Flanked by the Board of Trustees, Mayor John Hickenlooper and Rick O’Donnell, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, President Stephen Jordan unveiled his vision for the College Wednesday morning to an audience that included faculty, staff and students as well as business and community leaders.

Jordan’s vision, he told the audience, is for Metro State to become “the preeminent public urban baccalaureate college.”

Jordan, who took the helm on July 1, called for Metro State to assume the role of an urban “land-grant” college and become more involved than ever in meeting the needs of businesses and of the community by solving problems and creating strategies for future growth and sustainability.

“Therefore,” Jordan explained, “the new ‘metropolitan’ college will incorporate an extended and applied service mission, while it is constructed upon mutually beneficial partnerships. It is grounded in the arts and sciences, but it is informed by the professions. It is entrepreneurial, while it serves a wide spectrum of student constituencies through multiple pedagogies and modalities.”

Along with his vision, Jordan introduced a three-phase plan for getting there that consists of stabilization, growth and investment, and assessment. “In Phase 1, which I believe will last two years, we will stabilize the institution both academically and financially while we prepare ourselves for the future.”

Among the key components of the stabilization period, subject to Board of Trustees approval and passage of Referendum C and D in November, are:

• Recruitment. The addition of 60 new tenure-track faculty for fall of next year, with an emphasis on achieving ethnic diversity.
• Part-time faculty. Improving conditions for adjunct faculty through an increase in the average credit hour salary rate from $788 to $960 per credit hour, effective spring semester, and establishing a task force to explore additional changes in the working environment.
• Capital resources. A total of $5 million in additional spending for new equipment and technology, renovation and remodeling.

Jordan also called for the development of an academic strategic plan, both for accreditation purposes and to control the college’s direction. “We can certainly leave our future to chance, but the achievement of becoming the preeminent public urban baccalaureate college will not come by accident,” Jordan said. “It will come by determined effort toward a set of common objectives which we deliberately determine and consciously strive for through out collective actions.”

In addition to the official welcome for Jordan, Wednesday’s event kicked off a yearlong series of events to commemorate Metro State’s 40th anniversary. Gift bags, including a commemorative issue of Metro Magazine and a CD from the music department’s Metropolitan Chorale, were distributed. To get your gift bag, stop by the College Communications office at 1059 9th St.

To download Jordan’s complete remarks click a link below:
Microsoft Word - http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol3/documents/welcomeaddress_09072005.doc
Adobe PDF - http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol3/documents/welcomeaddress_09072005.pdf

A video broadcast of the Welcoming Ceremony is available online at: http://www.mscd.edu/news/president