Board salutes Harker
Trustees offer special tributes to President Harker
9:08 p.m., May 12, 2015--The semiannual meeting of the University of Delaware Board of Trustees on Tuesday, May 12, turned out to be a very special day for University President Patrick Harker.
Board Chairman A. Gilchrist Sparks III noted at the conclusion of the meeting that, by sheer coincidence, Harker’s term as president and his term as board chair will both end on June 30.
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“Before I say anything else, I would like to publicly say to my colleagues on the Board that it has been an honor to serve in this capacity and thank all of you for your support and encouragement over the past six years,” Sparks said. “As the Board focuses on the path forward in the years to come, it is useful to reflect on what has been accomplished in the eight years President Harker served, and some of the challenges that remain.”
Sparks recalled that, when the presidential search resulted in the selection of Harker to serve as the University’s 26th president, the board’s goals included building on UD’s solid financial base and academic reputation left by President David P. Roselle by broadening the University’s national and regional recognition.
The Board also sought to move the University to another level in terms of its land-grant mission, Sparks said.
“It became increasingly clear that through such activity UD would have to play an ever increasing role in the economic health of our state,” Sparks said. “Also central to our expectation was the critical goal of assuring that Delaware students could increasingly look to the University as an attractive and affordable source for a quality undergraduate education.”
Despite the fact that much of Harker’s tenure coincided with a national recession, there has been a remarkable amount of positive movement toward achieving these goals and laying the groundwork for further advances, Sparks said.
Among the achievement during the Harker presidency, Sparks noted, were the acquisition on very favorable terms of the Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus, enhancements to the UD campus and the construction of the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory, the Health Science Complex at the STAR Campus, four new residence halls completed or under construction, the Bob Carpenter Center addition and the renovation and enlargement of the Carpenter Sports Building, or Little Bob.
Sparks also cited reconnection with alumni through regular reunions and the building of a development operation that doubled the annual financial contributions to UD even in the most difficult of financial times.
Chairman's perspective
Challenges facing the next president, the faculty and the Board in the coming years include meeting the challenges of the electronic age, Sparks said.
“There will have to be change in the way we deliver some of our content, if for no other reason than our primary customers, our students, will have increasingly grown up in a Google, YouTube world, and will not tolerate some of the traditional methods of delivery,” Sparks said. “The good news is that change may open up extra time for small group faculty-student mentoring and interaction in many disciplines as well as efficiencies in how content is delivered.”
In noting that this will entail uncomfortable change in the way things have been done for years, Sparks said he hopes the faculty and next president will be able to work together to address this challenge in in a nimble way that positions UD as a leader, not a follower.
Sparks also noted the increasing public concern with the rising cost of education, and recognized UD’s efforts to reduce the percentage of increases in tuition and fees and to contain costs without sacrificing the things that make the University special.
“In the face of limited state funding and continued pressure to moderate tuition and fee increases, it will be increasingly important for all, not just those in a centralized development staff, to pitch in to assist in building our donor bases,” Sparks said. “All of us can help in that process by extolling to our friends, neighbors and colleagues all that is good about this place and how important this institution is to our state and the region.”
In regards to diversity, Sparks said that notwithstanding all that has been done, much remains if UD is to remain relevant in the years to come.
“If we are to ultimately be successful on the diversity front, I believe we will have to focus not only on issues of retention and inclusion within the University, but also will need to lead our communities to encourage an atmosphere of inclusiveness such that the bright and promising people we will need to recruit both as students and as faculty will want not only to work and study here, but also to live here.”
A special thank you
Sparks closed his remarking by asking the Board to join him in thanking Harker for his devotion to UD and his efforts to move the University forward in the past eight years, and also to thank the president’s wife, Emily Harker.
“I thank Emily for her willingness over the years to pull herself away from her own career to attend and add luster to countless UD functions,” Sparks said, adding that he wished “President Harker the very best in his important new role as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Following a tribute video presentation, Sparks invited the Harkers to the podium for the presentation of two special resolutions, one honoring the president by conferring on him the title of President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
A second resolution, which garnered the most applause when passed, was the naming of the ISE Lab in Harker’s honor, as the Patrick T. Harker Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory or Harker Laboratory.
“President Harker has challenged us to look to and understand the future of higher education, and to look well beyond our borders in cultivating our success in meeting that future,” Sparks said. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today for this semiannual meeting of the Board and for sharing in these special recognitions for President and Mrs. Pat Harker.”
Article by Jerry Rhodes
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson