Editor's Note: The following is the complete text of EMU
President John Fallon's testimony before the Senate Higher
Education Appropriations Subcommittee April 24 at Eastern
Michigan University.
Good morning, Chairman Stamas.
It is my privilege to officially welcome you to the campus
of Eastern Michigan University, and to thank you for the
benefit today of addressing the Senate Higher Education
Appropriations Subcommittee. The EMU community is especially
honored to host you in this building, the new EMU Student
Center — a building that opened formally in November and
which will be paid for entirely by student fees. And no,
you cannot take the towels.
 |
STUMPING FOR EMU: Eastern Michigan
University
President John Fallon (seated,
above right) provides
testimony about the
benefits of EMU to the state
before the
Senate Higher Education Appropriations
Subcommittee April 24. EMU hosted the
hearing in
the Student Center. |
As a former college-level basketball player, I know what
it means to have the home-court advantage. By giving our
testimony first — in our own house, if you will — we
hope to run up the score today in favor of EMU.
Speaking of home venues, more than 16,000 EMU alumni
— more than 13 percent of all our alumni — live in one
of the seven Michigan Senate districts represented on this
committee. That percentage climbs higher when the 5,000
or so alumni who live internationally are excluded from
that computation.
Perhaps more importantly, about 6,100 current undergraduate
and graduate students hail from your seven districts. That
means when 27 percent of today's student body thinks of
home, they think of Midland, Kalamazoo, Cadillac, Grand
Rapids, Bad Axe, Livonia and, yes, Ypsilanti, which is
represented here today by our senator — my senator — Liz
Brater. Senator, a special good morning and welcome home
to you.
By the way, these statistics are brought to you by EMU's
Institute for Geospatial Research and Education, one of
15 research and service centers and institutes on campus.
IGRE, as it is called, does remarkable consulting work
for governments ranging from Detroit Public Schools to
the City of Tianjin, China. EMU students are engaged directly
in these projects, which involve the overlaying of data
and maps to create wonderfully complex and insightful patterns
of information.
In the not-too-distant future, I hope we get a chance
to host this committee again and, if we do, I'll make sure
it is in our new $100 million science complex. Just a quick
walk from here — and some of you will see the site firsthand
as part of our guided tour — you'll see the spot where
this student-financed project will soon rise. When completed
in about three years, the expansion and renovation to the
Mark Jefferson Science Complex will position EMU as the
undisputed leader in science education in Michigan and
a national leader in responding to this country's science
and math challenge.
The EMU Student Center and the Mark Jefferson Science
Complex represent more than $140 million in construction
projects — financed entirely by students through the general
fund — all with without any help from Lansing. We're doing
this ourselves in service to our mission and toward a better
future for the people of the state of Michigan.
So, next
time you hear someone talk about Eastern Michigan, I hope
you hear more than the words "President's House" and "labor
impasse." Increasingly,
I want you to hear the words "entrepreneurial," "innovative," "determined" and "focused."
Now, please don't get me wrong. We will take your support
for future construction projects!
In fact, Governor Jennifer Granholm thought so much of
our Pray-Harrold renovation project she considered it a
top priority in her 2007 capital outlay budget. But we
all know what happened to that legislation. But it doesn't
negate the value she saw or what every soul on this campus
knows, and that is this: Our largest classroom building
on campus is in serious and long-overdue need of renovation.
The building opened so long ago — to folks my age, 1969
doesn't seem that long ago — that the Pistons were playing
in Cobo, the Lions and Tigers were in Tiger Stadium and
the Red Wings in Olympia. The building cost $6 million
then, or about $33.6 million in today's dollars. We estimate
the needed repairs and modifications will cost about $53
million. I urge this legislature to pass a capital outlay
bill this year — with one caveat. That EMU be prominent
and, for the first time in 10 years, on the list!
When I first appeared before this committee 15 months
ago, I spoke the following words:
Eastern Michigan University is more dynamic, more engaged,
more entrepreneurial, more diverse, more competitive and
more efficient than ever before. As a result, Eastern Michigan
University is a greater state resource — and asset — today
than it was just five years ago.
That statement was true 15 months ago, and it's still
true today — even more so.
Recently, a group I appointed spent about half a year
literally dissecting the campus, looking for and examining
the essential and unique elements of what we are as an
institution. This group, called the Visioning Task Force,
reassembled those building blocks in different configurations,
each time envisioning a new model for what the University
could and should be.
The results are now in, and you should be encouraged.
Because what we've done is aligned our strengths with the
needs of Michigan. The Vision Statement we produced, modeled
along the lines of the best-selling business book, "Good
to Great" by Jim Collins, sets "destinations" for
Eastern Michigan University. (We've included a copy of
the Vision Statement in each of your packets.)
One way we will measure the Vision Statement's success
is by how clearly it is understood and embraced — on and
off campus, by students and alumni alike. As I said when
I formed the group, we will know that we've been successful
when 10 out of 10 of us provide the same answers to three
straightforward questions:
Question 1: What is Eastern Michigan University?
Answer: Eastern Michigan University is a national model of best practice in
student access, community engagement and learning across all dimensions of
the institution.
Question 2: Where, precisely, are we headed?
Answer: EMU is headed toward becoming the university of choice in the region
and a national innovator in learning and service.
Question 3: What, specifically, do we intend to achieve?
Answer: EMU will be characterized in the years ahead by growth, cohesion and
entrepreneurial operations.
Now, a cynical person could conclude from hearing this
that it's a bunch of shinola. But I can assure you it's
not. Our future depends on it. We already have the processes
and attitudes in place to ensure our success. My grandmother
used to call this approach "sticking to your knitting." At
EMU, it's called by a more technical term: Continuous Improvement.
Continuous Improvement is a systematic way of looking
at what we do, measuring it quantifiably against best practices
and standards — and allegiance to and advancement of the
Vision Statement. Teams of people are at this work every
day, and every inch of ground we gain represents money
saved and service improved.
This work is already building on hard data, such as recent
satisfaction surveys of more than 3,600 students, in which
they strongly agreed with these and many other statements:
that our faculty are quite knowledgeable in their field,
that the faculty encourages critical and analytical thinking,
and that library resources and services meet their needs.
Similarly,
we are taking to heart areas they said needed improvement,
such as offering more financial aid, improving parking
and eliminating the proverbial "run-around" when
seeking information.
As we do this work, we make constant reference to the
recommendations of the Cherry Commission, specifically
its calls for universal access to higher education, a culture
of entrepreneurship, greater completion rates and greater
participation by adults. Across campus, you are likely
to find many dog-eared copies of the commission's report,
which was released 28 months — yes, 28 months — ago.
One line from the Cherry Commission Report rings so very
true that it should be printed on a three-by-five card
and distributed to every member of the legislature when
budget discussions take place. And that line is this: "Education
levels determine Michigan residents' income levels and
either limit or expand their opportunities for future economic
gains."
To help achieve our goals and those of the commission,
we've been selectively launching academic programs tailored
to helping students find jobs in some of the most sought-after
fields. For example, we've created graduate certificates
— a credential roughly between a bachelor's and a master's
degree — in such areas as "Helping Interventions
in Multicultural Society" and "Quality Improvement
in Health Care." We've launched master's degree programs
in "Orthotics and Prosthetics" and "Integrated
Marketing Communications." And just last month, we
launched majors and minors in "Supply Chain Management."
Lest you think we do this without state input, all of
our programs are reviewed and approved by the state's provost
council before coming to the EMU Board of Regents.
And we are implementing a $1.5 million grant from the
National Science Foundation to launch the Creative Scientific
Inquiry Experience, a program designed to increase the
number of science and math graduates. The grant is part
of the NSF's highly competitive science talent expansion
program.
As good as we believe we are, and like to think we are
moving toward greatness each and every day, we have a lot
of homework to do. And the citizens of this state threw
a pop quiz at us in November, when they passed Proposal
2. We continue to sort through the details of this, deciding
which scholarships with a minority focus must be dissolved,
and which others can be refashioned to fit under the spirit
and letter of the law.
Our homework also includes creating a budget for the
fiscal year starting July 1, and part of that process requires
the EMU Board of Regents to set rates for tuition and fees.
They are sensitive to your concerns about holding down
the cost of attending college, and we are doing everything
we can in that regard.
But you also know that EMU educates more than 8 percent
of all students enrolled in the state's 15 public universities,
yet we receive just over 5 percent of state appropriations.
We — this committee and this university — have some group
homework, too. And that work has to deal with finding solutions
to some pretty intractable problems.
