Provost’s Corner: December 2016

Dear faculty and staff,

We’re nearing the end of a very busy and productive 2016. In just a few short days, more than 3,500 NC State students will turn their tassels and become graduates ready to take on the future. They have you to thank in large part for that.

Your dedication to the university’s mission and vision greatly strengthened our pursuit of continual academic excellence this year. Your teaching and research ensured students not only made timely progress toward their degrees, but gained an experiential education that they can take into their careers.

This work plays a key role in making progress on the university’s strategic plan, which places a premium on enhancing student success. We just completed the fifth year of the nine-year plan, and will work on the final three-year implementation phase in 2017. Through the current implementation phase, you’ve helped improve our first-year student retention rate to nearly 94 percent and our six-year graduation rate to 78 percent.

In addition to student success, faculty achievements soared this year. In 2016, we welcomed more than 80 new tenured/tenure-track faculty to NC State, including 12 new members of the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program. We also named a new class of 22 University Faculty Scholars. Trudy McKay received the prestigious Wolf Prize for agriculture, and Rodolphe Barrangou took home the Warren Alpert Prize and Canada Gairdner Award.

Our increased research productivity made NC State the No. 1 public university in the United States and No. 31 internationally on the 2016 Nature Index Rising Stars list. NCSU Libraries continued its award-winning trajectory with the 2016 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, and Library Journal named the Hunt Library as one of five “New Landmark Libraries.”

We’ve grown our ranks with the addition of a new vice chancellor for Finance and Administration, vice provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity, deans of the Colleges of Design, Education, Management and Textiles, an associate vice chancellor for Human Resources and a new director of the Institute for Emerging Issues. Our future growth also received a boost with the passing of the Connect NC bond in March, which will fund the Plant Sciences Initiative and the Engineering Oval building.

Of course, with the celebration of our achievements, we must reflect on what we’ve learned by facing challenges on campus throughout the year. Incidents of racism and inequity forced us to look at where we fall short in meeting our goals for an inclusive culture. Thanks to the leadership shown by students, faculty and staff, we’ve been able to build on our ongoing work addressing cultural competency issues and have uncovered additional areas for growth. We take constant improvement and organizational excellence seriously, and we will continue to make the necessary changes to make all feel welcome at NC State.

Looking back on this year, I am proud to call you my colleagues. I look forward to advancing academic and other achievements over the next year, and am optimistic about the progress we’ll make together in 2017. Happy holidays, and here’s to a great new year.

To keep up with all academic and faculty/staff-related developments, follow @NCStateProvost on Twitter.

Until next time,

Warwick Arden
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost