College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Convocation - October 4, 2007
Good afternoon!
I want to begin today by offering a hearty "congratulations" to the Anderson scholars, as well as to their parents and families. Many students flounder their way through the first two years of college as they emerge from the shock of leaving high school. Maintaining GPAs of at least 3.87, the Anderson scholars beat the odds in a big way. Your performance shows talent and dedication, and I applaud you.
I also want to acknowledge and applaud the other students who receive special recognition today, as well as the distinguished faculty members we are honoring. Most of you here had plenty of options for where to pursue your studies or careers, and we are pleased you chose the University of Florida. However, I think you may have asked yourself in the past 12 months or so what is happening in your college. Owing to a major budget deficit, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has been through a tough period, one felt in every department and discipline. With open positions left unfilled, travel restricted and ordinary supplies suddenly hard to come by, it has been a painful time for faculty. Students have faced difficulty getting into certain courses. I do not intend to rehash the circumstances that created this situation, nor do I want to try to recast it.
What I want to tell you is simply this: I strongly believe in CLAS' mission at the University of Florida, and in the value of a liberal arts education in general. I also want to say that although hardships continue, the CLAS budget deficit is shrinking fast, and the college is on the move.
I pledge to do all I can to ensure that this new dawn continues, and that CLAS has a bright future at the University of Florida.
Even with no budget deficit, it's hard to be the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, circa 2007, and harder still for the basic sciences, liberal arts and social sciences that are the college's mainstays. That's because there is so much emphasis in society, in Florida and admittedly at this university on the professional schools and the training they provide. Many taxpayers, not to mention politicians, want to see university education in the simplest possible light -- as a sort of industrial process, taking in raw material in the form of high school graduates and graduating four to five years later as salary earners. To this way of thinking, or perhaps non-thinking, universities exist only to add value to a product, the product being the professional consumer class.
Public appreciation for basic sciences and the social sciences, is equally superficial. Most people value university research, but as with graduates, they want a defined outcome with a readily understandable application. You might be able to convince them that basic science is important because it pays dividends down the road – that out of this apparently incomprehensible research they'll one day get faster computer chips, better running shoes or the iPhone. But forget about trying to justify the more abstruse sciences and scholarly pursuits. To these eyes, studying theoretical physics or philosophy or William Blake appears an expensive luxury.
I have the deepest respect for the professional schools, their graduates and the applied research they do. I think it's remarkable, for example, that we can transform teenagers into engineers in a few short years, a feat we accomplish with roughly 850 students annually. And I think it's wonderful that researchers not only in the professional schools, but also in CLAS, come up with technologies and processes that have a ready value. The University of Florida is a national leader in technology transfer and commercialization, and that's something we should all be proud of.
But there is much, much more to a university education than training. And there is much, much more to university research than stocking the shelves of Best Buy with the latest electronics in time for the holiday season.
We are here not only to jump start students in their professions, but to give them a well-rounded and deep education, one that prepares them as much as possible to be active and knowledgeable participants in our Democracy. And we are here not only to innovate, but also to extend the boundaries of science and knowledge purely for their own sake.
These twin missions go back to the original charter of universities. But they are far from dated. To the contrary, a well-rounded education and an eagerness to pursue the fundamental questions of nature and science are more important than ever. In the past 20 years (1987-2007) 18 Nobel Laureates were educated at predominantly undergraduate institutions. Environments like that in CLAS.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has many vital roles at the University of Florida. CLAS is home to virtually all of our undergraduates for the first two years of college. Here at CLAS, University of Florida students learn the writing, critical thinking and quantitative skills essential to their success in the upper division. Not to mention seemingly mundane but critical practical skills such as good study habits and getting around the libraries.
Perhaps most importantly, CLAS students get the opportunity to explore, to get a taste of what's out there, and to try new things. Many students arrive at UF believing that they will go pre-med or pre-law. We don't need that many lawyers or doctors! And fortunately, most of these students discover they are really more interested in something they never even heard of before they arrived at UF. Credit for this transformation goes to the rich variety of courses at CLAS. This is not just good for the students. It's what college is all about.
But CLAS does much more than take our newest and least experienced students under its wing. As I alluded to earlier, the true role of the liberal arts education is deeper, more expansive -- and as it turns out, more urgent.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities published a fascinating report on liberal arts education earlier this year. One of the main thrusts is that today's university graduates are entering a disruptive if not chaotic world, one characterized by uncertainty and rapid change. In this era of global change, giving students a narrow training in a specific field does them a disservice.
