By Sarah Mcsparin
After a year of completed goals and overall growth, University of Louisville President Dr. James R. Ramsey acknowledged that U of L still has room for improvement in his State of the University Address on Sept. 12.
“While we have been successful in the first half of our journey…today we recommit,” Ramsey said. “We will finish the job.”
After meeting 21 of 23 “Challenge for Excellence,” goals in 2006-07, Ramsey began his speech by highlighting this accomplishment along with many other successes from last year.
The school of dentistry’s ranking of 17th in the nation for research funding, the opening of a cardiovascular innovation institute, and the school’s first National Institute of Health designation were just a few achievements completed despite lack of financial support from the state, Ramsey said.
“Our research is, in and of itself, economic development, but more importantly the knowledge we create allows us to improve the quality of life for the people of our community, our state and beyond,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said U of L has also been honored with having more students rewarded with Fulbright Scholarships than any other university in Kentucky, and was the only university in the state to reach each of the eight diversity goals set by the Council on Post Secondary Education.
“We still have work to do to achieve true diversity on our campus,” Ramsey said. “It is our responsibility as a campus community to continue day after day, week after week, month after month to promote within our campus and within our community tolerance and acceptance of all people.”
Although the audience was primarily composed of U of L faculty and staff, students in attendance expressed approval of hearing diversity issues addressed.
“We met all the diversity goals, that was good to hear considering all the challenges we went through,” junior political science and mathematics major Dede Tran said. “Ramsey stressed that U of L still has challenges to tackle.”
U of L’s main financial challenge for this year was the failure of the Ky. General Assembly to approve several U of L projects.
“At the state level, we faced a non-budget legislative session that did not address our vetoed projects and the minimal research funding increases which had been previously approved for the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky,” Ramsey said. “From the beginning of the Challenge for Excellence in 1998 to today we have raised over $750 million.”
Ramsey once again stated his desire to continue to expand the university’s partnership and commitment to the city.
“It is a story that says to the people of our state, Kentucky cannot grow if Louisville does not grow and Louisville cannot grow without the leadership of the University of Louisville,” Ramsey said.
