T RA N S FOR M AT I ONA Celebration of Utah State University

The Inauguration of

STAN L. ALBRECHT15th President

Fall semester has always been my favorite time at Utah State University. A new class of freshmen students arrives on campus, each one eager and excited to begin the adventure that is ahead. Our veteran students return to continue their work toward completing their majors or graduate programs, and our faculty come back from a summer of research, scholarship, and intellectual renewal.

This fall promised to be particularly significant for me because we had spent a good deal of time during the summer planning an inaugural event designed to initiate an important conversation about Utah State University and its future. There were other exciting things happening on campus as well. We would complete our move into a beautiful, new 21st century library, and a new football

season would launch our long-awaited entrance into the WAC conference. We would also continue long-standing traditions such as Agricultural Week, a time set aside to celebrate our legacy as one of America’s finest land-grant universities.

Then, as all of you are aware, on the evening of September 26, a tragedy of enormous proportions occurred. Eight outstanding USU students and a beloved member of our faculty were killed in a van accident. Two other students were seriously injured and remain in recovery.

Suddenly, something like a presidential inauguration became very secondary. Helping families deal with their personal tragedies and assisting our larger campus community cope and regroup became much more important.

While we recognize there will be long-term impacts from the event of September 26 on our campus, we have felt, nevertheless, that some of what we hoped to accomplish during an inaugural week should not be lost. That includes, particularly, a discussion of our vision and goals that will guide what we do at this university over the next several years. To facilitate that process, we are distributing the text of the inaugural address, along with a visual overview of some of the changes occurring on campus that are a part of an important transformation of Utah State University.

We invite you to read and to respond. We hope to integrate your feedback into a comprehensive statement that will help us forge a future for this great university that is consistent with its extraordinary past.

Sincerely,

Stan L. AlbrechtPresident

ABOUT UTAH STATE

Since its founding in 1888, Utah State University has evolved from a small, agricultural college to one that is nationally and internationally recognized for its intellectual and technological leadership in land, water, space, and life enhancement. As Utah’s land-grant institution, the university has 850 faculty who provide education for more than 23,000 undergraduate and graduate students, including 7,000 in its continuing education sites located throughout the state of Utah.

With seven colleges, more than 200 majors and 130 research-related classes, Utah State can count four Goldwater Scholars and a Rhodes Scholar among its graduates in the past five years. Student-centered, hands-on learning opportunities are plentiful as Utah State has had more than $150 million in research expenditures in recent years. These research dollars, along with stellar faculty mentors, have inspired more than 1,000 students to pursue their own research projects.

Located in the city of Logan in northern Utah’s Cache Valley, Utah State is 80 miles northeast of Salt Lake City and is within a day’s driving distance of six national parks. The surrounding area, including ski resorts, lakes, rivers, and mountains, makes Utah State one of the finest recreational environments in the nation. The university is a place of diverse thought, where first-rate cultural offerings provided by talented professors and visiting artists benefit thousands of students and members of the community. It is a safe place that provides a unique

living-learning community and is the oldest and largest public residential campus in Utah.

PRESIDENT STAN L. ALBRECHT

STAN L. ALBRECHT is the President of Utah State University where he previously served four years as Executive Vice President and Provost. He was appointed President in February 2005.

President Albrecht has acquired a broad range of administrative, research, teaching, and outreach experiences throughout his career. This includes administrative assignments as a department chair, academic dean (twice), associate director of a major research institute, and academic vice president. At Utah State University, he was Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences prior to his appointment as Provost. He has served in a number of professional assignments, including membership on the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment Panel on Alternatives for Basing the MX missile and as a member of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service Science Advisory Committee.

President Albrecht has authored or co-authored five books and published more than 100 articles in refereed journals and book chapters. His research has been supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and a number of other programs and agencies. He has received outstanding research awards at both the University of Florida and Brigham Young University and several teaching awards. President Albrecht currently serves on the Economic Development Corporation of Utah Board of Trustees, Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors, and the Wells Fargo Northern Utah Community Board.

President Albrecht is married to Joyce V. Albrecht.

TRANSFORMATION

A Utah State University for the 21st Century

Stan Albrecht, 15th President

Utah State UniversityInaugural Address*

I begin by saluting our outstanding faculty, our devoted and loyal staff, our remarkable students, and our dedicated administrative team. The quality that is Utah State University is a direct consequence of the individual contributions each of you make. You all represent excellence in our missions of learning, discovery, and service. Our faculty are not only exemplary teachers, but outstanding scholars in the very best meaning of that term. You broaden the scope of human knowledge, while you challenge the minds and imaginations of our students in the laboratories and classrooms across our campus. Thank you, colleagues, for doing all that you do so well. I am honored to serve as your 15th president.

We began as the Agricultural College of Utah in 1888—eight years before Utah became the 45th state. We had our birth in a community and valley that are unsurpassed both for their natural beauty and for their commitment to the values that this new venture into higher education represented. From that first day, our fate has been inseparable from that of our host community. So to our friends in the larger Cache Valley community, thank you for 117 years of continuing support.

The Agricultural College of Utah was a physical manifestation of the dream contained in the Morrill Act, which made possible the establishment of a great armada of public colleges and universities created to provide access to education for all citizens. I hope in what follows to reflect with you on some of the things we must do to build on this foundation. I will focus on just a few ideas that describe our transformation from the agricultural school in which we have our roots, into a university that preserves and honors that heritage, but also connects us to a larger world—and that larger world to us.

In selecting this modest handful of themes, I acknowledge other critical issues and needs that certainly could be addressed today and that will be key priorities of this administration. We must, for example, find new resources to more adequately compensate our outstanding faculty and staff and to provide more acceptable operating budgets to our departments and colleges. We must make sure that the education our students receive is unsurpassed. We must launch and successfully complete a major comprehensive campaign. We must attend to our

*President Albrecht canceled the delivery of his inaugural speech along with all inaugural-related activities in response to the deaths of eight students and one instructor involved in a tragic van accident September 26, 2005.

broader mission of responding to the needs of a statewide constituency, both through the excellence of our research and Extension activities and through the provision of educational opportunities to those more distant from our Logan campus. We must address the challenges of being one university, but with multiple locations. These are all themes I will leave unaddressed today, but that will continue to take form over the next few months.

Today I focus on three issues that are an important part of the transformation of Utah State University. These include, first, providing access and opportunity, second, responding to the opportunities and challenges of 21st century globalization, and, third, establishing our place in facilitating economic development.

PROVIDING ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITYThe founding philosophy of the public land-grant system is that education is altruistic, that expanding knowledge improves people’s lives in real ways, both practical and spiritual. Like other land-grant institutions, we were founded as the “people’s college,” created to help the sons and daughters of our state to learn and thrive and grow so they could help to inspire and expand the American democratic ideal.

CHANGING LIVES

When Utah State University Extension student Kiersten Hewitt decided to go

back to school after a 12-year break, the idea was a little intimidating. But as

a student at USU’s Brigham City Branch Campus, Hewitt quickly realized

it would all be worth it as she joined a growing number of returning students

balancing a career and home life with academic pursuits.

“USU changed my life,” said Kiersten. “The university offers a much

broader range of services and flexibility in academic choice than any other

university in the state because of its continuing education program.”

In 2005, Kiersten was named the top non-traditional student in the western

region of the University Continuing Education Association.

Kiersten will graduate in Spring 2006 with a bachelor’s in psychology and

a dual minor in sociology and family, consumer, and human development. And

while she said it can be incredibly challenging to juggle school, work, and family, it is all worthwhile and said that

anyone contemplating going back to school should do it.

Kiersten will begin working on a master’s degree in 2006.

BRINGING ART TO LIVES

The playwright Oscar Wilde once said the stage is not merely the meeting place of all the

arts; it is also the return of art to life. For the past century, USU has fostered the arts on

campus and throughout the Cache Valley area. In a new commitment to the arts and their

importance to life, the academic units of art, creative writing, interior design, landscape

architecture and environmental planning, music, theatre arts, and the Nora Eccles

Harrison Museum of Art have joined together to form the Caine School of the Arts.

The Caine School, built from a community of artists, teachers, students, and patrons,

has been named in recognition of the ongoing support and commitment to the arts provided

by the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation. This new organization will make the arts more

visible and more fully integrated into the intellectual and cultural life of the university

and the communities it serves. Through its efforts, the school will enrich the cultural

environment of Cache Valley, the state of Utah, and the region.

As the Caine School of the Arts begins, the university is pleased to announce the

opening of a performance hall in January 2006. The Manon Caine Russell Kathryn

Caine Wanlass Performance Hall is a 20,000-square-foot building serving USU,

the Cache Valley community, and the Intermountain region. A gift from Manon and

Kathryn, the venue features a 400-seat performance hall, a stage for up to 22 performers

and a lobby with glass windows overlooking a plaza. The hall’s intimate scale is ideal for

small acoustical performances, including chamber music, vocal and instrumental concerts,

recitals, readings, and lectures. Manon and Kathryn’s donation to build the performance

hall was the largest individual gift in the university’s history. This premier venue will

enrich the academic, professional, and personal lives of USU students and faculty and will

be a gathering place where art will touch life.

It is this process of personal and individual transformation that is perhaps our most important contribution. In providing the widest possible range of young people an educational springboard, Utah State helps them get started. And so many not only get off the ground, but soar—literally—into the heavens . . . aboard NASA rockets, in the arts and humanities and literature, through their contributions in the sciences, business, and engineering to make the lives of people worldwide better and healthier, richer, and fuller.

There is no question of the power and potential of education to transform people’s lives and to serve as a force for social change. The challenge of the new century is keeping our doors open as wide as possible to tap and grow the potential of students of all kinds and all backgrounds. We cannot grow that potential if they cannot find the means to come to our campuses—both here in Logan and in other communities across Utah. The challenge for Utah State, as well as for the leaders of Utah, is that an increasingly large proportion of the burden has been shifting from the state to the shoulders of our students and their parents. If we are to continue to fulfill the original land-grant vision, which saw education as a declaration of independence for all citizens, then we must find new mechanisms to welcome everyone who wants to learn and grow, regardless of their background or socioeconomic status.

Peter Macgrath, former NASULGC President, has often reminded us that the glory of American public higher education has truly been its democratizing reach; however, today we face the real challenge of losing ground in our efforts to remain true to that ideal. A recent study of the average cost of attending an institution of higher education found dramatic changes in the share of total family income required to cover the costs of a college education. For the highest income quintile, that share has remained fairly constant since 1976—about five percent of total income. However, for the lowest income quintile, the percentage of family income required to cover the costs of higher education has soared from about 40 percent in 1976 to more than 70 percent today.

Because of this, educational opportunities and outcomes are increasingly stratified by ethnicity and income, and the ability of certain groups to derive the benefits from returns on education are threatened. We must work to close the opportunity and the achievement gaps by providing more need-based aid, through a significant expansion of our scholarship programs, and by finding other innovative ways to make sure that all who are prepared for and who desire a Utah State University experience have that opportunity. We cannot afford not to invest in human capital, whatever its color or income level; we cannot afford to waste human potential whenever and wherever it might be found. As discussed in a recent American Council on Education Series on the changing relationship between higher education and the states, we will be challenged by questions of whether current funding levels will sustain both

the quality of education to which we aspire, and the level of access we must provide. But that is a challenge we will meet. For Utah State University, joining opportunity with excellence is not only something we can do, it is something we must do.

EMPOWERING LIVES

Six-year-old Shawnie Christensen is doing wonderfully in school.

Shawnie, who has muscular dystrophy, is reading, learning, and

interacting with her kindergarten teacher, and her parents say

this is because of the help she receives working with Utah State’s

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Department.

“I think there is nothing in life more important than

communication,” said Beth Foley, department head and professor in

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education.

Students in the Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education

Department work with members of the community who have

communication disabilities. The students are trained to work with a

variety of assistive technology related to mobility needs, communication

needs, visual impairment, and hearing impairments.

A generous $4.5 million gift to the department from the estate of Ray L. and Eloise

Hoopes Lillywhite in May 2005 helped the university’s College of Education enhance its

already stellar reputation among the colleges of education in the nation.

Dr. Foley said the Lillywhite gift makes a difference, allowing the department to

empower more people with disabilities to be successful in life.

For a video highlighting Shawnie Christensen and USU’s Communicative Disorders

and Deaf Education program, visit www.usu.edu/develop/ and click on “Lillywhite Video.”

CHALLENGES OF 21ST CENTURY GLOBALIZATIONThat land-grant tradition of sharing information and knowledge becomes even more important as we consider the increasingly global economy and challenges to America’s role in worldwide markets. What is the place of Utah State University in this brave new world?

