Greg McClain, Chaired the meeting since Henry Brown could not attend the meeting, he called the meeting to order at 1:00 P.M. on Sunday, October 17, 2004 .

Welcome and Introductions

Attendance: Adeleye Ajbajo, Lindsay Bagnall, Valentino Bates, Harvest Collier, Mariesa Crow, Jessica Smoot duMaine, Arlan DeKock, Connie Eggert, Kandy Elder, Lawrence George, Floyd Harris, Marcus A. Huggans, Maria Holmes, Lois Jaquess, Paula Lutz, Gregory McClain, Robert Mitchell, Jim Murphy, Veo Peoples, Mark Potrafka, Y.T. Shah, Gregory Skannal, Lynn Stichnote, Gary Thomas, and Henry Weibe.

There was a motion to approve the minutes of the February 28, 2004 meeting. There was a second and the motion passed.

Subcommittee Reports

Retention- Jessica Du Maine

UMR’s 2003 retention is not as well as expected. She challenged or requested the committee to identify three suggestions or corrective strategies that can implemented to improve retention. Students feel that the Campus environment is much more positive than in the past as noted by Lawrence George noted who was among the attendees at the Alpha’s spring forum related to environmental issues. Many of the new students expressed concerns about the campus and community environment that more senior students had experienced when they were new students. Representatives from the student chapter of the National Support for Black Engineers (NSBE) asked committee members for financial support for their activities that would supplement the funds available for their attendance at conferences, etc. The students expected to provide the committee members with a formal request which never materialized. A similar verbal request for financial support of the 2005 pre-college initiative (PCI) weekend was made to John Deere. This request was formalized, submitted to Deere to fund the 2005 PCI and approved by John Deere.

Committee Reappointments

Lawrence George noted that the committee members who are eligible for reappointment have agreed to be reappointed. Overtures to several alumni regarding service as committee members did not yield positive results. George reported that he had spoken with two alumnae this weekend asked them to consider accepting appointment to this committee. Work schedules are part of the problem and we are trying to find people who are willing to be part of this activity.

Status of the Campus- This report was presented by Chancellor Thomas.

• State appropriations, student fees and research revenue are all about the same. Research has doubled, but so has the indirect costs.
• Revenue trends revealed that the average family incomes students have risen from $61,000 to $67,000 where $61,000 is about 50% above the state average of families of college students.
• Enrollment did not meet its target as it is slightly down from last year. This year we had 85% retention of 1 st year students who returned in the second year. The graduation rate was 63%. Retention of women is 91% for freshmen who returned to school this year. The graduation rate for women is 75% which is higher than that for male students.
• African American student retention –A chart was shown and the data does not show a consistent pattern because, unfortunately, the number is small. We had an 80% return last year, which is a high number. This is a 26% point increase over what it was a few years ago.
• UMR Ranking – moved up six places in US News ranking. The major change in UMR’s measure was a 10% increase in graduation rate to 60%. UMR’s total score is only 3 points behind that of UMC.
• Challenge for AARRC Committee – The University has set aside money to match endowed chairs and new programs on a one on one match basis. For every $15,000 we raise in private money, the university will put $15,000 in our endowment. We are losing more and more students who are interested in attending UMR because of financial needs. As a result of this increasing problem, the UMS has set $1 million dollar for undesignated endowments. These endowments will grow in time. We would like to set aside a certain amount of endowments for minority students on a preferential basis. An article on universities that have struggled with high court costs ruling on minority admissions was passed out. The yellow shaded area on the article states, quote “What schools have done is expand the criteria so many of the same people are now included but it is not race-exclusive. Many of these achieve the same ends,” said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education, a Washington organization representing 1,800 college and university administrators.
• The former School of Mines and Metallurgy was reorganized and is now known as the School of Materials , Energy and Earth Resources (SoMEER). The departmental changes were
• Athlete program – 76% of the student athlete graduates. Kate Hamera was named Missouri NCAA Woman of the year.
• Our student’s success in various areas of competition continues to be excellent. The solar car has won another national championship. UMR was one of the top five schools in the hydrogen fueling stations competition. We finished second in the aerospace vehicle (heavy lift aircraft) last year and we were first in the previous year. The formula car finished 4 th out of 140 colleges from 12 nations (that’s 4 th in the world). The human-powered vehicles raced have been won by UMR for the 3 rd year in a row. Race Car Engineering has an inset of the UMR team on the cover of the magazine with about a five-page article regarding the student design formula car and the testing and design.
• Havener Center not quite complete, but will arrange a tour if you wish to see it. Dedication will be April 22, but will be using it before that.
• First Residential College is not quite completed because it is six months behind schedule. The second residential college will be started shortly thereafter.
• Mechanical Aerospace Building - we hope to get started this year.

Harvest Collier spoke for Jay Goff, Dean of Enrollment Management. Referred to the report and asked if there were any questions.

Capital Campaign: Fund Raising – This presentation was made by Vice Chancellor for Advancement Connie Eggert.

