I believe that it is particularly appropriate today to remember that 50 years ago this month, the Sault Branch of Michigan Tech began operations in Sault Ste. Marie. Fort Brady with its 73 acres and 52 buildings was abandoned after the Second World War. The Michigan College of Mining and Technology, under the able leadership of President Grover C. Dillman, petitioned the federal government to cede the abandoned fort to Michigan Tech to be a branch campus to help educate the surge of enrollment caused by the G.I. Bill. Indeed, 90 percent of the first class at Michigan Tech-Sault Branch were veterans. We congratulate Lake Superior State University, our fully grown child, on its 50th birthday!

The passage of time and autumn reminds me of a good friend of mine who was an avid grouse hunter. He loved to hunt but didn't want to train his own dog so he rented one from a kennel. The first year that he did this, there was only one Springer Spaniel left named "Assistant Professor", but he wasn't expensive. He did a pretty good job, though, pointing and fetching but he was obviously immature. As the hunting seasons passed and the dog grew older, he became more mature, and he would only answer to "Professor" and was a little higher in price. He was, however, a very good hunting dog. And so through the years, as the dog gained experience, my friend found that he would only answer to "Dean". Finally the kennel manager reported to my friend that the dog was no longer in demand, was very expensive, would only answer to "President", would do no hunting, but would just sit on his hindquarters all day and bark.

Well, at least I am standing today, and I appreciate this opportunity to "bark" for a few minutes about the state of the University. And I think it is worthwhile to take a moment to look back to the beginning of the University as a partial context for appreciating where we are today and where we are headed.

From our beginning 111 years ago as the Michigan Mining School on the second floor of the Firehall downtown with a State appropriation of $15,000, 23 students, four faculty members, and monthly rent of $25, Michigan Technological University will enter the 21st Century as one of America's top public technological universities. In fact, it was actually 135 years ago that Governor Austin Blair signed Public Act 207 authorizing the establishment of the Michigan Mining School in the village of Houghton. In that 1861 legislation we find the specifications that "tuition [was] to be forever free in the said institution to all bonafide residents of this state," that this generosity was "to extend to those from out of Michigan" as long as funds permitted, and, by clear implication, the State would underwrite all costs of the institution except for an annual fee of $10.00 per student. (By the way, Section 9 of PA207 in 1861 directed the Michigan Mining School to have a museum to house a collection of the minerals of this area.)

Today Michigan Tech is in a remarkably strong position, considering our humble beginning. The dream of the 1860s became a reality, and we are grateful to the hundreds of individuals who helped make our university the Upper Midwest's only nationally ranked, doctoral granting, public technological university. While the State of Michigan has not been able to underwrite all of the costs of Michigan Tech, as originally envisioned in 1861, we enjoy relatively substantial state financial assistance for our general fund budget ($45,615,000 in 1996-97 to be exact) and continuing capital outlay for modern buildings.

Construction of the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building is underway with $30 million in State support. That project also symbolizes the new reality in Michigan, namely that public higher education depends increasingly on non-State financial investment. The Dow Foundation's generous $5 million grant and a $1 million grant from the Ford Motor Company Fund, not only make the $44 million environmental sciences and engineering project a practical reality, they signal the increasing necessity for substantial non-State investments in Michigan Tech.

During the next century, Michigan Tech will achieve heights we can hardly imagine in 1996, anymore than our founders and early leaders and supporters could imagine the Michigan Technological University of 1996. Yet, what we do during the next several years will determine the impact, stature and nature of Michigan Tech in the next millennium.

Our founders were not timid souls; neither were those who built Michigan Tech, often against difficult odds, during the 20th Century. Likewise, we must be bold in our dreams and actions, building upon and going well beyond MTU's rich history of accomplishment, strong position as a top-ranked undergraduate institution, and the growing reputation of its research and graduate programs.

