The sustaining power of people, place, and purpose

This report comes at the end of my first year as president of Lewis & Clark College--a whirlwind year of new friendships and wonderful surprises. The year has been especially memorable for the warm and gracious welcome Marcia and I have received from the students, faculty, staff, colleagues, and friends of Lewis & Clark here in Portland, and from the wide network of alumni and their families across the nation and around the world. Most of all, this year has been an inspiring and exhilarating confirmation of the extraordinary resources of talent, energy, and idealism that together make this college one of the country's great institutions of higher learning.

Ours is truly a magnificent campus situated in a beautiful and strategic part of the world. We have enviable financial and especially human resources that impel us to reach out and engage the future of our world with courage and hope. We have clarity of purpose: to expand the boundaries of knowledge and to prepare generations of students for lives of learning, leadership, and public service.

We benefit today from the vision and the work of all who came before us and from those whose generosity has given us critical support and advanced our growth. Our people, place, and purpose are, in fact, inseparable from the generous hearts and gifts that sustain us. That is why we present this Annual Report in combination with our Honor Roll of Donors for 2004-05: Each piece is woven of the same cloth. What we do here is only possible when we have tangible, meaningful support from many individuals and many sources.

You will find in this report information that outlines a trajectory of progress. Applications for admission are up, even as our selection process becomes more rigorous. Enrollment is up. Standards for academic achievement are up. Grants and awards for teaching and research are up. Our endowment is up.

Statistics help us plot our progress over time. They also help us identify areas where we need to focus our efforts. Just as valuable for us as statistics are the stories that bring our campus alive--stories of people and of programs that give our purpose breath and dimension. Some of those stories are here also.

Programs shaped by place

As you walk this campus, explore Portland, or venture to the many terrains that adorn our state--the coast, the gorge, the mountains, the high desert, the forests, the dunes--you cannot separate what we do from where we are. The environment shapes our perspective and exerts a profound influence on the programs at Lewis & Clark.

Concern for the environment has become such a defining characteristic of our academic character and reputation that it informs many of our decisions, including those involving expansion and construction. Environmental awareness and sustainability, in fact, were hallmarks of the multiyear program of capital development that culminated this year. That program included the acquisition of South Campus, the addition of new apartment-style student residences, and the construction or major renovation of academic buildings for each of the three schools.

The last project to be completed, and indeed an impressive capstone to the whole program, was John R. Howard Hall. Its dedication on the 35th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, 2005, was a fitting tribute to our environmental ethic.

This splendid three-story structure--with its spectacular vistas of mountains and forests, 26 classrooms, 4 conference rooms, 2 computer labs, and nearly 50 faculty and staff offices--houses academic departments and administrative offices for interdisciplinary programs that together represent nine of our undergraduate majors. With its wonderful mix of instructional and public spaces, Howard Hall embodies the values of discourse both inside and outside the classroom that are a hallmark of a Lewis & Clark education.

In building Howard Hall, contractors recycled more than 95 percent of construction debris. With a net gain of 25 offices and 14 classrooms, Howard Hall occupies a far smaller footprint on campus than the buildings it replaces. It features a remarkable storm-water filtration, storage, and recycling system to capture and reuse hundreds of gallons of runoff each year that might otherwise transport pollutants into the Willamette River.

As an academic hub and environmental showcase, Howard Hall honors the president whose two decades of visionary leadership saw the merger of Northwestern School of Law with the College, and the start of the undergraduate overseas programs, both of which have been so instrumental in the transformation of Lewis & Clark into an institution of national stature.

Our stature was again affirmed when, at the initiative of students and with the urging of faculty and staff, I was honored to sign the International Talloires Declaration of Sustainability on April 22, 2005, making Lewis & Clark College the first institution of higher education in Oregon to take this important step. Declaration signatories commit their institutions to 10 key actions designed to ensure a sustainable future for the earth's environment, including increasing awareness of environmental stewardship through education and research.

