August 20, 2002

Convocation 2002

Gocial Goes Global

News from Ocala

News from Sarasota

Did You Know?

Administration Feature

Kampus Kudos

St. Louis Calendar Highlight

Employees of the Month

New Employees

Convocation 2002

A WHIRLWIND OF GROWTH AND CHANGE

FROM MARIANNE KIRK, INSIDE WEBSTER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This year’s presidential convocation at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, August 15, began on a somber note as President Meyers called for a moment of silence in tribute to John Hilgert, assistant professor, Art Department, who passed away July 28. Dr. Meyers announced that the University and American flags in front of Webster Hall will be flown at half staff for one week in John’s memory.

Addressing the faculty and staff, the president said the University has been riding the crest of a wave for the past few years, setting enrollment records, fund-raising records and setting a standard for an international university second to none. He added he is hoping this year will be "the University’s third straight record setting year in a row."

President Meyers mentioned the many construction projects taking place on the campus over the summer. He cited completion of the Loretto-Hilton Center expansion, the widening of Garden Avenue to provide a turning lane, and the completion of the chiller plant which will provide cooling of the Loretto-Hilton Center and new library. The Bookstore, Evening Student Enrollment Office and Career Center have moved into the Garden Park Plaza and are now open for business. Several administrative offices have moved to Loretto Hall and more will be moving over the next year, resulting in the addition of nine new classrooms located in Webster Hall.

The following new members of the Board of Trustees were announced: Donald Suggs, president and publisher of the St. Louis American; Major General Fred Rees, Vice Chief, National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Virginia; Donna Vandiver, president and CEO of The Vandiver Group; and Terry Egger, president and publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Ed Glotzbach, Executive Vice President and CIO at SBC Communications, is the board’s new president

President Meyers characterized the end of the first year of the University’s operation of the Community Music School as "…a smashing success. Whereas the Symphony had projected a $685,000 loss for this year of operation, the University broke even in its operation."

After a four-year wait for a decision on the Old Post Office, the Missouri Development Finance Board gave preliminary approval to the tax credits that will make it possible for part of the finance package to be put together by the developers. Dr. Meyers said, "This doesn’t guarantee the project will still be built, but it goes a long way to say that the chances of it being built are high because the State has made an investment in this project."

This year will mark the end of the New Tradition campaign. Dr. Meyers said "…it now appears that we will come close, if not exceed, $45 million in this campaign, which as you know, had a $30 million goal." Dean Benjamin Akande was commended for a $500,000 pledge from the Energizer Corporation for the corporate leadership program in the School of Business and Technology. Dr. Meyers emphasized that Ted Hoef, Tammy Gocial, Jeff Jones and Carolyn Corley were also involved in the collaborative effort to obtain this major gift

As this campaign winds down, a new campaign is being developed to provide the necessary money for an academic building, expansion of the University Center and for a necessary endowment. The new campaign will start its silent phase on January 1, 2003. Dr. Meyers stressed that the University needs to focus on how to remain on course and continue growth in a troubled economy. He said, "This is not business as usual. This is a time of danger and opportunity, and I feel that we’re up to the challenge."

Dr. Meyers announced there will be a convocation, in late October, to honor Fred Korematsu, the person most responsible for challenging the United States government and eventually winning a lawsuit regarding the relocation of Japanese Americans to camps during World War II. Mr. Korematsu will receive an honorary doctorate, make a presentation, and be available for class visitations the following day.

Those attending the convocation were encouraged by Dr. Meyers to show their "Webster Pride" by wearing University lapel pins which will be distributed by deans, department chairs and supervisors.

As the group was dismissed, President Meyers encouraged everyone to go over to the new library construction site and sign one of the steel columns in place on the Edgar Road side of the building. He said, perhaps "…a thousand years from now, when the building is torn down to put in a new library, we will be thought of by others…as visionaries and incredible educators." His final comment, "Don’t fail to sign the column. This may be our best chance for immortality," received chuckles from the audience.

Instead of the large luncheon that usually follows the convocation, this year a progressive-style lunch was served at various locations on campus, to allow the faculty and staff to see and tour the newly opened facilities. International theme food stations were located at the Loretto-Hilton Center lobby and the new Green Room, outside the Book Store in the Garden Park Plaza, and at the Alumni House.

To read President Meyers' entire speech on line click here.

Gocial Goes Global

Tammy Gocial, associate dean, Student Affairs, departed St. Louis, on August 12, for a five-month tour of the European and Thai campuses. While abroad Tammy will conduct the most extensive review ever of undergraduate student life outside the United States. She will examine existing programs’ potential and develop recommendations to enhance the undergraduate experience abroad.

