This week we came together for our annual State of the University address, a chance to celebrate accomplishments over the past year, understand our challenges, and look ahead to progress on Strategic Plan goals and key initiatives. We have understandable uncertainty as we face a leadership transition. But we also have a strong plan, breadth and depth in our leadership, and a common belief in our land-grant mission. Our Strategic Plan continues to provide a roadmap for reaching our goals. Over the past year, we’ve again achieved excellent results in our “Innovate” goal to conduct research and scholarship with impact. One way to measure that success – not the only way – is via record-setting research expenditures, $109.5 million in FY17. We also increased our number of submitted proposals, total new awards, invention disclosures and patent applications. Just last week, we shared in a $20 million EPSCoR award from the National Science Foundation. We’re excelling in rangeland and agricultural work. Across disciplines, we have any number of compelling scholarship and creative projects. I appreciate the hard work and strategic effort of so many faculty researchers and staff members. Our “Engage” goal remains important. As a statewide, land-grant university, we have the opportunity to continue to improve Idaho’s college-going culture. The Direct Admissions and Apply Idaho programs are streamlining the pathway to college. We also know that many well-qualified students who can succeed at U of I take time off before entering college. For that reason, this fall we’re rolling out a “durable admissions” policy that allows students to defer admissions after high school for up to four years, as opposed to one year. Students who go on missions, serve in the military, or take time to work can now be confident that when they’re ready, they have a place at U of I. We welcome these students – their maturity and experience contributes greatly to our campus. Discussing our “Transform” goal, it is important to candidly address our enrollment. While numbers are not final until October, we may see a slight decline in new, full-time students. That affects our ability to serve as many students as we feel we should. It will also impact our budget, a challenge we’ll take on throughout the year. That should not stop us from continuing to recruit talented students from Idaho and elsewhere. We must also focus on student success during college – retention and progression through to graduation and careers. Our adoption of the VandalStar data management system – offering timely interventions for students in need – will help us better focus our resources for those students. Our emphasis on high-impact experiences, including undergraduate research, and exciting work opportunities, like the Fenway Group partnership for information technology jobs, will continue to result in unmatched success for current and future Vandals. We’re also focused on how we “Cultivate” a diverse and valued community. To bolster efforts to recruit and retain talented faculty and staff, a market-based compensation initiative has brought more faculty and staff to targeted salaries. We’re concentrating on fostering a diverse and inclusive university, drawing students from around the world, and making sure our campus lives up to our expectations as a safe and welcoming environment for all people. How do we continue to make progress on our goals? In the 1970s, I watched climber Beverly Johnson solo summit El Capitan in Yosemite National Park – a pioneering feat where each handhold matters in making incremental progress. She told the media that her approach was simple: There’s only one way to eat an elephant – one bite at a time. Without taking our eyes off the big picture, each Vandal student, each faculty member, each staff member, has a bite they can take to climb up our El Capitan – being a great public research university. I think the video below captures some of the passion and enthusiasm we have as we reflect on the past year and look forward to the work ahead – please, enjoy, and share. | | Go Vandals! Chuck Staben President | | | | State of the University 2018 | | How Henry Adams Makes a Difference at U of I As a lifelong conservation advocate and College of Natural Resources (CNR) alumnus, Henry Adams ’74 believes in supporting his alma mater. “I believe that it is a civic duty for graduates to give back whenever their professional career’s opportunity and success is, in good measure, due to their educational experience,” he said. Indeed, Adams’ successful career includes work as a soil scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service, a camp recreation counselor, and a volunteer tour guide at the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens. He invests in the continued academic success and leadership development of CNR students with his scholarship and endowment support. Most recently, he backed the purchase of the Rinker Rock Creek Ranch, a unique collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and Wood River Land Trust to promote rangeland research and management. For more information about this endowment or other opportunities to make a difference in CNR, contact Jennifer Farnum at 208-885-5145 or jfarnum@uidaho.edu. | | U of I Researcher, Cassini Team Spot Dust Storms on Titan Data from the international Cassini spacecraft, which explored Saturn and its moons between 2004 and 2017, has revealed what appear to be giant dust storms in the equatorial regions of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. A team of scientists, including University of Idaho astrophysicist Jason Barnes, published their findings in the journal Nature Geoscience. “We now know that Titan has active dust transport, making it only the third place in our solar system where we’ve seen this. Until now, it’s been Earth and the global dust storms on Mars,” said Barnes, an associate professor in the Department of Physics. “This information is essential for anyone, like myself, who wants to send a probe to Titan.” Titan is the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere and the only celestial body other than Earth known to have stable bodies of surface liquid. Barnes is a member of a research team that hopes to send a drone-like rotocraft to Titan. The team is one of two finalists for funding from NASA’s New Frontiers Program. | | Professor Displays Artwork at World's Largest Design Exhibition John Anderson, program head and associate professor of Virtual Technology and Design in the College of Art and Architecture, was one of 50 designers across the globe honored at Venice Design 2018, the world's largest design exhibition. His artwork on exhibit is a sculpture that incorporates lead weights topped with silver to create two images — one of Lake Coeur d'Alene and another of the region's sacred Cutthroat trout. Heavy metal contaminated sediment from the region's industrial activity was deposited in Lake Coeur d'Alene over the course of a century. Anderson's sculpture is an abstraction of research resulting from a $20 million National Science Foundation grant to study Idaho's water quality and the social-ecological system (SES) impacts of this activity. His sculpture will be on display through November. | | | | |