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I will give my remarks today from the podium as we have several special guests to recognize. I, too, want to thank you, Phil, for your leadership, your colleagueship and your support. Phil has availed himself at most every speaking opportunity that we have at the university, he has greeted freshmen; he has said goodbye to seniors at Commencement; he has met with groups and organizations.
I think you may hold the record, Phil, for the rounds you have made with the deans. Phil set out to meet with every dean on campus and a good hour was spent. I remember his visit to Dean Doug Lowry, we gave him a parking ticket that day, just to be remembered by our dear former Chair. So, I too want to thank you personally, and as Jeff said, we are not done with you. We will have a celebration and when that happens, we will again thank you for your service.
We have been busy at the university, a spectacular time for the University of Cincinnati. You have been reading some of the headlines. The $420 million in-kind contribution from a group of people we know as PACE – the Partnership for Collaborative Engineering Education – and we are now a designated PACE University, making us one of only 21 universities in the United States, and there are others around the world, and the first in Ohio. Of course, we did not plan it this way but quickly on the heels of our PACE designation, we received a $20 million anonymous bequest for space exploration research and education.
We also announced another successful “We’re All UC” faculty/staff campaign. We do this on the occasion of the State of the University address in the fall. This year 2,138 donors contributed, beating the last two years of our only 3-year-old “We’re All UC” campaign, totaling $9.5 million from our faculty and staff, which is just outstanding.
Our faculty has also been stacking up more accolades. You read about Jay Hove, the physiologist at our Genome Research Institute and otherwise known as the zebrafish expert. He received the highest honor awarded to young scientists in our nation, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and, of course, you saw him featured a few days ago in the Enquirer.
Two UC faculty members have been named Fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Peter Stambrook, chair of the cell and cancer biology department in the College of Medicine, and Robert Richardson, professor of philosophy in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.
On enrollment, you will hear more from Caroline Miller in a few minutes, but I do want to note that this has been a busy time for Admissions, as the Office of Admissions hosted more than 3,100 visitors to campus just during the month of October, more than the entire fall term last year. Something is happening. On the other end of the pathway through college, the number of companies conducting campus recruiting sessions and interviews has doubled.
UC Libraries co-sponsored the very first Books by the Banks: Cincinnati USA Book Festival. Held earlier this month, the event included over 90 authors and attracted over 1,500 attendees from throughout the Tristate. It is now going to become an annual event.
Our College of Law students are hard at work on a new journal that will debut in 2008. It will be called the Freedom Center Journal, a joint project with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The journal held an inaugural symposium last month.
A shortage of over 340,000 registered nurses is expected by 2010 and so the state of Ohio is taking steps to alleviate that shortfall. The College of Nursing Dean, Andrea Lindell, has been appointed to a statewide study of the current shortage of faculty and clinical placement sites for nursing education programs. Dean Lindell was nominated to the committee by over 15 state legislators and appointed by the Ohio Speaker of the House Jon Husted.
Our campus has outdoor statues honoring two beloved and legendary icons of UC: William Howard Taft and Oscar Robertson. And now a third has joined this distinguished group of statuary. Our co-op division unveiled this fall a bronze statue of Herman Schneider, the founder of cooperative education. The statue stands in Baldwin quad, right outside his former office window.
And, now, I would like to recognize someone who has been an outstanding supporter of the United Way through UC’s annual Charitable Giving Campaign. You know him as Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Dr. Stanley Kaplan. Today, I would like to call Stanley forward. Don’t be shy, you have to come up here with me. I have warmed up the podium and made it comfortable and cozy. We are recognizing Stanley Kaplan for his generosity to the United Way and to our Charitable Giving Campaign, which you all know occurs in the fall.
Dr. Kaplan and his late wife, Mickey, have long been visionary and generous leaders in the Cincinnati community. Stan has been a Tocqueville Society member at the United Way for 13 years. He has given to the Community Impact Fund and to agencies that hold a special place in his heart such as the Association for the Blind and WCET.
So, it is my great privilege to recognize Stanley with a small token of our appreciation, Stanley, that comes with a special silver ribbon. It is just very, very special that we at the university can be such outstanding supporters of this community, and we cannot do that without the magnitude of the Tocqueville supporters and so for all of this and more, we want to recognize you today, Dr. Stanley Kaplan.
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