Opening Day 9.1.2009

Good Afternoon.

Welcome to the 2009-2010 Academic Year at Kean University.

Today, right now, an exciting new chapter in Kean’s rich history is unfolding on campus. Just a few hundred yards away more than 2,000 Kean University students are settling into their new home—about 800 of them into our two brand new residence halls.

And this, Ladies and Gentleman, represents a sea change in life as we know it here at Kean. And that is just the beginning.

When my remarks conclude, you will have the chance to see these beautiful—not fancy—new residence halls for yourselves…but more importantly let me tell you what you will see on the beautiful faces of all of our students: potential, promise and PRIDE.

You don’t believe me??? Well take look for yourself.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Our future depends on full-time freshman. The new transfer law, online education and fly –by-night operations require that we focus on providing our students with the ENTIRE college experience. It is in the best interest of all of us to recognize this fact.

Our students know the history of Kean. They know how good we were. Now, they know how GREAT we have become. Ask our students, our alumni, our friends and the community at large, and you will see how dramatically our reputation has been enhanced. Most of us will not do anything to harm this reputation. Instead, we have devoted our professional lives to further enhance this reputation and move Kean forward to the next phase. Like most of us here, our students are proud of who they are, they are proud of the work they do, and they are proud to say they belong to the New Kean University Community.

And, quite frankly, I am PROUD to have them. I want to promise them, and all of you, that we will not go backwards.

As Yogi Berra might say: looking backwards, you can’t see what’s in front you… and that ain’t good.

Even with the challenges we face, Kean stands well positioned to remain true to its mission and continue on its march toward becoming a world-class university. And I ask all of you to help us get there. This train is moving forward fast, but there is still room to get on board. And I assure you, I will devote this five-year term as President to keep the train on track and moving in the right direction.

The new Kean community is supported by many of the men and women here today who give their time, talent and resources to make sure our students have an opportunity to pursue the American dream. Please join me in welcoming them:

From our Board of Trustees: Chairman Gene Enlow, Vice Chair Ada Morell, Secretary Michael D’Agostino, Trustee Donald Soriero, Past Chair Robert Cockren, Trustee Helyn Payne Baltimore, Trustee Joseph Wilf.

From our Foundation Board Chair Maria Bordas, Mr. Christian Baker, Alumni President Ed Esposito, Alumni Board Members David Kirpan and Jane Bodzioch.

Holocaust Foundation Chair Klara Kramer, and President Irwin Fish.

Thank you very much, all of you. Kean is proud to have you as friends.

I want also to recognize Dr. Barbara Lee the chair of the faculty Senate separately, because she has taken the task of leading our reaccreditation effort. Middle States Accreditation is the single most important academic effort we engage in. The entire campus community’s full cooperation is needed to get this job done. We have accomplished a great deal in the last decade and we have a lot to be proud of. Now, we need to make sure the Middle States team knows all about it.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, we gather here today as the Kean community – a wonderfully rich and diverse community filled with great promise and great pride.

We are focused on one common goal: creating the leaders of tomorrow.

John Quincy Adams once said:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Ladies and Gentleman, the leaders of the new Kean are inspiring our students to dream more, to learn more, to do more and to become more. Let me tell you about a few them ….

First, let me introduce to you our newly-tenured faculty. They are here in these front rows because these new faculty members—these new leaders—are on the front-line of building the new Kean. Please stand up and be recognized for this great accomplishment.

Then we have Dr. Eric Boehm, Professors Brian Teasdale, Daniela Shebitz and Sylvio Codella. They are leaders.

Just last week, the National Science Foundation approved a $300,000 grant developed by this team that will help us acquire instrumentation for a molecular ecology and biosystematics laboratory here at Kean University.

This grant is just one of the more $1.5 million in research grants Kean University faculty have secured from the prestigious National Science Foundation. Something we could not even imagine five years ago.

Our Supercomputer, funded in large part by the NSF, is now operational and engaged in world-class research thanks to Kenneth Estabrook Professor David Joiner and Dr. George Chang. Take a look at our new magazine on the way out—you’re going to be amazed by what these guys are doing.

Dr. Pat Morreale followed up this year with a $585,000 grant from the NSF for scholarships for students using the supercomputer to analyze—among other things—environmental data that can do things like help predict fallout from a chemical disasters or flash flood.

And let me tell you one more thing about the Supercomputer here at Kean that is unique:

We are one of the only universities in the country allowing undergraduate students to use a supercomputer to do research. That’s visionary…that’s leadership.

