WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 music 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.000 Friends and colleagues, thank you for being here today and welcome to the start of the new academic year. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:14.000 So much has been accomplished. I'd like to highlight a few things. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:22.000 First, looking forward on Friday at 4pm this week, we will hold the grand opening of the Woodcock Education Center. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:29.000 applause 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:34.000 This will be the first time that all of our COE faculty and staff will be in one location. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:43.000 It's a wonderful addition to campus and uses Cross Laminated Timber, a new Oregon technology in it's building. It's a wonderful display of Oregon product. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:49.000 We also broke ground on a new Student Health Center which will be available and open on June of 2017. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:54.000 This is a special addition to our campus, provides about 12,000 square feet. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:60.000 The building is located just north of Math and Nursing. You may see the fencing up as construction is about to begin. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:07.000 Most importantly, the students saw it to be beneficial and taxed themselves with a fee increase to pay for this building. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:11.000 So that will be an exciting addition to our building in 2017. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.000 Jim mentioned Commencement and it is an exciting day every year. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:21.000 This year we celebrated one of our largest classes with over 1100 undergraduates and over 220 graduate degrees. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:27.000 Oregon residents represented 75 percent of all graduates. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:35.000 Looking forward, enrollment projections for 2016 show that 20 percent of the admitted and registered freshman self-identified as Latino 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:39.000 compared to 13 percent last year. This is a growing trend. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:47.000 I saw some our membersof Willamette Promise here and that's an example of getting a jump start on college 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.000 and almost a third of our students come here with some college credit. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:57.000 Western will have 46 students from that program that enrolled at Western as full time students, 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:62.000 an example of that relationship and building our enrollment pipeline. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 California, Hawaii and Washington provide the greatest number of out of state students 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:20.000 and females account for 65 percent of the freshman class and 58 percent of the transfer class. All trends that are continuing. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.000 applause 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:30.000 Growing Hispanic enrollment is vital to our future and I'm pleased that Western will be the perminent host of the Cesar Chavez Leadership Conference 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:36.000 which will forward Western a leading role in shaping college plans for nearly 2000 high school students every year. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:43.000 Dave McDonald has led an effort that will result in a new dual-enrollment agreement between Western and Clackamas Community College 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:47.000 that will prove to be model for agreements with additional community colleges. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:55.000 This year, transfer students are trending ahead of last year by about 8 percent and it will be a growing opportunity in light of the Oregon Promise. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:60.000 We also enhanced our sense of inclusiveness by hosting outstanding speakers such as Tim Wise. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:06.000 We provided signage for over 23 bathrooms campus wide that are gender neutral. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:10.000 Additionally, faculty, staff and students can now identify their preferred name. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:16.000 This year, Western joined the National "It's On Us" campaign that is designed to end sexual assault. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.000 We also have increased staff in Abby's House to be eligible for a new CASA grant. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:28.000 Regardless of the outcome of the grant, Western needs to continue it's effort to provide a safe community for all of our students. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Last year, Western was recognized as a tree campus by Tree Campus USA. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:36.000 Western is 1 of 5 Oregon campuses still recognized. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.000 Academic partnerships are part of Western's DNA 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:44.000 and a key partnership was developed between Salem-Keizer School District and our College of Education. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 The bilingual education program and we're entering year 2 of that program. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.000 The Honors Program has the largest incoming class in it's history: 47 this year. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:59.000 The largest overall participation in the program: 166 and a record number of graduates. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:03:65.000 Last year I announced increased capacity for the Pre-award process and the Research Institute 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:14.000 and I'm pleased to announce that we had more faculty submitting a larger number of grants and our total funding increased to over 11 million with 4 new funding sources. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:20.000 This year we will initiate a 25 thousand dollar fun to support writing and submitting external grants. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:25.000 Last year we added capacity to our Student Enrichment Program which includes Trio 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:32.000 and I'm pleased that our early estimates for retention show an increase from under 70 percent to 75 percent for students overall. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:38.000 That's the aggregate number and our SEP program continues to retain students at nearly 80 percent. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:43.000 We have need for about 3 thousand students who quality for assistance and we continue to add capacity 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:48.000 in order to provide those services to improve our retention rate going forward. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Finally, high academic success for our student athletes is a tradition at Western. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:60.000 The NCAA division 2 motto of "Life in the balance" continues to serve our student athletes well. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.000 GPA for all athletes last year was over 3.0. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:09.000 We are continuing to provide support and a sense of community through the Veteran's Resource Center. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:17.000 Our recent program that waives the application fee for veterans, received several reviews in the press and continues to be a pipeline for new students. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:25.000 The foundation received a gift of 100 thousand dollars to support the annual fund of enhancement in the Trio program and our retention efforts. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:27.000 It's a wonderful gift this year. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:36.000 A gift to name the multi-purpose room space in the new Richard Woodcock Education Center was also received by one of our supporters. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.000 The prominent space with the state of the art technology will be called the Mario and Alma Pastega Conference Center. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.000 Our greatest strength is community. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:52.000 The fact that I know that this faculty and staff when they are challenged, can achieve great things. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:58.000 So I've been so impressed with the number of activities that demonstrate excellence across the board 00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:62.000 from academic showcase to individual presentations by faculty 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.000 to involvement of our students in clubs and organizations. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:14.000 There's a deep commitment to impacting students in a way that allows them to rise well beyond their own initial expectations. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:18.000 I've seen our students grow in ways that are profound. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:23.000 I think that is part of Western's legacy and also part of it's DNA. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.000 The challenge for us all is to remember that our students need to come first. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:36.000 All of our work is around their experience and in their future and their opportunity to contribute to society at large. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:42.000 music