October 2003 Board Report

Board Report: October 2003

UNION PRIDE

Dear friends of Union:

Homecoming and Family Weekend is always a spectacular time at Union, and the Board of Trustees was happy to join the festivities at our fall meeting on campus.

In my opening remarks to the Board, I noted that Union College is well positioned to move to the next level of excellence and reputation. The campus and buildings are fabulous, our budgets are consistently balanced even in trying times, our faculty and students are among the best in the land, our admissions program is second to none, and our relations with the city have never been better.

But, to achieve this distinction, we need to redouble our efforts in several key areas:

The first is academics. Academics at Union is already strong - we just need to make it stronger as compared to the best liberal arts colleges in the country. Academic excellence should be an atmosphere that permeates the campus, from a faculty member who gets excited about his or her teaching or scholarship, to students who make their academic work the central focus of their lives. Academic excellence must be our number one priority, and this topic covers quite a range - the reputation of our school; our student/faculty ratio; fresh and innovative programs; student selectivity; intellectual atmosphere on campus; grants for both faculty and students; faculty compensation; student awards; student retention and graduation rates; and alumni careers.

The second area of focus must be our endowment. Make no mistake - the financial strength of any college is synonymous with the size of its endowment. Our endowment of $240 million is much better than most colleges. But if we're going to have such things as a top-tier student-faculty ratio, and the ability to attract the best faculty to our college, our endowment needs to be at least TWICE that amount. We need to prove to our very generous donors that we know what to do with their support (and I'm happy to say that the Board's Investment Committee has taken strong steps to ensure that - our performance recently has been terrific), and of course we need to raise more money for our endowment. That means that our percentage of alumni giving needs to go up, and that the number of major gifts must also increase. But we can do it, as evidenced by the wonderful gifts provided recently by alumni John Wold, Frank Messa, and Dave Viniar.

The third area of emphasis is our image and our reputation. Image includes everything that affects how people perceive us, from what the campus looks like, to speeches our president makes, to how potential students are welcomed when they visit, and yes, even to what our logo looks like. In today's competitive world, we need to continually make sure that our message is consistent and that it is being received clearly by our various audiences and constituencies. In particular, we are working very hard to ensure that our alumni relations are improved, since you are the absolute best messengers of what Union stands for.

It's a great time to be at Union. UNION PRIDE abounds, and the spirit we saw during Homecoming and Family Weekend was evidence that a lot of things are going very well at the College and that momentum is very positive. If we pull together in the several key areas I discussed, I'm convinced that Union can achieve the kind of national recognition we all want.

Committee Reports

We had a full round of committee meetings, and here are a few of the highlights:

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Student advising has improved a great deal, the faculty and students are actively engaged in working on the implementation of the House System, and Converging Technologies is quickly becoming a real presence in the curriculum. There is also the creation of the Graduate College of Union University, which I regard as a major step in clarifying the mission of Union College. This fall, the major topic of discussion on campus is the possible conversion from trimesters to semesters, which has both academic and financial implications. The debate is quite active, with high numbers of faculty members and students providing their opinions.

The Deans of Faculty and selected faculty members from Union, Hamilton, Colgate, and Skidmore have spent the past year studying issues of faculty development. This work was supported by a planning grant from the Mellon Foundation. A follow-up proposal to the Mellon Foundation requests funding for a variety of projects that include faculty exchanges among the schools, collaborative projects such as symposia, and a five-year post-tenure faculty development plan.

In Converging Technologies, the Academic Affairs Council has approved two new majors and two new minors. They are a major and minor in Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society; a major in Neuroscience; and a minor in Bioengineering.

Union won one of the first grants given by the National Science Foundation for Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education, awarded to Seyfollah Maleki of Physics, Michael Hagerman of Chemistry, and Philip Kosky of Mechanical Engineering, to support development of materials for their course "Frontiers of Nanotechnology." Cherrice Traver, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Pilar Moyano, Modern Languages, successfully integrated GIS (geographic information systems) software into their Converging Technology miniterm to Cordoba, Spain. Students spent the spring term studying the history and culture of Cordoba, and creating digital maps, layered by century. While in Cordoba, students explored other applications of GIS, while they conducted on-site research to supplement and document the base historical maps they created.

In July we were notified that we received a $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to attract and retain more Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics majors.

STUDENT AFFAIRS AND ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE

We began the year with 559 first-year students. For the Class of 2007, applications were up eight percent, the acceptance rate dropped from 45 percent to 43 percent, the yield dropped from 33 percent to 32 percent, 18 percent of the class are students of color, the number of students requesting financial aid went up, the number of no-need who enrolled went down, intended engineers are down from 16 percent to 13 percent, and intended humanities, social sciences, and undecided are up. All in all, a great performance.

We recently hosted 43 college counselors from all over America, and the consensus among the group was that Union is "best of show" among the six college destinations: Colgate, RPI, Skidmore, Hamilton, and Syracuse. "Union projects a candid, energetic self-confidence that underscores the quality - and the opportunities - of the College in a powerful fashion" best summed up the group's impression.

We have launched a campaign to highlight the "hidden in plain sight" plusses of the region. We have an "AroundU" web presence -- a colorful "jump station" with links to a dazzling variety of local options -- and we created a large postcard that cleverly touts the cultural, commercial, artistic, and entertainment options of the area.

INVESTMENT COMMITTEE

For the 12-month period ended June 30, 2003, we had some impressive news to report: the total return of the endowment was 4.87 percent, outperforming the composite index by 2.01 percent and placing us easily within the TOP QUARTILE of our peer institutions. This is nothing short of fabulous, and is due to the hard work and efforts of Committee Chair Bob DeMichele '66 and his great group. The market value of the total endowment and similar funds was approximately $246,100,000.

FACILITIES AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

Renovations to the South College building are complete and on budget. The second part of Phase I, the renovations to North College, is underway, as is construction on Phase II, beginning with the renovation of the Chi Psi and Psi Upsilon buildings. The Chi Psi and Psi Upsilon fraternities have moved into their newly-renovated spaces in Fox Hall (south) and Davidson Hall (north). Renovations to the Sigma Phi building will begin in July of '04.

The first phase of the improvements to the Messa Rink at Achilles Center are complete. The second phase of the rink improvement project, which is the creation of locker rooms and upgrades to the sports medicine area in the lower level, is just getting underway, with a projected completion date of spring of '04.

The Viniar Basketball Pavilion project is in the design phase, with construction to begin this fall. The pavilion will be connected to Memorial Field House at the southeast comer of the building and provide two full practice courts, which can be converted to one performance court with seating for 1,000 spectators. Projected completion is for fall of '04.

The conversion of the Alumni Gym to a fitness center is in the design phase; construction will commence as soon as funding is secured.

COLLEGE RELATIONS COMMITTEE

We ended the year with increases in overall dollars raised ($18,056,014), total dollars to the Annual Fund ($3,763,730), total unrestricted dollars ($2,388,244), total number of donors (10,545), and number of alumni donors (7,411). Again, a phenomenal performance during challenging times, and I want to pass along my personal appreciation to those alumni and friends who contributed.

Working with Greek-affiliated alumni continues to be a priority. At ReUnion we hosted an event with Chi Psi for their alumni that was very well received, and at Homecoming & Family Weekend we sponsored a housewarming party at the new homes of Chi Psi and Psi U for all of their alumni, parents, and current brothers. We are also forming an Alumni Greek Advisory Board that will provide them with an opportunity to be a positive force in the continuation of the Greek system.

We will also continue to focus on developing a higher level of engagement and satisfaction among young alumni. It should be noted that most institutions are having trouble connecting with their young alumni. Our efforts are paying dividends and there are positive indicators, such as the fact that there were increases this year both in terms of dollars and donors from young alumni and event attendance increased as well.

