Scott delivers opening faculty address

Pittsburg State University faculty convened at the university’s annual opening meeting Thursday morning in the Overman Student Center’s Crimson and Gold Ballroom.

After department heads introduced new staff and faculty members, President Steve Scott addressed the audience. The county and state face budget and economic problems, Scott said, but it’s a good time to be a Gorilla. The university lost some treasured faculty over the past year — Judy Shaw, Chris Ibeh, John McCormack and Alex Konopelko, who died just last weekend — who truly made a difference on campus. The campus is still mourning their loss, but the students are coming anyway, Scott said.

“We know those students are coming and they expect us to be on top of our game,” Scott said.

The 2011-12 school year was an extraordinary one, and PSU reached a number of capital projects mile markers, Scott said. The first one he mentioned is the $30 million Center for the Arts. In the past year, the university has gone from $12 million to $29 million in pledges and cash on hand. The students did their part, too, voting on a referendum that would provide $7 million for the Center, $14 million for renovations to the Overman Student Center and $3 million for renovations to the Weede Physical Education Building. Overall fundraising brought in about $17.83 million — including about $400,000 in donations from current and retired faculty — the largest amount in university history.

Scott also recognized students Lara Ismert, Sydney Ward, Tyler Edwards and Thomas Gregory for doing the heavy lifting on a referendum to ban smoking on campus, which passed easily. The Pathways to PSU campaign raised $4 million and created 30 new scholarships.

In Topeka, the Legislature approved $750,000 for School of Construction, and $500,000 for a new polymer chemistry program.

“Every dollar is a vote of confidence, a vote of support,” Scott said. “It shows we’re making progress.”

Moving on to athletics, Scott praised the football team for winning the school’s fourth all-time national championship. The women’s basketball team had its best year ever, earning its first Elite Eight appearance, and the men’s team advanced to the championship game of the MIAA postseason tournament. Women’s cross country and men’s outdoor track and field teams both won MIAA championships, and the women’s softball team matched the school record for consecutive victories in a season. Scott also mentioned that two student-athletes earned NCAA Elite 89 honors and three won Capital One Academic All-America honors, which raised the school’s Academic All-American total to 92 honorees over the last quarter century since PSU joined the NCAA — the highest total among NCAA Division II schools.

“No other school has more Academic All-Americans than PSU,” he said.

Scott then highlighted the university’s enrollment figures, which set record in both the fall and spring semesters. Minority enrollment figures are up 90 percent from 2006 to 2011, with African American enrollment up more than 50 percent and Hispanic enrollment up nearly 120 percent. And last year, Scott continued, 126 students studied abroad. This fall, 11 students will be on full-semester study trips.

Another factor contributing to increased enrollment is PSU’s Gorilla Advantage program, which lets students from northeast Oklahoma, southwest Missouri, and recently northwest Arkansas pay the equivalent of in-state tuition to attend PSU. In the fall of 2009, Scott said, PSU had five students from Arkansas, a number that has jumped to 62 this fall.

Turning to academics, Scott said Provost Lynette Olson has been examining the way faculty engages students in classrooms, labs and applied learning contexts. The initiative, called Course Redesign, has six core principals: understand how students learn best, re-evaluate the role of teachers, depth versus surface learning, implementing technology and infusing it with assessment strategies.

“Those are great, I’d say perfect, topics,” Scott said.

Scott also mentioned the successful conversion of the university’s online learning system to Canvas, and the conversion of online faculty and staff e-mail and calendars to the Zimbra program — which required the successful transfer of five million e-mails, or about 2 terabytes of data.

“For us to convert this information is a big deal,” Scott said.

As for social media, such as Facebook and YouTube, Scott said PSU is becoming more visible with each week. He said some 30,000 people visit PSU’s Facebook page every week, up from just 10,000 last year. And over the past year more than 120,000 people have viewed the university’s YouTube channel, which Scott said was an 80 percent increase over last year.

Scott then shifted focus to the university’s efforts to be environmentally friendly. In the spring Scott signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment and the university installed a system that tracks and monitors energy use in all of it’s building

“We’re working hard to be a green campus,” Scott said. “It’s a commitment to reduce our carbon footprint.”

The school is also raising awareness about recycling, Scott said. Over the past four months the university has recycled 12 tons of paper, three tons of cardboard, 435 pounds of plastic and nearly 300 pounds of aluminum.

“The big news is that we’re actually getting money back, now,” Scott said. “We used to pay money for someone to take it.”

In the area of student housing, Scott said the project to expand and renovate dormitories on the north end of campus is complete.

“We’re going to turn our attention to south campus and focus our attention on that,” Scott said of what might turn out to be the most difficult phase of the $22 million project to update and expand student housing.

Looking forward, Scott said the university for an accreditation review from the Higher Learning Commission in March.

“That’s a big step for this university,” Scott said.

Additionally, PSU is moving forward with $60 million in capital projects, including beginning construction on the Center for the Arts, completing the design for the expansion of the Overman Student Center, and completing the Weede renovation and expansion.

“If we get those three things done this year we’ll have had another extraordinary year,” Scott said.

In closing, Scott said the university can’t count on stability from Topeka or Washington, and that faculty and staff would need to band together to make PSU the special place that it is.

“What I do know and understand quite well is that accomplishments and progress over the years, years that were very challenging and difficult, should give us confidence that we can and will elevate ourselves to continue to build a bright future for Pittsburg State...” Scott said. “...If we want a bright future for our students, our university, this community and for ourselves, then we’ll need to work together to envision it, to build a plan for attaining it, and working together to make it happen. It’s really up to us.”