Office of the President

1. Impressive national reputation.

Salisbury University continues to be recognized as an outstanding public education institution.  This past year, for the first time in our history, SU was ranked as a Top-Tier Institution in the 2003 U.S. News "America's Best Colleges" report for its region.  This places us in the highest category among all publics and private institutions in the North. The Princeton Review, Kiplinger's, Kaplan's Most Interesting Colleges and other higher education guidebooks also rate SU among the nation’s best.  This is an accomplishment few other institutions in Maryland can claim.

2. Increased growth and selectivity.

Total enrollment at Salisbury University grew this year to 6,851, an increase of 2.5% (169 students) over Fall 2001 and the highest enrollment in SU's history (Chart 1 - PDF file). Over the last three years alone, total enrollment has grown by 13.1%, an additional 791 students.  This growth has taken place at both the undergraduate and graduate student levels.  Our total Full-Time Equivalent Student (FTES) rates increased at an even faster pace because of an increase in both the rate of individuals attending full-time and in the average credit hour loads.  As a result, more than 4 out of 5 students at SU are full-time.

You might be surprised to learn that, for the fifth consecutive year, the largest percentage of SU students come from west of the Chesapeake Bay.  This year, 48% of our students are from the Western Shore and 34.3% from the Eastern Shore. They represent every county in the State of Maryland.  Out-of-state students constitute 16.8% of enrollment (a decrease from the previous year) and international students are 1.2%.

Salisbury University has been experiencing an uncommonly high demand of students wishing to matriculate here.  Our Admissions Office received some 5300 applications last year for our Fall 2002 freshmen class, and we were only able to accommodate 900.  Our acceptance rate was under the 50% mark for the first time in our history.  Such demand has allowed us to be selective in our admissions and has resulted in a 2002 entering class that averaged 1125 on SATs and a GPA of 3.4 (Chart 2 -PDF file).

At the same time, SU is achieving the goals that I set for greater diversity among our students and faculty.  At Salisbury University we want to provide an education, both in class and out, that reflects a variety of perspectives and ideas.  Our current minority student population is 12.6%, and our African-American student enrollment is the highest in school history at 558.  International students add immeasurably to our growing global and cross-cultural aims and, this year, represent 46 countries.

One area in which Salisbury University does not excel is in financial support for our students.  SU offers the lowest average scholarship dollar amount among Maryland public institutions and the highest percent of aid offered as loans (Chart 3 & Chart 4 - PDF files)  This is directly a function of the level of appropriations we receive per student. To then be penalized for not offering our students sufficient financial aid as was done in the “Higher Education Fiscal 2004 Budget Overview” is twice unfair to Salisbury University (see Addendum II, excerpted page 21).  If Salisbury University had adequate resources, we would offer our students more financial aid (see Addendum II, excerpted page 27). While this situation has not appeared to hurt our popularity with Maryland students as evidenced by our high application rates, I am very concerned about providing adequate need-based aid for high caliber students whom we lose to other universities positioned to offer greater financial support.  I am trying to raise private funds to create more scholarship opportunities, though the present economic environment has stymied our Foundation’s effort.

3. High graduation rates.

Salisbury University has the highest 4-, 5-, and 6-year graduation rates in the USM and is proud of its 57.1% minority student 6-year graduation rate, rates that are higher than our peers and our colleague institutions within the USM (Chart 5 - PDF file). This is a reflection of our high retention rate -- 81.2% of our freshman return for their sophomore year. 

4. Exceptional peer performance indicators.   

Salisbury University significantly exceeds its performance peers in 12 of 17 indicators, including:

• percentage of African-Americans of all undergraduates,

• percentage of African-Americans graduating in 6 years (Chart 6 - PDF file)

• 6-year graduation rates (Chart 7 - PDF file),

• alumni giving rate,

• acceptance rate (Chart 8 - PDF file), and

• average high school G.P.A (Chart 9 - PDF file). 

While we are pleased to be performing at such an outstanding level, we have been unable to close the substantial gap that persists between the levels of State appropriation that we receive compared to our peers (Chart 10 - PDF file).  Salisbury University receives $1,923 less per Full-Time Equivalent Student (FTES) than the average of the peer institutions to which we are compared (Chart 11 - PDF file). 