This work in science and research is only one part of the University’s overall leadership in this area. Dean Jeffrey Toney and his colleagues in the College of Natural and Applied Health Sciences are moving our programs to the next level.

This year, the college received approval for two new schools: the School of Environmental and Life Sciences, and the School of Nursing. The college also received approval of a cutting-edge, new undergraduate degree in Sustainability Science. This program will position our students to best compete in a new economy focused on clean energy and natural resources. I want to welcome two new members to this school Dr. William Eaton and Dr. Nicholas Smith-Sebasto.

Dr. Toney also received two key grants, including a $60,000 from Merck and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a $500,000 NSF grant for participation in a multi-campus project to train more science, technology and mathematics teachers. Thank you Jeff.

In our English department, Professor Linda Best and her team welcome students this fall into the new Master of Arts in English/Writing Studies program.

Prof. Mia Zamora, also in the English Department, launches her federally funded grant initiative this fall, entitled “The Big Read.”

Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts this is Kean’s own version of Oprah’s Book Club, right Mia?

History, our most prolific department, published more than 40 books, book chapters and articles in the past year. Based on the completely unbiased opinion of Vice President Mark Lender, himself a historian, and verified by their leader Sue Groenwald, our History Department, continues to outpace its competition in innovation, publication and student services. They are under contract currently to produce more than 40 this year. Many of them now call Liberty Hall their second home, a national treasure that no other university in the Country can match.

And when they are not publishing, they are leading. Dr. Groenwald and Prof. Jonathan Mercantini braved the crowds and the cold weather to take our history students on an eye-opening journey to President Obama’s Inauguration, while Professor Brian Regal traveled to London to make a major presentation at Cambridge University in recognition of Darwin’s 200th anniversary.

Professor Frank Argote-Freyre, is working on his second volume on the dictator Batista, while Dr. Dennis Klein continues to bring world-class speakers on Jewish studies and Holocaust issues.

In our Communications department, Professor Patricia Lauro took over the faculty leadership role of our student-run newspaper The Tower. This year, The Tower captured a series of awards from the New Jersey College Press Association—a first in The Tower’s history!

And University Distinguished Professor Dr. Eric Hayat continues to lead in his field of cancer research. He recently signed a contract to edit a new five-volume series on the topic —you know he’s already edited more than a dozen volumes on the topic, right?

In education, we continue to improve and refine the skills of the thousands upon thousands of teachers we graduate. We still are the largest producer of teachers in New Jersey and then some.

Dean Susan Polirstok developed a unique partnership with the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and the State Department of Education to train a new generation of physics teachers in response to shortages in New Jersey and the entire region.

The College of Education continued to improve its pass rate on the Praxis Licensing Examination for the last academic year and, let me tell you something: not 90, not 95 but 100% of Kean students now pass the exam.

Three of our students who graduated this past May received a Distinguished Student Teaching Award from the State of New Jersey. Only 15 awards were handed out statewide.

Maria Rodriguez, a student in our nationally-acclaimed speech pathology program, spent the summer doing on research team at the University of Maryland in their famous Language Development Lab. Maria worked on studies on infants and their speech perception in the context of external noise. Maria, we look forward to the groundbreaking research work that I know is in your future.

The new School of Global and Innovative Education also begins to take shape. Its leader Dr. Michael Searson, tells me that the school will focus on global education and build on the 21st century pedagogy. Its Center for Innovative Education, last year, trained 3,699 educators across the state.

Already, this new School is finalizing plans to co-host this fall its first major global initiative—the "Xi Yu Conference on 21st Century Learning" in Hanghou, China.

In our College of Visual and Performing Arts, the University this year finalized a unique Academy Program Agreement with Union County Vo-Tech that will bring about 60 of the county’s finest performing arts students each year to Kean for their final year of high school and their first year of college combined.

Thank you, Dean Holly Logue and our good friend Dr. Thomas Bistocchi at Union County Vo-Tech, for this great example of community-based leadership.

Our design faculty, who are busy now organizing the new Robert Busch School of Design, continue working with students on projects that win awards from the Art Directors Club of NJ and the international Spark Design Awards Competition. And when they are not working with students, they are publishing….

Alan Robbins, Jan Estabrook Rogers professor of Visual and Performing Arts, this year published his 20th book, a mystery set in 1671 London entitled Following the Blood Trail.

Linda O’Shea co-authored a textbook entitled Design and Security in the Built Environment.

