 "Photo: John Brooks")
USD President Jim Abbott gave his eighth annual State of the University address last Thursday to announce the goals USD hopes to achieve.
It was also a chance to commend the university for its accomplishments in the last year.
This year, Abbott said his hope is that USD will be able to fulfill the vision of being the best small, public flagship university in the nation based on a liberal arts foundation.
To attain the distinction, Abbott outlined six goals for USD: academic excellence, research and creative activity, enrollment management, institutional positioning, funding and resource development and organizational effectiveness and change.
Abbott said he has seen an improvement in academic excellence. In the past few years, USD students have been below average in the area of writing and math on CAAP scores. In response to test scores, 12 additional composition classes were added this semester.
"Our students are traditionally weak in math, which isn't abnormal at a liberal arts college," Abbott said.
The most important of the goals seemed to be enrollment management. Abbott expressed that "population trends are not in our favor" in reference to the shrinking number of high school graduates in the Midwest.
Abbott said USD hopes to enroll and retain 10,000 to 11,000 students annually by 2010.
The national retention rate is 74 percent, which USD has not met, Abbott said.
"I don't accept the notion that USD has a 69 percent retention rate when SDSU is at 76 percent," Abbott said.
With the increase in enrollment, student Trevor Christiansen brought attention to the shortage of housing earlier this year.
While Abbott said it might bring tight living conditions or make it difficult for students to schedule classes, housing is the least of his worries.
"It that's a problem, bring it on," Abbott said. "We'd be happy to have it."
In order to increase that retention rate and attract more students, Abbott said members of the administration are trying to determine what changes can be made to engage students.
USD hopes to attract more students by offering more research and creative activity opportunities, another goal Abbott discussed.
"We must make sure the USD experience is a quality experience in and outside the classroom," Abbott said. "We have some work to do."
However, to get the research and creative activity opportunities, funding proved to be another issue, which is where the fourth goal came in.
Abbott explained that having 100 additional students attend the university each year for the next four years would amount to $2 million.
While the USD Foundation has raised $22 million dollars, Abbott said that there will be a "new announcement this week that will make $22 million history."
Although he is impressed with the success in funding, academic excellence and the increase of freshman enrollment, Abbott said the university still has some work to do.
"South Dakota mentality is to limit ourselves. I don't think we should forgo a dream just because of the odds," Abbott said.
Christiansen felt Abbott was able to spark the necessary enthusiasm needed to achieve the goals set forth for the school year.
"He sent a 'dare to dream' sort of message," Christiansen said. "He understands that we need to be realistic about gals for the future, however the sky's the limit."
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