5 Goals

1. to be a student-centered, student-friendly institution;
2. to improve the living and learning environment through new and improved equipment and facilities and through campus beautification;
3. to increase the number of scholarships and fellowships available to undergraduate and graduate students;
4. to encourage discovery-based learning by students, thus enabling them to become lifelong learners; and
5. to provide competitive compensation for faculty and staff.

As a result, UD now is poised to take its place among the nation’s finest institutions of higher education.

“I see a new spirit and optimism in the University community,” agrees Daniel Rich, dean of the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy. “A decade ago, conversations around campus often focused on how the University could better fulfill its potential and how it could gain broader recognition for the quality and value of its academic programs. We have now emerged as a more highly valued, distinctive asset in our state and region, and we are recognized far beyond the campus as a top-ranked national public university.”

Rich adds that UD is a leader in higher educational innovation, citing its work at the forefront “in problem-based, discovery learning and undergraduate research, in the application of new technologies for instruction, in the forging of new public and community service partnerships, in the pursuit of new domains of interdisciplinary research and development and in the ways that universities should organize and operate to meet the demands of the 21st century.

“The campus, whose beauty has been so enriched by new facilities, has become a more dynamic and exciting environment for learning and scholarship,” Rich says. “The spirit and optimism of the members of the University community is a reflection of their pride in being part of this special place, as well as an expression of their expectation that the best is yet to come.”

Discussing key improvements during the decade gone by, UD Board of Trustees Chairman Howard E. Cosgrove says the University “has kept pace with, and in many ways anticipated, the requirements of a world-class center of higher learning. Its faculty are motivated with appropriate compensation and provided with the working environment and support facilities necessary to perform their tasks. Evidence of all this is visible in the rate at which the University is attracting more and more of the best and brightest students in Delaware and the surrounding region.”

Progress has not come at the expense of tradition, Cosgrove adds. He says UD “has changed while retaining the unique qualities that have served it over the past generations. It has kept its strengths and built upon them. Its strengths continue to include an outstanding faculty and providing an opportunity to every Delaware student who has the potential to succeed at the University.

“What has changed most, perhaps, is the physical appearance of the University,” he says. “The addition of new technology and new facilities has helped move the University of Delaware into the 21st century. A result of its foundations of quality educational opportunities and its adoption of new technology and new facilities is the recognition that the University of Delaware is receiving as one of the outstanding institutions of higher education in the country.”

With emphasis, Cosgrove says he senses an invigorated sense of spirit among members of the UD family. The numerous academic awards and professional recognition conferred on our scholars—students and faculty alike—contribute to the school’s reputation, he says. Another indication of that spirit, he says, was the recognition the Blue Hen basketball teams garnered last year.

“The University’s national reputation is growing,” Cosgrove says. “Its College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and its College of Marine Studies reflect the unique nature of the region and have long contributed to the University of Delaware’s national reputation for excellence. The strengthening of these core areas of study, as well as the growing concentration on biotechnology and information technology, show the University is well-positioned for growth and excellence into the future.”

Cosgrove attributes many of the gains made during the 1990s to the work of the University’s president. “The University of Delaware has been very fortunate to have the leadership of Dr. David Roselle in the past decade” he says. “He has certainly demonstrated that he and Louise were the right team to select to help the University of Delaware continue its progress.”

Cosgrove says the president “had a clear set of basic priorities around ensuring that the faculty had competitive compensation and the appropriate support for scholarly pursuits.

“By all measures” Cosgrove says, “we have made tremendous progress in this area. President Roselle had a priority of improving the living and learning environment of the institution, and anyone who looks at the physical plant, the technology and the infrastructure will see the outstanding accomplishments reached in a comparatively short period. The number of scholarships and the level of student assistance has grown tremendously under Dr. Roselle’s guidance.

“Another of the undeniable impacts that David and Louise Roselle have made has been in their warm and gracious hospitality to all members of the University of Delaware community,” Cosgrove adds. “They have opened their home to all, from students and faculty at the University to the people of Delaware. They have been active in the Delaware community and are part of us. In addition to being a tremendously positive influence on the University of Delaware, they have been a real asset to the state of Delaware.”

“I have watched this institution evolve from a relatively small, regional university of variable quality to a substantive, nationally recognized university of high quality,” says Dean Carolyn A. Thoroughgood of the College of Marine Studies, who entered UD as a freshman in 1961 and joined its faculty in 1968.“In the last decade, there is no question that the leadership of the University has been central in fostering so many positive changes. The University has made substantial strides in fulfilling its potential, and it is exciting to contemplate the changes for the next 10 years, considering our current trajectory.

“It gives me great pride to be an alumna of the University of Delaware and great satisfaction to be part of the ever-increasing academic stature of the University of Delaware,” she says.

Thoroughgood says it is evident “the most recent decade has been committed to achieving excellence in the learning and living environments for all students at the University of Delaware.” The most visible evidence of this commitment is found in the vast improvements to the physical plant and infrastructure supporting the educational enterprise. “For existing academic and administrative buildings and dormitories, this has meant major renovation, modernization and attention to years of deferred maintenance,” she says.

Thoroughgood also notes the importance of the “beautification of the campus, with landscaping and brick paths designed to provide congregating points for faculty and student dialog.

“The infrastructure, particularly in the area of information technology and networking, has been upgraded to such a level that the University of Delaware is a recognized national leader,” she says.

“All of this attention to the physical plant would have little impact if there had not also been a comparable commitment to the quality of what goes on in these buildings—the academic and intellectual environment,” Thoroughgood says.