As never before, our issues are global issues. You all know the major indicators—they are legion. No longer is the United States the unchallenged world leader in higher education, science, and engineering. While many areas of the globe are making significant advances, China leads the way. China

is now the world’s largest consumer of construction and energy products, the second largest consumer of energy, and the third largest importer of oil. Chinese exports to the United States have grown more than 1600 percent in the last 15 years. China now manufactures two-thirds of the world’s copiers, microwave ovens, DVD players and shoes, and nearly all the world’s toys. And here in Logan, as we debate the wisdom of a new Wal-Mart superstore, here’s a fact that may strike home: Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. corporation, imports

DRILLING INTO EARTHQUAKES

USU geologists are involved in a breakthrough drilling project

that lays the groundwork for the first subterranean earthquake

observatory established directly in a seismically active fault.

Geology professor Jim Evans, grad student Sarah Draper,

undergrad Kelly Mitchell, and Aggie alum John Solum, now with

the U.S. Geological Survey, were among researchers working on-site

this past summer with the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth

project. Launched in 2003, SAFOD is one of three major components

of EarthScope, a National Science Foundation-funded initiative

being carried out in collaboration with the USGS to investigate

powerful geological forces that shape the North American continent.

Until now, said Dr. Evans, geologists have been limited to the

study of exhumed faults — that is, faults that were once at depth

and have subsequently risen to the surface due to mountain-building

processes. “In those cases, we were never sure that the faults we look at

were truly earthquake-producing,” he said. “Now we’re able to observe

the actual earthquake machine in real-time.” Photo courtesy EarthScope

about 18 billion dollars worth of goods from China, and about 80 percent of Wal-Mart’s suppliers are Chinese (see Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, May 9, 2005).

How is American higher education and—especially—how is Utah State University to respond to these global trends? Clearly, we must reexamine our curriculum to see where a wider global focus makes sense, not only in business and the sciences, but across the arts and humanities and social sciences. For the community of scholars that a university campus represents, growing worldwide interdependence and connectivity are a boon for study and greater shared knowledge and mutual understanding. Clearly, the successes of the educational

systems and economies of other nations create challenges for America, but they also create opportunities for internationalization of our curriculum and a widening of our world view. We must build more effectively on our strengths, including those reflected in the language and cultural experiences of our students and in the research capabilities of our faculty.

We share interest and responsibility inherent in cross-border issues such as global warming and pollution, terrorism, economic interdependency, health problems such as HIV/AIDS, and other challenges. The nature of the world is such that no one nation and certainly no one university can possibly go it alone. We must expand our connections and partnerships with businesses and universities in other countries, and our new partnership with the Dominican Republic is one model of how we will proceed. We need to pursue aggressively and imaginatively other means for shared conversation, shared problem-solving, and a shared and richer future with new partners worldwide.

The information age that has drawn the global village closer together also provides mechanisms to expand our reach beyond the physical horizon and across geographic and national boundaries. Less than a century ago, private

USU PARTNERS WITH NASA

ON GLOBAL WARMING

In 2005, the U.S. Gulf Coast was battered as never before by severe

tropical storms. Devastating hurricanes such as Ivan, Katrina,

Rita, and Wilma feed off warm water, begging the question of

whether retained solar energy is elevating ocean temperatures.

That is why Utah State University’s Space Dynamics

Laboratory, under the direction of program manager Stan

Wellard, is trailblazing new technology that may offer

atmospheric evidence of whether global warming is fact or fiction.

SDL has developed a sensor — as part of SDL’s Far-Infrared

Spectroscopy of the Troposphere (FIRST) project — that can read

tropospheric energy levels never before recorded.

The FIRST sensor was designed by SDL, in cooperation with NASA’s Langley

Research Center, with the capability of measuring spectral energy to determine warming

and cooling patterns in the earth’s atmosphere.

Information from the FIRST sensor might have applications for scientists of various

disciplines, including meteorologists, agriculturists, and economists. If FIRST’s data

shows evidence of energy-induced climate change, scientists can begin looking for ways to

mitigate or eliminate the effects of global warming.

telephones were a rarity, and communicating from Utah to Europe or China was an undertaking of months. Today, our world is connected as never before—immediate, instantaneous, interactive, and collaborative. Our students can talk or email to friends half the world away; they have the world’s archives at their fingertips on the Internet; they can monitor elections, world markets, or climatological conditions in real time, while sitting in their bedrooms in pajamas. The information age and globalization mean that our classrooms are no longer physically bound in Logan, but are as open and diverse and far-seeing as a student’s imagination can envision. We must find new ways to harness these technologies in more creative ways, and to expand our classroom conversations to include colleagues and students in Beijing, Santo Domingo, Paris, and Lagos.

