SU STUDENTS:

 Salisbury University’s national prominence is not only academic, it can be seen on the athletic fields as well. As a Division III school, no athletic scholarships are offered to any of our student-athletes. Still, SU placed 12^th among 430 schools in the final 2004 NCAA Division III Directors’ Cup rankings for intercollegiate athletics, our highest finish ever, and currently we are ranked 6^th for this academic year. We celebrated two national championships in 2004, in men’s lacrosse and women’s field hockey. Further, SU's men's rugby team won the national club championship in play held at Stanford University. This success is further heightened by the fact that SU had the highest total number of student-athletes named to the 2004 All-Capital Athletic Conference Academic Honors Team.

Individual student awards and achievements in research and community service last year are too numerous to mention here, but let me highlight the national recognition garnered by our Relay for Life event. For the second year in a row, ours was the number one college Relay in the nation based on contributions raised per campus population, contributing some $42,000 to benefit the American Cancer Society.

I am very proud of the students we attract to Salisbury University. Eighty-five percent of our students are from Maryland and more than half of these students come from the Western Shore.

Admission is highly competitive – we receive about 5000-5500 applications for a freshmen class of around 975. Salisbury University continues to enjoy the highest 4-, 5- and 6-year graduation rate in the USM.

FACULTY:

Two SU professors last year received the highest honor given to faculty by the University System of Maryland – the Regents’ Faculty Award for Excellence. Dr. Augustine DiGiovanna, who has taught biology at the University for over 30 years, was honored for his teaching excellence.

Dr. Liddell Madden of the social work faculty shares her honor with Dr. Jan Bishop from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, being recognized for excellence in collaboration for the dual-degree program in social work and sociology.

Salisbury faculty are collaborating with representatives from around the country in a $2.6 million program funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Exxon/Mobil to help make the transition from two- to four-year post-secondary institutions easier for students. In another project, SU and Wicomico County Public Schools are partnering in an $814,000 federal grant to make history come alive for area children. Working together on this three-year Teaching American History grant is SU’s Nabb Research Center for Delmarva Research and Culture, the History and Education departments, and Blackwell Library to provide in-service training, summer institutes, and resources for area teachers.

SCHOOLS AND CENTERS:

As a reaffirmation of the quality of SU’s curriculum, several SU programs earned accreditations in the past year.

·        AACSB International, the world’s premier accrediting organization for business schools, reaccredited both the undergraduate and graduate programs of the Perdue School of Business – an honor held by only 15 percent of business programs worldwide.

·        Nursing programs received the highest possible rating during a recent accreditation visit from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, securing accreditation for the maximum period of five years.

·        The Council on Social Work Education granted accreditation to both the undergraduate and graduate social work programs at SU.

·        In addition, SU’s top-rated athletic training education program is one of just two Maryland programs to earn approval from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.

SU’s Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art partnered with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage for the 2004 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the national Mall in Washington, D.C. last summer. As part of the “Water Ways: Mid-Atlantic Maritime Communities” program, the Ward Museum presented an exhibition of waterfowling traditions and research on maritime trades of Crisfield, Maryland. The Ward Museum also had an exhibit of artwork from “Maryland’s Bird Carving Tradition” during the month of January in the Conservatory of Government House. I hope that some of you were able to visit that display.

Our Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement this past year launched the Presidential Citizen Scholar Program with funding from the USM’s Wilson H. Elkins Professorship, which was awarded in July 2004 to Drs. Harry Basehart and Francis Kane. This new program is a multi-faceted, year-long civic engagement experience that will prepare students to become future community leaders. Students who complete the requirements of this program will receive a certificate and distinctive recognition as "Presidential Citizen Scholars.”

ALUMNI: Some of Maryland’s most highly regarded educational organizations have honored SU graduates as the best in their fields this past year. Aaron Deal (’93) earned the 2004 Maryland Teacher of the Year Award. Patricia Adkins (’91) was Maryland’s 2004 Assistant Principal of the Year. Alumna Penny Makuchal (’91) was Maryland’s School Nurse of the Year and was named as one of America’s 39 top teachers by USA Today.

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