By Brad Atzinger

University of Louisville President James Ramsey will begin the fall semester with an A-plus, after the Board of Trustees recognized 2006-07 as an “exceptional year for President Ramsey.”

The Board of Trustees evaluated Ramsey July 12, and lauded his accomplishments, saying in a release that they have “the potential to advance the university’s preeminence goal more quickly than any other time in the past.” The Board also credited Ramsey for his achievement of 21 of 23 goals established by the trustees in their “Challenge for Excellence.”

But the president acknowledged the labors of other university leaders. “Those are everybody’s goals,” Ramsey said of the Trustees’ objectives, which included marks for research, diversity, retention and community outreach.

The Trustees’ goals required coordination among the president, vice-presidents and Provost Shirley Willinghanz. “No one person can do any of this,” Ramsey said. “I can say I’m going to raise graduation rates, but that involves changes in advising, changes in academic support and a lot of other things.”

University Trustees commended Ramsey for meeting diversity standards for three straight years, increased graduation and retention rates and strides made in health care and faculty excellence.

Ramsey was optimistic about the 2007-08 year, saying U of L can expect to meet all of the 2007-08 requirements. U of L has already made headway in the area of research fund raising, with the acquirement of a $4.4 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Health for an environmental genetics lab. The university snagged another $12 million from Kosair for the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

He also touted the credentials of 2007’s newcomers among both students and staff. “We can truly expect to have an outstanding freshman class in terms of quality. [They have] a very high grade point average and ACT scores around 24.2.”

“We’ve worked hard to bring in what we call A-pluses,” Ramsey said of new faculty hires. Over the summer, U of L hired eight new deans and Vice President of Information Technology Priscilla Hancock.

“We’ve got a great cadre of academic leaders,” Ramsey said of the deans. “I’ve been at a lot of universities throughout my career, and we’ve got as fine a group of deans as I’ve ever seen.”

Unfortunately, the university will begin the fall semester without state authorization of several major projects.

Ramsey said he was disappointed by the Kentucky General Assembly’s refusal to consider four U of L projects during the hotly contested special session, which originally included renovation of Miller Hall, a parking garage and research facility for the Health Sciences Campus and the expansion of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

“We’re trying to be as creative as we can as a public institution,” Ramsey said, “but if we can work with private developers we can find ways of moving forward.”

Ramsey said private investment will be the direction of the university’s development, and it can help the school avoid legislative gridlock.

“We’re very upbeat,” Ramsey said of the new semester, “despite our funding problems.”