Abbott lays out plan for coming year in State of the University Address
President James Abbott spoke to USD faculty and staff Thursday afternoon in Aalfs Auditorium for his 19th State of the University Address.
In his address, Abbott defended liberal arts education at USD, and said politicians have taken to criticizing the education system.
“It’s a bit of a pet peeve (of mine) that a liberal arts education is sort of under seige,” he said. “I support all kinds of education, but I really feel as if we’re doing them (the students) a disservice when we don’t stand up for the liberal arts. Is there an essential skill more important than thinking?”
Abbott said the world is changed by people who can express themselves and think for themselves – something USD teaches students.
“It’s not the first job that counts, but the last one,” Abbott said.
During the course of his speech, Abbott outlined improvements at USD and talked about changes needed at the university to improve the college experience for students.
Among the top improvements on his list are the tearing down and renovations of old campus buildings, increasing first-year student enrollment numbers and the creation of more diversity on campus in regards to both race and gender.
“Noteboom, Julian and the Julian addition — that’s kind of the triple threat for inadequate educational buildings,” he said.
The building renovations will come once the university gets a donation for the projects, but Abbott said it’s hard getting people to donate money to tear something down rather than donating for the construction of a new building.
In his report, Abbott also talked about student enrollment. From 2014 to 2015, the incoming first-year class decreased from 1,837 to 1,806 students. The total number of students attending USD in 2015 is 9,971, with 2,536 of those students being graduate students.
Out of the 9,971 students, 3,904 are males and 6,067 are females. About 85 percent of the student population is white. Abbott said he would like to see the number of males at USD increase as well as the racial diversity of students.
“Gender is a concern,” he said. “I’d like it if I could say this was a little bit better mix.”
From data obtained by student surveys, Abbott said students are satisfied with their time at USD, but have doubts about how their student activity fees are being used and what their tuition is being used for. At the conclusion of his speech, Abbott thanked the faculty and staff for their continued hard work.
“While there’s always room for improvement it’s clear that our faculty and staff are meeting the challenges of our students. They’re making our students happy …,” he said.”I think we should be extremely proud of that.”
(Photo: President James Abbott speaks to USD faculty and staff during his State of the Univerisity Address on Thursday afternoon in Aalfs Auditorium. Malachi Petersen / The Volante)
