|  From
the President...
Drake began
the 2002-2003 academic year with a great sense of accomplishment and anticipation.
There was much to celebrate, including:
- The successful
completion of Campaign Drake
- Freshman enrollments
had increased for the fourth year in a row
- Freshman to sophomore
retention rate, already quite good, increased by 3 percent
- We continue to
be ranked by U.S. News & World Report at the top of the Midwest's 145 master's
level universities for reputation for academic quality
- The west side
of the campus is being transformed by the Helmick Commons project, including the
Kragie Newell Agora, Scott Branson Plaza, and the Wells Fargo Reflecting Pool,
with plans underway for Lane Plaza (south of Meredith), Principal Plaza (south
of Olmsted), the Arthur Andersen Time Element, and the landscaping of Quad Creek
- The completion
of plans for a $2 million conversion of the first floor of the Olmsted Center
into an exciting and vital student center (construction will begin in March)
- We have begun
intensive planning for a $22 million, much-needed renovation of Drake Stadium
- The Center for
Global Citizenship, one of four new interdisciplinary centers planned for Drake,
began operations
- We completed a
5-Year Strategic Plan, approved by the Board of Trustees, accompanied by a strategic
budget plan that ensures the ongoing fiscal integrity of the University's operations
A
time of great change
As you know, the past three years have been a period of unusually intense activity
for Drake University, as the community undertook a rigorous process of self-examination,
difficult choices and setting goals. It has been
a process in which the Drake community (and there have been hundreds of faculty,
staff, students, Board members and alumni actively taking part at various stages)
took ownership of the University's future and worked to ensure that the University
was positioned to meet, and to exploit, the challenges that confront us at the
beginning of the 21st Century.
A
time of great challenge
There are formidable challenges, including:
- Dramatic changes
in the demographics of our future students-who they are, where they come from,
their educational backgrounds and their educational/professional aspirations
- A significant
decline in the number of high school graduates in the states from which we have
historically drawn most of our students
- Changes in the
economic environment that affect the public's enthusiasm for private higher education,
and that have an impact on our endowment income-an important part of the University's
operating budget-and on philanthropic support of the institution
- Increased competition
from other institutions (public and private) for students, as well as for corporate,
foundation and private philanthropic support
As a result of
the hard work that the Drake community has accomplished in recent years, we believe
that we are in a position to manage these challenges and to turn them into opportunities,
but there is a great deal of work yet to be done, and I hope that we will continue
to have your encouragement, guidance and support as we move forward.
Greater
alumni participation critical to Drake's future
It is in the latter regard that I would like to close by asking for your input
and perspective.
In my nearly four years at Drake, I have been puzzled by a remarkable disconnect:
Our 17 percent alumni participation rate in Annual Fund is half that of the peer
institutions with which we compare ourselves, and completely inconsistent with
alumni's passion for Drake, with their obvious and expressed commitment to the
University.
This level of participation
is hurting us in our national rankings (where it is a factor), in our competitiveness
for foundation grants and ultimately in the University's operating budget. I certainly
don't place the blame on our alumni-the fact is, I don't think we've been doing
a good job of communicating the importance and the need for participation.
As we rethink our
Annual Fund strategies, if you have any ideas regarding ways in which we might
more effectively engage our alumni in the Annual Fund effort, I would be very
grateful to hear from you. The University's
vitality depends on all of us doing a better job in this area. |
