From the President
Celebrating the Past and Embracing the Future—Seven Years Later
President Martin bids farewell to the EMU community W
hen I was inaugurated seven years ago on July 7,
2008, the theme for my inaugural speech was “Celebrate the Past and Embrace the Future.” I’d like to do a little bit of both in this, my final column as President.
First and foremost, I want to thank all of you for everything we did together to lift up this great historic public university to make it successful, to make it shine.
I have a new best friend at home, a golden retriever puppy named Teddy. He joins our growing family. When I was inaugurated, I had one grandson. We now have four grandchildren, and a puppy along with my three children. Life is good for my beloved husband Larry and me. I went to my Welch Hall office to fetch my bike on the evening of July 5 as July 7 was my last day. I rode it home to University House spinning around the campus as fireworks were popping and lightning bugs were glowing up from the grass. It was a lovely denouement moment. I had tears of joy at all we accomplished together and in wonder of how we got it done. It was our love of Eastern that pulled us forward.
Our overall average GPA for incoming freshmen in 2010 was 3.05; it is now 3.27. The ACT average was 21.1 in 2011 and increased to 22.25 for the entering fall 2014 freshman class.
We have invested in, improved and expanded academic advising. An example is the Francine Parker Advising Center in the Student Center. We also have added more advising centers throughout the campus and enabled students to go online and advise themselves.
President Martin with her husband Larry and puppy Teddy.
Exciting new academic programs have been launched, such as the Physician Assistant Program. Even with a tight fiscal
situation, we invested in the renovation of the historic Rackham building in the center of campus, retaining its art deco style while bringing it into the 21st century with lab technology to accommodate the growth of our health and human services programs.
When I first started, we had a goal of 1,900 freshmen and a stretch goal of 2,100 freshmen. Now, we are looking at a 2,800 stretch goal for freshmen for Fall 2015, reflecting our success in achieving record enrollment in a hypercompetitive market with declining numbers of high school graduates. The Honors College has doubled in size since 2011—growth that has necessitated finding a new home for the Honors College. The Board of Regents has approved the acquisition of the Holy Trinity Chapel, which is contiguous to campus, to house both The Honors College and our performing arts program. It is right behind Pease Auditorium and in wonderful condition.
4 Eastern | SUMMER 2015
Instead of building our own simulation laboratory space, we partnered with St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor to lease space in its excellent facilities for the Physician Assistant Program and other health programs.
Rackham is but one example of our successful renovation and rebuilding of key facilities. We have fixed up quite a number of buildings in the last seven years.
The $90 million Science Complex is another excellent example. The renovation of Pray-Harrold is another. We moved everybody out at one time to complete the construction, rather than do it in parts, which would have taken longer and cost more. We called this “swing space”— we used the cost savings to purchase the furnishings. Swing space was challenging but fun and is a great example of campus collaboration.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40