The AAC&U says, and I quote, "…Graduates will need to be intellectually resilient, cross-cultural and scientifically literate, technologically adept, ethically anchored and fully prepared for a future of continuous and cross-disciplinary learning."
In other words, graduates need the classically broad benefits of a liberal education now more than ever. And it's not just the AAC&U saying this. From Intel to State Farm to Raytheon, numerous industry leaders have extolled the virtues of employees with liberal arts backgrounds.
But a liberal education doesn't just look good on one's resume. The searching, skeptical frame of mind cultivated in the liberal arts is key to the vitality of our Democracy. The same goes for much of what is taught as part of a liberal education – history, sociology, language. Again, there is renewed urgency about this: Six years after 9-11, you have to be blind not to grasp the poverty of our understanding of the Middle East and the desperate need for more people educated in the languages and customs of that part of the world.
If questioning is the lifeblood of Democracy, it is also essential to good science. Again, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is where students learn to adopt this mental stance, and where faculty may most freely pursue pure and basic questions. And all the evidence is that our faculty do well at this: This year, CLAS brought in $48 million in research grants, up from $40 million last fiscal year. Two CLAS faculty members netted this university's first ever grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
So I deeply value the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and its important work of nurturing our most inexperienced students, upholding liberal arts and probing the toughest and most basic scientific questions. Because I so value it, I am happy to see CLAS emerge from the significant budget constraints it has been under.
There are several pieces of good news for the college.
First, CLAS will be back in the black by next academic year, at least one year ahead of schedule. I know this required deep and lasting sacrifices throughout the college, but the results speak for themselves. Second, a search committee has been formed and is soliciting nominations for a new dean. Third, we have set aside for the college four of five positions we are now recruiting despite a university wide hiring freeze -- one each in botany, chemistry, English and psychology. We have also transferred enrollment management to CLAS, a step that brings significant additional resources for the college.
Last, we are protecting CLAS from most of the budget cutbacks being experienced elsewhere in the university due to the current state budget ills.
There is a certain irony in what's happening: CLAS is coming out of its budget problems just as everyone else is going into them. That is positive for the college, but at the same time, I know much more is needed.
Unfortunately, we have a deep-seated and longstanding funding problem. UF's tuition is the lowest in the country, and while this makes our university affordable it also shortchanges us compared to our counterparts in other states. All signs are that Florida is entering an era of budget shortfalls, which may only make a bad situation worse.
So the university is in a difficult position. However, it is not necessarily an intractable one. We made some progress this past spring when the Florida Legislature approved the state's first-ever differential tuition program. Starting next academic year, this program will allow UF to charge more than other state universities, which will allow us to begin to hire additional faculty members and advisors. The focus will be on the high-demand undergraduate areas of concentration. Many of these hires will be in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Meanwhile, just last week we launched our next major capital campaign, setting a goal of $1.5 billion. And we recently completed our Faculty Challenge campaign, raising over $200 million for faculty needs and resources in CLAS and elsewhere.
Progress won't be immediate, but it will come.
A particular concern for me is the resource needs of the humanities and social sciences. These disciplines encounter a large undergraduate teaching load and have limited resources to grow and adapt to new challenges.
Going forward, as a new point of emphasis in the Florida Tomorrow Campaign, I am announcing today the Humanities and Social Sciences Challenge. My goal is for $30 million in new endowment resources for these disciplines. We expect to focus just like we did for the Faculty Challenge. The new dean will assume major responsibility for allocating these funds. My hope is to recognize faculty with endowed professorships and to enhance graduate education with first year and dissertation fellowships. In the end, this is not a lot of money and will not meet all our needs. It will take some time, perhaps the 5 years of the Florida Tomorrow Campaign.
To get the challenge started, today I am announcing a $1 million allocation to endow a professorship in English literature. I hope we could commence searching for the position soon. I am also announcing a $1 million Endowment for graduate fellowships in Psychology. This represents a $2 million beginning to the Humanities and Social Sciences Challenge.
Earlier in this speech I said that one of CLAS' greatest contributions is giving students the opportunity to explore. I want to return to this theme briefly in my closing. Universities are fertile places for discovery, whether with regard to science, scholarship or technology. But for many students, self-discovery is the most meaningful legacy of attending college. This can be an awfully painful process, but we emerge from it strengthened and better prepared for life ahead. Of course students can experience this transformation anywhere, but it is most likely to occur during that period of introspection, questioning and exploring in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
People learn who they are here, and that is a rare gift. I look forward to seeing this tradition continue as the college grows and prospers.
Thank you.
Bernie Machen