Murray State University

Good afternoon and thank you for the kind remarks and welcome here today.  I am just very glad to see all of you here and—like I hope all of you—just very excited to be starting the 2007-08 academic year.

It is important that—at this significant event—really, a seminal one for Murray State, which traditionally marks the start of the new academic term—that I do three things as President.

First, let me thank all of the University’s returning faculty and professional staff for your tremendous efforts this past year to grow and develop this wonderful university—and to always keep us moving forward.  You’ve heard me say many times this past year that universities do many things for many audiences—but at the heart of it all—anchoring it all—are those teaching and learning transactions that all of you lead and impact every day and that ground all that Murray is and shall hope to become.

Next, let me at this point thank certainly all of the University’s Regents who were able to be present today, including Chair Alan Stout—but especially your Faculty Regent, Dr. Jay Morgan and your Staff Regent, Gina Winchester (about whom I’ll more to say in a few minutes).  I see directly the leadership and direction these two provide on the Board—and I know they each take very seriously their roles of both keeping their constituencies informed and soliciting your best thinking on the direction the University should take.  Gina and Jay—not just your elective bodies—but the entire University Community appreciates your efforts and those of your fellow Regents.

Allow me to thank as well, Dr. Mark Wattier—the sole faculty representative on the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.  His role takes a great deal of time, but it is of invaluable benefit for us at MSU. 

Finally, I want to warmly welcome all of our new faculty and staff members to Murray State University and to congratulate those already here who have recently been tenured or promoted.  For those joining us for the first time today, we are proud to have you with us as part of the academic community here at Murray and we hope you find it a wonderful home to practice your craft—excelling in your teaching; redefining the basis of our knowledge and spirit throughout MSU’s offices, studios, farms, and labs; and applying same in service to others.

Some of you who were present at this event last year will remember me lamenting the fact that—at that point—I had been officially named about three months prior, and was yet three months away from actually starting my tenure as president—but still was called upon to deliver the annual “State of the University” address without even knowing where to park for sure.

and staff, fully focused on student outcomes—are strong, relevant, and a very good mix in my view for what an institution of our size can realistically deliver. 

Too, our physical campus right now continues to grow and push to the west with the development of the Science Campus and to the north with our replacement of the low-rise residential housing stock.  There is, of course, much more we need to do—especially for those of you who labor in Faculty Hall, Woods Hall, Ordway Hall, and Breathitt Veterinary Center—to name a few of our more-“challenged” facilities.  We will keep up our ongoing efforts both in Frankfort and Washington DC to secure funding to continue the remaking of this campus for the 21st Century.  Toward that end—on this past Tuesday—we hosted our very first Congressional staffers on-campus briefing as we already begin work on our federal agenda for the federal fiscal year 2009 budget.

But for me, the not-fully-realized piece—is figuring out how best to harness the capacity of this University and utilize it to do what all universities are called upon to do—to recreate society toward more better and perfect ends:  to increase educational attainment, to improve our health and well-being, to honor public service, to foster personal potential, and to achieve social justice.  That is what it means to be a University—and regional institutions such as ours have a special responsibility to ensure the translation of our work toward those ends. 

Certainly, I know we have a rich history and tradition of doing outreach—whether we’re talking about our Roads Scholars program or grant-funded projects or Town and Gown initiatives or myriad other programs that have been successfully carried out here at Murray over many years.  But what I’m talking about now—what I’m calling the University too—is taking this to a new and higher level of work to support multiple constituencies outside the University, in addition to our primary constituency—students—who we serve inside the University.
 
Consider these statistics about Kentucky:

Kentucky ranks 49th in the nation in the proportion of the adult population with a high school diploma or higher. In rural areas the percent of adults without a high school diploma is the worst in the nation—32.4 percent. Among Kentucky’s working age population 40 percent either cannot read at all or have limited to moderate reading ability. The effects of this deficiency in education affect those who are most vulnerable.

Kentucky has the 11th highest rate of childhood poverty with 216,000 Kentucky children living below the Federal poverty line. In Kentucky’s rural areas the problem is the worst in the nation with 76.4 percent of Kentucky students qualifying for free or reduced-price school meals.

High poverty and low education levels lead to health issues as well. Kentucky has the fifth highest level of adult obesity in the nation at 25.6 percent, the third highest overweight high school student levels at 14.6 percent, and the third highest overweight levels for low-income children ages two through five at 16.8 percent. Kentucky ranks seventh highest in the incidence of adults with diabetes and in 2000, the American Heart Association ranked Kentucky 48th out of 50 states for its cardiovascular disease death rate.

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