This year brought further recognition when the law school's environmental law program, the oldest of its kind in the nation, was ranked first in the country by U.S. News & World Report's annual survey of graduate programs--the sixth time in the last 10 years the program has received this honor.

In August 2004, former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announced plans to establish and direct a new center at the law school. The Kitzhaber Center seeks innovative approaches to the complex governance problems that are inherent in many natural resource conflicts. The center's first project focuses on developing policies for sustainable forest management practices for public forest lands, a focus of tremendous impact and importance for our region, our state, and the nation.

Our communal sense of the environment as a force that shapes us, and that we must therefore sustain, found poignant expression this year with the dedication of the Professor Evan T. Williams Memorial Tree Walk on May 7, 2005. In 2002, Evan Williams, professor of chemistry and founder and chair of the environmental studies major, inspired students to take on the challenge of restoring and enhancing a campus tree walk that had fallen into neglect in the early 1990s. Students responded with enthusiasm, as they inevitably did whenever Evan was involved. When Professor Williams died in the spring of 2004, the Class of 2004 dedicated their senior gift to the tree walk. Invigorated by this work, the Class of 2005 developed educational materials to accompany the walk's restoration. The walk now takes in 20 species of trees, including native trees that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark encountered on their journey west. I am deeply grateful to the many generous donors who have contributed to the creation of this wonderful and growing signature of our campus.

I am also grateful to the Class of 2005 for its leadership and compassion in dedicating its senior gift to the H. Adunni Warren Scholarship fund in memory of Ray Warren, our beloved associate dean of students and director of ethnic student services who died of cancer in December 2004. Efforts by the senior class inspired an outpouring of donations to the Warren scholarship from the Lewis & Clark community and many others--a fitting tribute to Ray, a dual graduate of the College (B.S. '65, M.A.T. '71), 1989 inductee into the Lewis & Clark College Sports Hall of Fame, remarkable man, and inspiring presence on our campus for more than 20 years. Ray demonstrated how deeply he cared about the mission and character of the College by working tirelessly with his colleagues to make ours a welcoming, diverse community. He honored us with his service, and we were pleased to name a new annual symposium in his honor: the Ray Warren Multicultural Symposium.

Developing leadership through learning

While our three schools serve distinct constituencies, their pursuit of academic excellence and their shared commitment to preparing our students for leadership in society unite them in purpose. Recognition of the outstanding quality of our academic programs has come in many forms this past year.

Under the leadership of Dean Peter Cookson, the Graduate School of Education and Counseling has had many achievements this year. An external evaluation team from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education visited the school in April 2005 to conduct an exhaustive, weeklong assessment of all aspects of our programs in teacher education, school counseling, school psychology, and educational administration. They interviewed students, graduates, faculty, and staff, and conducted site visits to local area schools where our students do their placements. At this writing, we await the formal accreditation decision. The team has already shared several commendations and findings that underscore the strength of our programs, the respect our graduates earn among their professional colleagues, and the transformative effect our programs have on the lives of our students.

Transformation was especially evident on July 9, 2004, when 18 established and experienced educational leaders from around Oregon arrived on campus, becoming the first candidates to begin a doctoral studies program at Lewis & Clark College. On that day, the College's Graduate School of Education and Counseling officially welcomed the first candidates for the degree of doctor of education in leadership.

The program's design and structure integrate each student's day-to-day work experience and academic studies. Blending theory and practice gives sharper focus to course content and generates real-world improvements in the participants' schools and districts. Students from all three schools are regularly surveyed about their experience at Lewis & Clark, and almost without exception they direct their highest appreciation to the quality of their professors.

This ringing endorsement speaks volumes about the caliber of faculty who make their careers at the College and to the close association between teaching and research. Scholarship encompasses both teaching and research, and Lewis & Clark seeks first of all to be a community of scholars, engaged in learning and in the advancement of learning through studying and teaching, through exploration and discovery, and through service to our world.

