projects on both Marc Chagall and Sholem Aleichim. Robert Tobin came to Clark from Whitman College to assume the new Henry J. Leir Chair in Foreign Languages and Cultures. He is a highly regarded specialist in German literature. We are grateful to have those professorships.
Also at the senior level, Clark University is proud to have brought on board Robert Johnston, economics professor and director of our George Perkins Marsh Institute. From his years at the University of Connecticut, he is widely recognized for his work in ecological economics and coastal resources. Anita Häusermann Fábos comes this semester as an associate professor in international development with an emphasis on Middle East and North African refugees and immigration patterns.
Several excellent new colleagues join us as assistant professors. John Garton is an art historian, most recently in Cleveland, with strength in Renaissance art and a new book on Paolo Veronese. John Aylward is in Music, a composer and a student of modern music including the works of Elliott Carter, but also someone with great interest in acoustic and electronic media.
Sergio Granados-Focil is in Chemistry in the area of materials chemistry and polymers and energy storage. Heather Wiatrowski in Biology works with microorganisms and environmental biology. Maricella Correa-Chávez in Psychology focuses on developmental issues related to cultural and community dimensions of cognition and learning. Christopher Williams in the School of Geography is an ecosystem scientist and hydrologist who studies how the earth's biosphere responds to such forces as deforestation and climate change.
Chang Hong in Economics focuses on international economics, trade issues, and exchange rate economics. She actually comes to us most immediately from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Arpita Joardar in the School of Management also focuses on international issues in business and entrepreneurship.
On the administrative side, we also welcome many new colleagues. I trust that many of you have already had a chance to meet our new Vice President for Marketing and Communications, Paula David, who arrived in October after many years with Fidelity and running her own company. Paula will be working closely on our admissions efforts and with many of you as we push ahead for more national visibility. She is already making her mark in telling the Clark story better to many audiences; and she looks forward to meeting even more of you. One of our priorities in the next few years is to improve greatly our telling of the story of the kind of education and research done on our campus.
As I reflect on the many members of the Clark community who have served us so well, and on the splendid new colleagues we have brought to the campus this year, I am returned to the serious economic difficulties in which almost all colleges and universities find themselves this year, as do so many businesses and cities and states.
As most of you know, I have implemented a semi-hiring-freeze, filling only a small number of vacancies and allowing only half of the tenure-line faculty searches to proceed. Between now and April, the vice presidents, deans and department heads will increase their budget development efforts and work with me to develop an operating expenditure budget for fiscal 2010 that will reflect our reduced level of resources. My priorities remain to keep as many of our students at Clark as possible while not reducing the quality of their academic experience and to keep most of our excellent staff and faculty at Clark.
In October, when I communicated with you about the turmoil, the national situation was bad; now it is worse. The stimulus package being approved in Washington may help with a turnaround, may help keep Clark parents employed and help students stay in college. At this point it is hard to count on it adding revenues for next year.
Our net revenues next year are likely to be no more than 95 percent of the revenues we have this year. As a result, our expense budget will be reduced accordingly. Last weekend the Board of Trustees approved a revenue budget for 2009-10 using this assumption. There is still much uncertainty and our budget development assumptions will include a revenue reserve to provide more flexibility to adjust to these uncertain times.
We know things will turn around at some point, and we hope that is sooner rather than later. We want Clark to be in the best possible position when they do. Meanwhile, we are re-examining all the ways in which Clark conducts its business to see whether, as we deal with this crisis, we have an opportunity to do some things in ways that are more efficient and more effective. Crises also provide opportunities to rethink how organizations can improve the way they conduct their activities. The decisions I make will be made after full consideration of their strategic implications and likely consequences. It will be several weeks before I finalize those decisions and many of you will be part of that process. We have also decided that any raises for 2009-10 will not be considered until next fall when revenues are known. We will all need to work harder and smarter and maybe do some different tasks to make sure our attention is focused on our students and their experiences here. I welcome your creative ideas as we move ahead.
In our ninth year at Clark, my wife Kay and I have not slowed down in our energy to do as much as possible for this wonderful institution. We know that this is the toughest of those nine years. Maybe more than ever, therefore we appreciate what you do to make it an excellent place to work and to study. We both remain firmly convinced that the best years of Clark lie ahead of us. I often say that any success during my years comes from having built such an excellent leadership team of deans and directors and vice presidents. But you know what? The leadership team here extends across the entire campus. New ideas and leadership in implementation have come from all levels and all sections of Clark University, from new members of the community and from veterans. They have done a great job building quality and improving programs. Now Clark will be judged on how we can continue to operate this high quality at less cost. I thank all of you, therefore, for all our past successes and promise to keep the University community informed as we move forward in our planning for next year.
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