Professor Rose Gonnella completed her text, Comp It Up: A Studio Skills Foundation.

Steven Brower, director of the Design Studio, was on a publicity tour for the release of his novel, Satchmo, and I am told he is busy completing a book called---now get this--- Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants: the Art of the Paperback.

Steven…. I don’t even know what that means?

Our College of Business and Public Administration welcomes a new leader in the Accounting Department, Dr. Joseph Szendi. Welcome aboard sir. And one of our marketing students, Puja Shah, is certainly on her way to becoming a great leader.

Puja, a rising senior in our Marketing program and the Senior Class President this year, did an internship this summer with at World Information Transfer, a consultative branch of the United Nations that promotes health and environmental literacy. As part of the internship, she published articles in the Ecology Enquirer about environmental issues and poverty in India. Puja, you make us proud!

Now, let’s take a minute to talk about our Graduate College under the leadership of Dr. Kristie Reilly. This past year saw our graduate programs, faculty and staff make the big move to our beautiful, elegant East Campus facility—a move that has made the Nathan Weiss Graduate College a destination.

Our first cohort of doctoral students in the school psychology program begin their studies at Kean this Fall. Let’s give Dr. Frank Gardner and our new students a warm welcome.

Our Global MBA program is outpacing its competition. It is one of only 20 programs worldwide recently approved for EPAS accreditation review. If we receive EPAS approval---and we better Reilly--we will have the first program in the entire United States with European accreditation.

Dr. Laura Lorentzen sent the first graduates of the New Jersey Center for Science, Technology and Mathmatics into the marketplace this year to companies such as Life Cell and Johnson & Johnson, and to key teaching positions at prestigious schools throughout New Jersey. We now have 122 matriculated students in this very selective program…..and these Kean students are going to change the future.

Take Junior Scott LaFontaine, for example. This summer, Scott earned a research position in the prestigious summer program for undergrads at North Carolina State University. Now, he’s in the process of publishing his research. This is in addition to Scott, an amazing soccer player, being named 1st team in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and earning Kean’s Scholar Athlete award in the spring with the highest GPA. Scott….Do you ever sleep!

Ladies and Gentlemen: This year, we welcome one of the largest freshman classes in our history—a class whose love for the University already is strong and whose overall academic profile is the best in our history. I thank the entire staff of student services, OCIS, financial services who worked tirelessly this summer to prepare for a 70 percent increase in residential students and a record increase in enrollment. The planning, facilities and the campus police personnel did an amazing job getting things ready.

We must recognize the efforts of Enrollment Services, the undergraduate Admissions staff made 333 high school visits and graduate and undergraduate admissions processed over 12,000 applications from graduate, undergraduate and special categories this past year.

And, our tireless team at CAS recently registered 505 students in one evening. And I am told that even Amy Castillo was speechless. Wow!

Most of our professional staff take pride in their work, they are proud of what they do and they are proud to be part of the new Kean.

Dean Robert Cirasa tells me that our initiatives at Kean Ocean are proceeding with great success. As of this morning, we have 1,124 students registered for Kean Ocean courses. This headcount represents a 15% increase over our Spring semester. From about 50 to over eleven hundred students in just four years, good job Robert.

When you look at our very productive teacher scholars, our dedicated staff, our proud alumni, the generosity of friends, the world-class academic, athletics, residential and performing arts facilities and this pleasing and beautiful campus environment, it should confirm for you, as it does for me, that we are on the right path, headed in the right direction.

Let me tell you right here and right now that we have almost reached our $30 million launch goal of the capital campaign. Everyone of you here today who contributed a $100 or $1,000 or $1,000,000 to our fundraising efforts deserves our gratitude. I thank especially Vice President Nelson, Chairwoman Bordas and the entire foundation board.

Our alumni and friends are prouder of Kean than ever before, and it shows.

Maxine Lane, a Kean graduate, and her husband Jack this year made the largest donation in Kean’s history--$6.2 million. Thank you Connie Alexis-Leona for your hard work. Well done.

In total, the Kean Foundation raised $9.2 million in the past year—donations that are supporting a record number of scholarships this year making the American dream come true for our students and their families.

And while I’m on the topic of fundraising, let me thank those of you—who attended this year’s very special Gala on Ellis Island. Of 800 attendees, over 300 were members of the Kean community—Josh Palgi and Rich Bakker missed the last boat but Marcel just made it and watched Tom Walsh do the Cha Cha. It was a lot fun.

