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Growing Academic Quality in a Time of Budgetary Challenges

The University of Alabama in Huntsville, like all educational institutions across the nation, is facing challenging budget prospects. The message is clear. State appropriations are not likely to increase, but retirement and health costs will continue to rise. We must find ways to do more with less.

For more than a year, UAHuntsville faculty, staff and administration have worked together to reduce costs even as we seek to enhance academic and research programs. We have discussed and debated and disagreed passionately. But we have met the budget; we are still here and we are better than we were a year ago.

It's time to start on the next leg of this journey. We face the same challenges we faced last year. Again, we will ensure that this time next year we will be here and we will be stronger than before. We have done it once; we will do it again.

A leading scholar once said: "We do not have the resources we need; therefore we must think." Universities hire people because they can think, they can develop new ideas, find better ways to learn and to teach others. But the realities of the budget picture mean our institution must be committed to taking action. We must think and act fast.

If we focus solely on matters beyond our control (state revenues) we will be increasingly constrained as we plan for the future. As the past year has taught us, however, there are matters within our control and in all such areas we continue to improve.

During the last two years, we took a 22 percent cut in state appropriations. In those same two years, we have raised external gifts to the university by 15 percent. Most of these gifts from generous alumni and friends are designated to scholarships and other forms of student financial support. In those same two years, we have increased research expenditures by $15 million (12 percent) including a recent 5-year, $78 million award for Dr. Gary Maddux in our Systems Management and Production Center - the biggest research award in the history of UAHuntsville. In those same two years, we have hired more than 30 smart, young (and some not so young) professors at a time when universities across the country are freezing hiring, instigating furloughs or cutting salaries. New arrivals include nationally and internationally recognized professors such as Dr. Gary Zank, who brought his team of 22 space scientists from the University of California Riverside, Dr. Sarkis Baltaian, a star pianist from the University of Southern California, who has already performed at Carnegie Hall and Dr. Mike Griffin, former NASA Administrator, now the King-McDonald Eminent Scholar.

We have grown our student body. Enrollment for the 2009-10 academic year is up by more than 3 percent, and credit-hour production increased 5 percent, the largest growth in six years. We not only have more students, but they are also the best we've ever had in terms of academic credentials and diversity. Last spring we retained more students than ever from the preceding fall semester. We have expanded and strengthened our corporate and government partnerships across Huntsville and Madison County. The local community remains firmly committed to supporting almost 600 coops and internships among our students, and to employing an ever-growing number of our graduates- take out repeat line And we have achieved all this during the most challenging economic times in 75 years.

Each of these successes supports our Powers of Ten goals through which we aim to bring the university's performance metrics into line with the top 100 public research universities in the nation.

Our residence halls are expanding and remain the most modern (and the fullest) in the state. We continue to create a more traditional residential setting with on-campus sports, including our women's softball team, which reached the NCAA Division II national championship game this year.

Our students continue to win national honors such as Gates, Goldwater and Fulbright awards. One of our graduates, name now a professor at the University of North Dakota, was recognized by President Obama as among the top 100 young scientists in the nation.

According to various national magazines, our alumni are among the best paid in the nation (third in the Southeastern U.S.), we live in one of the best places in the nation to raise children and to escape the recession. So, like more than 65 percent of all our graduates, we would not wish to be anywhere else but continue to espouse the virtues and opportunities of being The University of Alabama IN Huntsville.

As we complete our 40th year as an autonomous university within the University of Alabama System, UAHuntsville continues to grow in quality and quantity, despite the most difficult economic times in our history. We have strengthened our faculty and recruited better students, even as we met last year's fiscal challenges. Next year we will be here planning our strategy of 2010-11 asking still more of everyone. Yet we are confident that, building on our strong partnerships, we can improve still further in both the quality of our educational mission and the number of individuals who benefit from our success.

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