Good morning and welcome.

If you would have asked what I wanted to become when I was in high school or even during my undergraduate years, and in those days I wanted to be an entomologist, the one category of jobs that I would have rejected out of hand was anything having to do with public speaking. After twenty years of being in the classroom, faculty governance and administration I’m still not comfortable with that role. Interesting.

Humboldt is at a critical stage today. On the one hand, over the last four years we have been and are still trying to work through a series of budget reductions and reallocations. On the other hand, it looks like enrollment might finally be turning around and with that there is the promise of new money coming to campus. How we deal with this situation is crucial for the future of this institution.

Budget reductions. It has been a tough few years and last year was particularly hard. On the academic side we started the budget reduction process with a feeling that if we could just get through a few tough years things would be all right. And the problem was that each year things did not get better, they got a little worse. If you think the reductions are temporary then there is a tendency to take short-term measures that everyone can live with, at least for a while, and do nothing that is permanent or sustainable. You do that enough years and you work your way into a crisis. That is where we found ourselves last year.

So, last year we resolved to really face the budget situation and make the necessary reductions. Academic Affairs faced a particularly difficult challenge. That is because we had a 1.5 million dollar structural deficit. The other major units, student affairs, administrative affairs, etc. were not allowed to run a deficit. We were. And that can be seen as good in the short run but its not in the long run. In addition to the deficit, were being asked to phase in another 1.5 million in reductions over a three-year period. That means making a 2 and 1/4-million-dollar reduction in expenditures between last year and this year. That’s a big project.

In planning for how to make those reductions, we distributed the cuts to the different units and because of that I’m not sure how they were approached in any of the units but my own, the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. The approach I took was to begin by achieving all the efficiencies I reasonably could. I asked departments to increase class size where they could, I reduced courses in the majors where it would not impede time to graduation and I made staff reductions where I thought departments could live with those reductions. Once I had achieved all the efficiencies I thought we reasonably could, and still had not achieved the budget reductions necessary, I turned to program elimination rather than across-the-board cuts. I was not willing to weaken a number of programs in order to save all of them and therefore decided to target the cuts narrowly.

As we phase in these budget reductions over the next three years, my message to the units in OAA and particularly to the colleges will be the same: achieve what efficiencies you reasonably can and then target the rest of the reductions narrowly rather than spreading them across the board. We cannot afford to make the reductions in ways that weaken everyone. I know this is difficult but I am convinced that it is the only way we can prepare for the future.

And the future looks reasonably good. I understand we are likely to meet our enrollment target for the first time in quite a while. It also looks like we are going to have another record freshmen class. International students have increased significantly and the Western University Exchange program has brought a substantial increase in the number of out-of-state students. I would like to acknowledge all the people who have worked so hard to increase our student enrollment. This includes the folks in Enrollment Management and those working on recruiting international students. It also includes a number of faculty and staff that are directly involved in recruiting students. And it includes the folks in Advancement, particularly in Public Relations and Graphic Services who helped with the brochures. Would you all please stand?

Thank you.

The reason this is so important is that the primary way that new money will come to campus is through increased enrollment and out-of-state fees. If we are going to grow or plan for new initiatives, enrollment growth is the vehicle that will allow us to do so. While this growth has to be sustained for the next few years to realize these gains, all the signs are positive and therefore we are poised to ask the question “How do we want to grow? “

But it’s just this combination of the bad and the good, of planning for budget reductions and looking toward future growth that makes our choices so critical over the next few years. The new money is going to have to go toward infrastructure and growth rather than toward restoration. That is why it is so important that the reductions be sustainable. We have to be strategic not only about how we grow but also about what we eliminate. And in order to be strategic we have to plan and in order to plan we have to be willing and able to prioritize programs and initiatives.

Prioritizing will allow us to shrink in ways that do not harm everyone and it will allow us to grow in ways that benefit everyone. Just as we cannot afford to come out of these budget reductions with weak programs we cannot afford to dedicate new money to restoring them. We have to combine these projects in ways that respect the past but look to the future.

This sort of planning requires cooperation, participation and sensitivity. I’m going to begin with the last – sensitivity. Everyone on this campus is doing something important. What we are doing today is the result of faculty and staff dedicating their professional lives to this institution. We need to remember that as we struggle to prioritize our programs and initiatives, as we decide which to reduce or phase out, which to grow and which to develop. Cooperation and participation -- without broad cooperation and participation meaningful planning is not possible. This will require transparency, trust and a lot of good will.

If we are able to work together, I am convinced that Humboldt can maintain its position as one of the strongest and most competitive campuses in the system. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think we could make this work. But, I’m going to need a lot of help and I am counting on you for that help.

Thank you.