Collaborative research projects involving faculty and students have become a hallmark of scholarship at Lewis & Clark, and these joint endeavors are becoming more productive for all three schools. A generous gift from the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation established an endowment in 1998 to fund collaborative faculty-student research projects in the sciences, and the success of that program has led to similar initiatives by faculty from the social sciences and arts and humanities, though these programs are not yet endowed. Our long-term goal is to make it possible financially for any student from any of the schools with the desire and aptitude for serious and sustained scholarly research to be offered the rare opportunity to participate in a faculty-mentored project.

The College of Arts and Sciences begins the 2005-06 academic year with a new dean who is a strong and effective advocate for the benefits of student research. Professor Julio de Paula, who as a child came to this country from Brazil, has had a distinguished academic career as teacher, research scientist, and director of an interdisciplinary research center at Haverford College. Among other awards, Dean de Paula has been recognized for his contributions to teaching and scholarship by being elected to the national Council on Undergraduate Research, where he chairs the chemistry division. This past year, a College of Arts and Sciences committee chaired by Associate Professor of Physics Thomas Olsen developed and won faculty approval for a new first-year common course titled Exploration and Discovery. While it will replace Inventing America, the two-semester course that has been a rite of passage for all first-year students for the past 10 years, Exploration and Discovery will retain an emphasis on understanding ideas of great historical import, on defining civic responsibility, and on developing skills of writing, speaking, and analysis.

Through their participation in leadership and service programs, students, faculty, and staff in all three of our schools demonstrate each day that a truly liberal education is, at its core, a humane undertaking. Their commitment to social purpose and civic responsibility finds expression in serving those with special needs, those in dire circumstances, and those who yearn for basic human connection. This past year, for example, the graduate school coordinated an organized, sustained, and ongoing response to the Southeast Asia tsunami that includes focusing on psychosocial issues and education development in affected communities. The law school sponsors numerous clinics and programs that extend legal assistance to our most vulnerable citizens. And students in the College of Arts and Sciences regularly contribute more than 10,000 volunteer hours annually to a dizzying array of public service projects.

This generation of Lewis & Clark students shares the urge to improve the world with previous generations who have also extended the reach of service beyond our campus boundaries. Recognizing our long tradition of fostering social responsibility and public service, The Princeton Review and Campus Compact this year designated Lewis & Clark a "College with a Conscience." Ours is one of 81 institutions of higher education in the nation to earn this honor.

Lewis & Clark has also long been a leader in international education. Our overseas program has always emphasized developing and non-Western countries and cultures, and our curriculum on campus is global in scope rather than predominantly Western. The unique quality of our overseas study programs came to enhance the identity of Lewis & Clark as a college of international reach and connections, and led in turn to the recruitment of international students as an excellent opportunity to enrich and diversify our academic community at home. Those ideals have not lost their relevance, but their fulfillment has been made harder with the recent tightening of immigration controls. Yet I am pleased to report that Lewis & Clark has not lost its international focus. More than half of our undergraduate students study off campus for at least one semester before their graduation, and this past year we were privileged to have nationals from 44 countries represented among our students. I was first attracted to Lewis & Clark myself by the College's strength in international education, and so it was a real pleasure last winter to visit and bring greetings to our many alumni in South Asia, and this summer to make new friends in "old Europe." I look forward to other such trips in the future, and of course to meeting loyal alumni and friends across this country whose support is so critical to our mission.

This has indeed been a very good year for the College. Tuition revenues in all three schools exceeded our budgeted estimates, and the recovery in the equity markets has resulted in significant investment gains.

The mark of a truly great school, however, will always be the breadth and depth of its support from loyal donors who cherish its contribution to their own lives, who respect its mission, and who believe in its future. Those of us who live and work here value such support beyond words, and we are focusing on sustaining and increasing such gifts through enhanced communications and extensive outreach.

The quality of the programs we offer costs far more than most students could afford to pay and significantly exceeds the income we receive from tuition. To sustain that quality we depend on the generosity of our friends, and to all those whose names are listed in our Honor Roll of Donors, I extend our heartfelt gratitude.

Thomas J. Hochstettler
President