Millersville Convocation Address
By President Francine G. McNairy
September 11, 2009
The Times They Are A-Changin'

American icon and patriot Dr. Benjamin Franklin once quipped that the only two sure experiences of life are death and taxes. With all due respect to the good doctor, I would add a third certainty...change.  While it is indeed my pleasure to welcome you to the 2009 fall term, my message today will be considerably different, for these are not ordinary times. 

Although we have been, and continue to be, good stewards of our resources, we have been denied the tuition increases for which we hoped and are being asked to deliver our quality education with even fewer resources. While there are encouraging reports that serious budget negotiations occurred through the night and are continuing today, the fact that there is no resolution on the state budget at this late date adds to our challenges.

More than 85% of our total revenue comes from a combination of state appropriations and state-regulated tuition and fees--which are both at record low levels.  In short, for the past five years we have faced dramatic budget reductions.  Specifically, $10 million of our $100 million budget is gone. One tenth!  Think about what the impact on your personal budget would mean if you were to lose ten percent. You could not go on living in a "business as usual" mode.  It would cause you to thoughtfully reflect on your spending behaviors and priorities. 

As we think about this fiscal reality as well as the challenges that technology has imposed on our lives and the concept of change, I want to share a short video with you--watch closely. 

http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/Various+Versions+of+the+Presentation

(The following adaptation of the original "Shift Happens" presentation was created by Sony BMG Music Entertainment. The video, presented by Richard Sanders, President of Sony BMG International, was shown on May 4, 2008 to 150 of the company's top executives gathered in Rome for Sony BMG's annual Global Management Meeting. As part of Sony BMG's mission to improve the music experience for consumers living in "exponential times," the video illustrates the demand for change.)

Is this video clip the harbinger of a new world?  Like a jolting lightning bolt...

•  China soon to become the number one English-speaking nation in the world,
• It is estimated that four exabytes of unique information will be generated this year -- that is more than in the previous 5,000 years,
• Today's learners will have between 10-14 jobs by the age of 38.
• We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist using technologies that haven't been invented in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.

And here you and I are--poised to prepare the next generation of thinkers, community energizers, and leaders to enter this whirlwind of change and enter it, no less, with confidence.  Confident that their degree from Millersville University will not only serve them and serve them well, but that it will be second to none!  Daunting isn't it?

So, what does it all mean?  And, what does it all mean for Millersville? 

From my vantage point, there are two realities concerning change that we must face this year--realities that will likely shape our collective destinies and the future of this very institution in the foreseeable future.  First, we must face change planted firmly on the solid rocks that are the core values and mission of this institution.

Second, we must act boldly and heed the mandate for change lest we be left in the dust of time.  In my inaugural address I stated that "at times we will be called upon to embrace change and reinvent ourselves in ways that allow us to address the needs of the community that we have become."

Millersville, this is one of those times.

From where can we draw strength to face the changes we must make?  Every day has given me reason to be proud and thankful to be a part of this vibrant community.  My joy and pride in Millersville is most reinforced when I have the opportunity to tell the MU story. 

You have already heard the Provost's report of accomplishments, but indulge me a few moments while I share some additional "Did you know" accomplishments since we were together last fall.

In our commitment to develop academic programs grounded in the liberal arts that attain national distinction, did you know that:

• Five faculty in the School of Science and Math collaborated on a successful NSF-STEM grant providing $585,000 in scholarship support to financially needy mathematics, computer and science students?
• For the second consecutive year, the Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society, AMC, received the national "Chapter of the Year" award?
• The Student Affiliate Chapter of the American Chemical Society was recognized as a "Commendable Chapter" by the ACS, a commendation earned by only 5% of student chapters nationally?
• The Society for American Management student team was first prize champions in the Society for the Advancement of Management Case Competition in Las Vegas?

In our commitment to celebrate diversity and develop life and leadership skills that promote the greater public good, did you know that:

• Student Affairs received a $50,000 "Students Working Against Tobacco" grant?
• Nearly 800 students, faculty and staff completed the University's second comprehensive campus climate survey? The results will be used by the Office of Social Equity and Diversity to inform its update.
• The Civic and Community Engagement and Research Project (CCERP) continues embedding itself as a signature aspect of the Millersville educational experience? It sponsors such ventures as:
  • The Voter Assistance and Poll Workers' projects, a partnership between the Lancaster County Board of Elections and CCERP, assigned 50 Millersville University students to election facilities throughout the county for last fall's national election.
  • The Walker Center Junior Associates and Fellows program placed 10 students in week-long "in residence" sessions in Washington, D.C., or Harrisburg, affording students interaction with representatives of all three branches of government.