As the Michigan Mining School was invented in the late 19th Century, we must be willing to re-invent Michigan Technological University in the late 20th Century. This means going beyond what has evolved and developed during the past 100 years and considering, yes even dreaming about, what the next 100 years should hold for Michigan Technological University. Of course, we cannot foresee the specific opportunities that will unfold for Michigan Tech in the decades ahead, but we must consider how to best assure our readiness for those opportunities. We can have a bold dream, in general terms, and work to position the University to fulfill that dream. While celebrating our rich heritage, we must meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that will face Michigan Tech in the years ahead.

We can, and must, take specific steps during the next five to ten years that will position Michigan Tech well in the early 21st Century. I believe that those steps should include: A) developing a special emphasis on manufacturing through an Initiative for Manufacturing; B) building on our already successful Initiative for the Environment; C) building a substantial endowment for academic excellence and affordability; D) continuing to grow our graduate and research base while continuing to improve undergraduate educational excellence; E) continuing to assure opportunities in fine arts, humanities, and social sciences for those majoring in business, engineering, forestry, sciences, technology and scientific and technical communications; F) building global relationships; and G) assuring a strong infrastructure.

Our early roots were in earth sciences and engineering, responsive to the local and regional needs for copper and iron mining and related fields of study. And MTU has been constitutionally mandated to be of service to industry throughout the entire state; our curricula have developed in direct response to the needs of Michigan corporations. Further, it was recognized from the beginning that strong mathematics and basic sciences were the underpinnings of engineering education; we continue to assure that these fields are progressive at MTU.

As Michigan Tech developed from roots in earth sciences and engineering, it was natural to build good programs in materials sciences and engineering. Likewise, it was logical to pay attention to environmental sciences and engineering, initially oriented toward remediation and later toward prevention of environmental problems.

For many years, Michigan Tech has quietly gone about the development of life sciences and engineering in a variety of ways, primarily through a very effective Department of Biological Sciences. There are exciting innovations in biological mining, led by faculty from mineral processing and biological sciences. Likewise, the wood sciences are contributing to genetic engineering of trees to help the wood products industry to be more productive. And the environmental arena is aided by the contributions of our terrestrial and aquatic ecologists. These are but a few connective tissues between life sciences and engineering.

The need to focus purposefully on manufacturing with an integrated systems approach has never been greater. Growing from the emerging interest in clean manufacturing and chemical processes and product design and the long existent interest in manufacturing in general, we will bring more coherent strategies to bear on this area. Our strategic focus during the next few months will be on leadership identification and development. By this I mean that the dean of engineering in particular and the more than 50 faculty members already involved in manufacturing-related activities are going to work with industry to put together a leadership team to develop and plan for integrated manufacturing systems at MTU.

This approach parallels to some extent the faculty-led Initiative for the Environment which has included development of the successful Center for Clean Industrial and Treatment Technologies (CenCITT) which has caused us to accentuate attention on clean manufacturing and chemical processes and product design. As with the Environmental Initiative, the Initiative for Integrated Manufacturing Systems will involve the entire University.

In the case of the ongoing Initiative for the Environment, as you know, we had the groundbreaking for the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building on May 17. That facility will house environmental engineering (which was created and nurtured in what is now the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering), geological sciences and engineering, and biological sciences. And as you may recall, part of the Initiative for the Environment has been to expand our research facilities in biotechnology and genetic engineering of trees and related wood sciences, with a pledge by Governor Engler of $6.5 million and a lead corporate gift of $300,000 from the Mead Corporation.

Any great public or private university in the 21st Century must have substantial endowments in support of academic excellence and affordability from the perspective of the student. Endowments are needed to support chairs and professorships, scholarships and fellowships, the Library, as well as equipment and buildings. Dr. John Sellars, who joined Michigan Tech on April 1 as Senior Vice President for Advancement and University Relations, is leading the planning for a major Capital Campaign in conjunction with the Michigan Tech Fund Board of Trustees. Gary Anderson, MTU Class of 1967 and President of Dow Corning Corporation is chair of the MTU Major Campaign Committee. We will be hearing more about the Campaign in the next few months.

We will need these endowments as we continue to grow our graduate studies and research base while continuing to improve undergraduate education and to enhance fine arts, humanities, and social sciences for those majoring in engineering, sciences, business, forestry, technology, and scientific and technical communications.

