 We actually have our own work to implement. I mean the downside is if they changed a lot I guess we could have said well now. It's your mission statement your Your values and so forth and let me let us know how that works out But you know they they tricked us they accepted it as we gave it to them And then they said be sure to tell us how it's coming So there will be a need for me to do regular reports back to them now. They're they're excited by it, too It's not a negative there at all, but I just mean to say that we can't get away with Announcing a great vision for ourselves and then leaving it somewhere On a shelf not ever to be touched or implemented The vision statement is not was never intended as its own end But but as a means to an end and so it really doesn't mean very much unless we Activity engage and we'll do this together I'm not here to announce a lot of things that I'm gonna order you to do because first of all you would let me know what I could do with that and then And it wouldn't be polite and then it only works if we can do it together We created the vision statement together. We'll do the implementation together But I want to put it in context because this is not a trivial thing and I hope by the end of the afternoon That is to say in 45 minutes or so. I don't mean we're gonna go all the way to six o'clock Because I'd be by myself by then But I by hope by the end of the afternoon that you will agree that this this in fact is quite Consequential so if we do this right if we collectively embrace our own vision I think it's fair to say that we will change not just Roger Williams University and not just Rhode Island We will redefine what it means to have a higher education institution in this country And I and that's a very grandiose statement to make but I'm gonna come back to you and try and demonstrate That that in fact is an accurate statement Today we're rolling this out With the faculty and staff of this university, but next week we are having a press conference at the Roger Williams National Memorial Kind of an appropriate place for us to be With the governor and Mayor Laura's of Providence and what we think is going to be a pretty consequential Rollout, I don't want to surprise you by that if if you think this is the only time it's going to be talked about We're actually going to talk about it in the broader public why it is consequential what we're doing here at Roger Williams to the state of affairs in Rhode Island and Obviously to get the mayor and the governor present We've had to persuade them that it was worth their time So and I again think that you will see once we're done today that yeah, we've got something useful to say to both of those people I thought a lot about how to put this together today and and it's it's a little bit tricky Because there's quite a bit to say and I've got to be able to weave it together in some way that makes some sense So we can look at this from a highly pragmatic standpoint We can say what is it that that we need to do In the most pragmatic way, we could also say yeah But that doesn't sound all out that great. How about if we if we go on beyond that and we talk about What's the right thing to do? What is it? We should be doing as an institution and Even then I think we can go one step past that and say What is the aspirational thing we can do? What's what's the home run? so I'm going to go through these in that order and When we start with a highly pragmatic We can look at it from the standpoint of what's in the best interest of Roger Williams University or What's in the best interest of our students or What's in the best interest of a society at large and the good news is it turns out the answer Same set of answers to all three questions I'm going to try and show you how that's so we in other words We don't have to choose between what's good for us and what's good for our students or what's good for our students And what's good for society? It's all the same thing So if you look at it from the standpoint of Roger Williams, we would say well to be very pragmatic about it We have to make sure that we recruit and retain enough students every year to meet our budgetary requirements You know because without that the rest of it is just a lot of hot air We have to be able to manage the process where we Lure in enough students and expose them to the wonderful things that are going on here to just meet our budgetary needs and In recent years we've learned quite a bit about That process It's changing so at the moment The single most important thing that we know from surveys that students tell us about about why it is they choose a particular campus is The strength of the major and I guess they were told that's the right answer and they tick that box because that doesn't make any sense How do they do that? Have you noticed a lot of people googling you lately and finding out where you got your highest degree People searching out your publications. I mean the fact is that students really have no way of assessing The strength of the major and besides which they're going to change the major as soon as they get here So why are they bothering to do that? Really? I think what they're saying is How did they feel about their initial interaction with the people when they came to open houses or accepted students days? The people that they were talking to most especially the faculty although not just the faculty but most especially the faculty Did they was that a good conversation? Did they feel at ease? Were they were they happy with the nature of the conversation and I really think that and so what it comes down to is I really think this is a way of saying that from a student's perspective Did it feel like a good fit for me? Am I going to be able to work in this environment? Will I be successful? And the quick answer to that question is you people are doing an absolutely outstanding job Outstanding job We were almost at 50% this year with respect to the the number of students or the percentage of students Who came to accept at students days and then enrolled with us in the fall? 50% now these are students in some instances That are going to three and four or even more campuses 