Chancellor's Fall 2005 Convocation (9/29/2005)

Last year when I stood before this room full of people I looked out at a lot of strangers and now a year later I see a room full of friends. It's a great feeling.

I want to welcome you to this convocation and State of the University address. Convocation is a calling together that I hope will stimulate conversation, working together and collaboration aimed at imploring all of us to take UAF to the top.

I've been chancellor now for 14 months. Early on, I was the new chancellor and then more recently the chancellor in transition, and I think, judging by some of the comments and questions I'm beginning to get, now I'm the chancellor in place. The honeymoon's over. It's a great feeling.

Alaska is a magnificent place on a grand scale. This past summer, on a clear day in July, we were staying in Kantishna. We got up early in the morning and hiked up the north side of Quigley Ridge. As I crested the summit at a little over 3,000 feet I was feeling pretty good about myself until I looked up and there, standing to the south in its full glory, was Denali, towering above me. It gave me an instant dose of absolute humility, and at the same time the feeling of an ultimate measure of inspiration. That for me serves as a metaphor for the University of Alaska Fairbanks and our place within the university. Humility, as we recognize our small individual role in the grand scale of the university, and inspiration from our collective power to make this northern world a better place and to change people's lives. And we are indeed changing people's lives across the state, with faculty, staff and facilities at 50 locations.

There really is no other university like UAF. We have incredible breadth, depth and diversity. My first year's focus was to get my arms around this university, its identity and its stretch across the state, whether it's an exhilarating sunrise at Dillingham or the magic of places like Kotzebue and Nome, Bethel, Fort Yukon, Poker Flat, Bonanza Creek, Delta, Tok, Kodiak, Seward, Toolik Lake, Barrow, Kasigluk, Unalakleet, Kaltag, Delta Junction, Nulato, or Galena. I've been to all of those places and some that I didn't mention. Our reach also extends far beyond Alaska. We are an international university, no question about it. The International Arctic Research Center on the hill is a symbol of our productive collaboration with the Japanese government and universities and industry, a result of exemplary actions by talented faculty and leaders like Dr. Syun Akasofu. The cranes which visit the fields of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station are a symbol of our natural connection to places far away.

We took a trip to Japan this summer to see firsthand our formal linkages to Tohoku and Hokkaido Universities in Sendai and Sapporo, and also to visit with those with whom we have formal partnerships in business and government. If you look at our place on the globe, it's clear that we are not only the 49th state, but we are also a Pacific Rim country. That's how our friends in Japan think of us, as a Pacific Rim country, not just a state in the United States. There's no other university in the country, maybe in the world that is so defined by location, so interdependent with place. Even in the names of our trademark research and academic entities, such as the International Arctic Research Center, Institute of Arctic Biology, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, Geophysical Institute, Institute of Northern Engineering, Institute of Marine Science, Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Alaska Native Knowledge Network, Alaska Native Language Center, Northern Studies, and the list goes on--in almost every one, the words "northern" or "arctic" appears.

We have full membership in the circumpolar community. We are Alaska's research university, the state's preeminent research and teaching university and the state's only Ph.D.-granting institution. Our research programs attract and keep world-class faculty. They teach and inspire students as well as challenge them as only a research-based university can do. A successful research university like ours demonstrates to students the relevance of their studies and engages them in active learning and extends many, many benefits on to society.

We are also America's arctic university, the second element in our identity and brand that will define us for the state, the nation and the world. We will employ that unique identity and put it to work, leading us to what I've described as uncharted greatness that lies in our future. For example, with global climate change amplified here in the high latitudes we are, in effect, sitting in the midst of where the canary and the mine are located. No other university is as well positioned to study and interpret such global climate change issues. We have in Alaska unparalleled natural resources: timber, coal, oil, gas, minerals, wildlife, scenery and fish. Recently I visited the Fishery Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak with Denis Wiesenburg, dean of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. In the course of meeting with some of the locals there including some production fishermen, I asked, kind of naively, why is our fishery center here in Kodiak? Someone without hesitation immediately responded, "Because this is where the fish are." Well, Alaska--where we are--is where the resources are that we study, learn about and create new and exciting ideas about how to steward those resources.

Our population in Alaska includes nearly 20 percent Native peoples, with cultures and traditions to retain, chronicle and draw knowledge from about life here in the far North, now, in the past and in the future. We have a unique environment stretching from the North Slope tundra to alpine ecosystems to temperate rain forests down in the southeast. We have a big, really big, living classroom and laboratory, with more than 360 million acres, as well as the Arctic Ocean, the Bering Sea, and also the North Pacific. All of that is part of our compelling and unique identity. Our future must be securely hitched to that identity, that unmatched drawing card to our university here in the far North. And we must cling tightly to our core  principles, our compass guide to the future.