 In our commitment to provide responsible stewardship, did you know that:

• In the coming weeks, the campus community will be asked to provide feedback on the Rediscover Millersville: 2010 Self-Study draft document? This culminates the work of more than 130 engaged members of the campus, examining Millersville's performance on the Middle states' standards
• The final Facilities Master Plan has been completed and will be presented to the Council of Trustees in September for its approval?
• The Soar to Greatness Campaign has raised more than $43 million toward the $60 million campaign goal?  This is a $7 million increase since last year, even in these most difficult economic times.

These accomplishments are a small sample of the innovative and important work being done by members of this community.  In a world of change, such achievements give hope that we will weather what might lie before us. 

Meanwhile, we're dealing with innumerable factors that we have come to view as "the perfect storm." In Sebastian Junger's prize-winning 1997 book The Perfect Storm the author created a catchphrase of universal understanding.  Since the 2000 movie by the same name, the phrase "perfect storm" has gained popularity and grown to mean:  any event where a combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically.  Sadly, this rhetorical device is an apt descriptor for our current position and leads into the second reality I want to share with you. 

Let me begin with a little background drawn from our recent history. Since 2005, prior to the onset of the current global economic crisis and due to declining state support, the University was forced to restructure its budget through a $5.1 million strategic reallocation that invested $1.5 million in key institutional initiatives and redirected $3.6 to cover mandated costs (utilities, health costs and personnel salary increases). 

This past year the Governor asked the State System to return 4.25% of our 2008-09 state appropriation to help address the loss of revenue for the state. For Millersville, that meant a loss of $1.67 million. Throughout this period we have been careful stewards of our resources, which has enabled us to honor a shared commitment to offer a high-quality education to our students and to do so while maintaining steady undergraduate and increased graduate enrollments. 

For this current year, we have reduced our budget by more than $4.2 million in order to meet the budget shortfall that exists through this moment in time. This includes reduction in several areas including our equipment base by 50%, repair and renovation projects, again by 50%, reductions in operating budgets, student wages, dollars for contingency for the year and elimination of the furniture budget. 

The boatmen in Junger's novel didn't create the dire weather conditions that threatened their existence. So too, the rough waters we face are not of our making. Yet we must weather the gales that swirl around us lest we be consumed. I am not one to exaggerate. I use the language of a perfect storm because the context in which we find ourselves is a complexity of factors any one of which, by itself, we could sustain by assuming a heightened state of "business as usual." 

But "business as usual" will not suffice in the face of this deluge of economic and political factors. Think about the elements of this perfect storm:

• The complexity of technology and the rapidity of its changes have affected our world in ways we never imagined.
• A suffering global economy where available funding and philanthropic giving throughout the nation have dropped to record lows not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• Unemployment rates in multiple sectors of this nation that have reached double digits and threaten to impact the stability of our nation.
• A state budget gap that might be artificially supported by federal stimulus dollars, but only for two years
• Lower state funding.
• Less than sufficient tuition increases.
• A lower share of the total PASSHE appropriation dollars based on enrollment -- as we have worked hard to refrain from increasing our enrollment to enable us to protect our smaller class sizes and desired faculty/student interaction, some of our sister institutions have grown and significantly increased class sizes.
• $2.17 million in contractually mandated salary increases that inflates our personnel costs at a higher percentage than the increase in our state appropriations and tuition revenues will cover.
• And the straw that breaks the camel's back -- huge, double digit, increases in the University's contributions for employees who are in the State Employees Retirement System will jump from 3.15% in 2009-10 to 33.5% in 2013-14.  That's nearly $8 million more that MU must fund. This is more than a 1000% increase over five years!

It is incumbent upon us to address all of these challenges and to simultaneously assure that our graduates are effective communicators, critical thinkers, knowledgeable practitioners with qualitative and quantitative skills, and individuals with a strong ethical compass.  In short, we need to produce lifelong learners...and that is what we do. 

But here is the catch: we cannot do what we do the same way we have done it in the past.  If we attempt to do so, this perfect storm will surely drown us.  

We must define Millersville for the future -- define what it means to be a high-quality, public higher education institution with a deep commitment to the liberal arts that forms a strong base for lifelong learning.  We must define Millersville in financial terms that effectively address the economic realities of the perfect storm, in pedagogical delivery systems that embrace and enhance quality and in public relations outreach that beats external entrepreneurs at their own game. 

We must define Millersville in ways that ensure that our students leave us prepared, not just to survive and to tread water but to use the waves around them to propel them into lifetimes of accomplishment and enable them to make a difference. 

As we define who we are, we must be willing to show and share our competitive edge. That story must be dynamic and organic. That is the nature of a competitive edge. Here, for example, is one important way you can help. When you receive a call from Janet Kacskos, the University's communications director, know that she is calling you so that you can lend your expertise to the media on a given subject. I urge you to return the phone call and share your expertise with the media!