50% is a very large slice for us to get I fear for the rest of the campuses because they couldn't possibly have done as well We already took away half the class so The secret then is if we get people to come to an accepted students day Man, are we good or what because we're really going to knock a home a home run with those people? The downside is that we don't get enough of them to come in the first place So I was just looking at numbers from last year. We had about 2,000 students and parents well 2,000 students Family members were additional who came to open houses and we had about 1,400 who came to ASD's and they are not necessarily the same people by the way and so because some people don't Visit the campus until they know the campus has accepted them It's surprising to me I've called students to give them the good news that they would accept it at Roger Williams and then I'll ask them Have you visited the campus? Well, no. Oh Okay, so that explains why you're just rhapsodic with joy that I've told you you've been accepted But they're going to visit the campus Now that they know they've been accepted why fall in love with a place that turns you down. I guess is their theory So, okay, that's fine But you do the math on this and say let's just round and say we get half of all the people at ASD. That's 1,400 divided by two 700 students Except we want 1,100 so where are the other 400 coming from and the answer has been this is like the dark Matter of the universe they just sort of show up in small Stealthy numbers they sneak in and the dead of night and just enough of them to show up that we make our numbers and and but That is a really scary proposition. We don't know who they are We don't know where they've come from they just arrive and and some years they don't So part of our problem has been that there's enough uncertainty in this process and enough uncertainty Based in part on the declining or the changing demographics, especially in the Northeast declining numbers of high school graduates that Dealing with that kind of an environment makes me extremely nervous So in the last four years, we've been well over our target two years and under our target two years And that just creates a lot of budgetary challenges because you know, it's plus or minus five percent Well, that doesn't sound like a lot, but man that that impacts the budget a lot so if we can figure out how to reduce that variation by Locking in students in a little different way. I think we're gonna serve ourselves very nicely. So When we we look at I want to two points first issue is I think we have to accept the idea that we are all Recruiters of students We hear all the time that I walked on to the campus and the first person I met was a groundskeeper And I asked directions and darned if he didn't walk me to where I needed to go man with that it was I impressed I think we hear a lot from Parents and students about what a terrific job the student that was doing the tour guy the tour Did with that student? They sort of fell in love with the person in the and the campus at the same time I mean, it's not just high-level stuff where they need to talk directly to a faculty member The strength of the major they say is important to them But really what they're saying is did I have a really great experience with the people that I met on the campus? And so we all impact the decision-making process of these students and I think if we accept that then then we will be just fine and It's a lot of work And in order to have more students coming to accept its students days and more students coming to open houses You know we probably need to have more of both and and and yet It's a big imposition on people's weekends to do this and I recognize that but it would be folly for me to say Well, let's not work hard on the weekend and then find that we're well short of our target of students In the fall so we're starting open houses really early this year as in Saturday and And that's it's important for us to incorporate today What it is that we're saying about ourselves so that we're all on message even as early as Saturday, so Got to cover some material here this afternoon So if the first thing that students are saying is the most important thing for me is the strength of major Right behind it in number two is a much more Quantitative measure and that's price. How much is it gonna cost me and I suspect that in fact This ends up being even more consequential than people say it is it comes in the form of the size of my scholarship My net price what my parents have to say So we know that this is the world we're living in and in a competitive market where there are more seats than there are Bottoms to put in those seats you know, there are winners and losers in this situation and On the one hand, you know, we've done a terrific job of holding the line on price just to remind you We haven't raised our price for tuition since 2012 the board by the way has accepted the recommendation that we not raise it for the class of 2016 there'll be five years in a row at the same price Unprecedented as far as I know anywhere in the country, especially when it's coupled with a lock-in for the four years that the students are here But that by itself doesn't get it done because what we've learned this year is that the discount rate With our competitors continues to rise. They are the average discount rate a year ago For first-year students in private institutions in this country was 56% They're giving away more than half of what they say they're taking in ours is 44% this year and We are not gonna get into a situation where we try and keep pace because that's an arms race. We'll lose We just don't have deep enough pockets So it's important on the one hand that we're as affordable as we can be But if it's all about who can offer the best price, we don't win that one Even if we wanted among the privates, we wouldn't win it with the publics So the answer then is we have to think in terms of so what's the value? What are they getting for their money? How do we convince parents that the additional cost that we might represent is is worth the price? And that's why we've been working on this Collective