As we move forward, the Annual Fund has taken on a new identity - The Union Fund. This change was made to better reflect the true nature of our work - raising funds to improve Union without regard to timing.

Since the last Board meeting, we have received a $500,000 challenge grant from the Fred Emerson Foundation (5:1 match) for addition of a recital hall in the renovated Arts and Music Building. Eleven grants totaling $1,778,617 have been awarded, including two Research Corporation grants to junior faculty, two NIH-AREA grants, three NSF grants, one grant for scholarships over four years to Computer Science, Engineering and Math majors, an NEH Collaborative Research Grant with SUNY Albany, and two awards from the Mellon Foundation.

The 2002-2003 Parents Fund closed with a five percent increase in dollars and a slight increase in participation of both parents of current students and parents of alumni. The Parents Council has become the Parents Association; feedback from our leadership parents indicated that they thought this was a more inclusive title for this group, which includes all current parents. Parents' program events included 11 Freshmen Sendoffs nationwide, ranging from California to Boston.

This year's ReUnion was one of the largest in the College's history. Classes represented ranged from 1932 to 2002, and alumni traveled from as far away as Sweden and Singapore. The fall also has been very active. Well over half the members of the Union family will be invited to at least one Union event off campus, from Seattle and San Francisco, to New York City and Philadelphia. The Student Alumni Association (SAA) is one of the new vehicles in cultivating students in being active alumni. Members of the Association have the opportunity to meet with alumni during Homecoming and Family Weekend and ReUnion. The students enjoy the opportunity to connect with alumni and the alumni are always impressed when meeting with some of Union's "brightest and best" students.

Thanks again for the honor of serving you.