If we don't step up to the microphone and share our knowledge and our stories of student success and institutional pride, others will be more than glad to fill that void. 

In 1963, the now legendary song writer and musician Bob Dylan penned and performed what would become both a signature song for him and for the turbulent years of the '60s, "The Times They Are A-Changin."  The words of the first stanza have a haunting reality for us in higher education today.  For you youngsters in the room, and for those of my generation, who might have forgotten, let me remind you of those lyrics:   

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

The truth is that we are in the midst of a perfect storm. The confluence of economics, politics and technology has us in sight, and if we do not think creatively and act boldly, Dylan's prophecy that we "will sink like a stone" may become reality.  To this, I say "not on our watch"!  We need to be strong swimmers in these turbulent waters. 

So I proclaim this time as a critical call to arms! This institution has weathered storms before that have caused those visionaries who have gone before us to embrace what, at the time, would have been thought of as most radical changes.  These individuals acted with bold decisiveness as they sought to propel the institution forward.  For example, did you know:

• This institution confronted economic crises of national depressions in the 1870s, 1890s and 1930s and survived?
• This institution embraced the risk of transforming from a "Normal School" to a comprehensive regional University?
• During World War II, what was then Millersville State Teachers College overcame the serious challenge of steep enrollment declines and navigated its way out of dangerous consideration of being merged into the Penn State University System?
• While recognizing the need for further progress, this university has made a remarkable journey since the early 1970s when there were only a handful of women faculty and administrators and the number of employees of color, in all categories, was negligible?
• Educational opportunities for students has exploded beyond the traditional four-walls-on-campus classroom as our students travel out into the community and world, creating and embracing community partnerships in ways unimaginable decades ago?

The situations I mention here were radical departures for their time, and today we consider them "commonplace" and "part of our institutional fabric."

As we contemplate our actions to deal with the storm this year and in the years to follow, here are five strategies that must, and will, guide us:

First, we will continue the process of developing and advancing programs of national distinction that elevate the competitive profile of the University and distinguish Millersville University as a destination institution.

Second, we must move with deliberate speed to tap into the rich market for degree completion and employment-driven lifelong learning needs of America's educated workforce.
 
A recent study showed that the percentage of Philadelphia residents who started, but who have yet to complete, their college degree is 80%. Eighty percent! Imagine what that percentage must be within the five counties surrounding Lancaster. Now here is a unique population of adult learners who don't need a traditional degree program, but who would welcome some element of closure to what they began. 

It is time we understand that a vibrant degree completion program requires openness to granting appropriate life experience credit for nontraditional students and flexible and diverse liberal studies degree options. Millersville should, and must, become known as a source of high-integrity validation of previous, but valued, learning.

Third, we must continue to be a destination university. We must build on our foundation, a foundation that lends itself nicely to the new media technology that dares to address how students of the new millennium learn and acquire knowledge. We must remove the silos of academic disciplines and embrace interdisciplinary knowledge within the academy; and we must partner with the business, education, health, government and nonprofit sectors to build new ways of knowing.

Fourth, we will continue to foster an entrepreneurial spirit that solicits ideas on how best to meet the long-term fiscal challenges. We seek your ideas and suggestions for cost reduction and avoidance, new programs and strategies for revenue growth, and collaborative partnerships with other institutions. We will continue our practice of making the budget transparent through educational workshops conducted by our provost and vice president for finance and administration.

Finally, we must recognize that there will be some difficult decisions to make, including administrative reorganization and program-level changes. We will have to reassess all current program goals.  Exploration of cost-efficient management places all options on the table for examination. We must redirect resources to the highest institutional priorities and essential new programs. 

In embracing these strategies, I challenge each of you to not merely make a suggestion for change or a critique of current practice. I ask each of you to identify the role you are willing to play in the implementation of the change, its assessment, and sustainability. Without a doubt, as has always been the case, our richest resource is our collective human capital. 

Let me urge that we not jump to conclusions concerning the direction change must take. This is a time for rigorous self-examination of our current situation, open-minded exploration of possibilities for the future, and calm and thoughtful decision making that affords us greater flexibility as an institution.   The one predictability about the future is its unpredictability. 

So, colleagues and friends, here is what it all means.

We are indeed in the midst of trying times of change, change that is rarely of our own choosing.  Yet, in the face of uncertainty, the good news here is that we are the writers of our story. 

No matter what challenges come our way, we have the power to turn them into opportunities.  If we stay true to our core mission, stay true to the values of Millersville University that make us who we are...that make us second to none...then we will come through the storms even stronger than before. 

We will transform ourselves!  And like our forbearers in 1870, 1890, the '30s, and the '40s, we will not merely survive, we will succeed! 

That you must know and I do know, because we are Millersville University and, together, we will prevail! 

Thank You.

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