Chancellor's Speeches
Remarks of USM Chancellor William E. "Brit" Kirwan
"Our USM Campus"
Washington County Chamber of Commerce
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
AS DRAFTED
Thank you. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday. It is
a pleasure for me to begin 2004 with a visit to Hagerstown
to update you on the future of the Hagerstown Education
Center. I know the Chamber has been a very strong supporter
of this initiative. It is clear that the active involvement
of the business community-men and women who recognize the
vital role this Center will play in educating our young
people and energizing local workforce development-has been a
driving force behind this project.
As many of you know, last Summer I had a "guest column" in
the Herald-Mail. I thank Bob Maginnis for giving me that
opportunity. I addition to giving a brief up-date as to the
status of the Center, I issued a call for greater community
involvement in support of the Center. I said that what was
needed at this time was a "true groundswell of support".
Well, we got that and more. This organization, the Greater
Hagerstown Committee, and concerned individuals launched
letter writing campaigns targeting top state official in
support of this project. And, of course, the Herald-Mail
continued to beat the drum of support. I once again thank
you all for your commitment to this initiative. As I also
noted in my column last Summer, the USM is deeply committed
to establishing this regional center as a 21sty century
model for undergraduate and graduate education. We envision
the Hagerstown Education Center as a hub of teaching,
learning, and economic development that will have an
enormously positive impact on Hagerstown, Washington County,
and the State of Maryland. Our efforts together will bring
the vision of a high-quality, higher education center
serving the needs of this region to life.
I'd like to divide my comments up into essentially three
sections. First, I will talk about the status of the
Hagerstown Education Center, both the physical structure and
the programmatic aspects. Second, I will move into the
broader vision the USM has for the future of this campus and
what it will mean for this community. Finally, I will
discuss how the Hagerstown Education Center fits into the
overall USM structure and how, in many ways, it represents
the future of the System. Of course, I will try to leave
ample time for discussion as well.
The Renovation of the Baldwin House Complex-a beautiful
historic building that is being restored to maintain its
beauty-is moving along nicely. The project is on budget and
on schedule. The environmental abatement, demolition and
structural repairs are now complete. The interior
rebuilding of the Baldwin House is underway, along with
additional exterior restoration. Completion is slated for
November of this year, with occupancy on track for Spring of
2005. At our most recent meeting with the various parties
involved in this project-the USM, the City of Hagerstown,
the State of Maryland, and the Design Team-there was an
overall feeling of excitement about the center and
satisfaction with the progress we are making.
On the issue of Management, several important steps have
been taken or are underway. Perhaps one of the most
important actions is the fact that Dr. Gertrude Eaton,
Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the USM,
will oversee academic development of the Hagerstown Center.
Dr. Eaton did this same job for the USM with the Shady Grove
Center. By any measure, the Universities at Shady Grove has
been a stunningly successful effort. Shady Grove is growing
beyond all expectations. What Shady Grove is to Montgomery
County, the Hagerstown Education Center will be for
Hagerstown.
With Dr. Eaton at the helm, a search committee has been
formed to hire an Executive Director of the Hagerstown
Center through Frostburg State University. FSU will perform
and oversee many campus functions, saving the System the
cost of creating an admissions office, a registrar's office,
etc. As you know, FSU has operated a Hagerstown Center for
some time. Current enrollment at the FSU Center stands at
422 students in undergraduate and graduate programs offered
by FSU and 15 students earning an RN to BSN degree from the
University of Maryland, Baltimore. UMB also offers a few
graduate nursing courses and UMUC offers accounting courses.
All these programs will of course move to the new HEC when
it is complete. We are grateful to FSU for taking on this
important responsibility.
Already FSU and USM have developed an implementation plan
that marks out major activities over the next 15-18 months.
FSU and USM signed a Memorandum of Understanding delineating
the responsibilities of the coordinating institution and
other institutions offering programs at the HEC. Our goal
is to offer degree programs in areas that are identified by
residents as "critical" for the region. New
programs-particularly upper division undergraduate
programs-are expected to begin in fall 2005. In addition,
graduate courses, certificate programs, training
opportunities and a variety of credit and non-credit classes
will be offered.
We have also established a partnership with Hagerstown
Community College to provide upper-division courses for
community college graduates. Simply put, students will be
able to move seamlessly from an Associates Degree and
transition into the last two years of a four-year program
provided by a participating USM institution.
At this point, we anticipate that in Academic Year 2005-
2006, programs will be offered by FSU, UMUC, UMB and
possibly, Towson University. Both TU and FSU offer bachelor
of technical/professional studies in a number of fields,
which will provide excellent continuing education
opportunities to the workforce in the area.
I know that right now, our focus is on securing the
necessary funds to bring the Hagerstown Education Center on-
line and bring the USM institutions into the mix. I don't
want to underplay the importance of these efforts. Strong
state and local support are essential for the success of
this center. Given the status of Maryland's budget these
days, we need to keep the heat on to maintain our
commitments. But I want to take a moment to look beyond
that . . . to look at what this center will really mean for
Hagerstown and Washington County.