statement so that we can say as precisely as as we are able Here's the elevator speech. Here's what it is that we're telling you that represents the value of a Roger Williams education And I'm making that statement For a very specific reason. I don't want to talk about what's going on in a particular classroom I'm not going to try and sell the idea. We have small classes because small classes by itself Well, a lot of people can say they have small classes What's going on in those classes? What's going on outside the classes? What represents the totality of the Roger Williams experience? And if we can do that in a cogent and convincing manner We will have all the students we need and then some so if we if we turn to the issue of I guess I should make one more Statement here. We're starting to see this year the results coming in from certain of the campuses in the northeast that are feeling the impact of The smaller number of the high school graduates so in the last week or so College of st. Rose in Albany has announced that they are somewhere north of six million dollars of deficit Which is causing that's a small campus. That's that's a it's a big number LaSalle down in Philadelphia not LaSalle LaSalle in Philadelphia is laying people off because they've missed their target big time Suni the Suni system is down three and a half percent in the last five years. That's a public Set of campuses and that's just a direct reflection of the fact the high school classes are getting smaller So our challenge then is to get To maintain our numbers we have to have a bigger slice of a smaller pie and and that's and that's where this Where we come to grips with this and the good news is we've got a plan to do that So it's not like oh my god. What are we gonna do? I mean we we were thinking ahead this conversation We had last year is putting us in a very good place as I will get to in just a moment So the best interest of the students How do we how do we discern what that is? It should should that be our focus and how would that take us in a different direction than the best interest of the of the university? Well, what we're finding from national surveys of freshmen because these national surveys have done every year What is your reason for going to college in the first place and a decade ago or two decades ago students would talk about well I I want to learn more about myself. I Want to learn more about the world I live in it's to get a job today it's to get a job and Yeah, I think our reaction as a learning institution is one of just this side of horror. Oh my god We've become transactional We you pay us money. We give you the what you need to get a job and we're done But how in heaven's name does that represent the education that we think we have long been providing? but Parents talk in terms of ROI return on investment. Good Lord We're like buying stock. I mean, I don't understand that kind of thinking but that's where we are That's that's that's what's going on right now, and I don't think we can ignore that I think we have to deal with that as a reality as much as it may offend us So but it doesn't mean we have to give up everything else that we think is valuable in order to accomplish that so When we focus on the interests of our students there was a very interesting survey actually a set of surveys done by the American Association of Colleges and universities over the last several years interviewing People in the in in the C-suite and you know the executives of organizations saying so So how we doing here in higher education and in the end the result was interesting what we heard back from the way say we but collectively We got back was that They think that we do quite a good job with respect to Specific skills. So if they're hiring an engineer, they're hiring an accountant. They're hiring an architect. I Don't mean us personally. I'm saying Of course it will be true for us But just in general across the country you do a pretty good job higher education when you are training professional people but where it breaks down is Inside the marketplace itself because your students don't communicate well and orally or in writing They don't get along particularly well with people who are different from themselves. They they're not great analysts They they've got a very funny attitude regarding Their responsibilities to the to the entity that's hired them, you know But five days a week really by I gotta come five. I oh Okay, and in my first raise is when So what's been happening is the millennials have been losing their jobs They've been they've been being fired because they just didn't have what the marketplace was looking for not in terms of their specific skills But just in terms of their Capacity to work within that environment and so the response from from people has been who are hiring people is we're only gonna hire people with experience Because we need to know that you've actually worked in an environment That's real as opposed to being in the bubble you'll live in for 22 years because we're not the ones that are gonna go ahead and Civilize you somebody else will do that Thank you very much. So that would be us because there's nobody else to do this Well, the good news is that of course we've been focusing a lot of this project-based learning and that's where they learn these skills That's where they learn collaboration. That's where they learn negotiation. That's where they learn deadlines That's that's when they learn the knot. Everybody likes their ideas even though their mother always did, you know And so they're you know, it's it's it's more of the real world So we're doing we're we already are responding very well to what employers say they need by making sure that our graduates actually have Relevant experience within their field before they graduate and our commitment now is to make that universal We want every one of our students to have the opportunity for some type of project-based learning experience It doesn't have to be CPC. There's lots of other things that we do But that's part of where we're going to go We also need to be thinking from the standpoint of working adults We've we've always we started as a campus in Providence