Remarks by Graham B. Spanier
Jan. 21, 2011
On Jan. 1 as most of us were resolving to eat less, exercise more and to keep our resolutions this year, Ken Frazier was resolving to make Merck even more competitive in his new position as CEO. Ken joined Merck in 1992 and has held a broad range of senior management positions. Congratulations Ken. Merck is very fortunate to have your leadership, and we’re equally pleased to call you a Penn State alumnus and to have you on our board.
Bill Mahon, our vice president for University Relations, will try just about anything to connect to students and get the word out about Penn State -- he’ll podcast, text, tweet, do YouTube or Facebook. In fact, through his leadership Penn State’s Facebook page ranks No. 1 in friends in Pennsylvania.
This chart shows the dramatic growth in the popularity of Penn State’s Facebook page. Since May 2009, 165,000 individuals have friended us. Penn State's Facebook friends are 52 percent female; 34 percent are between the ages of 18 and 24; and 25 percent are 35 to 44 years old.
What’s more, Facebook offers visitors translation options for the site. Most of our friends choose English, but 400 read it in Spanish, 193 in French, 22 in Swedish, 33 in Arabic, and inexplicably, 230 people read it in Pirate English.
For those of you not fluent in Pirate, here is a screen shot of Penn State’s Facebook page. As you can see, the site automatically inserts the exclamation "Arrggghh, Matey!" in every other sentence and features many other salty expressions as well. So feel free to “adjust yer’ spyglass” any time.
Earlier this week Tom Corbett was sworn in as the 46th governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We wish him much success in his efforts to move our state forward, and we will continue to do our part in providing the education and training that are essential to improving business growth, agriculture, job creation, transportation, and quality of life.
With the change in administrations and the new Legislature just getting organized, the governor’s budget is not expected until early March, which is a month later than in a typical year. We will keep you informed as we learn more.
We are now at the mid-point in the admissions cycle, and it is shaping up to be another record year. Total applications for all campuses, as of Jan. 10, are ahead by 4.5 percent compared to 2010. Undergraduate applications are ahead by nearly 6 percent and graduate applications are up 9 percent. Out-of-state, minority and international applications are all trending higher, with total international undergraduate applications up 47 percent.
At our Commonwealth Campuses, applications are up 4 percent and first-choice freshmen baccalaureate applications for summer and fall are up 12 percent for out-of-state students.
Application counts will continue to change weekly, and we will provide you with periodic updates. Right now we are ahead of last year by about 3,700 applications.
Last week, nearly 150 faculty and staff from the College of Agricultural Sciences traveled to Harrisburg to participate in the 95th Pennsylvania Farm Show. This is the largest indoor agricultural event in America, and Penn State always has a major presence.
In addition to exhibits that showcase the college’s programs, many of the show’s activities -- from vegetable contests to competitive livestock events to news coverage – wouldn’t happen without the expertise and hard work of Penn Staters. The show also benefits our students.
This year 15 Penn State students, including 13 from the College of Ag Sciences, were awarded scholarships by the Pennsylvania Farm Show Scholarship Foundation. The scholarship is $3,500 and the college will add $2,000 for its students, providing a significant benefit to those selected.
Penn State faculty members contribute to their professions through teaching, research and service, and each year, many are recognized as leaders in their fields. Today I’m very pleased to share a few recent honors.
Anthony Cutler, Evan Pugh Professor of art history at Penn State, was selected by the University of Oxford to hold the Slade Professorship of Fine Art for this year. The Slade Professorship is one of most distinguished honors in art history.
Nine Penn State faculty members were named new Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in honor of their distinguished efforts to advance science and its applications. This global organization is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. The Fellows are:
· J. Martin Bollinger Jr., professor of chemistry and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology;
· Donald A. Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard professor in biotechnology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology;
· John M. Carroll, Edward M. Frymoyer professor of information sciences and technology;
· Hong Ma, distinguished professor of biology;
· Nina Fedoroff, Evan Pugh Professor of life sciences and the Verne M. Willaman chair in life sciences;
· Gerald E. McClearn, Evan Pugh professor of health and human development and biobehavioral health;
· James L. Rosenberger, professor of statistics;
· Alok Sinha, professor of mechanical engineering; and
· Alexander Wolszczan, Evan Pugh professor of astronomy and astrophysics.
The contributions these faculty members have made to our students, their colleagues and the institution are truly immeasurable.
Moving on to research news.
Since its founding, the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute has brought together top faculty, world-class facilities and enterprising students from across the University to address critical transportation-related problems. Their efforts are among the most renowned in the nation.
Recently the U.S. Department of State acknowledged their innovative work with a grant of up to $7 million to enhance the security of U.S. embassies and other facilities overseas through research and development related to anti-ram barrier protection systems.
This research has the potential to dramatically increase security at home and abroad. I’d like to recognize some of the people doing that important work: Martin Pietrucha, director of the Larson Transportation Institute, and Zoltan Rado, director of the Crash Safety Research Team and senior research associate.
The Applied Research Lab also has been doing its part to protect our nation. In a moment I will show you a video that underscores the significance of the technology research being done at ARL. But first a little context.
Recently, a recipient of the very prestigious Service to America Award for the most outstanding government service for Homeland Security in 2010 had high praise for ARL. The recipient, Sandy Brooks, is responsible for countering the drug and illicit traffic coming to the United States from the Caribbean, South America, and the eastern Pacific. In addition, the former head of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, said wonderful things about our ARL operations. Allen also was most recently the National Incident Commander for the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill.
