August 23, 2004

A message from University of Houston President Jay Gogue:

Welcome back for what promises to be another great year for the University of Houston. And for those of you who are new to our university family, I extend a warm welcome on behalf of your faculty and staff colleagues.

Many good things happened over the summer that will give us an excellent start to the academic year. We began a $6 million classroom renovation project and increased campus parking by 800 spaces. The Honors College settled into its new home in the M.D. Anderson Library, which is nearing completion of its own renovations and additions. About 100 faculty members will join their world-renowned colleagues here at the university. And fall enrollment set another record high, following a record spring enrollment.

Our construction, faculty hires and record enrollments are exciting to me because they tell me the people of Houston and Texas believe in the value of a high-quality university education. They also tell me that as a university, we must continue to look at the issues of access and affordability if we are going to meet the expectations of the college-going public.

Projections indicate the population of the Houston area will increase by about two million by 2015. If our student population grows as expected, we will need additional facilities, classrooms, faculty, staff and the supporting infrastructure such as housing, libraries and parking.

Last summer, the University of Houston System worked with the faculty, staff and students from each of our universities to put together a set of systemwide strategic principles and initiatives that will allow us to focus on the issues important to the people of the upper Gulf Coast. Key among them are the principles of accessibility and partnerships. It is clear that the Texas Legislature, which has been very generous to us in the past, cannot afford to fund us at the levels we need to meet the increasing demands associated with a college education. That means we have to look at things in a different light in this new day in higher education. The cornerstone of our strategic plan is to take advantage of the synergies that come from the development of strong and effective partnerships with other colleges and universities; with local, state and federal government entities; with foundations and corporations; with community leaders; and with individuals, particularly our faculty, staff and alumni.

I am excited and encouraged that others share our vision for partnerships, particularly as we prepare for the next session of the Texas Legislature that begins in January 2005. I want to thank the members of our faculty and staff for your strong support with the Legislature over the years. It has been critical to our success, and it will continue to be so in this next session.

I want to thank all of you for your support and comments during my first year as president. I’ve enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to working with you to build upon our accomplishments.