President Pinto: Our public mission is more important than ever

UC’s mission as a public university is more important today than ever and it is pursuing that purpose with “remarkable success,” President Neville Pinto told faculty in a plenary address at the Fall 2019 All-University Faculty meeting on Oct. 31. Yet there remains more work ahead to ensure that more adults who lack college degrees and more traditionally underrepresented groups can earn college degrees. [Video and full text of speech].

One key indicator of the university’s success is the answer to the question: Do students want to be educated at the institution? “For UC, the answer clearly is ‘yes’,” said President Pinto.

Seven consecutive years of growing and record-breaking enrollment provide the evidence. This year, UC’s largest-ever enrollment reached 46,388 students at a time when many universities are experiencing declines.

Students are seeking UC, Pinto suggested, because of the quality of its programs, the students’ overall campus experience and the demonstrated success of UC alumni. 

On access to public higher education, the president indicated UC must respond to the challenge that across the nation, 67% of adults do not have a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the state of Ohio the numbers are worse, with more than 70 percent of adults lacking a bachelor’s or higher.

Especially today in our knowledge economy, this lack of education can be a hindrance. “Knowledge – its transmission and assimilation, as well as its creation, is the currency for success today and into the future. And universities, particularly Carnegie Research 1 universities like ours, are the banks and mint for this currency,” Pinto opined.

To address this issue, the president said, public higher education must ensure:

• A much higher level of degree completion for those who matriculate; 
• Widened doors to segments of society that have been historically underserved by higher education;
• And greater recruitment of adult learners by engaging them in a structure for lifelong learning that will allow them to gain proficiencies and remain competitive throughout their professional lives.

On the first two items above, President Pinto shared news of UC’s progress. “Clearly with our robust growth in enrollment over the last decade, we are responding to the challenge to raise the number of university graduates.”

Also over the course of the last 15 years, UC has creatively and persistently worked to improve baccalaureate student graduation rates. Since 2009, UC’s six-year graduation rate has risen from 55.7% to 71.6%. The six-year graduation rate for undergraduates who are underrepresented minorities has increased from 36.4% to 61.3%. With UC’s Bearcat Promise under the Next Lives Here vision, the goal is to raise the completion rate to over 80%, with no gaps for underrepresented minority groups.

The primary hindrance to access to higher education, especially for underserved student populations, is the lack of financial resources, President Pinto indicated. UC has “strived long and hard to contain tuition costs,” he said. Tuition this fall remained flat for the fifth consecutive year for returning undergraduates and the university has launched a Tuition Guarantee this fall for first-year students that assures new undergraduate students a stable tuition for the length of their degree, as long as they finish on time. 

For additional help on the financial side, one of the major priorities of the university’s comprehensive campaign, which kicks off Nov. 8, is growth in scholarships. Already, for underrepresented minority undergraduate students, over the course of the past four years, UC has increased permanently the scholarship dollars available by $500,000 per year.

President Pinto indicated that each college is now at work on charters related to the Next Lives Here strategic direction that will build the university’s resource base with the goal of achieving growth in:

• Program quality and access;
• Knowledge creation and creative works;
• And urban impact - particularly in education, health and the economy.

“I encourage every department to engage fully in the charter building process, and subsequently to devote time on a regular basis to strategically connect its actions to Next Lives Here.” 

“If we all do this, we will gain a common sense of purpose and alignment, which will result in unstoppable momentum on our road to excellence and distinction.”

President Pinto addresses the Fall All-University Faculty Meeting on Oct. 31 at TUC. Photo by Lisa Ventre.