5. High Accountability.

Salisbury University has already attained or is making steady progress toward many of its accountability goals targeted in the Managing For Results (MFR) process.  With the 6-year graduation rate at 73.9%, Salisbury University has surpassed its benchmark goal for 2 consecutive years.  Salisbury has had the highest 6-year graduation in the USM for 7 consecutive years and the highest 4-year graduation rate of USM institutions for 15 consecutive years.  Framed in percentages, Salisbury University is the highest and fastest producer of graduates in the USM.  The average salary of SU’s most recent graduates one year after graduation was $33,304.  Twelve hundred and eight-five baccalaureate recipients are represented in that group alone, generating a total income of $42,795,640 – and these numbers do not include the added economic impact associated with that buying power.

Our success in achieving our performance measures compels us to set even loftier goals, yet shrinking resources seriously restrain our institution’s progress.

6. Record grants and sponsored research awards.

Over the last 8 years (1995-2002), SU faculty and staff have continued to increase the number of grant submissions designed to facilitate scholarly research, curriculum reform, and program accreditation.  Eighty-five grant proposals, contracts, and memorandums of understanding were submitted by faculty and administrative staff at SU last year, totaling over $12 million, an increase of 19% over the preceding year and a new benchmark for productivity of SU.  Of those submitted, fully 47 were awarded, a 55% success rate that is more than double the national average return rate.  Grants and contracts last year alone totaled $7,044,293.

7. Commitment to meet critical workforce shortages.

Critical workforce shortages of public school teachers, nurses, and information technology workers persist, and Salisbury University is responding.  In the 5 years between Fall 1998 and Fall 2002, undergraduate enrollments in Elementary Education have increased by 10.6%, and SU has just launched a new program in Early Childhood Education. 

In our graduate program enrollments, the Master of Education has increased by 11.6%.  A new M.Ed. in Reading program was approved for Fall 2002.

In the 5 years between academic years 1997-98 and 2001-02, the number of baccalaureate graduates in Elementary Education has increased by 6%; in Nursing by 10%; and in Management Information Systems by 82%.

We are also very proud of SU’s new Academy for Leadership in Education, which is coordinated by the Center for Professional Development.  The ALE is a collaborative concept developed by the Seidel School of Education and  Professional Studies, the Greater Salisbury Committee, and the superintendents of Wicomico, Worcester, and Somerset Counties public school systems.  The Academy has already enrolled over 50 education professionals who wish to assume even greater leadership roles within our local schools.  Courses are offered in the recently opened, thoroughly modern Scarborough Student Leadership Center, dedicated to the development of leaders for our community and country.  The building was realized thanks to a generous financial gift by alumnus Michael Scarborough, an Annapolis-based business leader.

In the nursing and technology fields, our Nursing enrollments have increased by 46.6%.  Our new Computer Science major, opened in Fall 2001, has an enrollment of 139 majors while our Management Information Systems program has increased by 19.5%. 

In order to meet the needs of students on the Upper Shore, Salisbury University has been a partner in the development of the Eastern Shore Higher Education Center, located on the campus of Chesapeake College.  The Seidel School’s Department of Education is currently offering a custom-designed Master of Education degree program.  The Perdue School of Business will begin offering a special General Business Administration degree program at the undergraduate level in Fall 2003.

In the non-credit arena, SU has established the Center for Professional Development which, for the past year, has offered professional development and personal enrichment programs, seminars, courses and workshops in such fields as business, education, psychology, social work, and conflict resolution. 

8. Outstanding athletic successes.

We are an NCAA Division III school whose athletes come to us without benefit of an athletic scholarship inducement.  Last year, six SU teams won Capital Athletic Conference championships and qualified for NCAA Championship Tournaments.  Our women’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 and our football team went 9-2, our best season in more than 15 years.  Ten student-athletes earned national All-American honors and four of our coaches registered the 200^th victory of their careers.  SU’s Doug Fleetwood was named College Coach of the Year by the Maryland State Association of Baseball Coaches.  Currently, our Sea Gulls are ranked 20^th nationally in the most recent 2002-03 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Directors Cup Rankings.

What is even more important is the fact that our student athletes earn GPAs that, on average, are greater than their peers and graduate at rates higher than that of the general SU student population.

9. Enhanced campus facilities.

      Great news for the SU campus has been our new Henson Science Hall, a 145,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility that opened in Fall 2002.  Students  and faculty are thrilled with the equipment and laboratory space that has facilitated faculty-student research – a hallmark of an SU education.  The science building is the first academic facility constructed at SU in over a decade.  I am very grateful to the members of the General Assembly for approving the building of the Henson Center, a project that had been the dream of my campus since 1991.