CHAPEL HILL – Chancellor James Moeser Wednesday set a goal of raising $1 billion in external research grants by 2015, a substantial goal that would require a significant boost in fundraising annually.
The challenge was among the policy recommendations Moeser made in his annual “State of the University” address, delivered to a gathering of faculty, staff, and students in the Great Hall of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. It was the sixth address for Moeser since arriving at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2000. He kept with the tradition of previous speeches he used the time to announce new policy initiatives. Previous speeches have launched global education projects as well as the Carolina Covenant initiative.
Moeser’s goal of $1 billion in research funding was central to the speech’s theme of having UNC-Chapel Hill become both “great” and “good,” terms he used to describe the academic and moral climate of the institution.
“We are called upon to make this university even greater – to go from good to great,” Moeser said. “We are also called on to nurture and nourish what it means to be a public university, to be both great and good. And we must adapt this great and noble institution to the 21st Century.”
Currently, UNC-Chapel Hill receives $593 million in external funding for research, up 2.4 percent, Moeser said, from $579 million. To obtain the goal of $1 billion in research funding, Moser said it would require a commitment from the General Assembly, faculty, and campus community.
“It will not be easy, but we can do it,” Moeser said.
To accomplish this goal, Moeser said the campus, through it Renaissance Computing Initiative, must become more competitive for larger grants, by increasing computational capacity. He acknowledged that the goal is “a stretch goal,” noting that it is more than “$200 million above what we might be expected to reach at our current trajectory.”
Moeser quoted Jim Collins, author of the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Other’s Don’t,” when discussing the goal. Collins’ book was central throughout Moeser’s address.
“To use a Jim Collins term, this is a ‘big, hairy, audacious goal,’ appropriate for a university aspiring to be the leading public university,” Moeser said. “We should dream no small dreams.”
Moeser also used the speech to introduce a plan to increase graduation rates on campus. UNC-Chapel Hill has a four-year graduation rate of 71 percent and a six-year rate of 84 percent. The six-year rate, Moeser said, trails peer institutions like the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, and Michigan.
In November, Moeser said he would propose a plan to increase the six-year graduation rate to 87 percent by 2010. Also, he wants to increase the four-year rate to 75 percent in that same time frame.
“We should never be content with the status quo,” Moeser said. “Good enough is never good enough – not for an institution that aspires to be America’s leading public university.”
Moeser also discussed increases in faculty salaries approved by the General Assembly during the short session. He said more was needed to insure UNC-Chapel Hill reaches its goal of reaching the 67th percentile for faculty salaries among its peer institutions by 2011. That would require annual six percent faculty pay increases over the next five years from the legislature coupled by what Moeser called “modest campus-based tuition increases.”
“If the state makes the commitment, we can hold tuition to moderate and predictable levels,” Moeser said. “Until this most recent year, however, campus-based tuition has been our salvation in maintaining a competitive position for faculty.”
Besides launching UNC-Chapel Hill into new initiatives, Moeser also used his speech to praise faculty and staff members, including recipients of the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award. The award, Moeser said, honors selfless devotion on campus. This year’s winners were Associate Dean of Academic Services Fred Clark, Biological Safety Office Ray Hackney, Assistant Dead of Medical School Admissions Larry Keith, housekeeper Esther Ko, Carolina Union Director Don Luse, and Assistant Provost for Institutional Research and Assessment Lynn Williford.