President Leo M. Lambert praised the hard work of faculty and staff, discussed this year’s freshman class and outlined major objectives for the 2002-03 academic year during a speech Monday, Aug. 19 in McCrary Theatre. Details…
President Lambert told faculty and staff that members of this year’s freshman class, who will begin their college careers when classes open Tuesday, Aug. 27, are the most qualified in history. This year’s freshmen have an average SAT of 1145, 67 points higher than 1997 freshmen, and their average GPA is 3.6.
“At Elon we are blessed with an admissions staff that, year after year, is able to bring us better students despite many challenges—including increasingly competing for students with very selective institutions,” Lambert said. He added, however that the admissions staff could not do its job without the faculty and staff who make visitors to campus feel welcome.
“…Our secret weapon is all of you … people who make themselves available for campus open houses, keep the physical plant in top condition, or offer the simplest gesture of kindness to a visiting stranger. Every one of you sitting in this room today played a role in recruiting the Class of 2006, and for this work, I offer my most genuine and heartfelt thank-you.”
Lambert said he expects “a resolution to some important campus conversations” during the coming year. A subcommittee of the Academic Council will present a proposal early in the fall to reinvent the university’s system of faculty appointments. Another group has drafted a document outlining the role of the teacher-scholar at Elon, helping “clarify, especially for the large number of new faculty at Elon, the nature of scholarly activity that we value at this institution,” Lambert says.
Lambert called for a new campus conversation regarding methods used to evaluate the quality of teaching. “I have become increasingly concerned that, like at most other institutions of higher education in the United States, data from student ranking of instruction forms have taken on undue prominence,” Lambert says.
“Evaluating teaching is a complex task, and requires multiple sources of data collected over time … Let me be clear in saying that I am not suggesting we do away with student ratings. I am not. But we should ask the question about whether we are also incorporating other student viewpoints sufficiently from, say, undergraduate research advisees, or proteges who went on to graduate, medical, or law schools. And, are we weighing sufficiently the myriad other sources of data? If we agree that student ratings should be less dominant in the evaluation process, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a renewed campus conversation about how we should evaluate what we prize most? I will ask the Academic Council and the Provost to lead in this dialog over the next year or so.”
Other key initiatives Lambert mentioned include:
- Leadership Elon: students, faculty, staff, trustees and friends of the university will take part in two information-sharing sessions in the fall about Elon, the NewCentury@Elon strategic plan and ways they can be actively involved in the university’s growth
- Reinvigorating the campus professional development program with the addition of a new full-time director’s position
- Membership in the Southern Conference for athletics, effective July 1, 2003
- “Sundays at 5”-An new series of ecumenical worship services to be held at the Elon Community Church
- Several new initiatives aimed at maintaining Elon’s strong sense of community.