We also will continue to build global relationships for and with our students and faculty. Momentum is being built in several countries in Asia, Europe, and South and Central America. We now offer foreign studies for MTU students in over 300 sites around the world.

Michigan Tech has experienced tremendous growth in broadening our international perspective. Director of International Programs, Dr. Karl Markgraf and many faculty members are building new international bridges every day. I find it somewhat startling to realize that on the average, one MTU faculty member leaves Houghton every four days to pursue her or his professional activity abroad.

This increased international activity is not limited to our faculty. This year we will have the first student exchanges with new partners Yonsei University of Korea and Kansai Gaidai University of Japan. In 1996-97 we will have students engaged in academic studies in Austria, Denmark, China, Japan, Finland, Germany, Korea, Scotland, Costa Rica, Mexico, England, and the Netherlands.

We are particularly proud of Mechanical Engineering undergrad Melody Papke who beat out intense competition to earn the prestigious U.S. Congress-German Bundestag Scholarship. Melody will be supported for a full academic year in Germany to combine academic study with an internship in industry. I think that you can agree that Melody is an outstanding example for others to follow.

Underneath all of these thrusts into the 21st Century, we must continue to strengthen what I think of as our "infrastructure"; i.e., personnel, facilities, curricula, and marketing.

For example, our infrastructure includes key personnel such as Dr. Robert Warrington who will join us as the new Dean of Engineering on November 15; Dr. William Kennedy who returns to Michigan Tech on September 30th to head the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development; and Kim Maxwell who joins us as Executive Director of the Michigan Tech Fund on October 15. We will also be placing more attention toward leadership development on our campus.

As part of our attention to infrastructure, we will complete funding for, and then construction of, the Performing Arts Center, renovate and expand Fisher Hall, renovate and expand the Van Pelt Library, find or create a new home for the expanding Business School and aggressively acquire the latest computing, laboratory, and telecommunications equipment.

We will attend to the quality of the basic sciences and mathematics, humanities, social sciences and fine arts, and scientific and technical communications. And, as I mentioned a moment ago, another part of our infrastructure, our international programs, will continue to grow and flourish, and we will continue to strengthen our relationships with alumni, corporations, foundations, government, and the public and continue to improve technology transfer of the intellectual properties being created by MTU faculty, staff, and students.

As we look back at our history and look forward to our future, we realize that the spirit with which we do our work is probably as important as what we do.

Of all of the institutions developed by humankind, few do a better job of motivating and rewarding superior performance than the Olympics, with youngsters from 197 nations competing for gold medals, pursuing in the great majority of cases, an impossible and yet energizing dream. For the youngsters who participate in the Olympics, "Going for the Gold" does not mean "coping"; it does not mean simply "competing". It means WINNING.

To be a winner in the 21st Century, there has to be an abiding spirit of confidence that what we do, virtually every hour of every day is moving us toward a gold medal. The purposefulness with which an athlete prepares for the Olympics is an essential ingredient of success; likewise, that same type of purposefulness and that developing sense of confidence should pervade all of us at Michigan Tech. Many of us here today are the coaches of the individuals who will be competing and striving in the global arena in the early 21st Century. We have the responsibility to assure that the education we are providing is relevant, attractive, and connected for each and every student with whom we work.

In the same way that athletes are coached to be prepared for the next Olympics, we must coach our students toward success in terms of the measures and indicators that will be used in the world of practical affairs to judge their performances. Our graduates will need leadership skills, team skills, and communication skills that are continually being honed and strengthened through their careers. They will need to be creative, innovative and entrepreneurial if they are to go beyond coping and competing to winning. They will need to have a steadfast commitment to lifelong learning with the realization that once behind in knowledge and skills, it is difficult if not impossible to catch up. At the outset, they should have a keen sense that the bachelor of science degree is only a "beginner's license" and that daily dedication to continual improvement is a never-ending essential ingredient of continuing success.

Are we satisfied with what we are doing at Michigan Tech in these regards today? I certainly am not. Find an Olympic athlete or team satisfied with status quo, and I guarantee you that we won't see that individual or team do well in the years ahead. I believe the same philosophy applies to all of us at Michigan Tech.

