Spanier Outlines Penn State Progress,
Challenges University Community To Build On Positives
September 8, 2000
University Park, Pa. - In his sixth State of the University address, Penn State President Graham Spanier today (Sept. 8) characterized 2000 as a year of record achievement and challenged the University community to work together to build on Penn State's many positives.

Spanier made three major announcements during his address (see accompanying stories for more details). First, he reported that Penn State's research expenditures last year were $440 million, "a record high level for the University, and a dramatic increase of about $47 million over last year." Second, he talked about Penn State's endowment growth.

And third, Spanier announced expanded ties between Penn State's University Park campus and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center through the University's Life Sciences Consortium, as well as an expanded affiliation between the Hershey Medical Center and Centre Community Hospital in State College.

After highlighting many of this year's accomplishments at Penn State, Spanier asked his audience to help him build on the University's many positive qualities. His goal is a "nurturing environment for discovery and learning that is free of the negative forces that are endemic to universities and that potentially alienate our students, their families, our alumni, and the public."

Spanier said that higher education's "ingrained tendencies toward contradiction and challenge, so fundamental to the advancement of scholarship," can sometimes cultivate an adversarial narrow-mindedness that contradicts other important goals. "Universities are the land of 'we' and 'they,' Spanier said. "Much of what I do as president is trying to foster the 'we,' whereas many of the meetings for which my presence is requested is focused on the 'they.'

"It is often the dividing lines that cause people to leave a university or discourage them from coming: the theorists versus the experimentalists, the quantitative versus the qualitative, the analytical versus the continental, cultural studies versus literary scholarship. . . . We and they. We and they."

Fortunately, Spanier said, Penn State has much less of this sort of "we/they" opposition than other universities. He urged the University community to continue to address the challenge of being "the top university in America" in integrating teaching, research, and service.

"Because we are already acknowledged as one of the most efficient, respected, and well-managed universities in America," Spanier said, "this goal will be realized only through continued faculty commitment and excellence, exceptional leadership, and careful management."

It also takes adequate funding, Spanier acknowledged. While many see higher education as a commodity - "a credential, a boarding ticket to prosperity" -- Penn State needs to focus on a high-end quality education, Spanier said.

While groups and individuals outside higher education may focus on issues like tuition levels, higher education needs to focus on issues like the quality and competitiveness of its programs, the research and teaching skills of its faculty, and its impact on the quality of life, Spanier said.

"Instead of asking how Penn State and others can continue to do more with less, we should be asking how we could do a lot more with a little more. Or, dare I suggest that the question should be: How could you change the world with a lot more?"

Colleges and universities need to take the long view and to make sure they do more than just meet a short-term need in the workforce, Spanier said. They need to offer an interplay of missions and disciplines enhanced by advances in technology. "I'm talking about the kind of intellectual resources that give rise to invention and discovery, enhance understanding of culture, address social needs, promote human development, and contribute to progress for businesses and communities."

Throughout his speech, Spanier cited many recent Penn State accomplishments, including:

• The largest number of student applications ever - more than 78,000, an increase of about 5,000 over last year.
• Record high applications to the Schreyer Honors College, 13 percent
• higher than the previous year.
• A 36 percent increase in applications to the Dickinson School of Law.
• An 'intentionally modest" increase in enrolled students at Penn State, most of it in upper-division students at commonwealth locations.
• A sharp increase in minority student admissions this fall – increasing every year for more than a decade.
• A record number of Fulbright awards to Penn State faculty and students.
• "Phenomenal" progress at the University's new School of Information Sciences and Technology. More than 1,000 students are enrolled this fall in only the school's second year, at 19 Penn State locations.
• Nearly 3,000 enrollments at the World Campus, after only its second full year. A "virtual university" that uses the Internet and other technology to reach students, the World Campus now offers 155 courses in 18 certificate and degree programs.
• The largest building program in Penn State's history, which encompasses
• $700 million over five years.
• Another record-setting fund-raising year, the ninth in a row. Private giving this year totaled $171 million, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year.

Penn State is "in the enviable position of moving forward at a time when higher learning is among the resources most in demand by society," Spanier said. "Our University is viewed widely as a model of excellence and engagement."

Spanier ended his address with a few words for students, urging them to get involved in University activities and to take academic and social responsibility. "We are constantly looking for ways to improve a Penn State education, and we welcome suggestions from students," Spanier said. "By working together and 'for the glory,' we can preserve the best of the University's traditions, meet the challenges of the present, and realize Penn State's promise for the future."

For the complete text of Spanier's address, point your Web browser to http://www.psu.edu/