Remarks
University of Houston-Downtown
PRESIDENT MAX CASTILLO
GRAND OPENING SHEA STREET BUILDING
NOVEMBER 13, 2007

Thank you for joining me today to celebrate the grand opening of the Shea Street Building, the new home of the University of Houston-Downtown's College of Business.

Typically in the Fall I do a report to the community, but this year I want to let this impressive building speak itself as to the state of our university.   What it says to me, as I think it will to you, is that UHD is engaged in growth and revitalization.

For most of our history, we occupied a single facility, the historic M&M Building up the hill.   Today's event marks the formal addition of the fourth building to the UHD campus.  

The Shea Street Building serves as a symbol of our growth:   both in physical expansion of the campus and in the number of students we serve.   UHD defied national and local trends this fall by garnering an enrollment increase of 3 percent. We now serve almost 11,800 students.   In fact, we have become the 14 th largest public university in the State of Texas.

Our new building is stunning.   It houses our College of Business including the

•  Institute for Financial Literacy,

•  the Center for Entrepreneurship and Family-Owned Businesses,

•  The Center for Supply Chain Management and

•  the Institute for Business, Ethics and Public Issues.

And in fall of '08, a new

baccalaureate degree in Insurance Risk Management, supported by a new Center for Insurance and Risk Management.

I'm pleased to announce that the state's Insurance and Risk Management Board, as well as insurance leaders in Houston have pledged more than $300,000 in cash for the start-up of this program. That is unprecedented support for and undergraduate degree program!

I want to publicly thank Dean Don Bates, Associate Dean Carl Ruthstrom, and the faculty for their leadership in identifying this need and moving forward to provide this degree program that will meet the needs of our business community.

Last academic year, 45 percent of our graduates came from the College of Business. 

Our business college is fully accredited by the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business International, and this new 132-thousand, square-foot building, provides our students and faculty with truly outstanding facilities that they deserve.

The building is also a symbol of the role UHD has taken in its community.   In recent remarks made at our Campus Sustainability Day, Mayor Bill White stated that UHD has helped to reshape the north end of downtown Houston.

And, he is right.   Not only have we built new buildings at Main and Commerce and, now at Main and Shea, but we have also purchased and renovated the historic Willow Street Pump Station.   We plan to purchase new land in upcoming months for future building sites and our partnership with METRO. It will literally be right behind us with the light rail expansion and the construction of the Intermodal Center on UHD property! We will continue to create a well-defined and inviting entry into downtown Houston.

I often remind people that UHD is a young institution , and it really is.   I also like to talk about UHD's role as a new generation university, an institution that strives to be flexible, open to new opportunities, and not bound by convention.  

This institutional mindset opened doors and possibilities as we have:

Developed cutting-edge degree programs in disciplines such as

•  Urban Teacher Education,

•  Biotechnology, and

•  a Master's Degree in Security Management;

Created a Weekend College to embrace opportunities to expand to sites in Sugarland, Cinco Ranch, The Woodlands, and, most recently, Kingwood and Cy Fair Colleges.

And moved aggressively into on-line instruction.  

These and other initiatives have fueled our dramatic growth over the past 15 years and now we are looking to the future to see what's next and where the next 15 years will take us.

This fall semester we initiated a Strategic Planning process led by a campus Strategic Planning Leadership Group.   Academic Leadership Associates, a highly respected consulting group from California, is facilitating the process; and that is how to best use UHD's distinctive capabilities for our students and our community.

We are looking at where we are, and where we should go as an institution.   The foundation for our long-range planning is the Coordinating Board's Closing the Gaps initiative and, of course, the vision articulated in the UH System Strategic Principles Initiatives document. Our Strategic Planning Leadership Group is comprised of six work teams, focusing on Mission and Values, Education Programs, Scholarship, People, External Relations, and Internal Operations.

It is still a work in progress, but I am very pleased with what I see taking shape.   Once we've crafted our Strategic Plan, it will serve as the foundation and blueprint for UHD's future!

And we need to plan, because needless to say, higher education today faces a number of major challenges and driving forces.

1.   Fiscal challenges and unprecedented student mobility.   Higher education is arguably one of our most valuable national assets.   Yet, higher education is increasingly funded by students through tuition and fees because state and federal funding has not kept up with costs.   We are very concerned about affordability, and we are continuing to expand our private fundraising efforts.

Meanwhile our students often take courses online, at Community Colleges, at other universities and at UHD.

2.   We face increased state and federal oversight, new mandates and increased accountability.  

3.   We face significant changes in our student demographics and the range of academic preparedness of incoming students varies greatly--- from students with AP credit to those who need additional support in math. Our students are more ethnically and socially diverse reflecting changes in our community.

4.   Our fourth challenge is Information Technology and Globalization.   We have invested heavily in technology at UHD and we are expanding our global and international initiatives.   We will continue to push ahead with our technological capabilities.   In November next year, we will host the European American Forum, an international higher education conference, in Liverpool.   It's just another way that we are preparing our faculty and students for today's diverse world.

Student expectations are also different today than they were 30 years ago.

Today's 18-year-olds have always known a world with cell phones.   Their expectations for service are high--developed by an on-line, instant access environment.   They want to take classes on line or close to home and work at times that are convenient to them. And they expect 24-hour online services.

There is much to consider in a changing world, in a changing marketplace

Listen to what the U.S. Secretary of Education says about the new education era...

We live, my friends, in a world where knowledge is exploding all around us - where trillions of bits of knowledge move in nanoseconds across the World Wide Web.,,,, Expanding the horizons of knowledge and giving our children the power to use that knowledge wisely are at the very center of this new Education Era. We can not sit still rooted to the chalk board and pencil at a time when a 12-year-old can literally touch his or her mouse pad and travel from web site to web site around the world.

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley delivered these remarks nearly 10 years ago.

Youngsters who were in kindergarten then are now in high school and they have grown up with school websites, online textbooks, and online library resources.   They order school yearbooks online, they pay for school lunches online and they have never known a world without personal computers. They meet their friends on MySpace, Face Book, YouTube, and other social networking sites.   And when they have a question, they look first to the Web for answers.

They are the first generation that can call up Google earth cameras to look at aerial photos of their backyard or aerial photos of Europe.

At UHD, we are ready for them.   Yes, we are ready.   We have invested heavily in technology and facilities and we have excellent faculty. UHD IS a New Generation university that will meet this new generation's expectations.

Our strength is our ability to adapt quickly to meet demands for new and growing programs.

For example, we know there is an unmet demand for MBA degrees in downtown Houston.   We have built this building, the Shea Street Building, with the capacity in the future to offer an MBA degree and we hope to move in the of serving an unmet need; a unique program that will respond to a very diverse community and diverse world.

I hope many of you take a few minutes to see the building today. It includes wireless study lounges, state-of-the-art classrooms, and many other amenities.   We think the architectural design and décor will inspire students, faculty and staff.   It points to new possibilities.

Our future is here today.

Our culture is a perfect match for the fast-changing landscape of higher education.

We will continue to support the goals of the state and our system, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

I count on all of you to assist UHD and I look forward to working with each of you as we work to make your vision our reality.