While I cannot stand before you today and proclaim that Michigan Technological University has won the gold, permit me to tell you about just some of the people at Michigan Tech, who with confidence and purpose, are bringing continuous improvement to our campus and thereby are contributing to the improvement of the human condition.

In a short while we will hear about the specific accomplishments of some extraordinary students, faculty, and staff members. As they are presented their awards, you will discover a common thread that has nothing to do with their age, gender, educational background or a whole host of other measures.

What these people and some other individuals and departments I will be talking about have in common is a desire to be their best--to go for the gold. Words and phrases like "good enough," "satisfactory," "getting by," and "coping" are not part of their vocabularies.

Our evolution into a Carnegie Doctoral I university has been achieved following the awarding of 171 Masters and 48 Ph.D. degrees in the 1995-96 academic year. A new Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences this year means that all of our science departments now offer doctoral programs.

The growth of our graduate programs has allowed Michigan Tech to move from rankings as an excellent regional university just a few short years ago, to its U.S. News ranking today among the top National Universities. What is impressive about this growth in quality and national stature, is that it has been accomplished efficiently and economically. In its best value ratings of the top schools in America, U.S. News ranked Michigan Tech 42nd in its quality-to-cost comparison. That is an improvement from 48th place last year. In a new ranking category this year, one that should be of special interest to our students and their parents--MTU placed 16th among the 229 national universities in terms of graduates leaving college with the least debt. That statistic underscores Michigan Tech's long-held value of providing a quality education at a reasonable cost for all qualified students.

In yet another assessment based on quality and price, the 1997 Money Magazine college rankings of the best buys among the top technological and scientific universities in the country moved Michigan Tech from 10th place last year to 9th place. You may have already noted that MIT had to settle on 14th place.

The growth in our graduate programs has been accompanied by continued growth in research funding. Despite the decline in research funding at many universities around the country last year, externally funded research and other sponsored programs at Michigan Tech totaled $21,077,661 in 1995-96 compared to $20,038,607 the year before.

Last year at Convocation, I told you about an exciting multimillion dollar research project that Professor Vincent Chiang and his team had taken on in the School of Forestry and Wood Products. They have been working on a genetic engineering project to make lignin easier to break down in the manufacturing of pulp. The result of their work could save industry billions of dollars and help protect the environment by reducing the need for some toxic chemicals in the pulp and paper making process.

In March Dr. Chiang was named a Fellow in the International Academy of Wood Sciences. That elite academy lists only 150 members worldwide, 70 of whom are from the United States. At the age of 43, Dr. Chiang is the youngest scientist ever elected to the Academy and the first from Michigan Tech to be so honored.

As a part of the research team working on the lignin project, postdoctoral researcher Chung-Jui Tsai made a startling discovery in August. In an experiment to genetically alter aspen, she discovered that when she peeled back the bark, the wood was salmon colored and not the undistinguished white that has never made aspen popular for lumber. But now, "red" aspen has other potential uses in furniture, exposed beams, and paneling. Four wood products corporations are now considering growing the red aspen. The researchers are seeking immediate copyright protection of their process and are seeking U.S.D.A. approval to plant the red aspen outdoors to study growth in a natural environment.

Yet another breakthrough in the Department of Biological Sciences and the School of Forestry and Wood Products could result in greater forest productivity and a better rate of return for the forest products industry. A genetic engineering project by Drs. Gopi Podila and David Karnosky has resulted in the development of antioxidants that could shield quaking aspen from the harmful affects of ozone.

The prolific research of the faculty in the School of Forestry and Wood Products has resulted in the generation of $1.50 in external funds for every $1 in state and tuition revenues. And as I mentioned earlier, the School has also won the support of Governor Engler for a $6.5 million capital outlay for the planned Forestry Building Center for Ecosystem Sciences.

Another exciting development came from the College of Engineering. Professor William Predebon, former doctoral student James Staehler and Professor Bruce Pletka received two U.S. Patents on a new alumina material. Pioneering a new electronic news service to national and international Science writers, University Relations was able to gain visibility for the ultra high strength and tough alumina ceramic in many key publications including articles in Business Week, Design News, and the London Financial Times which have prompted dozens of inquiries from industry and government agencies.