For example, by one Southeast Michigan Council of Government
estimate, southeast Michigan lost population — albeit a
fraction of 1 percent — between 2005 and 2006. But, in
the next seven years, the region's population will drop
by 67,500. That's equivalent to the entire city of Pontiac
up and packing its bags. By 2035, SEMCOG projects that
nearly 25 percent of southeast Michigan's population will
be 65 or older, compared with only 20 percent for the United
States as a whole.
Granted, these are projections, and I read a few last
year about the Detroit Lions making the playoffs. So, take
them with a grain of salt. But the bottom line is this:
this key part of the state is losing population, the population
that is staying is getting older, and the state's auto-focused
economy is under unrelenting assault. So what can you do
about it? What is higher education's role in solving these
problems? What is Eastern Michigan doing about it?
You're doing your part by confronting the budget challenges
in Lansing. In my opinion, that means finding new sources
of revenue. In a column aimed at students and published
this month in EMU's student newspaper, I backed Governor
Granholm's call for a 2 percent sales tax on nearly all
services.
This University also backs the Governor's plans to invest
an additional $43 million in community colleges and universities,
including a 2.5 percent increase for state universities.
We will invest part of that money in attracting adult-returning
students under our Return to Learn program, and to help
Pfizer employees stay in this area and find new careers.
We also back the Governor's plan to address the state's
nursing shortage by preparing 500 nursing educators to
train 3,000 new nurses in the next three years. We're doing
our part by launching a program to take existing college
graduates — and turn them into nurses. The first class
of 32 students will earn bachelor of science degrees in
nursing in just four semesters.
And we are well ahead of Governor Granholm's call to
use technology to improve education. Every EMU classroom
building has wireless Internet access and soon, as part
of the Wireless Washtenaw Project of which we are a member,
the "green" spaces around nearly the entire campus
will be wireless, too. We're testing the use of our Internet
lines to carry campus phone calls, and we're spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars to create "smart" classrooms.
In these rooms will be the latest combination of computer,
projection and sound and video equipment. I marvel at the
tools available to today's students, and how the technology
is transforming our concepts of learning. Lastly, we have
implemented a computer refresh program that makes sure
our faculty have up-to-date computers at their disposal.
Underpinning
these investments is the great work that goes on every
day at the nexus where students and faculty converge,
whether in the classroom, in the laboratory or on the field.
We are rock-solid in this regard.
Let me digress for a moment and talk about research,
since that seems to be the word used in current debates
about categorizing and funding Michigan's 15 universities.
Yes, we do research. Lots of it — by faculty AND students
alike. There is considerable evidence that research not
only improves teaching, but also provides ideal learning
opportunities for students. Students learn best when they
understand the connection between learning and life; when
they learn in direct personal contact with skilled mentors
and their peers; and when what they learn matters to them.
We cannot afford to rely on cookbook experiments and rote
learning to teach our students. We must help them to ask
the right questions and seek answers — to experience the
thrill of the hunt.
Toward that end, we just completed our 27th Annual Undergraduate
Research Symposium, which we believe to be the oldest of
its kind in the country. Nearly 250 students, working alongside
faculty mentors, presented original research.
The wonder
of EMU is that these students are learning alongside
noteworthy experts. Indeed, our scholars are in the classroom.
Scholars such as professors Allen Kurta, a U.S. expert
on bats; Cara Shillington, a researcher on spiders who
shares her passion with hundreds of freshman biology students
each year; and political scientist Jeffrey Bernstein, a
recent Carnegie scholar whose work focuses in part on the
American legislative process.
Or, as I like to call them, Batman, Spiderwoman and Captain
America.
In fact, we have superheroes in all of our classrooms
....
Senators, I could go on about all of this and more in
even greater detail. Suffice it to say that this University
has been serving Michigan longer than any public university
except one. It has proved its durability and steadfast
commitment, and is poised to achieve its full promise in
the years ahead.
My leadership colleagues and I, many of whom have been
here for only a brief period, remain determined — absolutely
determined — to guide the University to its next level
of performance and service. I can make a strong argument
that the parallels between EMU — the population its serves,
the struggles it faces and the aspirations it holds — very
closely mirror those of the state as a whole.
In fact, let me go on record as saying this: as goes
EMU...so goes this state.
I look forward — sobered by the challenge yet eager to
continue in partnership with you and your legislative colleagues
— toward a better day for this University and my beloved
native state of Michigan.
Thank you.
John Fallon
President