MAPPING MARy’S LAMB

USU is among the four-nation International

Sheep Genome Sequencing Consortium working

toward mapping the genome of sheep with the

goal of improving meat and fiber production as

well as animal health. Funded in part with a

$1 million National Research Initiative Grant

from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to USU,

the project involves researchers from Australia,

New Zealand, and Great Britain, as well as the

United States.

So we must think in more bold and imaginative ways about how to organize our curriculum, how to facilitate and reward international experiences of all types for our students, how to reopen our doors to those who would come from other countries to our campus for study and research, and how to establish new partnerships and collaborations beyond our classrooms and beyond the borders

of our state and nation. I believe that the people of Utah will be infinitely richer for it, not just in business and commerce, but in the lives and souls and perspectives of our people.

HELPING DRIVE UTAH’S ECONOMIC ENGINEFrom a purely hard-headed, practical, and commercial perspective, expanding the reach and connectivity of Utah’s research institutions is, quite simply, good business. Utah State University, with its land-grant tradition of Extension and outreach far beyond the borders of Cache Valley, can help power Utah’s economic engine in this new global economy. I believe very strongly that higher education is the path that will lead our state to a brighter, healthier, and more prosperous future. If we don’t chart this course, and find the means to continue it, we will fall behind other states that have chosen to make this kind of investment in their institutions of higher education.

The philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead once argued that the justification for the university lies neither in the mere knowledge conveyed to its students, nor in the opportunity for new research provided to members of the faculty. Ever since Johann Gutenberg changed the world with his printing press in 1456, Whitehead said, the university as simply a repository for knowledge has been obsolete. With the advent of books, anyone could acquire information by himself.

The real value of the university, Whitehead said, is that it is a place where knowledge and what he called a “zest for life” can come together. The energy produced by learning and discovery is greater than the sum of the mere knowledge contained in it.

The modern research university also provides the economic system in which each dollar invested generates substantial added value. Zora Neale Hurston, the great African-American writer, called research “formalized curiosity”—a process that rewards that most basic of human impulses in unpredictable ways. At one time, curiosity and creation of new knowledge may have been something of a pure art that was worthwhile in and of itself. But in today’s information age, as former Cornell president Frank Rhodes put it, “Knowledge is the new economic currency.”

This is an important point to remember in considering how a land-grant university like Utah State should transform itself. In the Agrarian Age, economic wealth was measured in sheep, potatoes, or grain. In the Industrial Age, success was measured by factory output of standardized products. In today’s Information Age, knowledge is the new coin of the realm. And so research universities like Utah State—where new knowledge can be coined through the research process and disseminated through new technologies

and global partnerships—become the repositories of raw materials to drive economic development. Our future must include the continued development of the intellectual property of our faculty and the commercialization of new ideas that will grow and enhance the economy of our state in ways not previously imagined. And so we anticipate with great excitement new and expanded partnerships with our colleagues at other state institutions of higher education, with political leadership in both the executive and legislative branches, and with the private sector. In this way, we will create a dramatically expanded role for Utah State University in facilitating the progress of economic development in our state.

Please note with me the connections among these three themes: We start by changing the life of a single individual by making it possible for him or her to come to campus and begin expanding horizons. Transformation continues and widens its reach through partnerships and collaborations far beyond the boundaries of Logan, or the United States. These impacts, large and small, on people’s lives and in complex global collaboration will fuel economic development for the state and its people. In the process, our perspectives and

UNDERGRAD RESEARCHER GAINS

COMPETITIVE EDGE

As a researcher in USU professor Ron Sims’ lab, biological engineering

undergraduate student Keith Albretsen is working closely with Sims and USU

biology professors Anne Anderson and Charles Miller to identify the gene

sequence of five microbes that attack, or eat away, carcinogens and toxins in

contaminated soil.