with working adults We've always had a role to play there and as you know, we're expanding our footprint in Providence We'll be occupying the new building in April and May of this coming year and and Jamie Scurry and her people have done a great job of Expanding the number of Programs that they have many of which are not degree granting or even credit offering that they're just getting People in place closing the skills gap getting them ready for the world that exists today and this is very much focused on Rhode Islanders getting improved skills and that's One of the reasons why the governor and the mayor Want to be part of the press conference of running because that's music to their ears today the governor announced a Plan to retain more college graduates by offering money for a down payment on a house if they would stay and That only works if there are actual graduates that want to stay in Rhode Island And when we move people out into the broader community and get them more experienced and familiar Even though 85% of our students are from other states some number of them stay and we think That number can grow and we think that's an asset to everybody the students as well as as Rhode Island if we look at the best interests of society and We'll use Rhode Island as just the local society The they want society wants the same thing they want graduates that have experience They they want to know that our students or students in general have met the people and Organizations of Rhode Island because that would strengthen the Rhode Island economy they want to I think Hope to see that students also have more of a Communitarian focus and one of the ancillary benefits from the work that we're doing in the community and it whether it's it's Casey Ferrara or Arnold Robinson or any of the people that are taking students off the campus into the broader community is That students are are understanding that the organizations they work with the people they work with are actually grateful for that That experience that they're grateful to the students and that is That is something the students relish doing a an idealistic student Loves to know that they're making a difference in someone's life and we're giving them that experience and it's it's not about Getting a great job. They they want that too, but it's very much about doing something It's meaningful and useful to them and I think the law school is has done a terrific job of this over the years Because we can point to people who have worked in the pro bono collaborative working on in an immigration clinic Who found that work so satisfying that they set up shop as an immigration lawyer? It's the whole public purpose of our law school the focus that that law school has had for a very long time They are doing what I hope We can do with the undergraduates and create that notion that collectively we can make the world a better place As opposed to I need to grab mine and run Which has been the prevailing view for too long for too many people Who are moving into society and getting that first job? Well It's got to be more than just jobs in the economy. I mean that's we will take that as a given But let's not stop there. So let's think about what's the right thing to do? So I want to make reference to something I've I think I've talked about before I've certainly blogged about it And that's the study that Gallup did a couple of years ago the Gallup organization when they interviewed 30,000 college graduates and they wanted to find out so We've got some ideas about what makes for a wonderful life But we want to find out from you just how that's playing out So we've got some specific ways going to break these questions down and we're going to find out from all these graduates Just how things are going for them and they looked at two things. They looked at engagement in the workplace Are people engaged? I did this to say they are they are they gratified by their working experience? So they feel rewarded by it. Do they feel empowered by it? Are they enjoying themselves? Are they are they? Not engaged. I'm doing it to for the paycheck and and that's okay, but you know It's just a job or are they actively disengaged? I'm trying to sabotage the organization because they've treated me shabbily And so what they found was of all these 30,000 college graduates the percentage that were That said they were engaged Was 39% Less than half of the college graduates are finding what they're doing rewarding Which is kind of awful You go to college in order to improve your lot in life But but somehow they've fallen into a situation where they're they're just chugging along as best they can or are actively working to undercut the organization That's that's not a high number so that's the That's the workplace engagement measure. The other measure is What they call well-being and well-being and The measure here is are you thriving struggling or suffering? And what you'd like to know is that you're thriving I'm great. So well-being refers to five categories Purpose You have a purpose in life often. It's your job, but if you have purpose, that's good Financial do you make enough money so that you know every month isn't a struggle. What about social? Are you are you? Do you have a happy home life? What about community are you embedded in your community in some useful rewarding way whether it's It's church or civic groups and and finally physical health are you are you feeling pretty good? physically well The percentage of these 30,000 college graduates that are thriving in all five categories is 11% Which is not a great number So then the question this is the important part then the question was well Is there any way we can correlate what happened to you at college with which category you fall into? Are there things that? Enhance the likelihood that you are going to be thriving in your life that you'll have a great job and a great life and the answer is oh, yeah six things six things that either did or did not happen while they were in college that Greatly increased by an order of magnitude the likelihood that you're going to have a great job and a great life And and the good news is we do these things We've done