In my inauguration speech, I asked each of you to think boldly and assuredly about the future of the University. With this note, I want to report to you the exciting progress that has been made regarding Strategic Direction IV, Institutional Effectiveness, progress that clearly illustrates that the university community has responded to my challenge.
While we recognize that there are needs throughout the University, today I am pleased to tell you that many of those needs are being fulfilled at what I can only describe as a frenetic pace.
The David A. Beckerman Recreation Center is scheduled to be completed in November. The Center promises to promote community on campus, and will feature a glass-enclosed elevated jogging track, basketball courts, volleyball and indoor soccer spaces, dance and martial arts spaces, and a fitness center. You can watch the Center’s progress on our website.
The schematic design for The Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science is complete, and we have begun the design/development stage. We hope to begin construction in September. The renaming ceremony was a great success, with Dodds Theater packed with university supporters, legislators, board members, and Henry’s family and friends.
We are developing a new 93-space parking lot on the west end of the campus, which we hope to complete by August.
The System Engineering Lab in Buckman Hall and the new handicapped lift entrance to Maxcy Hall were completed over winter break.
The Visitors’ Reception and Presentation Room in Bayer Hall was completed in February.
A new Faculty Handbook and Faculty Constitution have been completed and will be voted on by the faculty in the coming weeks.
We extended experiential-learning training to 20 faculty and staff, a significant increase from the original plan, which budgeted for the training of only five individuals. Training began in October 2006 and will continue through June 2007.
We are instituting a scheduled replacement program for faculty and staff computers.
We now can offer video conferencing in the Finance and Technology Center, as well as in other rooms throughout the University due to equipment portability.
We continue to innovate in the use of Tegrity technology in the classroom. This technology allows faculty to record lectures and enables students to play back the recordings over the Internet.
We are adding regularly to our software library, improving it for students, faculty, and staff.
Most administrative staff job descriptions have been updated.
We used the Strategic Plan to establish goals and objectives for administrative staff members.
Training was held in December for all supervisory staff members on how to conduct effective performance reviews.
We recently signed a contract with a provider to develop a program that will enable us to send students email notification when their bills are available, let them view their bills online, and allow them to pay their bills through this secure system.
We rolled out an online budget-viewing system for our financial managers, allowing them to make better and more timely decisions. At this writing, the Business Office has trained 45 employees on the system.
We have formed a Budget Department to assist all departments in creating budgets and analyzing operating needs. Employees in the Business Office already have worked with ten departments on budgeting concepts and templates.
We recently signed an agreement for a true Purchasing Card, giving us more flexibility and security concerning card use. It will be rolled out within the next few months to specific users, and eventually will be made available to the entire campus.
The Duplicating Office copiers have been upgraded to color capabilities at a lower cost than if we used an outside vendor. By the end of March, the Business Office plans to network the copiers so staff and faculty can email their print jobs instead of making a trip to the basement of Maxcy Hall. Already, the new Duplicating Office equipment is saving us nearly $15,000 per year in lease costs and per-click costs on maintenance contracts.
We have initiated a bidding process for vendors for a number of items in an effort to secure more competitive pricing.
I will continue to keep you up to date on the improvements we are making. Many thanks to all of you for being a part of our movement forward.