Stephen J. Ciesinski '70
Chairman, Board of Trustees

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About Union Mission Statement History of Union Office of the President Board of Trustees Presidents of Union College Union Notables Exhibit Traditions of Union What to do AroundU? The Union Campus Did U Know? Rich Cavoli '87 designed a crystal-growing experiment that was lost on the space shuttle Challenger. His experiment flew two years later on the Discovery	Board Report: October 2003 UNION PRIDE Dear friends of Union: Homecoming and Family Weekend is always a spectacular time at Union, and the Board of Trustees was happy to join the festivities at our fall meeting on campus. In my opening remarks to the Board, I noted that Union College is well positioned to move to the next level of excellence and reputation. The campus and buildings are fabulous, our budgets are consistently balanced even in trying times, our faculty and students are among the best in the land, our admissions program is second to none, and our relations with the city have never been better. But, to achieve this distinction, we need to redouble our efforts in several key areas: The first is academics. Academics at Union is already strong - we just need to make it stronger as compared to the best liberal arts colleges in the country. Academic excellence should be an atmosphere that permeates the campus, from a faculty member who gets excited about his or her teaching or scholarship, to students who make their academic work the central focus of their lives. Academic excellence must be our number one priority, and this topic covers quite a range - the reputation of our school; our student/faculty ratio; fresh and innovative programs; student selectivity; intellectual atmosphere on campus; grants for both faculty and students; faculty compensation; student awards; student retention and graduation rates; and alumni careers. The second area of focus must be our endowment. Make no mistake - the financial strength of any college is synonymous with the size of its endowment. Our endowment of $240 million is much better than most colleges. But if we're going to have such things as a top-tier student-faculty ratio, and the ability to attract the best faculty to our college, our endowment needs to be at least TWICE that amount. We need to prove to our very generous donors that we know what to do with their support (and I'm happy to say that the Board's Investment Committee has taken strong steps to ensure that - our performance recently has been terrific), and of course we need to raise more money for our endowment. That means that our percentage of alumni giving needs to go up, and that the number of major gifts must also increase. But we can do it, as evidenced by the wonderful gifts provided recently by alumni John Wold, Frank Messa, and Dave Viniar. The third area of emphasis is our image and our reputation. Image includes everything that affects how people perceive us, from what the campus looks like, to speeches our president makes, to how potential students are welcomed when they visit, and yes, even to what our logo looks like. In today's competitive world, we need to continually make sure that our message is consistent and that it is being received clearly by our various audiences and constituencies. In particular, we are working very hard to ensure that our alumni relations are improved, since you are the absolute best messengers of what Union stands for. It's a great time to be at Union. UNION PRIDE abounds, and the spirit we saw during Homecoming and Family Weekend was evidence that a lot of things are going very well at the College and that momentum is very positive. If we pull together in the several key areas I discussed, I'm convinced that Union can achieve the kind of national recognition we all want. Committee Reports We had a full round of committee meetings, and here are a few of the highlights: ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Student advising has improved a great deal, the faculty and students are actively engaged in working on the implementation of the House System, and Converging Technologies is quickly becoming a real presence in the curriculum. There is also the creation of the Graduate College of Union University, which I regard as a major step in clarifying the mission of Union College. This fall, the major topic of discussion on campus is the possible conversion from trimesters to semesters, which has both academic and financial implications. The debate is quite active, with high numbers of faculty members and students providing their opinions. The Deans of Faculty and selected faculty members from Union, Hamilton, Colgate, and Skidmore have spent the past year studying issues of faculty development. This work was supported by a planning grant from the Mellon Foundation. A follow-up proposal to the Mellon Foundation requests funding for a variety of projects that include faculty exchanges among the schools, collaborative projects such as symposia, and a five-year post-tenure faculty development plan. In Converging Technologies, the Academic Affairs Council has approved two new majors and two new minors. They are a major and minor in Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society; a major in Neuroscience; and a minor in Bioengineering. Union won one of the first grants given by the National Science Foundation for Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education, awarded to Seyfollah Maleki of Physics, Michael Hagerman of Chemistry, and Philip Kosky of Mechanical Engineering, to support development of materials for their course "Frontiers of Nanotechnology." Cherrice Traver, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Pilar Moyano, Modern Languages, successfully integrated GIS (geographic information systems) software into their Converging Technology miniterm to Cordoba, Spain. Students spent the spring term studying the history and culture of Cordoba, and creating digital maps, layered by century. While in Cordoba, students explored other applications of GIS, while they conducted on-site research to supplement and document the base historical maps they created. In July we were notified that we received a $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to attract and retain more Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics majors. STUDENT AFFAIRS AND ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE We began the year with 