“We are evolving; we are moving forward” stated President Jonathan Gibralter at this year’s convocation. Dr. Gibralter’s speech focused on the positive goals that Frostburg State University is working towards this year.
Dr. Gibralter focused on several points as institutional priorities. One of these is to “improve facilities so that students live and learn in a modern and technologically sophisticated environment.” Another priority is to “increase student quality and improve student persistence to graduate.”
Because 90% of the buildings on the FSU campus were built before 1978, Frostburg is renovating many of the campus buildings to reflect the times. While the newly redesigned Lane University Center opened last year, Tawes Hall will be demolished in January. This will be where the new Center for Communications and Information Technology will begin construction in summer of 2012 and hopefully be fully occupied by January of 2014. “You’ll see some fences go up. It’ll be a mess” Dr. Gibralter joked, but the mess and inevitable rerouting of foot traffic will most definitely be worth it once the new building is completed. In addition to the new CCIT building, FSU has begun work on a Sustainable Energy Research Facility, which would allow the campus to be a major researcher in renewable energy resources.
Other small campus renovations include making the Performing Arts Center more energy efficient by installing LED lights, which produce less heat and are actually brighter than what existed in PAC previously. Simpson Hall is due to be renovated in the Spring and while the start date on the project is still unknown, FSU will be constructing a new 425 bed residence hall.
The university hopes that all of these renovation changes will help to achieve the goal of increased student quality and improve student persistence to graduate. This year, Frostburg accepted a decidedly smaller Freshman class. Dr. Gibralter elaborated on this, saying that with a smaller incoming class size made of “more academically prepared students”, individuals will be able to receive more faculty attention and feel the desire to succeed.
Dr. Gibralter ended his talk by discussing the Frostburg State University community and brand. “We are all ambassadors for Frostburg” and we need to portray that adequately. Despite FSU’s party school reputation, Frostburg State University has never really been placed on any lists of top American party schools. He describes the party school reputation as urban legends, saying that since FSU has not had anything to describe itself as, this false idea has fallen into place. The university hopes to dispel these rumors by creating a brand that reflects its true image. To do this, Frostburg will be following two points. The first is “Identify what is true about ourselves”. Frostburg must reflect the ongoing change, and is currently putting together a team to help develop what is true about Frostburg. Second, everyone must accept that they are an ambassador for Frostburg and that he or she is partly responsible for the university’s reputation.
President Gibralter hopes that if we follow through with these ideas and goals, then five years from now FSU could be a “much stronger, more vibrant university.”
No comments:
Post a Comment