Your support made that evening on Ellis Island one of the most memorable and proud moments in our history. Those funds will help support the new Human Rights Institute and programs that we hope will some day save lives.

The Human Rights Institute moves into its new home this November—I want all of you to be a part of the special opening ceremony!

This leads me to tell you a little more about our campus facilities…

Ladies and gentlemen, we continue to build world-class facilities for our faculty, students and staff because it is the right thing to do. We did not postpone projects or slow down because we are pursuing a sound, reasonable development strategy. Our new residence halls are open today and 95% full.

We will open the world-class Enlow Recital Hall on October 2nd with a spectacular performance by Michael Feinstein.

Our Human Rights Institute will open in November, expanding our nationally acclaimed Holocaust resource Center and adding 3000 square feet of study space in the Library. And the spectacular New Jersey Center for Science, Technology and Mathematics just across the street will open next summer.

We have already completed major renovations in Hutchinson Hall. You may not believe it, but Hutch is becoming a very good-looking place. We have completed the face-lift of this very theatre—did you see the lobby?—and we will finish the renovation of the University Center in November.

We also look to new legislation recently approved by the Governor to help us begin development this year of our new Design Center on the Green Lane corner, which will house a Barnes & Noble superstore.

Work also continues on our world-class athletics facilities—and with good reason. Our student athletes are outperforming the competition at every turn….and don’t forget, these students do it for one reason only: the love of the game.

This past year our Baseball team, under the leadership of Coach Neil Ioviero, captured the NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Region championship for the third straight year, and advanced to the NCAA World Series. That’s three years in a row now and national champion in 2007!

Our women’s field hockey team won the ECAC Mid-Atlantic Championship for the first time in program history.

And our football team….yes, Coach Garrett I’m talking to you….our football team posted its third straight winning season last year. Now listen coach, I ate with your boys on Friday in the new Cafeteria and I saw the amount of nourishment they took. So you know what you have to do: BREAK THAT RECORD THIS YEAR.

And how about our Women’s Basketball Team…..do you know that during the regular season last year they were ranked #1??? Coach Sharp, ladies…let’s see you get to #1 again this year, okay?

Our soccer coaches tell me that we have recruited our best players in years—I’m looking forward to seeing all of you play! And our new volleyball coach promises to pack them into Harwood Arena.

And one more thing about ALL of our athletics teams…soccer, baseball, volleyball, basketball….all of them….since October 2007, our athletics department and our players have raised over $10,000 for breast cancer awareness through the Kean Blue Goes Pink intiative. Now that’s a different kind of leadership we should all be proud of.

Whether it is in athletics, academics or performing arts, we are investing in these facilities for you…

• because you deserve the very best
• because your work deserves the very best, and
• because our students deserve the very best.

And one more reason:

I know that you are worth it.

So, we feel pretty good today about all we’ve accomplished, don’t we? Well, I want to tell you a secret:

We are just warming up.

This year, despite the state and the nation’s desperate economic conditions, Kean remained true to its mission and committed to the needs of its students. I am proud to report today that 17 new full-time faculty members join Kean University this fall. I ask them to stand up now so we can give them a Kean welcome.

We also are poised to pursue this year a number of initiatives that will further define what it means to be a part of the new Kean community.

First, we will continue our very popular campus lecture series this fall, Issues 09. This year, we welcome international and local experts in a wide range of fields, including: Andrew Revkin, the award winning environmental writer at The New York Times; Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and expert on issues of hatred and racism; Naomi Shihab Nye, award-winning poet and author who specializes in multiculturalism; as well as state political experts who will discuss New Jersey’s Governor’s Race.

Next, let’s talk about BLUE GOES GREEN.

One year ago, we launched our BLUE GOES GREEN Initiative—a campus wide effort to improve our environment by doing such things as eliminating Styrofoam, planting more trees and reducing copying.

Just a few months later, we won the Governor’s Excellence Award for having some of the state’s most environmentally-sound development.

Well, beginning today, we move to another phase of our efforts: we will focus this year on reducing the amount of food waste that we produce by instituting a campus-wide composting program.

Our program will allow us to turn food waste into rich, organic compost that we can use to help fertilize the soil throughout our campus. And much more….

It will reduce our carbon emissions by having fewer garbage trucks on campus.

It will save us money by turning what was once waste into fertilizer and mulch.

And, --- this one is my favorite—the organic compost will produce the best looking grass and flowers that any of us have ever seen!