Keith is among a growing number of researchers at USU studying

microbe biotechnology, which has tremendous economic potential in a myriad

of areas, including human health, environmental cleanup, fuel and chemical

development, and food production and processing.

The implications of this science could impact more than 200 Utah

companies. Researchers at USU are currently studying microbial science as it

applies to agriculture, engineering, and science.

“There are so many benefits to working on an undergraduate research

project,” said Keith. “Not only am I making a positive impact in the

environment, but I am conducting research that will give me a competitive edge

when it comes time to apply for graduate school.”

our vision of the possible and the attainable are broadened. In the process, individuals both here and in distant, unknowable places have their lives and opportunities transformed. This is our vision, and our future.

CONCLUDING COMMENTSLet me conclude my remarks today by being just a bit more personal. University of Connecticut literature professor, writer, and humorist Gina Barreca, in commenting on those life events that have dramatic personal impact, observed that “one morning you wake up and nothing is ever the same again.” Since waking up on the morning of February 1 of this year, nothing in my life has ever been the same. The more important consideration, however, is not the impact of that day on my life, or on Joyce’s, but on whether our time in these assignments can make a difference for Utah State University. Can this be a better place because we are here? I ask that question without any sense of elevated importance. My father used to remind us that if we ever started to feel that we had become a person of influence, we should try bossing someone else’s dog. Accepting his advice, I have tried to avoid bossing someone else’s dog.

While the answer to my question may best be found in the context of greater historical perspective, it is a question that we will ask of ourselves each day as we strive to merit your continuing support and confidence. May I encourage

WATER WISE

Researchers from USU’s College of Natural Resources in collaboration with colleagues

across campus have developed the Bear River Watershed Information System to provide

critical data about the multi-state watershed to citizens, government agencies, and the

scientific community.

Straddling the states of Utah, Idaho, and

Wyoming, the Bear River Basin covers 7,500 square

miles of mountain and valley lands. Assistant

professor of Aquatic, Watershed and Earth Resources

Nancy Mesner, engineering colleagues Jeff Horsburgh

and David Stevens, and USU economists Arthur

Caplan and Terry Glover, have developed a Web site

that provides comprehensive information about the

unique and vital watershed, including interactive

maps and real-time water quality monitoring. Visit

bearriverinfo.org.

each of you to ask yourselves the same question: can this be a better place because you are here? How we do our jobs in our classrooms, our laboratories, and our offices, and how we treat our students and our colleagues, will ultimately reveal the answer.

My appreciation for and my commitment to this great institution continues to grow. Schopenhauer, a 19th century German philosopher, believed that “the reverence you are capable of feeling is a measure of your personal worth, for if you revere nothing, you suffer from a smallness of the soul.” In that context, there is no smallness of soul in my reverence for Utah State University, for its history, for its presence, and for its future. A somewhat similar theme is found in Frederick Mayer’s book, The Great Teacher, when he observes that: “We look upon laboratories and stadiums as signs of progress, when they may only hide an empty spirit.” Let us not hide empty spirits at this place but, instead, fill

BUSINESS SAVVy

Accounting students in the College of Business

were once again among the top six teams in the

nation at the 2005 Deloitte Tax Case Study

Competition. The graduate tax team from the

School of Accountancy was one of six national

finalists at the competition, which draws the

highest level of talent from some of the best

universities in the United States. The USU

graduate tax team has reached the finals five

consecutive years.

USU’s chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, a national

accounting honor fraternity, once again achieved

the “Superior Chapter Award,” continuing the

longest unbroken streak in the nation

(28 years) for this recognition.

Utah State University ranked in the 90th percentile nationally on the Educational

Testing Service Major Field Test in Business. College of Business 2005 graduating

seniors took the exam, and their results were compared to more than 80,000 other business

students at 469 institutions. USU ranked in the 95th percentile nationally in accounting,

finance, and knowledge of legal and ethical issues. These scores show that College of

Business students leave USU with an excellent foundation in business subjects.

Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte and an alum of the College of Business, visited the College in early November.

them with the joys of learning, of discovery, and of service. Let’s fill them with the satisfaction that comes from unrelenting and uncompromising pursuit of excellence in our classrooms, in our laboratories, and in our personal lives.

