Thank you all very much. Roger, thank you for those kind words in the introduction but
more importantly, thank you for your leadership on the Foundation,
and for all that you do for the Students at East Tennessee State University.
On behalf of our more than two thousand two hundred faculty and staff,
our Students,
I'd like to thank you, the members of the Foundation Board,
Dr. Manahan, and the staff at the Foundation,
for all that you do to collectively expand the bounds of the possible
and open doors of opportunity for Students
across our great Campus.
I'd like to take a moment to recognize several individuals who are in the room.
The first is my wife, Donna.
Thank you for your patience with me during the transition
home to Tennessee and thank you for all that you've done in your new role as single
mother! (applause)
I'd like to acknowledge Regent Paul Montgomery, and Commission Chair, Robert White.
Each of these individuals are true public servants and tireless champions of
higher education
in Tennessee.
Regent Montgomery had to depart. He's traveling tonight to Atlanta,
but his dedication and commitment to be here and then travel to Atlanta
shows the testament and will that he has for the Students across our system.
I'd also like to recognize former TBR and Commission members who are with us this
evening:
Leslie Pope, Jim Powell, and others. Your dedication to higher education has made
much of what we celebrate tonight possible.
I stand with you tonight to thank Paul Stanton,
our 8th President of ETSU,
who served from 1997 to 2012.
Dr. Stanton is the consummate gentleman,
someone who is humble,
dedicated to both his God and his family,
and committed to serving others first.
In my opinion,
Paul is one of the great Presidents in American higher education,
and I thank him for all that he has done and will continue to do
for ETSU. Dr. Stanton, I'm not going to let you get away!
(applause)
It is my
honor
and privilege
to serve in his chair
and with the amazing staff
that he has assembled.
Dr. Stanton, we'll keep the locomotive moving at full speed. We may add a little bit
of coal to the boilers, but
we're going to do our best to keep it on the tracks.
I'd like to take a few moments tonight to reflect upon where we've been as an
institution,
to examine our position in 2012,
and to dream collective on what we may look like
in 2020.
But let's step back to the year 2000.
Dr. Stanton had just begun his third year as President.
We had avoided the collapse of the banking and data system that many had
projected because of the rollover in our data systems.
Frank Wycheck
thrilled us all with the Titans as they advanced to the Super Bowl,
and we in Tennessee higher education were going through yet another round of
coordinated master planning.
The following data points provide a snapshot of ETSU at the turn of the
century.
Our enrollment stood at eleven thousand Students, our FTE ninety-one hundred.
We had a budget of a hundred and eighty-two million dollars, fifty-nine percent of which came
from the State of Tennessee.
We had sixty-two thousand Alumni, our Endowment stood at forty-three
million dollars.
Our Research & Sponsored Programs were right around twenty-eight million dollars.
The Baseball Bucs opened their home season with a five-to-three loss to Xavier,
and we accepted our first class of Roan Scholars.
Now let's take a look at some of those same data points in 2012.
Our enrollment is at fifteen thousand five hundred and thirty six, an all-time high.
Our FTE is at twelve thousand four hundred and eighteen, another all-time high.
Our total budget is three hundred and forty-three million dollars.
However, only thirty-one percent comes from the State, sixty-nine is generated
through revenues from our Students.
Our Graduates have increased to eighty- five thousand. Our Endowment has
increased one-hundred and twenty-one percent, to ninety six million, because of
the hard work of the folks here in the room.
The Baseball Bucs
opened their season today, at home, at Thomas Stadium, with a win over Eastern
Kentucky,
and lastly... (applause)
and lastly, our Roan Scholars who in 2000 were just starting, are now starting
their first intramural season with the President as a member of their team.
With these data points in mind, I'd like to ask everyone to close your eyes for
a second and dream. I realize it's late in the evening, some of you have had
some beverages and you may just want to go to bed...
but stay with me a little longer!
A lot of people say that dreams are foolish. They belong only to children and
those with idle minds.
I disagree.
In 2000, I dreamed of coming back to East Tennessee
so that my family could be near
our parents.
That dream came true.
So close your eyes with me for a minute, and dream.
When I close my eyes and think of ETSU in 2020,
I see eighteen thousand Students.
I see concerts in our Fine Arts Center.
I see Men's and Women's Athletics being performed in our new Convocation Center.
I see forty percent of our Students living either on campus or within two miles
of campus.
I see big-time Athletics with our Men's and Women's Basketball team in the sweet
sixteen.
I see a Foundation with an Endowment of over a hundred and seventy five million
dollars.
I see Johnson City and Kingsport painted Blue and Gold.
I see an engaged Student Body with more than sixty percent graduating on time,
new businesses flourishing at Valleybrook,
and hopefully, I'm still seeing myself
running up and down the court with the Roan Scholars. (laughter, applause)
This spring we'll be meeting with our faculty and staff across our eleven
Colleges and our forty-eight academic units.
This effort is gauged at listening,
and beginning a conversation about the future of ETSU.
Later this year we will launch a visioning initiative that will create a blueprint
for ETSU at our hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary.
As we move and as we grow,
I hope that we do not lose touch with our history,
our mission, and our heritage.
There's much to be proud of across Campus!
Did you know that every program on campus that is accreditable is accredited?
Did you know that G.I. Jobs, for the third year in a row, rated us one of
the most Veteran friendly campuses in America?
Do you know we're an All Steinway School?
Do you know that our physicians see over forty-five thousand patients on an
average month,
and here in Kingsport, we handle fifty percent of the unattached care,
in the unattached cases?
U.S. News & World Report ranks the Quillen College of Medicine third nationally
for rural medicine, and nineteenth for family medicine.
Johnson City was rated as one of the top ten places in the country
to go to med school. In fact, we were the Editor's choice,
and fourteen of our Alumni have gone on to attain the rank
of General or Admiral.
There are great things happening and our faculty and staff should be applauded
for all their work and their accomplishments.
With their support and your support,
ETSU is a vehicle that opens doors of opportunities
for first-generation Students.
We're the institution of choice for our region's doctors,
teachers,
artists, and entrepreneurs.
We're an institution that serves the hard working people of Tennessee.
We're not a city on the hill,
we're the people that built the hill!
We go to work every day with one goal in mind,
to make a better future for our Students.
It is my honor to be part of this effort,
and to be part of this family,
and I look forward to celebrating with you our mutual accomplishments in
2020.
Once again, thank you for all that you do for our Students.
Thank you for all that you do for this institution.
Godspeed! (applause)