559 first-year students. For the Class of 2007, applications were up eight percent, the acceptance rate dropped from 45 percent to 43 percent, the yield dropped from 33 percent to 32 percent, 18 percent of the class are students of color, the number of students requesting financial aid went up, the number of no-need who enrolled went down, intended engineers are down from 16 percent to 13 percent, and intended humanities, social sciences, and undecided are up. All in all, a great performance. We recently hosted 43 college counselors from all over America, and the consensus among the group was that Union is "best of show" among the six college destinations: Colgate, RPI, Skidmore, Hamilton, and Syracuse. "Union projects a candid, energetic self-confidence that underscores the quality - and the opportunities - of the College in a powerful fashion" best summed up the group's impression. We have launched a campaign to highlight the "hidden in plain sight" plusses of the region. We have an "AroundU" web presence -- a colorful "jump station" with links to a dazzling variety of local options -- and we created a large postcard that cleverly touts the cultural, commercial, artistic, and entertainment options of the area. INVESTMENT COMMITTEE For the 12-month period ended June 30, 2003, we had some impressive news to report: the total return of the endowment was 4.87 percent, outperforming the composite index by 2.01 percent and placing us easily within the TOP QUARTILE of our peer institutions. This is nothing short of fabulous, and is due to the hard work and efforts of Committee Chair Bob DeMichele '66 and his great group. The market value of the total endowment and similar funds was approximately $246,100,000. FACILITIES AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE Renovations to the South College building are complete and on budget. The second part of Phase I, the renovations to North College, is underway, as is construction on Phase II, beginning with the renovation of the Chi Psi and Psi Upsilon buildings. The Chi Psi and Psi Upsilon fraternities have moved into their newly-renovated spaces in Fox Hall (south) and Davidson Hall (north). Renovations to the Sigma Phi building will begin in July of '04. The first phase of the improvements to the Messa Rink at Achilles Center are complete. The second phase of the rink improvement project, which is the creation of locker rooms and upgrades to the sports medicine area in the lower level, is just getting underway, with a projected completion date of spring of '04. The Viniar Basketball Pavilion project is in the design phase, with construction to begin this fall. The pavilion will be connected to Memorial Field House at the southeast comer of the building and provide two full practice courts, which can be converted to one performance court with seating for 1,000 spectators. Projected completion is for fall of '04. The conversion of the Alumni Gym to a fitness center is in the design phase; construction will commence as soon as funding is secured. COLLEGE RELATIONS COMMITTEE We ended the year with increases in overall dollars raised ($18,056,014), total dollars to the Annual Fund ($3,763,730), total unrestricted dollars ($2,388,244), total number of donors (10,545), and number of alumni donors (7,411). Again, a phenomenal performance during challenging times, and I want to pass along my personal appreciation to those alumni and friends who contributed. Working with Greek-affiliated alumni continues to be a priority. At ReUnion we hosted an event with Chi Psi for their alumni that was very well received, and at Homecoming & Family Weekend we sponsored a housewarming party at the new homes of Chi Psi and Psi U for all of their alumni, parents, and current brothers. We are also forming an Alumni Greek Advisory Board that will provide them with an opportunity to be a positive force in the continuation of the Greek system. We will also continue to focus on developing a higher level of engagement and satisfaction among young alumni. It should be noted that most institutions are having trouble connecting with their young alumni. Our efforts are paying dividends and there are positive indicators, such as the fact that there were increases this year both in terms of dollars and donors from young alumni and event attendance increased as well. As we move forward, the Annual Fund has taken on a new identity - The Union Fund. This change was made to better reflect the true nature of our work - raising funds to improve Union without regard to timing. Since the last Board meeting, we have received a $500,000 challenge grant from the Fred Emerson Foundation (5:1 match) for addition of a recital hall in the renovated Arts and Music Building. Eleven grants totaling $1,778,617 have been awarded, including two Research Corporation grants to junior faculty, two NIH-AREA grants, three NSF grants, one grant for scholarships over four years to Computer Science, Engineering and Math majors, an NEH Collaborative Research Grant with SUNY Albany, and two awards from the Mellon Foundation. The 2002-2003 Parents Fund closed with a five percent increase in dollars and a slight increase in participation of both parents of current students and parents of alumni. The Parents Council has become the Parents Association; feedback from our leadership parents indicated that they thought this was a more inclusive title for this group, which includes all current parents. Parents' program events included 11 Freshmen Sendoffs nationwide, ranging from California to Boston. This year's ReUnion was one of the largest in the College's history. Classes represented ranged from 1932 to 2002, and alumni traveled from as far away as Sweden and Singapore. The fall also has been very active. Well over half the members of the Union family will be invited to at least one Union event off campus, from Seattle and San Francisco, to New York City and Philadelphia. The Student Alumni Association (SAA) is one of the new vehicles in cultivating students in being active alumni. Members of the Association have the opportunity to meet with alumni during Homecoming and Family Weekend and ReUnion. The students enjoy the opportunity to connect with alumni and the alumni are always impressed when meeting with some of Union's "brightest and best" students. Thanks again for the honor of serving you. Stephen J. Ciesinski '70 Chairman, Board of Trustees
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