The journey is sometimes mind-boggling in its pace, overwhelming in the nature of its challenges, and unrelenting in the complexity and certainty of its new problems. A recent study found that university presidents carry out an average 73.28 discrete activities on a typical day, each with a mean duration of 7.39 minutes. This leaves little time for either solitude or reflection. But the journey itself can be an essential part of the great adventure, particularly if we recognize the satisfaction that comes in the variety of issues, opportunities, and challenges that are addressed in our efforts to make the institution better and stronger.

For me, as for many of you, much of the joy of that great adventure comes in the personal relationships that characterize our daily lives. Former U.S. President Harry Truman is credited with the observation that if an administrator desires to find a friend, he should buy a dog. And, the late author and political analyst Aaron Wildavsky once remarked that if there are rewards associated with administrative service, they should probably be sought in the next life. I reject the cynicism of both statements. Much of the joy of service comes in the friendships that develop among administrative team members, and among faculty, staff, and student colleagues as we work together to help make this place all it can be.

In academe we are sometimes quick to judge and find fault, and too often we do that without taking the time to understand or appreciate those toward whom our judgments are directed. A few years ago I was invited to make remarks at the funeral of a colleague who was widely recognized as one of our finest teachers and scholars. I spoke of him in that role and thought I did a pretty good job of describing what I believed were the qualities that truly distinguished the man. Then one of his daughters spoke, and described someone I didn’t even know. She talked of a father who walked with her in the foothills above their home; who taught her simple things like how to identify the footprints of a deer or the names of plants and flowers; she described someone who taught her reverence for life and for nature’s wonders. This was the person who matters most. I regretted that I hadn’t really known him.

I have wanted very much for the events of an inaugural week not to be about the new president, but about Utah State University and its future. As we address the opportunities outlined here, I believe that future can include our truly becoming a model land-grant university for the 21st century. To achieve that lofty goal will require the very best effort of all. Together, however, we are up to the task. Thank you for allowing me to share that journey with you.

LIVING LEARNING CENTER

The university’s tradition as a residential

campus continues as it looks forward to

the completion of the Living/Learning

Community on the north side of Old Main

Hill in 2006. The six-building complex

will accommodate more than 500 students

and features a community center. A newly

completed parking structure next to the

housing complex holds more than 600

vehicles, serving the USU student body

and staff, as well as visitors to campus.

 MERRILL-CAzIER LIBRARy

The Merrill-Cazier Library opened in Fall 2005. While many finishing touches

remain, the impressive new building is a comfortable and inviting learning environment.

Combining books with a growing array of digital resources, the library is a state-of-the-

art facility. Technological innovations such as an automated book storage and retrieval

system are found throughout the building. The system holds more than 500,000 books and

has the capacity for 950,000 more. More than 150 workstations make up the information

commons, a high-activity zone for one-stop research. Study lounges and 33 group study

rooms provide flexible study spaces with comfortable seating, natural lighting, and great

views of the mountains. The Hatch Memorial Library Room is among the treasures

that have been relocated, along with an expanded café, a small auditorium, and a faculty

seminar room.

CAMPUS TRANSFORMATION

ROMNEy STADIUM RENOVATION

Utah State University’s Romney Stadium completed a $1.96 million renovation in 2005

featuring a new plaza, new concession stands, more bathrooms, and a wider concourse. The

project was funded entirely by a student fee bond that goes

toward improving athletic and recreation facilities.

This is the first step in a series to improve the

37-year-old stadium. A new locker room and sports

medicine facility in the north end zone will be in place by

the 2007 season, and a new press box and elevator will

be added to the west side. Both of those phases will cost at

least $10 million. Because recruiting is so competitive, a

new locker room is the priority.

MANON CAINE RUSSELL KATHRyN CAINE WANLASS

PERfORMANCE HALL

The Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall is a 20,000-

square-foot building serving USU, the Cache Valley community, and the Intermountain

region. A gift from Manon and Kathryn, the venue features a 400-seat performance hall,

a stage for up to 22 performers, and a lobby with glass windows overlooking a plaza. The

hall’s intimate scale is ideal for small acoustical performances, including chamber music,

vocal and instrumental concerts, recitals, readings, and lectures. This premier venue will

enrich the academic, professional, and personal lives of USU students and faculty and will

be a gathering place where art will touch life.

 

Produced and Designed byUSU Public Relations and Marketing and USU Publication, Design and Production.

Photos by Donna Barry, Gary Neuenswander and EarthScope.