I can't go through this address without quoting Robert Service. His poem Security begins, "There once was a limpet puffed with pride/ Who said to the ribald sea:/ ‘It isn't I who cling to the rock,/ It's the rock that clings to me.'" The limpet, at the urging of the sea, goes on to take a wild ride on the ocean currents, eventually and unfortunately becoming part of the food chain far, far away. The poem ends with these lines: "So if of the limpet breed ye be/Beware of life's brutal shock;/ Don't take the chance of the changing sea/ But cling like hell to your rock." The following principles represent our rock, our security against the changing sea. First, students are the fundamental reason why we are here, why we are a university. Traditional and non-traditional students, students across the life span and students across the state. Secondly, in all that we do we must insist upon quality, excellence and diversity. Third, we must continue to embrace our emphasis on and our connection to the high latitudes—high latitude discovery, learning and engagement. Fourth, keep in mind that we are not preparing our students just for a job, but ensuring that they are ready for life and for lifelong learning. Fifth, we recognize the absolute imperative of dedicated and valued employees. And, sixth, we accept our charge to advance knowledge, science and the arts to ensure social, economic and environmental sustainability across this vast northern sweep, this place of incredible and constant change. Woven throughout those  principles is our commitment to being relevant, responsive, affordable, accountable and accessible. Those principles are rock, undergirding this very complex university. Really we are three universities in one—the College of Rural and Community Development, extending the university to the entire state; Tanana Valley Campus, serving the Fairbanks and Interior region here including work force development, academic preparedness and lifelong learning; and our research and teaching university, serving Alaska and the circumpolar North with its tentacles across the state and around this northern high latitudes region. These three institutions are in some ways independent, in some ways interdependent, and in many ways fully integrated. There really is no other university like ours in the country or in the world.

What's the destination for our complex university? Part of it is to ensure that we remain and retain our stature as Alaska's preeminent research and teaching university, Alaska's flagship university, distinct from any other university in the state, and America's arctic university as well, distinct from any other university in the country. We aspire to be, and in many ways already are, the go-to university for circumpolar discovery, learning and the application of knowledge. What is the distinction between where we are now and where I suggest we are going? First and foremost, as we reach that destination, others across the country and around the world will recognize that we are America's arctic university and the circumpolar university of choice. As we make our way toward that point of recognition and distinction, our pathway will have at least six lanes. Each will describe an area of focused effort, each will interact with the others and the combination will strengthen all that we do.

First, our students will succeed. We will recruit in a way that is more deliberate, systematic and targeted. We will become more selective in our Fairbanks campus admissions. Once we attract students to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we'll do a better job of keeping them here and in helping them in their progress toward completing a degree. Our recently configured unit of Student and Enrollment Services will support these efforts inside and out. We'll be more efficient in enabling students to pass successfully through our university and beyond into their lives. We will maintain a firm commitment to excellence in teaching, research and service. Our destination has us becoming even better than we are. As I thought about how to represent this notion, Ann Ringstad came up with the neat idea of using a dog sled team. And the question is, do you think Susan Butcher was ever satisfied with how good she and her team were? There is always room for improvement when you have a team and always a way to hold ourselves to even higher expectations. We will also focus on enrollment as one of those pathways much more seriously than ever before by emphasizing access to higher education for all Alaskans through TVC and CRCD. We'll do it by targeting undergraduate enrollment growth much more deliberately, increasing our upper division enrollment and attracting more of Alaska's best and brightest, being the university of choice for UA scholars by appealing to students from the lower 48, helping them recognize that we and only we can offer such a special education and the special life experiences they seek and can obtain here in the far North. Also, we will bring more international students to our unique university. We'll focus on enrollment by identifying those academic programs where we have the capacity for more immediate growth in the short term, especially at the upper division level. We've targeted three schools and colleges: Engineering and Mines, Natural Science and Mathematics, and Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences. We'll focus on graduate enrollment by making our graduate stipends more competitive and by emphasizing growth in our doctoral programs. We'll achieve this in part by moving the prime responsibility for enrollment management to the deans. The new unit of Student and Enrollment Services will play a key support role in helping the deans and the rest of us achieve these targets.

Our identity is tied, is defined, by our being the Arctic's preeminent research and teaching university. The education we offer can be world class, and in many ways is world class, but only if our research and scholarship are world class. Our research can be and in many ways already is world class, but it can be world class across the board only if we can continue to grow our federal, state and private supported research. To accomplish that we must excel at bringing home federal initiatives and being ever more competitive for federal and state funding and other grants and contracts. We must also make ourselves indispensable here in Alaska, being responsive to state needs. We also must have the infrastructure, the labs and facilities to accommodate our growth. We've established the chancellor's director of research position to propel us forward and I appreciate Buck Sharpton taking on that responsibility. No question about it, meeting our growth potential in research is contingent upon having great faculty and attracting great graduate students. State appropriations, research grants and contracts and tuition are absolutely necessary, but they are not sufficient to enable us to reach the destination that we envision. Only substantially greater gifts and donations will provide that margin for excellence. We must capitalize on our unique role, advancing the science and understanding necessary to responsibly steward this vast and magnificent expanse here in the high latitudes. People save year-round, maybe for a decade or more, to spend a week's vacation here, in this part of the world we call home. This place symbolizes the freshness, the farness, the freedom that captivated Robert Service in The Spell of the Yukon and that yet stirs the hearts of people nationwide, worldwide. This is a special place--we have to take advantage of that. We must successfully convert "the lower 48 passion to philanthropy," giving people of means an opportunity to leave a last frontier legacy through the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Our objectives in increasing philanthropy include accelerating annual giving, building endowments, increasing the number of professorships, fellowships, scholarships, and internships and also growing our infrastructure to support teaching and research. We've made a start. We've established the Advancement and Community Engagement unit, led by Vice Chancellor Jake Poole. A critical, tactical step we're taking now is to transfer responsibility for fund raising to our deans and directors with support from Jake's unit.

