{"id":37636,"date":"2024-08-27T16:27:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T21:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/?p=37636"},"modified":"2024-08-28T10:34:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T15:34:28","slug":"state-of-the-u-how-unds-mission-and-vision-are-becoming-realities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/2024\/08\/state-of-the-u-how-unds-mission-and-vision-are-becoming-realities\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the U: How UND\u2019s mission and vision are becoming realities"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his State of the University address, UND\u2019s president points to real progress and describes exciting developments to come<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"President
UND President Andrew Armacost walks among the people attending the 2024 State of the University event. Photo by Shawna Schill, UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> In the UND LEADS Strategic Plan,<\/a><\/strong> the \u201cAffinity\u201d<\/strong> <\/a>core value includes calls to \u201cacknowledge the valuable contributions of UND team members\u201d and \u201cenhance programs for all faculty and staff that will cultivate a sense of belonging at the University of North Dakota.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Through his State of the University address, UND President Andy Armacost proudly acknowledges those contributions and strives to cultivate that sense of belonging, in keeping with the goals of the Strategic Plan.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A video of the president\u2019s remarks can be found at the bottom of this article.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

\u201cTo inspire a sense of wonder, a love of discovery and a commitment to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what President Andrew Armacost<\/a><\/strong> asked the overflow crowd at the 2024 State of the University address to keep in mind, as he led them through his presentation.<\/p>\n

To help them do just that, he reached back to 1961 for an anecdote of President John F. Kennedy, when the president made a visit to Cape Canaveral. While watching people working to prepare for an upcoming rocket launch, Kennedy came upon a custodian.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what do you do here?\u201d the president asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to put a man on the moon,\u201d the worker answered.<\/p>\n

In a similar way, people all across campus play a role in driving UND forward \u2014 and, in fact, that they should <\/em>see themselves as important to the University, Armacost said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat anecdote,\u201d Armacost said, \u201crings true every time I think about it \u2014 about the contributions of everyone across UND, about doing the mission of the University, about supporting our students, about supporting one another, and making the mission and vision a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 350 faculty and staff members attended the event, which was held again in the Barry Auditorium of the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration on Thursday, Aug. 22, and streamed via Zoom. Attendance was such that the crowd overflowed into the nearby common room of Nistler Hall.<\/p>\n

Armacost bookended his speech with a pair of data points, the first of which showed UND\u2019s retention rate of first-year students. From the fall of 2022 to the fall of 2023, UND retained 83% of its first-year students. As Armacost noted, that\u2019s the highest figure ever recorded for retention in the North Dakota University System \u2014 or at least, since 1990, which is when the system started recording those numbers, Armacost said.<\/p>\n

He credited everyone at UND for this accomplishment. \u201cThat’s the support, that’s the environment that we all create,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s not just in the classroom; it’s across the campus. It’s everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"people
People applaud during the 2024 State of the University address. Photo by Shawna Schill\/UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Armacost also made sure to note UND\u2019s steady increase in enrollment, a climb that is bucking national trends in higher education. In particular, he mentioned the soon-to-be incoming class of freshmen has increased by about 400 students, or 23%.<\/p>\n

The second data point, which came toward the end of the address, involved research, and the dramatic increase in research funding UND has experienced. Four years ago, research expenditures totaled about $110 million, but since then have climbed to $182 million in expenditures in 2023.<\/p>\n

Armacost said that trend is expected to continue, and that funded research \u2014 coming largely from federal and state grants \u2014 shows a commitment at the institutional level to instilling a \u201clove of discovery\u201d and nurturing \u201ca sense of wonder,\u201d sentiments captured by the vision statement at the top of this article.<\/p>\n

Between those two data points were stories from across campus \u2014 stories that heralded the efforts of staff and faculty members over the year.<\/p>\n

For example, Ed Martin, assistant director of dining, and campus horticulturist Melissa Grafenauer were recognized for their work to feed and mentor student employees and keep the campus beautiful.<\/p>\n

Armacost also gave a shout-out to Troy Noeldner,<\/a><\/strong> director of Housing, and Art Malloy,<\/a><\/strong> vice president of Student Affairs, for their dedication to making sure UND is able to provide safe housing for its growing number of students.<\/p>\n

The list of individual and collective accomplishments continues:<\/p>\n