Excerpts from the UNCW State of the University Address

Presented Sept. 25, 2008
Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo

As Chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, I am proud to have our most devoted advocates, donors and friends assembled together, here on campus, to hear my report on the State of Our University. Look around you, and you will see, in one room, the best of the best, the most talented and the most giving that Wilmington has to offer; and since Wilmington attracts the best, that’s saying a lot.

I want to begin by thanking you for investing your belief, your energies and your resources in forwarding the cause of UNCW. We deeply value your support. It is invaluable. Everything we do is dedicated to repaying your commitment with our success. It’s what you want for us, it’s what you expect from us, and it’s what we – our Provost, Deans, Vice Chancellors and Senior Administrators- promise you we will deliver and achieve. Tonight, we also are joined by many of UNCW’s remarkable students, faculty and staff. Our students are, of course, the very reason for our existence; they’re why we strive to excel. And, they are ultimately the measure of our success.

Excerpt about UNCW Students

Let me mention Kobi Salinas, an amazing Seahawk diver from Texas. Last year, as a freshman, Kobi became the first athlete in the history of the Colonial Athletic Association to earn both the conference diver and rookie diver of the year titles at the same time. I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes next.

And then there’s Betsy Cline, a scholar from Hickory, N.C. A political science major, Betsy is one of only 18 students nationally selected as a 2008 National Press Foundation Fellow. She’s had internships with the Charlotte Observer, MSNBC in New York and, this semester, she is with “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C. Among her many opportunities there, Betsy has written questions that Luke Russert used when interviewing Presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama and researched information about historic party conventions that Brian Williams used on air. She’s doing so well that they’ve already offered her a job once she graduates!

We are privileged to interact with so many amazing students, and we are so very proud of them.

We are particularly proud of our student athletes. They have the second-highest graduation rates in the state and boast some of our highest academic attainment rates. It takes a lot of discipline to manage the demands of both sports AND academics.  What outstanding athletes we have! 

Excerpt about the State of the University

So, what IS the state of our University?

The Answer: we are bringing in brighter and more diverse students, building a stronger endowment, reducing faculty-to-student and staff-to-student ratios, increasing faculty salaries, improving retention and graduation rates, and receiving more philanthropic support than ever before. Let me take just a few minutes to highlight some of these accomplishments.

I will begin with our freshmen. Our new class is both bigger and better than ever before. These incredibly bright students come to us with an average high school GPA of 3.75 and an average SAT of 1158, our highest ever and among the very highest in the UNC system. Our freshmen hail from 631 high schools across North Carolina and 37 other states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 6 other countries. Twenty-five percent (25%) of them graduated in the top 10 percent (10%) of their high school classes. These students are so bright. They merit and deserve an outstanding environment in which to live and learn, and that’s what we are giving them.

We are only a month away from the groundbreaking for our new, $30.1 million, state-of-the-art nursing building. This new building is an extraordinary facility that will be equipped with the latest human patient simulation technology. It will provide students with opportunities to practice their critical nursing skills in clinical settings that rival the state’s best hospitals. The groundbreaking is scheduled for October 23, and I hope to see many of you there.

That’s not all. UNCW is planning a teaching laboratory building that will house our future College of Health and Human Services. This new academic division, currently in the organizational stage, will encompass our nursing school, health and applied human sciences and social work programs. By bringing all these programs together, we will give our faculty and students more opportunities to collaborate.

In addition, we are building our third residential village and a new parking deck toward the back of campus. It will be ready by next fall, and it will be needed, because more and more of our students indicate that they want to live on campus. It is simply the best way for us to maximize their university experience and enrich their lives. That’s what we want for them.

Excerpt about UNCW innovation

But today, learning means more than buildings alone. It means new technology as well. And, as such, we continually must identify innovative ways to update our campus technology. Let me share with you a couple of examples of how we are doing just that.  Our Information Technology Systems Division recently teamed up with computer science professor Ron Vetter and mathematics professor Jeff Brown to establish Mobile Education LLC, a software services company that enables students – who are very adept at text-messaging in their daily, personal lives – to plug into a useful information resource that enables them to check courses and grades and to obtain student coupons from local businesses. 

Another example is a new game – called “Will It Phase You?” – created in collaboration by the Watson School of Education and the Office of Technology Transfer. Two UNCW alumnae – Beth Metcalf, the Watson School’s teacher-in-residence and Kelly Batts, the system-wide mentor for New Hanover County Schools – came up with this game as a means for providing support and training for beginning teachers.

"Will It Phase You?" is the first educational tool of its kind to be developed, marketed and sold by the university. Already,this workshop game has been requested by more than 140 school systems, universities and educational consultants in North Carolina and nine other states.

Excerpt about UNCW faculty

Of course, even the most innovative technology is inert without top-class faculty, and that’s what we can boast, in our classrooms and in our labs. Our faculty is truly superb. Let me mention a couple of our many stars:

Creative writing professor Clyde Edgerton, featured in a video clip earlier, just published his latest novel, The Bible Salesman, to rave reviews. As a BookPage reviewer noted: “Few writers today mine the rich Southern idiom like Edgerton. Who else can so seamlessly weave scripture-quoting housecats into a rural Tar Heel narrative and make it fly?” His Southern humor has won him… and us… national recognition.