• VC Eggert informed the committee that committee members Henry Brown and Zeb Nash are members of the Board of Trustees and they serve on the fund raising committee.
• The previous campaign was reviewed and it was noted that UMR had not been involved in fund raising until 1983.
• The Alumni Office has been involved and assisted with department-based fund raising through phone a-thons.
• UMR’s first campaign effort, from 1994-2000, raised $67 million in which 43% of the alumni contributed.
• Discussions regarding the second campaign began in 2001 through donor evaluations. Based on information gathered during the evaluations, the quiet phase of campaign began.
• UMR is in the second year of the 7 year campaign. The campaign will remain silent until half of the goal is reached before making the public announcement
• UMR’s second campaign goal is $120 million; it is designed to enable UMR to become one of the top ten technological universities. Recommendations for the name (or focus) and strategy for this campaign should be sent to the Campaign Organizing Committee.

What will it take for us to achieve a ranking among the top ten technological universities? There are four steps that we believe can help us achieve this: 1. Prepare students for a new world because things are changing dramatically. Leadership, teamwork, design, undergraduate research, athletes, ethics, character, and diversity are part of what every citizen needs to know. 2. Enhance our core strengths; these are areas that the committee felt strongly about. 3. Enable (facilitate) emerging technologies. We don’t want to become the biotechnology leader of the nation, but we need to currently enable these technologies to move forward. We need dramatic investment in this area to be a major player. 4. Advance entrepreneurship and economic development.

VC Eggert quickly went through the financial projections to achieve a successful campaign by comparing the current status with campaign one at this stage. She then explained the $120 million dollar campaign strategy.

• University Advancement - involves increasing interest, increasing involvement, and increasing investment. There are three primary divisions that do this. 1. Increasing interest is Public Relations under Andy Careaga. 2. Increasing involvement is Alumni Relations under Lindsay Bagnall. 3. Securing investment is Development under Julie Turley.
• Pyramid of donations to the University - We have 23,000 alumni who have given

at least once in their lifetime. We have 9,155 alumni who have potential donors of $10,000 or greater. We have 1,500 alumni under active cultivation, which is a nice way to say we are looking for someone to move them from interest involvement to interest investment. In order for us to raise $120 million dollars we need a $15 million dollar gift, we need a $10 million dollar gift, we need a three $5 million dollar gifts, etc. Showed a number of perspective donors who are capable of giving such a gift. Shows how many we have in our data base that can give a $15 million dollar gift, and showed that we have a lot of $50,000 capacity and $100,000 capacity. The challenge is for the Alumni Relations and Development to get out there and talk to these people and to get their commitment. We did this analysis of our alumni base as requested and we are going to go through each of those slices of the pyramid. Available alumni - is sorted by gender, by graduation year, and then ethnicity. By gender we have 85% of our alumni that are male. We have a significant number of widows who give to the University. Graduation year is sorted by age. Under 22-39 year olds is 36% of our alumni base is under 40. Unfortunately we didn’t start tracking ethnicity until 1989. 68% of our alumni data base we have no idea what their ethnicity is. Black and non-Hispanic is 743 individuals. Donor base she has done the same thing with. Of the 43,000 who have donated at least once to the University – 67% of the donor base is male, again we have widows, of which 160 widows have contributed 2,168 female students. Again by ethnicity 78% of the donor base of people who have given at least once is unknown. We do have 278 coded as black, or non-Hispanic who is donors.

• Where we go need is that we need to do for African Americans is that we need to build a sense of pride, a sense of involvement, and build visions. (Lawrence George asked VC Eggert to give this report because it isn’t evident that minority populations contribute to or respond positively to campaign solicitations. Many African Americans were students prior the improved campus climate paradym shift regarding appreciation and acceptance of ethnic minority populations. None of these folks are willing to invest in this institution because they are not aware of the paradym shift. George indicated that he doesn’t know how many people realize or understand this but we need to make them aware that this barrier exists and that it impacts contributions to the campaign as well assistance with student recruitment

Provost Cabinet Reports . Provost Shah made brief remarks about operations related to the Office of the Provost. He indicated that all of the reports were posted on the Blackboard to enable committee members to read them prior to the meeting. He then asked each of the deans to give their report.

• Paula Lutz, College of Arts and Sciences, indicated that she had submitted her report for posting on the Blackboard and asked if there were any questions.
• Robert Mitchell, School of Engineering , reported that UMR graduated more African American’s with engineering degrees than Purdue University and more than University of Illinois and Ohio State . Last year there were 50 African American degrees, 18 advanced degrees, and 7 American Indian degrees.

Announcements

• Kandy Elder, Student Life Coordinator of Cultural Programs, announced that the African American Cultural Recognition Committee is sponsoring a play of African culture for the campus and area communities. The students of African heritage decided they wanted to participate in a dramatization of African culture. The play will be held in Leach Theater on December 4 and 5 and a reception will be held following the play in the SWB Culture Center .
• Chancellor Gary Thomas indicated that the University of Missouri System will match new initiatives (endowments) for every $15,000.00 raised. In view of this, he encouraged the committee to consider pledging sufficient resources to qualify for the matching funds that can be earmarked endowments for economically disadvantaged students or whatever wording is appropriate to address specific ethnic or gender consideration.

Upcoming Meetings

February 26, 2005 (last Saturday in February)

Meeting Adjourned at 3:05 p.m.

Supplemental information is available on the Blackboard, which can be assessed from the CAC AARR C web site.