{"id":16330,"date":"2016-04-20T14:21:16","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T18:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/news\/article.php?ArticleID=16330"},"modified":"2018-09-13T08:54:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T12:54:22","slug":"16330_president-s-address-to-the-university-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/president\/2016\/04\/20\/16330_president-s-address-to-the-university-community\/","title":{"rendered":"President’s Address to the University Community, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

View Video: Montclair in Motion<\/a><\/p>\n

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Good afternoon. Well, this year has certainly been one for ringing the bells at 精品成人福利在线 University. Years of hard work came to fruition in multiple ways that, taken together, really constitute a significant change in the institution\u2019s identity. In 1994, 精品成人福利在线 College became 精品成人福利在线 University, and, four years later, in 1998, when I arrived on campus as president, I found a new university that was in the process of seeking its first doctoral degree and that had before it a complicated road to travel in order to realize the full potential of what 精品成人福利在线 University could be in service to the people of New Jersey and to the nation and the world beyond.<\/p>\n

As we progressed on that journey, we began to fill out our institutional identity, and we picked up a number of markers along the way. But, in my estimation, this academic year will stand out in the University\u2019s history as the year in which the work that began in the late nineties came to fruition in a cascade of achievements. I think, therefore, that it is appropriate that we take a breath and a moment to consider where and who we were in the late nineties and where and who we are today, close to 20 years later.<\/p>\n

We have traveled from being an institution of about 12,000 students to one of 20,465 students this year, from an institution that granted about 2,200 degrees a year to one that grants over 4,500 degrees a year. The former state college was, this year, recognized by the Carnegie Listing of Institutions of Higher Education as a Research 3 Doctoral University, and that makes 精品成人福利在线 one of the only 335 institutions in the country (or the 7 percent) designated as research doctoral universities out of the 4,664 institutions reviewed by the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, which produces the Carnegie list. We now offer 6 doctoral degrees, and the state bureaucracy that has, until now, put 精品成人福利在线 through a lengthy maze of expensive and time-consuming processes in order to get each one of those degrees approved, because they were considered to be beyond our mission, has this year officially approved a change of our mission to a doctoral degree granting university.<\/p>\n

精品成人福利在线 has always had a diverse student population, but since the 1990\u2019s that diversity has grown substantially, from approximately 38 percent students of color to approximately 53 percent. Leading this change was a nearly 10 percent rise in Hispanic undergraduates, and, as an indication of that fact, this year the Federal government officially designated 精品成人福利在线 as a Hispanic Serving Institution. That recognition is particularly important, not just because it makes us eligible for dedicated federal funding, but because Hispanics now represent 20 percent of New Jersey\u2019s population, and we have a moral imperative to serve that growing segment of our society.<\/p>\n

精品成人福利在线 is now recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Community Engaged Campus<\/a>; by The Princeton Review<\/em> as among the nation\u2019s greenest campuses, and the Princeton Review also ranks the Feliciano School of Business as among the Best Business Schools; by Money Magazine<\/em> as among the nation\u2019s colleges that add the most value; by Forbes Magazine <\/em>as one of America\u2019s Top Colleges; by the Campus Pride Top 25 LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges and Universities; by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education<\/em> as a Top Degree Producer of minority student degrees and by Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine<\/em> as among the Top 100 Colleges for Hispanics; by G.I. Jobs <\/em>magazine as a Military-Friendly university, and by U.S. News & World Report<\/em> as a top tier Northern Regional University, as a Top Public School, and as among the top graduate teacher preparation programs in the nation.<\/p>\n

Consistent with its identity as a university, as distinct from a college, 精品成人福利在线 has greatly enhanced its professional programs: transforming the Department of Music into the John J. Cali School of Music; bringing together programs in Broadcasting, Film and Communications to create the School of Communication and Media; expanding, raising significant private money for, and naming the Feliciano School of Business; and, this coming fall, beginning a new School of Nursing.<\/p>\n

When 精品成人福利在线 became a university in 1994, its complement of facilities was grossly inadequate for a college, let alone a university, and, since that time, we have come a long way to providing the physical assets required by a university of quality, including among some of the most major additions to the campus:<\/p>\n