The final lane on this six-lane pathway to the future is fostering economic development here in Alaska. We do that in a number of ways, first by ourselves being a large employer, by attracting $110 million annually in grants and contracts, creating reciprocal partnerships with business, industries and communities across the state, meeting workforce training and development needs, and creating knowledge with the potential to have commercial applications. The groundbreaking for the Cold Climate Housing Research Center symbolizes our effective community engagement with business and government right here in Fairbanks. We created the position of chancellor's director of economic development to spearhead our efforts, School of Management Dean Wayne Marr is graciously carrying that extra load for us.

Each of the six lanes of our pathway describes an area of focused effort. Each interacts with the others and the combination strengthens all that we do. It also delivers us to that desired future condition: we are, we will be a destination university, for students, faculty, staff, friends of UAF and for partners with UAF. Our destination also has us as an employer of choice, as a vibrant and positive force for Alaska and the circumpolar North.

But we have no time to waste. We are at a defining moment for our university. It's a time of great urgency. It's also a time for immediate action by me and by all of you in the room. Consider some of the external factors that are at play right now. The International Polar Year of 2007-2008 is upon us. It will focus international research and education attention here on the high latitudes. Global climate change is upon us, we are the canary in the mine. We are the ones who can monitor, anticipate, respond and be resilient to change. The price of oil is at an all-time high, and because of that we have a huge state surplus of $1.5 billion. We're at a time of major milestones in Alaska. We're about to celebrate, beginning in November, the 50th anniversary of the state constitutional convention. In another couple to three years we'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of statehood. The Cooperative Extension Service is celebrating its 75th year in Alaska. This year we have new leadership in place, with the chancellor and the senior team. We have 14 months of preparation behind that team and 83 years of preparation behind this university--or 88 if you go back to 1917. We'll complete our new strategic plan this semester. It is a plan that will chart our course to the future in much more detail, accelerate our progress, extend our reach, entreat all of us to higher expectations and map our pathway to tomorrow.

But here is where we need your help. There are road blocks across all six of those lanes in the pathway. We need your help to clear them. And clear them we have to do if we are to achieve this vision that we seek and become the university that Alaska so richly deserves.

The first road block in FY06, our current year, is a projected utility cost overrun. We budgeted high, we knew the price of oil was going to go up, but we had no clue that it would run amok. The high oil prices that raise the overall tide and state revenue picture here in Alaska, that are resulting in the $1.5 billion surplus mentioned earlier, also threaten to ram a giant hole in Alaska's flagship university. We now anticipate a $2.3 million budget shortfall entirely attributable to the very force that is swelling state revenues. We'll need your help as individuals to call, write or visit your local state elected representative. These guys in many ways hold our future in their hands. We must have relief via a supplemental budget in this current fiscal year. We are merely asking for a transfer back to the university of what we deposited indirectly into the state coffers through those higher costs of oil. Roadblock number two: we're looking at a record request through the UA system from the state in FY07. We are talking about $37 million for the system just to cover our rising fixed costs. Those include negotiated salary increases, fringe benefits increases including PERS, TRS, health benefit costs, utilities and other fixed costs--costs over which I, as chancellor, and you have absolutely no control. That is just to stay even, that is just to provide enough funding that we don't slip below current levels of operation and effectiveness. The current year increase was a record $17 million. We will need more than twice that just to stay even. We are also going to request an additional $10 million for opportunity growth in programs and research for a total of $47 million. This year, again, we received $17 million system wide. We're going to need your calls, your letters, your visits--make sure that our elected representatives hear from you, please. We'll also be requesting significant capital dollars for growth here at UAF. We'll need your help there as well.

The next six months are seminal. They really do represent the defining moment for our university and for our state because the state's future depends in large measure on having the kind of world-class institution that we are, and that we aspire to continue to be. Will the state enable UAF to become the university that Alaska needs if it is to pass successfully into its next 50 years? This huge budget surplus is clearly at hand. Alaskans, you included, must make sure that it is in hand, propelling your university to service in Alaska, the nation and the world. Can we become that destination university that we envision? I think we can, I know we can, if our representatives in Juneau help us to reinvest some of the oil price bounty back into our flagship university. We can if each of us remains committed to our dream of UAF being even better than we are in all that we do. And yes, we can do it if we seek the summit. Together all of us can take UAF to the top.

In closing, just a couple comments of a more personal nature. It is my and Judy's sincere pleasure to be your chancellor. It's an honor and privilege, absolutely. It's a thrill to be part of this great university in this magnificent place. Remember that this convocation is a calling together to stimulate conversation that leads to collaboration, to co-laboring that will lead us to the top.

I appreciate everybody being here. Thank you very much.