In the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Assistant Professor Dr. Mohan Krishnamurthy was awarded a prestigious five-year NSF Career Grant in the amount of $275,000 and three-year grants totalling $460,000 from the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. In that same department, Associate Professor Dr. Walter Milligan has joined researchers from the University of California-Berkeley, M.I.T., and Harvard in a $5 million research initiative funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The research is focussed on understanding fatigue failure in military aircraft engines and airframes. If people are judged by the company they keep, Harvard, Berkeley and M.I.T are in good company with Dr. Milligan.

The Institute of Materials Processing (IMP) has been involved with several projects that highlight the partnership role Michigan Tech is playing in the growing stewardship of the environment by industry. Dr. Jim Hwang and his team's work with Mineral Resource Technologies of Atlanta, Georgia, has resulted in a license to commercialize its fly ash beneficiation technology. The technology will allow electric utilities to maintain important markets for fly ash and to develop new markets for the recovered fly ash components. The licensing agreement will bring MTU a royalty stream of a minimum of $1.64 million during the next five years and $400,000 annually thereafter.

IMP also completed a project for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Chrysler Corporation. It will facilitate the recycling of window glass scrap into processes and products that will increase production efficiency while enhancing product quality.

The auto industry Vehicle Recycling Partnership and the American Plastics Council have agreed to sponsor work at IMP to investigate the recovery of various plastics from scrapped autos. This is the first step in developing a process to recover and recycle materials from the 25 percent of autos that shredding operations are currently placing in landfills.

In the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, several faculty members including Professor Jim Wood, Assistant Professor Jackie Huntoon, and Professor Wayne Pennington led a consortium in a DOE-sponsored project that resulted in the drilling of a successful oil well in Montcalm County. Department Chair Bill Rose says the well completion marks the beginning of a continuing relationship with Michigan oil and gas producers. The well drilling project won national awards, received extensive media coverage, and is being cited as a factor in the rejuvenation of oil and gas production in the Michigan Basin.

In the College of Sciences and Arts, Physics Department Chair Bruce Rafert has launched an initiative aimed at making the department an emerging force in remote sensing satellite systems. The Physics Department has been awarded more than $640,000 to participate in several projects including construction of a satellite hyperspectral sensor for the U.S. Air Force MightSat II and to improve the operational characteristics of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Time does not permit acknowledgement this afternoon of all of the outstanding research projects that are underway at Michigan Tech. But these examples provide ample evidence that there are many people at Michigan Tech who are going for the gold every day.

Faculty members, such as those I have mentioned, who are actively involved in research and scholarship promote excellence in undergraduate education and do not detract from it. But we need to help those faculty in every way that we can, and so in February of 1995 I commissioned a task force to examine MTU research and suggest ways to improve related administrative structures and processes, with a primary goal to change practices, policies, and behaviors that may have put teaching and research at odds. I am happy to report that the Research Task Force, chaired by Professor Kurt Pregitzer, has developed recommendations which are currently being presented to University constituencies for discussion and healthy debate.

The Task Force is proposing that all University research be administered through a single organization--the MTU Research Foundation. All research centers and institutes would report through the Foundation. Its Board of Directors would include myself and all University Officers; the deans of Engineering, Sciences and Arts, and Forestry; three faculty members; and two research representatives. The Foundation should strengthen the University's ability to handle complex and large scale projects.

The Task Force recommendations also promote undergraduate involvement in all research; greater rewards for interdisciplinary teaching and research; and recognizing the value of postdoctoral scholars and other research faculty and staff. The Task Force also suggests that a program development fund be established using 15 percent of indirect cost recovery funds to support projects on a competitive basis, until they receive outside funding. In discussing the report at the September 11 Senate meeting Professor Pregitzer said, and I quote--"We need to recognize that there's a strong symbiosis between teaching and scholarship. It's important that the faculty of Michigan Tech overcome the idea that undergraduate education and research are in conflict"--unquote. To that I can only say--"Amen!"