them for a long time, but we just aren't doing them as purposely as we need to so I'm going to talk about the percentage of graduates who strongly agreed that they had the following Did you have a professor who cared about me as a person? Answer 27% So three quarters of the college graduates said there never was a time when I felt I had a professor cared about me as a person Well, you know, you can understand how that would be true at a great big university where they have 300 people in the classroom I don't think it's true at a place like Roger Williams. In fact, I know it's not true 27% a Professor who made the student excited about learning they did better here 63% said yeah But still more than a third No No professor ever made me excited about learning. I know we do better than that a Mentor who encouraged the student to pursue his or her dreams a mentor now Mentorship is not something that you can make happen. You create opportunities for mentorship, but you can't say okay. There's your mentor Go ahead start mentoring here You're a mentee you receive mentoring and you're a mentor you give it and just make it all happen It doesn't work that way we create opportunities for people to find mentors and they're not always faculty very often They're their staff sometimes. They're just older students, but these are the things that happen on a can happen on a Campus that is residential and where the classes are small and where there's a great ratio of faculty and staff to students And they become hugely predictive For long-term success that goes beyond just getting a good job having a good and rich life There are three more an internship or job where the student was able to apply what she or he learned in the classroom We take that today as kind of routine 29% had that now these are people that have already graduated So we would assume this is happening more commonly, but we again we have a much higher percentage than that and And and one that was quite interesting active involvement with extracurricular activities and organizations so sports student clubs One of the differences that happens at a place like Roger Williams in comparison where I with where I worked before in public institutions is that We spend literally twice as much of our budget on student affairs as does the typical public because we're residential We need the programming we need The number of people we this the extracurricular part of the education is huge in a residential campus residential private campus and So the number of clubs we have The number of sports teams that we have create opportunities for leadership in these organizations that it turns out Again hugely predictive of a great outcome in life But only 20% of those 30,000 college graduates said they had Active involvement with a student club or organization when they were an undergraduate and Finally a project that took a semester or more to complete. Well, we do that as well 52% of the graduates said they had that But what's interesting is when you put them all together there are six of these things They all push in the same direction. They all create better outcomes in life The number who strongly agreed they had all six 3% 3% now We we do these things now We if we did them in a more purposeful sense We're in the position to say an Independent organization the Gallup organization has told us What can happen at a college that is predictive of long-term success in life? And we are embracing that on our campus. We do it. We have done it. We will continue to do that and It's interesting this program program has been out for two years. This study's been out for two years I know of one other university right now that's saying yeah, we're gonna do that. They've looked at this and said that's interesting Yeah, we're we're doing what we're doing so If we can be more purposeful in what it is that we're doing with our students both in the classroom and outside We're in a position to be able to say to them and they show up here as prospective students on Saturday And I'm gonna do this by the way man. If you come here. Here's what we got for you and that's where I think we begin to separate from the rest of higher education because if we can't differentiate ourselves as an institution From the organizations that the schools that we compete with They will decide where to go based on price and I already told you we can't win that fight so We the more that we differentiate ourselves the more distinctiveness we have the better off we're going to be so we've talked about what we want as a campus what students want as a campus what Society wants from us and now I've just told you What it is that students need they don't know they need it But they will long term and we if we give them more than what they say they want Which is just tell me what I need to get a good job and we tell them no we're gonna do that But in addition to that we're gonna give you what you need to have a great life and what parent doesn't want a great life for their kids So if we look now then to Society What does society need? We know what society wants society says we want employees. We want a stronger economy. What does it need? Society needs leaders society needs volunteers Society needs humanitarians Society means needs Communitarians people that are invested in the community and the better better life for the community. It doesn't just need skilled workers so again The things that work for us for a student as an adult to have a great life are exactly what society needs It goes beyond the idea. It's all about me I'm just gonna get my share and then to hell with everybody else It's about how can we make our society stronger? We've gotten very selfish as a society and these are ways we can turn that around and and appeal to the Idealism of young students who want to be part of making the world a better place We need to engage with them on that and say we're gonna help you do exactly that because we believe that too So we can put Roger Williams on a solid economic foundation We can ensure that students have not only what they want, but also what they need and We can strengthen the economic fabric of this state but We can aspire to more than