For their leadership and work on behalf of Penn State and the nation, I’d thank Ed Liszka, director of Defense Related Research Units and ARL, Allan Sonsteby, associate director and head of the Communications, Information and Navigation Office, and Tim Shaw, division head for the SEA Lab, Visualization Laboratory.
Penn State is also taking a prominent role in the discussion of human rights through the new television and interactive series, World on Trial, which grew out of a seminar on human rights treaties taught by renowned human rights advocate and Penn State faculty member Randall Robinson. In this provocative series, viewers around the world will render verdicts on international human rights issues. Cherie Booth, the eminent human rights barrister and wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will preside over the first trial, which will be on the French “headscarf law.” World on Trial involves student juries at leading universities around the world and the project is representative of the increasingly global nature of many Penn State academic projects. World on Trial is being taped in the state-of-the-art courtroom in the Katz Building, and we can all feel proud of the international diversity of Penn State students and faculty, which is clearly portrayed in the video trailer you are about to watch.
I would like to recognize some of the people from the Dickinson School of Law and Penn State Public Broadcasting who were behind World on Trial: Randall Robinson; Dean Phil McConnaughay and Ted Krichels who served as co-executive producers; Joe Myers, who directed this episode; Mindy McMahon, the producer; and Michelle Boldon, a research fellow at the Law School.
Moving on to athletics…
This year, the women’s volleyball team added a new word to our vocabulary – Four-Peat! Their history making win for the 2010 NCAA National Title makes the Nittany Lions the first team in Division I women’s volleyball to ever win four consecutive national championships.
This is the fifth NCAA championship of Coach Russ Rose’s career, the most national championships ever for a Division I volleyball head coach. In addition, Blair Brown won the 2011 Honda Sports Award in volleyball, designating her as the nation's top collegiate female athlete in that sport. The honor was based on the results of national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools, and it is the third year in a row that a Penn State women's volleyball player has been honored with the award.
Blair graduated in December but couldn’t attend commencement since it was on the same day as the championship game. So Dean Welch and I surprised her with a special ceremony in the gym.
Our other fall teams were also fierce competitors this year.
The women’s soccer team won the Big Ten soccer championship for the 13th consecutive time. The team now holds the longest record for consecutive Big Ten titles in women’s athletics.
In addition, Penn State was the only Division 1A school to have all of its fall teams participate in post-season play. Of the seven fall Penn State intercollegiate teams, six were selected for their respective NCAA Championship competitions, and the football team was invited to the Outback Bowl. This strong showing is a credit to the coaching staffs and athletes in men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, women’s volleyball and football.
Our winter season is shaping up to be equally thrilling.
When Cael Sanderson joined Penn State we were all looking forward to great things in the wrestling program. But I’m not sure anyone could have anticipated the level of excitement and success we have seen this year. The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team is ranked No. 2 in the latest USA Today/NWCA Dual Meet Coaches Poll and our wrestlers are close on the heels of No. 1 Cornell.
The Nittany Lions are 11-0 for the year, their best start since 1971-72. Tonight’s match with Pittsburgh will be nationally televised on the Big Ten Network.
Now I’m very pleased to announce two gifts recently made to Penn State through the Office of Gift Planning. I’m excited about these gifts in particular because they represent two strategic fundraising initiatives that we think will be very attractive to major donors who are doing long-term financial planning.
First, Earl and Kay Harbaugh recently made the first gift to The Pennsylvania State University Charitable Gift Fund, which is the University’s newly established donor advised fund. This is a brand-new initiative that we expect to publicly launch and promote to potential donors during the month of February.
In this type of gift vehicle, a donor establishes a fund with Penn State that will be used for charitable purposes. The University manages that fund, making distributions to eligible charities upon the donor’s recommendation. Because at least half of the distributions from the fund must ultimately be gifted to Penn State, the University and our students stand to benefit greatly. Meanwhile, the donor receives the tax benefits of a charitable gift when the fund is created, but can decide at his or her pace how to distribute it. This is a particularly useful gift vehicle for donors who have a tax event in which they need to make a charitable donation within a given year, but haven’t yet decided which specific Penn State programs and other organizations they want to support.
Now on to the second gift I’d like to highlight. In December, Robert and Elizabeth Hodge made a major gift commitment to the College of Agricultural Sciences by using another gift planning vehicle, the charitable lead trust. This type of trust is particularly well-suited for donors who want to pass wealth to the next generation at little or no tax cost.
A charitable lead trust to Penn State can either substantially reduce or in some cases totally eliminate gift taxes at the time the trust assets transfer to heirs. Right now, the low interest rate environment creates the perfect time for donors to consider this type of gift.
If I have piqued your interest sufficiently about either of these gift ideas, I know Rod Kirsch and his staff would be delighted to explain them in more detail!
Finally, as I do each January, I want to remind you that THON will be taking place at the Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus from February 18-20.
It’s hard to fathom the collective impact of THON. Since 1977, it has raised nearly $70 million for The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Children’s Hospital. Its impact on the participants and supporters is also profound.
That’s why I was so pleased to see the growth of Mini-THON, which has been organized by elementary, middle and high schools across the state. These students hold multi-hour dance marathons, and their contributions add up to nearly $1 million per year – that’s nearly 9 percent of total donations to The Four Diamonds Fund.
Fifty-two schools participated in the Mini-THON program, which entails creating committees, organizing students, planning entertainment for the event, fundraising and more. These schools have raised nearly $5 million for the kids and their totals continue to increase!
We’ll look forward to seeing some of those young participants as college students at Penn State when they’ll be able to join the 15,000 student volunteers who make THON happen each year.
This concludes my report. At this time, I would be happy to take questions.