While time does not permit me to list all of the other initiatives that are underway to enhance our already excellent undergraduate programs, I would like to highlight some of them.

The School of Business and Engineering Administration was admitted to candidacy for professional accreditation from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. The School has completed a major overhaul of its undergraduate curriculum and has restructured its faculty to provide students with a greater interface between business and technology.

The Ford Motor Company has asked us to help develop M.S. and Ph.D. programs in collaboration with the University of Bradford in England; very recently, Ford began discussions with us about similar arrangements in Australia and Argentina. Michigan Tech recently signed an agreement to develop a corporate-wide program at Ford to teach Ford employees to use the I-DEAS software in design; that $3,149,400 contract involves five of our mechanical engineering faculty being on-site in Dearborn for a year. Also, the continuing collaborative work on Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) places MTU faculty in a strong position at Ford.

We are receiving assistance from General Motors with the innovative GM-MTU Leadership Academy which is being offered on campus each quarter on Saturday mornings for MTU student leaders to learn total quality management. And the Chrysler Corporation seems to be pleased with the good performance of MTU's FutureCar team of five dozen students in this year's competition. Of 12 universities, MTU's team placed seventh overall with a Dodge Intrepid; the University of Michigan finished 11th.

The Dow Corning and Dow Chemical Companies asked MTU to develop an accreditable degree program in Chemical Engineering Technology for their employees. Deans Ed Fisher and Tim Collins worked with Delta College and received $500,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop the requested program.

In the College of Sciences and Arts a new stand-alone department was created. Former Hancock School Superintendent and long-time contributor to our teacher education program, Gordon Barkell, is serving as interim chair of the new Department of Education. The Department takes on a leadership role to contribute to and better serve the needs of our math and science majors interested in teaching at the high school level.

The Department of Chemistry successfully made the move from the College of Engineering to the College of Sciences and Arts and has received five-year renewal of accreditation from the American Chemical Society. It was also among the first programs in the country to be awarded certification for an undergraduate degree option in environmental chemistry.

The Department of Physics has made an exceptional effort to refocus and upgrade all facets of its undergraduate instructional program and is offering five new courses this year.

The Department of Humanities has just completed a three-year curriculum revision project for undergraduates. The effort involved cooperation and input from every major academic unit in the University.

The Mathematical Sciences department has just begun work on a comprehensive review and revision of its undergraduate programs.

In another move to strengthen our undergraduate programs, the Department of Biological Sciences is working with the College of Engineering in the development of an interdisciplinary program in Bioengineering.

Elsewhere in the College of Engineering, the Department of Mining Engineering has established a new B.S. program in Mine Environmental Reclamation/Remediation.

The Department of Electrical Engineering implemented the sophomore year of a major curriculum revision and has finalized the format of a senior year Professional Design Sequence involving industry-supported student-team design projects. In Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, its Materials Processing and Design Capstone Course has been developing nicely, providing strong interaction with industry and enhancing team-building skills.

The Department of Chemical Engineering has increased undergraduate access to its world-class laboratories--The Process Simulation and Control Center; the Hazards Evaluation Lab; and the Subsurface Remediation Laboratory.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has also improved the undergraduate learning experience. Thanks to its successful $1.8 million "Partnering with the Future Campaign", it has greatly improved its laboratories and instructional equipment.

The Department of Computer Science opened a new learning center last fall for its students with funds obtained from Dow Chemical Company.

And, the School of Technology graduated its first class of students in the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology degree program.

In addition to all of the improvements in undergraduate laboratories and curricula, our faculty and students are benefiting from completion of the Library Automation System Project. Staff from Information Technology and the Library worked together to provide a Windows-based catalog that is now available on the World Wide Web.

Our faculty continued to garner recognition for excellence in scholarship, research, teaching, and service in 1995-96. A few examples are as follows:

In the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Dr. Ghatu Subhash received the 1996 ASEE Outstanding New Mechanics Educator Award. Dr. John Johnson received the Arch T. Colwell Merit Award for recognition of the author's outstanding technical papers in the field of Automotive Engineering, along with colleagues Dr. Susan Bagley, Dr. David Leddy, and Linda Gratz.

Vice Provost of Research and Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Sung Lee was elected chair-elect of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools and appointed to the National Board of the Graduate Record Examination.

Humanities Chair Dr. Cynthia Selfe was selected winner of the 1996 Educom Medal for her pioneering work in the application of electronic technologies to the writing classroom. She was also elected Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). Also in Humanities, Dr. Glenda Gill was elected Chair of the Program Committee of the American Society of Theater Research and Dr. Elizabeth Flynn was elected Chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession for the CCCC and President of the Women's Caucus for the Modern Language Association.

Physics Chair Dr. Bruce Rafert was appointed by Governor John Engler to serve as our state's representative to the Aerospace States Association (ASA) and was named Secretary of the ASA.

In Social Sciences, Dr. Pat Martin served as President of the Society for Archaeological Sciences, and Dr. Bruce Seely was the Executive Secretary for the Society for The History of Technology.

In Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Professor Komar Kawatra was elected to the Board of Directors of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration and to chair its Mineral Processing Division for 1997-98.

In addition to congratulating these faculty members, I would like to extend a warm welcome to some 23 men and women who have joined our faculty this year. Would those who joined our faculty since last year's Convocation please rise and accept our sincere welcome.

I hope our new faculty members are impressed with their colleagues' record of excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, and public service. I am sure that they will be equally impressed with the quality of our students and staff.

I would also like to recognize a group of 90 administrators, faculty, staff, and students who have just begun the North Central Accreditation Self Study process. Dr. Christa Walck is coordinating the self study with the cooperation of Executive Vice President and Provost Fred Dobney, Deborah Lassila, Director of Budget and Planning, and ten committee chairpersons. One year from now the self study report will be completed and in early 1998 we should be getting feedback from the North Central Association (NCA) on its assessment of our plans and progress.

Since we are going to invest a tremendous amount of time, energy, thought, and effort into this study, it will not be enough to declare "We got another 10 year institutional accreditation." If we are committed to "going for the gold" we should come out of this process proclaiming that we are a better institution because we did the self study and received feedback from N.C.A. It is my hope that the continuous quality improvement effort at Michigan Tech will be strengthened by this study.

I am proud of staff commitment to Total Quality Education (TQE). TQE focuses on continuous improvement of our processes and internal and external constituent satisfaction. More than 60 Michigan Tech employees, including some faculty members, have gone through the three-day TQE Team Leader/Facilitator course and have gone on to lead teams that have come up with innovative process improvements. Here are just a few examples.

The LESS Team--"Line Elimination in Student Services"--has done a great job in improving services to our students during the hectic first few weeks of classes. Improvements have been made in Financial Aid, Student Accounts Receivable, Registration, Vehicle Registration and Commuter Parking, and Housing. The evidence of this team's success was striking during the first few days of the fall term: there were essentially no lines, a remarkable contrast to those long lines many of us remember from just a few quarters ago.

At the Student Development Complex, a TQE Team has come up with several great suggestions including a new weight room and improved services for women. The SDC Team also improved customer and interdepartmental communications, and through extensive use of focus groups, moved to expand hours of operation to better serve all of its customers.

The Gifts and Grants Group--"The Gagg Team"--came up with new processes to handle the stewardship of gifts and grants from individuals, corporations, foundations, and research agencies.

The M&M--"Money and More"--Team from Advancement is examining the complex processes of receiving gifts and vital information from alumni and friends of Michigan Tech.

The Classroom Scheduling Process Action Team recommended the creation of more classrooms of optimum section size. Rooms in Fisher Hall and the Chemical Sciences Building have been renovated to make more classrooms available for student class scheduling.

The TIP--"Training Improves Productivity"--Team has been exploring a number of training options and is offering leadership development training for employees beginning this fall.

While not specifically a TQE project, another team has completed work on a very important topic. The Retention Task Force Report was completed and sent to the University community a few weeks ago. Departments are beginning to address the many recommendations aimed at improving the retention of undergraduate students. It is worth noting that MTU's retention rate is already quite good compared to most of our peer institutions, but in the spirit of going for the gold, we will continue to strive to improve retention. Each year our freshman class has the highest average SAT and ACT scores compared to the freshmen entering the other 14 public universities in Michigan, except for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Other staff initiatives that center on our students include establishment of a toll-free voice response system that will allow students to get their grades immediately after they are reported by the faculty.