that We can create what Ernie Boyer called the new American University and we can be very proud of what we do So I think all of you know something about Ernie Boyer just to remind you He was the former Chancellor of the SUNY system He was the former commissioner of education in the US before there was a secretary of education He was the former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the advancement of teaching and in 1994 He wrote a hugely influential paper that nonetheless was ignored People said that's a great paper. I'll go away Because he called for the creation of the new American College and what he meant by that was his strong belief was that American higher education sort of lost its way after World War two that became overly focused on research Because of the National Science Foundation, which was created in 1950 in the expansion of NIH Now he wasn't against research, but he he said the things are I've gotten tilted the wrong way We at the big research universities They don't care about undergraduate education anymore and they should and somebody should and who's gonna step forward to do this And so it was pretty interesting a couple of little tidbits first You know the first colleges here in the United States back in the colonial era were were church related They were educating ministers and people of that particular faith who were going to work in the community And it was Benjamin Franklin that said when he founded the University of Pennsylvania. No, that's not right We're we're gonna engage with the age of enlightenment. We're going to do a different thing. So here's Benjamin Franklin 1740 the purpose of the University of Pennsylvania as consisting in an inclination Join with an ability to serve mankind one's country friends and family Now ignoring for a moment that kind of highfalutin language. What he's saying is a publicly purposed institution and and many many most of the universities that followed for the next 200 years had that same philosophy when Daniel Coyt Gilman gave his inaugural address at the first Research University in this country, which was Johns Hopkins modeled on the German model started as a graduate institution only He said universities Should make for less misery among the poor less ignorance in the schools less bigotry in the temple less suffering in the hospitals less fraud in business less folly in politics Where is Daniel Coyt goodman when we need him? That's what the first president of a major research university said still very much focused on the idea That university is serving a public good So when Ernie Boyer wrote his paper in 1994, here's a couple of quotes from him How can American higher education successfully contribute to national renewal? Is it possible for the work of the academy to relate more effectively to our most pressing social economic and civic problems? No one has taken up that banner Well, I'm gonna qualify that in just a minute, but not many schools have And he went on to say This is a little little close I'm troubled That many now view the campus as a place where professors get tenured and students get credentialed and What I find most disturbing is the growing feeling in this country that higher education is a private benefit not a public good and If ever we've gotten in trouble in higher education, it's because We have been told that and that's the reason for disengagement By state government in public higher education, why should we subsidize what is a private benefit pay for it yourself and Keep us out of it. And finally Boyer quotes a colleague Universities cannot afford to remain shores of affluence self-importance and Horticultural beauty at the edge of island seas of squalor violence and despair man, I had to go and have a Small scotch after I read that line that that's That's really There's one more quote. I'll give you which has nothing to do but I just came across this this great quote because Boyer died a year after he wrote this paper he's been dead for 20 years, but he was prescient because here is He he was talking about the appointment of politicians to lead To to become university presidents Not that that would ever happen if if you appoint political figures to these offices You have more political voices being heard, but they're being heard already You need other voices without the voices with strong academic credentials behind them You can even imagine a time in the future When a politicized university administration and a politicized board of trustees would be hugely impatient with academic freedom Well, the future is now baby if you live in Wisconsin because that's the world we're seeing developing So Boyer Boyer was prescient There is one thing that came out of his talk. There was an organization that was formed the next year That is now called the new American colleges and universities because most of them are universities It's a group of two dozen campuses That are committed to connecting a liberal arts education Professional studies and community engagement. That's their thing Two dozen. It's an invitation only organization We were invited to join this summer And we did so we are now part of that group But the good news is they haven't quite figured it out themselves yet either So it's not like they have all the answers. They have the right set of values, but they're not At any in any means at the end of that equation We are in a position to do it better than anybody has done it today So four years ago next month when I gave my inaugural address I said the following So what I am presenting is not a pipe dream It is achievable We lack only a collective aspirational vision And the collective collective commitment to see that vision realized Well folks, we now have a collective aspirational vision And I think it's time for us to commit to seeing that vision realized. Thank you very much A couple of things are going to happen as you walk out. We have suitable for framing The new vision mission statement And you may look at the light standards that will look different to you now than they did when you walked in I'll just leave that mysterious statement alone, but Facilities have been working well. We've been inside. Thanks again