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More than 20,000 applications for undergraduate admission were received for the fall 2002 semester, President David P. Roselle told the faculty April 8, and the SATs of those students admitted are 23 points higher than the average for all applicants.
Speaking at the semiannual general faculty meeting in Gore Hall, Roselle said that in 1990, 83 percent of those applying for admission were accepted; however in 2002, fewer than 50 percent of applicants are admitted.
Early decision applications have risen from 672 in 1993 to 1,223 in 2002, he said, and, the number of Honors Program applicants has increased by 72 percent since 1990.
Statistics show that 90 percent of UD’s first-year students are retained and 70 percent of them graduate, the president continued. “Both percentages are above average for ‘highly selective’ institutions,” he said.
Graduate school applications also are up, setting an all-time record of 6,000 applicants in 2002, with 60 percent of them applying on the web. “This allows a 24-hour turnaround in graduate admission processing,” Roselle said. Undergraduate student applications on the web also rose from 10 percent last year to 23 percent for fall 2002.
The president also mentioned that the 2002 best graduate school rankings in the April 15 U.S. News and World Report included the College of Engineering, ranked 41; the Department of Chemical Engineering, ranked 8; the School of Education, ranked 50. Other UD graduate programs also were ranked as follows: applied mathematics, ranked 44; biological sciences, ranked 121; chemistry, ranked 67; computer science, ranked 60; mathematics, ranked 73; and physics, ranked 77.
Roselle noted that the recently signed AAUP contract includes salary raises of 3 to 3.75 percent over three years for the faculty. “We will do the same for the rest of the campus,” he said. He also noted that a research semester offered by the University for assistant professors in their first six years is consistent with the requirements for awarding tenure.
Roselle told the faculty that a $10 million research vessel, as yet unnamed, will be the successor to the Cape Henlopen. Serving the College of Marine Studies, the vessel will be 138 feet long and will sleep 24.
While discussing ongoing construction and renovation projects on campus, he said Mechanical Hall, adjacent to Old College, will be renovated to house the Paul R. Jones Collection of African-American art, after the Army ROTC program relocates in June to 314 Wyoming Rd. The new Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, to be located adjacent to Clayton Hall, is expected to be completed in May 2003. The groundbreaking ceremony was held Sunday, April 21.
Increasing the number of endowed professorships remains a high priority with the Campaign for Delaware, Roselle said, because they assist in recruitment and retention. “The total to date has reached 77,” he said. “Some positions are newly endowed, and we have gone back and put funding in others established without any endowment.”
Roselle said the Campaign for Delaware has raised $280 million, with one-third of the campaign term to go. “The goal had been to raise $225 million in 60 months,” he said.
Following memorial tributes to five former faculty members, the meeting passed three changes to the Constitution of the Faculty. The year 1970 was removed from the Roberts Rules edition used to govern meetings and the definition of a quorum was changed.
A quorum now consists of “all voting members of the University Faculty in attendance and a minimum of three-quarters of the University Faculty Senators.” Previously the constitution had defined a quorum as one quarter of the University faculty, or more than 275 members.
Minutes of Faculty Senate meetings are available at http://www.udel.edu/facsen/.
April 26, 2002
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