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For more than 100 years, WestConn has been changing people's lives, and I'm excited to be a part of this tradition.
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James W. Schmotter, President
President's Focus
Western Connecticut State University begins its 106th year with excitement and energy. We enjoy this fall the largest enrollment in our history, and despite state budget pressures, retirements and hiring freezes, we’ve been able to staff the courses and develop the educational programs that our students will need to prepare for their futures. That’s why they are here. And that’s why this university exists: to create the future, not only of our students, but of Danbury, of Fairfield County, of Connecticut, of the nation and of the world.
The accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students during the past year demonstrate that financial challenges can be overcome through motivation, teamwork, and focus on a vision.
These accomplishments include:
- Successful reaffirmation of national accreditation for our Music and Nursing programs
- Reaffirmation with praise of our five-year report to our regional accreditation agency (the New England Association of Schools and Colleges), and a very promising initial accreditation visit to our Education programs by a team from the National Council on Teacher Education (NCATE)
- Completion of wireless capacity across the entire campus
- Launch of a promising new Master of Arts in Teaching program
- The start of architectural design work on the facility that will be the new home of our School of Visual and Performing Arts
- The new Hancock Student Leadership Program, in which 20 of our most talented students worked together with professors to learn new leadership skills
- The first WestConn undergraduate, music major Stephen Price ’09, to be awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, which will allow him to study with a world-renowned organ master in Toulouse, France
- Financial investment from Union Savings Bank, The Morganti Group, Praxair, and Pitney Bowes and the Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education
We have been able to achieve this success — and will continue to do so in the future no matter how challenging our financial situation — for three reasons.
First, we recognize that we must work together as an inclusive university community to maximize effectiveness. To achieve this year’s balanced budget, all university stakeholders — faculty, staff, management, and students — made economic sacrifices. Faculty and staff accepted wage concessions; management eliminated 10 percent of its positions; students and their families accepted a 5.6 percent tuition and fees increase. All came together to do what was necessary to ensure that our students continue to receive an outstanding education at an affordable cost.
Second, our university is guided by a wide and enthusiastic consensus on a strategic vision: to be a public university that offers high-quality fine arts and professional programs on an arts and sciences foundation in a setting that is characteristic of New England’s best small private universities. Last year’s accomplishments epitomize the power of this plan to produce remarkable results. So too do longer term trends that have increased full-time undergraduate enrollment by 19 percent and our graduation rate by 24 percent since 2004. The momentum of the strategic plan through which we are implementing this vision is powerful; its presence on campus is alive.
Finally, we are experiencing success in these challenging times in no small measure because of our shared emphasis on helping students achieve their dreams. In everything we do, from the development of educational experiences, to the creation of a campus community, to decisions on budget and capital investments, we put students first. This commitment is demonstrated every day and every hour at WCSU. It encompasses every employee, from my office to the hardworking night cleaning shift members that keep our classroom buildings clean. And our stakeholders notice.
If you visit us, you too will notice. We look forward to seeing you on campus.
James W. Schmotter