Our new Kenan Professor of Jazz, Joe Chambers, is a nationally-recognized drumming maestro, and he’s bringing a new level of awareness to an already amazing jazz program. Joe shares UNCW’s commitment to making our cultural arts programs outstanding and accessible. Each month, he plans to hold performances that will be open to our community. And that’s not all… in January 2009, he will perform on campus with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Excerpt about UNCW research

Our incredible research stars in Marine Science also continue to shine. CMS conducts research funded by a variety of federal grants and contract awards with a total active portfolio of $38 million last year.Researchers there just received another patent for their efforts to derive beneficial health applications from algal toxins. We’re getting closer and closer to an effective treatment for cystic fibrosis.

In each of the areas you’ve heard about and across campus, there are 2 key features of our research commitments. First, we integrate research into the teaching-learning experience for all our students – not only our graduate students, but also our undergraduates. That is our distinctive trademark, and what makes us truly special in North Carolina and beyond.

Let me cite just a couple of examples:

• Physics majors Matthew Reece and Dustin Woolford assisted Associate Professor Liping Gan with her research at the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory, developing a low energy recoil detector for experiments testing predictions of Quantum Chromodynamics.
• Assistant Professor Ned Irvin’s intermediate graphic design class researched and developed packaging for two new brands of popcorn for Richard Hamby of Pumpkins USA, a pumpkin and popcorn grower based in New Mexico.
• Biology and Marine Biology students were lead authors or co-authors on 47 peer-reviewed publications and were presenters or co-authors on 105 presentations to scientific audiences. In Chemistry, students co-authored 23 refereed articles with UNCW faculty.
• Cameron School’s chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon, the national sales and marketing fraternity, took first place in the speaker competition at the Atlantic Region event. At the Dallas National Conference, Calvin Kirk won top salesperson of the year. He wowed the panel of judges with his presentation on toothpaste. He began his sales pitch by giving each judge a sample of his product as well as a new toothbrush and a cup of water. He then asked each of them to brush their teeth while he extolled the merits of his toothpaste. Calvin was the only student at the conference to involve the judges in such a clever and creative way and, of course, he won.

Second, the research we conduct at UNCW has real applications. For example, during Tropical Storm Hanna, the meteorologists on the Weather Channel, CNN and other news outlets across the United States used data coming from our marine weather buoys in the Wilmington area. These buoys are part of UNCW’s Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program, which is primarily funded by NOAA.

Excerpt about UNCW regional engagement and outreach

An education enriched not only by research, but also by service learning experiences – that’s what makes UNCW different. In the past academic year alone, more than 4,700 UNCW students participated in nearly 56,000 hours of community service and service learning programs. Their volunteer work has had a tremendous economic impact on the greater Wilmington area. How much? More than $1 million dollars.

Their level of selflessness, of commitment to others, is true greatness. And it demonstrates that UNCW believes in developing students with great hearts as well as great minds - people who understand that it is up to them not just to live in their communities, but to shape those communities and, in fact, to shape our world.

Excerpt about UNCW donors

I would be remiss, however, if I did not also stress that our success is a direct reflection of what you, our friends and supporters, generously give to us. Last year, you gave us $13.8 million in gifts and pledges, a record-setting amount for UNCW. In fact, you have set records with your support four years in row now.

During that time, UNCW donors gave the university more than $30 million to support scholarships, professorships, academics, faculty research, athletics, student life experiences and so much more.   

I am immensely grateful for the opportunities all of your gifts provide this university. You have helped us in countless ways.  

Conclusion

Our university’s founders opened up a world of opportunity for our region when they opened the doors to Wilmington College. Their vision was extraordinary. What excites me and, I believe, what is the inspiration that excites all of us is the realization that for UNCW, greatness has no boundaries.

Tonight, I ask all of you to pick up our founders’ banner, to promote UNCW and the Seahawk nation proudly, and to send us soaring to a new level of greatness. With your support, we will continue:

• to commit ourselves to providing our students with the most powerful learning experience possible
• to recruit, retain and develop the very best faculty and staff
• to strengthen our signature academic programs, launch new initiatives and create an educational environment that prepares students to be global citizens.

Hopefully, our journey will make it clear to everyone how very important this teal gem on the coast has become and inspire them to support the unlimited potential UNCW has.

To reach new heights, UNCW needs more resources than the state of North Carolina ever can provide. I know that the economy has shaken everyone’s confidence in the short-term future, but I’m asking you to look beyond today, tomorrow or even next month. I’m asking you to think far ahead, as the founders of Wilmington College once did. They purchased 650 acres of land when the college had only 500 students. What extraordinary vision! That’s the kind of vision required of us now – of our students, our faculty and staff…of me…of our legislators…and of you.

We cannot make this journey to greatness alone. Join UNCW on our journey… a journey that will help our students, individually and collectively, soar to even greater heights.

Thank you so very much.