Students…you can play on the grass, but don’t you dare to walk on it!

As we begin a new year, we also know it is also time for bold NEW action regarding the environment. Global warming emissions threaten all of us, our students and our community. We know there are challenges associated with efforts to combat global, but we must be part of the solutions.

So today, we are officially becoming Signatories of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. With my signature here today, Kean University formally and officially promises to decrease its carbon footprint. Now let me tell you something: We WILL decrease our carbon footprint.

Today, two members of the university task force for climate control will be my official witnesses. Will Drs. Paul Croft and Daniela Shebitz please join me?

The challenge is before every one of us now—let’s make our students proud!

There is another area that we need to distinguish ourselves in the coming year, and that is service. Our current generation of students displays a commitment to service that we have not seen for quite some time. Let me tell you a little story.

Earlier this year, Professor Norma Bowe did what she does best: she engaged her students in a public service project that taught far more lessons than you will ever learn from a text book.

Professor Bowe took her students to a homeless shelter for teenage women in East Orange where they volunteered their time cleaning, painting and essentially rehabilitating this shelter. They actually transformed this house into a place where young women could live.

Norma Bowe is a shining example of how our students and our faculty can work together to make a difference in the larger community we serve. She is here today with a young woman from the Isaiah House, Brittany Bowen, who was so impressed by the work our students did that she is now a full-time freshman here at Kean.

Norma, you are an example of the best in us…. I want you to come up here with me for a minute and to say hello to some of your friends from Isaiah House in East Orange.

Norma, your friends from Isaiah House, the students who worked with you on the this project, and all of the Kean community here today want to present you with this, our first ever Kean University Community Service Award, as well as this $5,000 check from a Kean Foundation donor to recognize and support your community service efforts. We also have a $1,000 check here for the Isaiah House, so the director can make sure to keep up the progress you and our students made there.

Thank you so much Norma and to all of our students! Keep up the good work!!!

Now Norma’s work is not a one-shot deal. This year, in the spirit of legislation signed by President Obama establishing September 11 as a National Day of Service, it is with great pride that I announce the creation of the Kean Service Corps.

Kean Service Corps is hundreds of students, faculty and staff who have signed up already to participate in various community service initiatives on 9/11 and throughout the year.

Vice-President Janice Murray-Laury, has reorganized the Office of Student Life into the Center for Leadership and Service and her team will take the lead on coordinating this effort. I hope everyone at Kean participates.

And let me show you one more thing that is going to set Kean University apart from all the competition … right here, right now. With leadership from Scott Snowden in Student Life and Mohammed Rahman in Computer Services, our students will soon have access to the first University-designed “mobile apps” program in the state of New Jersey.

This is what our students and faculty will be able to download to their iPhone, Blackberry or whatever phone they use to find their class, read about a course, check their schedule or get the time for the football game.

How cool is that?? Now that is leadership ….again.

We also will continue our drive this year to support faculty research through release time, UFREE, students partnering with faculty and the quality first initiatives. We also will begin the new Presidential Scholars program this year, a $250,000 initiative that will support the research initiatives of our best and brightest faculty.

Now, I’ve saved the best for last.

You all know how much I love this town, right?

I mean, I think Bon Jovi wrote that song just for me and for Kean. Well, I think it’s time that Kean University truly becomes a University town….so I’m going to tell you a little bit about something we’re calling University Boulevard.

With help and leadership from our good friend Mayor Chris Bollwage of Elizabeth, we are developing plans that will truly transform the stretch of Morris Avenue from here at Kean to the Elizabeth Train Station.

We’re talking eateries, boutiques, salons, coffee shops, arts and crafts, and….get this….faculty housing and graduate student housing. In the next three to five years, we will transform this stretch of Morris Avenue into a University Boulevard…I know our partner Mayor Bollwage and I know how determined he is. When he was trying to build the Jersey Gardens Mall, some said it could not be done, it would be too difficult. Chris responded by saying “if it was easy, it wouldn’t be a challenge!”

Once we realize this new dream, I bet everyone will be even more proud of the New Kean. In fact, I bet I’ll catch you singing “I Love This Town.” You wait and see.

Ladies and Gentleman: The future may be beyond our control, but not beyond our vision.

For most of us, it is a privilege, more now than ever before, to work here. For me personally, it is an honor to serve as president of Kean University. I am grateful and I thank you for your confidence and your support.

Let’s have a great year!

Thank You!