Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

September 27, 2002

Geoffroy: ISU success depends on faculty

President Gregory Geoffroy shakes the hand of Michael Apley, associate professor in the Veterinary Medicine College and holder of the W. Eugene and Linda Lloyd Endowed Professorship. During convocation Sept. 23, Geoffroy presented medallions to holders of named faculty chairs and professorships. He intends to recognize new appointees at future convocations. In his state-of-the-university address, Geoffroy said Iowa State will continue its quest for excellence despite budget cuts. Photo by Bob Elbert.

by Linda Charles
Despite budget cuts, Iowa State will continue its quest for excellence, in part through rebuilding the faculty, President Gregory Geoffroy told the campus community during the fall convocation Sept. 23.

With a 19 percent reduction in state funding over the last two years, the university has lost 415 positions during a time that enrollment has been at record levels, Geoffroy said.

"Most disturbing is the loss in the number of faculty positions, since faculty are at the core of all of our activities, and the loss in faculty is having a dramatic negative impact," he said.

Part of the reduction in faculty will be addressed through six recently announced academic initiatives, Geoffroy said. The interdisciplinary initiatives will focus on food safety and food security, combinatorial discovery (a new analytical chemistry method for discovering and testing new materials), human computer interaction, bioeconomy, information infrastructure and integrated animal genomics.

Geoffroy said most of the seed funding for the six initiatives will be used to create new faculty positions.

"The success of each of these new initiatives, and the success of the university as a whole, depends upon our faculty. To be the best in fulfilling our land-grant mission, we must truly have outstanding faculty -- faculty who are the leaders in their disciplines," he said.

World leaders
Geoffroy said increasing the excellence of the faculty will be one of the university's highest priorities. Faculty recruitment procedures will be reviewed to ensure new faculty have the potential to develop into world leaders in their fields and that the compensation and recruitment packages are competitive with those offered to top faculty elsewhere.

Iowa State also needs to recruit several senior faculty who are at the top of their fields, he said.

"We need more faculty at that level -- faculty who significantly raise the excellence of their departments, who attract the very best graduate students and who keep our undergraduate programs at the cutting edge in their disciplines."

In addition, Geoffroy has asked Provost Benjamin Allen to identify a few areas that would benefit from a cluster of faculty hires (ideally, a mix of junior and senior faculty).

"And finally, we must focus on restoring our faculty numbers to the level appropriate for the excellence we seek," Geoffroy said.

Top priorities
During his state-of-the-university address, Geoffroy reemphasized the three priorities he has had since he came to campus last year: more nationally recognized academic programs, top-quality education for students and a university attuned to the needs of the people of Iowa. He also added a fourth priority: foster diversity and a welcoming climate for all members of the university community.

Geoffroy said the university needs continually to assess the curricula.

"As just one example, I believe now is the time to explore the establishment of a degree program in information sciences and technology, a curriculum that would lie between our traditional computer science, computer engineering and management information systems degree programs," he said.

Leopold Center funds
Geoffroy said Iowa State also has a responsibility to the people of Iowa.

Whether it's called "service," "outreach" or "engagement," Geoffroy said, "What it all really means is that as one of the nation's land-grant universities, we have a fundamental responsibility to serve the state of Iowa and its citizens and to be a full partner in those service and engagement activities."

The president said Iowa State will "work especially hard this year to repair the damage caused by the deep budget cuts to our several economic development programs and to the Leopold Center."

He noted he did not think the Legislature singled out those programs for cuts because they were not considered valuable, but rather because they were easy to cut in the final hours of the budget-balancing process.

In addition to doing a better job of serving the citizens of Iowa, the university needs to do a better job of letting Iowans know what it does for them, Geoffroy said.

The right thing
His fourth priority, fostering diversity, "is absolutely the right and the just thing to do," Geoffroy said.

Although a diversity plan is being developed, Geoffroy said some steps need to be taken immediately. They include elevating campus conversation about diversity topics to keep it at the forefront; making opportunities to celebrate diversity; developing specific goals and strategies for recruiting a diverse faculty, staff and student body; and ensuring campus leadership has a strong commitment to diversity causes.

The text and video of President Geoffroy's convocation speech is online at http://www.iastate.edu/~president/speeches/02/convo.