A few years ago, the USM established a single facility in
another underserved region of our state: The University at
Shady Grove in Montgomery County. Eight separate USM
institutions have come together in this location-under one
roof-to deliver low cost access to a range of different USM
programs selected to meet high student demand in areas such
as biosciences, information sciences, business, nursing, and
education. Each participating institution provides top
faculty and academic support services to in this center, who
earn their degrees from the institution offering the
program. This effort has been both very successful and very
well-received. This effort has the ancillary benefit of
showcasing the true value of having a University System to
coordinate and administer such efforts.
I envision this same type of success for the Hagerstown
Center. Its mere presence in downtown Hagerstown will help
drive economic redevelopment downtown. Your children will
have access to some of the most popular, most sought-after
educational opportunities-provided by the USM institutions
that know them best-right here, close to home. Your
employees will be able to up-grade their skills and continue
their educational efforts. And the entire region will have
the ability to emerge as an economic powerhouse as cutting
edge educational opportunities in technology, business, and
other disciplines become readily available. The fact is,
when this center opens in 2005, it will not represent the
end of a long and occasionally bumpy journey to bring the
USM to Hagerstown. Rather it will represent a new beginning
for this city, this county, and this region: An era of
educational excellence, of expanded opportunity, of new
economic strength, and of full participation in the benefits
and impact of Maryland's outstanding University System.
I must also acknowledge as Chancellor of the University
System that the success of the Hagerstown Educational Center
is vitally important to the entire system. Innovative, cost-
effective initiatives are essential to the USM as we grapple
with two parallel challenges: funding and enrollment.
As you all know, higher education funding has be subject to
dramatic cuts in recent years. Our state support was
reduced by 14% last year, erasing the budget increases of
recent years. And we anticipate flat funding at best as we
look towards the next legislative session. A decade ago,
state support was the largest part of our total budget.
Today state support is less than 25% of our budget and is
actually the smallest of our three main funding sources,
being surpassed by both tuition revenue and research grants.
We actually stand at the same state-funding level we did
five years ago when we served 8,000 fewer students.
The second challenge for higher education is a sharp surge
in enrollment demand. Over the next several years, Maryland
will see the "baby boom echo" reach college age. Not only
will that population cohort be large, but efforts are being
undertaken-through efforts like Thornton-to ensure that a
greater percentage of theses individuals will be able to
move on to college. So we face the prospect of a growing
percentage of a growing population expecting to continue
their education at a time when public investment in higher
education is sharply declining.
These two realities -- reduced funding and surging
enrollment -- threaten Maryland's colleges and universities,
and are in conflict with the overall heightened expectations
placed upon our institutions with regard to workforce
development and economic impact. Like most systems across
the US, Maryland used a combination of spending cuts and
tuition increases to address our budget shortfall. These
actions were exceedingly difficult and will have a
deleterious impact including: the elimination of some 800
positions threatens the quality of our campuses - a standard
of quality that has taken years to achieve; class sizes will
grow; courses will be cut; support services will diminish;
students will be required to pay tuition at a level they
could not possibly have planned for when they began their
studies; and our ability to accommodate enrollment increases
is in doubt.
As bad as these cuts are, the timing is far worse. Maryland
is blessed to have a System of higher education that, after
decades of effort and investment, is regarded as one of the
nation's best. The fact that Maryland's economy has grown
stronger and more vibrant in recent years can be directly
linked to the investments made in higher education. .
Indeed, in the long run, it will be access our higher
education institutions and their contributions to advancing
knowledge that will ensure a sound economic future and a
high quality of life. By cutting that investment now, we
are jeopardizing our future economic prosperity.
Having said that, I of course recognize that higher
education is not an island unto itself, untouched by the
economic and political realities of our time. We have an
obligation to BOTH enhance quality AND contain costs. We
need to be aggressive in finding ways to reduce our costs
through increased efficiency and innovative approaches.
That is what makes the Hagerstown Education Center so vital
for the USM.
This center, along with Shady Grove and UMUC-the world
leader in on-line education-are positioning the USM as
leaders in the "new reality" of higher education: Balancing
the rising expectations of citizens who need the benefits of
our universities on the one hand and the declining
investment of public funds on the other. Our creativity in
resolving this conflict will go along way toward determining
the success of the USM.
Between UMUC and our educational centers, we anticipate that
we can accommodate approximately 2/3 of the projected
enrollment growth...and at a small fraction of the cost it
would take to educate these students at a traditional
campus. This will enable us to both address the educational
needs of the state and protect the quality of our existing
campuses.
I look forward to returning is the months ahead as the
Hagerstown Education Center nears completion. And look
forward to joining you the day we open the doors to this
wonderful new jewel of regional education and economic
development.
I would now like to take any questions you might have.