September 26, 2005

With the conclusion of the 2004-2005 academic and fiscal year, I am pleased to report briefly on the state of the College and to provide a synopsis of plans for the coming year.…

From my perspective, the year has been an unequivocal success. For Marcia and me, it has been a year of getting to know Lewis & Clark, a monumental but joyful task, given the great complexity of this institution and the equally great generosity of spirit of those who labor on behalf of the College. We hear on every hand the great enthusiasm of alumni and friends, and we see in every quadrant the tremendous quality of Lewis & Clark. We are proud and grateful to be able to call Lewis & Clark home.

I count among the most important achievements of this last year that of filling the three senior executive positions at the College. Julio de Paula now serves as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Denis Ransmeier as Vice President for Business and Finance/Treasurer, and Phil Akers as Vice President for Institutional Advancement. With the other members of the senior staff marching in place and with the administrative adjustments that we have undertaken during the last year now in effect, the College has in place an excellent leadership team that is willing and able to undertake further enhancements in the quality and reputation of our institution.

The financial results from last year were gratifying. Sustained levels of high enrollment and controls on tuition discounting have led in recent years to a series of healthy operating margins. This trend is expected to continue into the coming year as well, with undergraduate enrollment projected at 1,920, a level not seen since the late 1980s, and a discount rate at 38 percent, well below the target of 40.5 percent. With the maturation of several significant gift trusts, the College was able to post significant improvements in its balance sheet for fiscal 2004-2005. Two major concerns, however, continue to cloud the horizon: the low rate of alumni giving, in terms of both the number of donors and the size of the average gift; and the ongoing need, albeit intentional and duly planned, of drawing upon endowed funds to service part of our $109 million bonded indebtedness….

Several important indicators point to ever increasing competitiveness of the academic programs of the College:

• the number of undergraduate applications for admission for fall, 2005, was the highest on record (4,187) for the College;

• The percentage of first-year undergraduate students admitted was the lowest ever (60 percent), and the average SAT score for incoming students rose from 1278 in fall 2004 to a record 1287 this year;

• The freshman-to-junior retention rate rose from 73 percent a year ago to 78 percent this year, due in large measure to the new upper-class student housing that went into service three years ago. Accordingly, we anticipate enrollment for continuing students to be 1,390 this year, as opposed to 1,351 in 2004. Total undergraduate enrollment, including new students, is expected to reach 1,950, the highest level since the late 1980s;

• Fall enrollment figures for the Graduate School and the Law School are not final as of this writing, but qualitative indicators in both schools continue to rise.

Please let me reiterate here several highlights from this last semester …

• The College of Arts and Sciences has undertaken a revision of its first-year common course with the adoption of a new model, Exploration and Discovery. The Steering Committee for this initiative has made significant progress in charting the new course and establishing its parameters, with broad support from across the CAS faculty;

• The Graduate School of Education and Counseling has successfully overcome the last hurdles in its accreditation review with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the State of Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission;

• John R. Howard Hall was dedicated on April 22, 2005, the new home of the Social Sciences and of the Departments of Religious Studies and Philosophy;

• The Lewis & Clark School of Law regained its number one ranking in environmental law in U.S. News & World Report

• Finally, the Princeton Review and the Campus Compact named Lewis & Clark as one of an elite group of “Colleges of Conscience,” in recognition of our high degree of community engagement.

… I have set in motion a planning exercise for 2005-2006, as a way of focusing our attention as a community on the opportunities and challenges that we face moving forward. The starting point for this effort is a white paper that I have written, in consultation with many members of the Lewis & Clark community, outlining the challenges and opportunities that face us as we seek ways to do even better that which we already do very well. … In a series of open discussions this fall and winter, I invite everyone within the Lewis & Clark family to consider several major initiatives, both in terms of programmatic enhancement and in terms of facilities … I am also convening a representative planning group, which will include Board members as well as faculty, students, staff, and alumni, to review the results of these dialogs and to help formulate our institutional priorities to bring forward to the Board next spring. Even as we articulate our highest aspirations, however, we must realistically and objectively consider the means whereby we might realize the successful completion of those initiatives. The assessment of our capacity for improvement is an integral part of this planning process. Building upon the strong base that we as a College have established during the last several years, I am confident that we can continue forward in enhancing the quality and reputation of Lewis & Clark in the decades to come.

In the meantime, there are several concrete measures that we are taking to begin moving us in that direction:

• In the next few months, we will be moving forward with the development and implementation of the branding initiative for Lewis & Clark College;

• We will be examining benchmark statistics with regard to unit costs and optimum resource allocation at our peer institutions so as to be better informed about our own position within American higher education and to respond more effectively to the challenges that lie ahead;

• We will continue our program of advancing faculty compensation to a level commensurate with our peer group to safeguard our capacity to recruit and retain excellent faculty;

• We will continue our process of systematically improving our institutional advancement activities, with an eye toward enlisting external support for realizing the College’s potential for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service to our many constituencies.

The years ahead promise great things for Lewis & Clark, and I am gratified that we are now moving from a position of strength in our efforts to achieve for the College a new level of distinction among the very best institutions of higher learning in this country.

Respectfully submitted,
Thomas J. Hochstettler
President