Substantial renovation of the Harold Meese Center during early 1997 will provide a high quality environment for our students seeking jobs and for the company representatives coming to campus to recruit them. In addition to housing the Career Center, the facility will be the new home of our Alumni Association.

Student Affairs, Admissions, and the offices of Residential Services initiated "Sneak Preview: A Family Welcome Experience!" for incoming students, potential students, and parents. The three-day event provided more than 400 participants with great insight into the total university experience at Michigan Tech.

Reorganization of our residence halls has resulted in our residential services becoming more efficient as well as more student-centered. Information Technology has begun work on a $1.3 million initiative to provide state-of-the-art voice, data, and video services to residence halls.

The Division of Auxiliary Retail Operations completed an eight-month reorganization process during 1995-96. Among its achievements was implementation of Phase II of the Tech Express Card. We can now use the card to get into parking lots, check out a book from the Library, or get a soft drink from a vending machine using the card's new Smart Chip debit feature.

Our activities in student leadership development have made great progress. Dean of Student Affairs Marty Janners and Associate Dean Steve Tyrell have enlisted a strong core of faculty and staff to assist in this important effort. A new "ropes" course has been constructed for team building, a LeaderShape retreat was conducted in May for 49 students, and the GM-MTU Leadership Academy is underway. These and other programs will be incorporated into the MTU Leadership Institute in 1997. I invite you to learn more about this interesting and exciting initiative during the upcoming meeting of our National Advisory Board on October 14 and 15.

I would also like to congratulate our colleges, schools, and departments for the strong increase in the number of Advisory Boards and Distinguished Alumni Academies that have been established during the past few years. External boards provide valuable insights into the competitive, global environment in which our students will have to compete, and the distinguished alumni academies identify and bring to campus our most distinguished alumni. Also, this past spring we inducted 17 charter members into the Council of Alumnae, which we created to recognize and bring together in a special way, our most distinguished female graduates. The Council will serve as an advisory board for the Department of Educational Opportunity as well as work with the departments from which they graduated.

We all recognize that the external world is more diverse than our community or our campus. During the past year the Presidential Commission on Diversity and the Presidential Commission for Women, with the assistance of Educational Opportunity, brought 18 people to campus as part of the Visiting Minority and Visiting Women Scholar and Women Lecturer Series. We have also strengthened our outreach to the Native American community with the hiring of a new program coordinator.

In addition to the students we are honoring today, let us not forget about our student athletes and ROTC students who manage to take on additional responsibilities and yet come up with higher grade point averages than the general student body, and also student groups like Blue Key and Alpha Phi Omega that provide valuable services to our campus and community. Let's celebrate involvement in student government and student media, the service work of sororities and fraternities and the 540 individual students who, since only last April, have become involved in local volunteer activities through the SuperV Program.

These several examples should fill us with a sense of pride. We have a right to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty, students, and staff.

But if we are truly to adopt the gold standard for Michigan Tech, "going for the gold" is going to take more than hard work and simply improving on what we already have.

MTU has a wonderfully rich history of 111 years during which more than 40,000 individuals have received parts of their educations here. We realize that important parts of that education occurred outside the classroom and laboratory.

When we visit other universities, we come back home appreciating that MTU has a good asset base and has been developing well for the past several decades. We must continue to have high aspirations for our University and to be bold in assuring that it becomes and remains one of the truly premier, world-class public technological universities in which learning occurs in a global context.

Michigan Tech will have significant impact during the next millennium on filling the needs of humankind and improving the human condition through leadership in engineering, science and related fields. I greatly appreciate the leadership, support, and encouragement of our Board of Control, the Michigan Tech Fund and Alumni Association Boards, our National Advisory Board and to all of you -- the faculty, staff, and students of Michigan Tech who are contributing today and will continue to do so in the future as together, we go for the gold.

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