Spurred by the demand for American degrees, undergraduate enrollments abroad have mushroomed in recent years, in some cases outpacing graduate enrollments. To improve services for this growing body of students, the University wants to learn more about their expectations and explore ways to meet them. "My job is to go over there and start to talk with students, find out what their expectations are, and what they would like to see happen," says Tammy.

In addition, Tammy says Webster will assess the needs of "a lean staff that has a multitude of student affairs–type responsibilities" and start to formulate guidelines to help the staff respond to common issues and problems. Issues such as plagiarism or sexual misconduct, for example, require more than an ad hoc response. While these guidelines will apply systemwide and give the University a strategic advantage, they will also recognize each campus’s unique character and allow flexibility from campus to campus.

Deborah Dey, vice president, Students and Enrollment Management, explains that Tammy faces a difficult and delicate challenge as she seeks to balance the needs of students and staff. We need to develop "an appropriate student life model, taking into account such things as cultural differences and the mission of Webster. The intent is to find ways to boost retention and overall student satisfaction," she says.

Tammy will spend the first part of her trip in Geneva and then travel to Leiden, London, and finally Thailand.
Geneva and Leiden both face serious challenges in the areas of housing and residential life, one of the areas that Tammy oversees in St. Louis. The pressure to secure good housing for students, who come and go throughout the year, never lets up. Tammy will look for ways to streamline housing and enhance the living environment.

In addition, Tammy says she will determine whether it is appropriate to develop programs that help students with critical thinking skills, values clarification and leadership development. These are "some of the learning outcomes that we think are important to student life in St. Louis," she says, pointing out that they are central to the University’s general education requirements. In addition she will assess ways to develop "knowledge, skills, and abilities" (what Tammy calls "KSAs") that students can "sell in the world when they graduate."

"We do some of that with student employment," she says. "How to collaborate with others; how to have a civil disagreement with a coworker; how to do conflict management; how to deal with customer service, whether it’s on the phone or in person; how to work with people who are from different parts of the world or who have very different values. Student employment is a key way that we do that, and I think that leadership development is the other way."

Developing well-rounded students through individualized attention has always been central to Webster’s mission. Tammy says, "We try to provide good direction to the international staff from St. Louis, but because we’ve never been there, we don’t have any sense of what the real pitfalls are, or what the drawbacks are, or what the landscape looks like to be able to advise them very well." This trip will give the international student affairs staff an opportunity to present itself and for the St. Louis campus to gain firsthand experience abroad.

In Tammy’s absence Colette Cummings, associate dean of students and director, Multicultural Center, will assume responsibility for housing and residential life. Kim Martino-Sexton, has been hired on a part-time basis to manage student leadership development and judicial affairs.

News from Ocala

The Ocala Metro Campus has been participating in the Citrus/Levy/Marion (CLM) counties Great Places to Work Project. Other organizations involved in the project include: Central Florida Community College (CFCC), the Economic Development Council (EDC), the Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Marion County and CLM Works (the workforce development board). Fifty-five companies and organizations are participating in the yearlong project, which will use employee surveys to determine the top employers in the area. Employees assess their companies taking into account credibility, respect, fairness, pride, camaraderie and family friendliness. The Great Places to Work Institute, a California firm that performs a similar analysis for Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Places to Work in the U.S., is providing project assistance.

Some of Webster’s adjunct faculty members have conducted workshops, in cooperation with CFCC, to assist companies in being successful. The EDC will present the awards at its annual luncheon in September.

News from Sarasota Metro Campus

FROM DEBRA KILPATRICK, COMMUNITY RELATIONS COORDINATOR

The Sarasota Metro Campus hosted "Java Connections," the chamber of commerce’s monthly networking breakfast, on Wednesday, August 7.

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Did You Know?

Women Graduate in Record Proportions

The proportion of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women in the United States has reached a post-war high this year at an estimated 57 percent. Among Hispanics, the gender gap is even greater: Only 40 percent of Hispanic graduates are male. In the African-American population, two women earn bachelor's degrees for every man.

About 22 percent of college presidents are now women, according to a survey of more than 2,000 colleges by the American Council on Education. That was more than double the 9.5 percent proportion in 1986 and quadruple the 5 percent in 1975.

Information about Webster’s degree recipients by gender was not available when Inside Webster went to press. Instead, we present figures for enrolled students, which have some relationship to degree recipients. In Fall 2001, among African-American undergraduates, 76 percent were female, 24 percent male, among graduate students, 67 percent were female, 33 percent were male; among Hispanic undergraduates, 60 percent were female, 40 percent were male, among graduate students, 47 percent were female, 53 percent were male; among white undergraduates, 61 percent were female, 39 percent were male, among graduate students, 50 percent were female, 50 percent were male.

Among Webster’s top administrators, 33 percent were female.

Sources:
New York Times, 7/4/02, Washington Post, 6/24/02