2017 Garden Party Address: Report to the Community

JOEL SELIGMAN
GARDEN PARTY ADDRESS:REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY
JUNE 13, 2017

• Presentation text

[SLIDE 1]
Welcome!  We celebrate today the 50th Anniversary of the Garden Party with décor reminiscent of the original party in 1967.  In 1967, we held the Party at the Mees Observatory and later at Genesee Country Village Museum (1972 and 1978), Strong Museum (1974), Sonnenberg Gardens (1975), the George Eastman House (1976) and the Patrick Barry House (1965 and 1979) before holding the Garden Party at the Memorial Art Gallery for the first time in 1981.  This will be a great celebration tonight.  Predictably we have ordered a record number of shrimp.  I especially want to welcome two new academic leaders in our largest student program, the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering – Rick Waugh, who will serve next year as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences and Engineering, and Jeff Runner, the new dean of the undergraduate College.

[SLIDE 2]
Let me begin with the often heard first words of Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities:  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We are completing one of the most spectacular years in University history but we face a period of extraordinary uncertainty.

[SLIDE 3]
Let me describe for you the great excitement at the University today, the dimensions of the potential challenges we face and our plans for the future.

UNIVERSITY HIGHLIGHTS

[SLIDE 4]
For many in the Rochester community, the past year began with a  memorable Meliora Weekend, the best-attended in our history with more than 12,000 alumni, parents and students, celebrating the success of The Meliora Challenge capital campaign and featuring Ken Burns, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Ben Folds, Tony Bennett and Trevor Noah.

[SLIDE 5]
During Meliora Weekend, we dedicated the new Wegmans Hall, home of the Goergen Institute for Data Science, and the Hajim Science and Engineering Quadrangle.

[SLIDE 6]
We celebrated the opening of the renovated Douglass Commons with its

[SLIDE 7]
Paul J. Burgett Intercultural Center, named for one who has so well served our faculty and students for five decades, and

[SLIDE 8]
 the Feldman Ballroom, named in honor of undergraduate College Dean Richard Feldman, who was pivotal in the planning and support of the renovation of the Douglass Building.

[SLIDE 9]
We are now constructing Genesee Hall, a new residence hall for first-year students that includes the Boehning Varsity House, named after new trustee and donor Christopher Boehning ’87, ’88 (MS) and his wife Julie. The latest addition to the Brian F. Prince Athletic Complex, the new facility includes spacious locker and equipment rooms for our sports teams and vibrant living spaces.

[SLIDE 10]
A few months ago we opened the 90,000-square-foot Imaging Sciences Building which houses the Neuromedicine and Behavioral Health Center for Pediatric Patients and is home of the William and Mildred Levine Autism Clinic.  This is the region’s first stand-alone center that integrates care for autism spectrum disorder with pediatric neuroscience and child and adolescent psychiatric services.

[SLIDE 11]
Our joint program with East High School is beginning to make a substantial difference.  Our dream – showing that a challenged urban public high school can perform as well as outstanding suburban schools – is starting to be realized.  After two years of operations, suspensions, behavior incidents and fights are down substantially.  Graduation rates have significantly improved, and, after the first year, the passing rate for first-time ninth graders was 80.2 percent, compared with 48.8 percent before the University’s partnership with East.

[SLIDE 12]
In the next few months College Town will achieve near to full occupancy.  On May 8th it was announced that the Medical Center will expand its outpatient services by occupying the property formerly leased by Constantino’s Market.  We soon will have a new tenant for the former Corner Bakery.

[SLIDE 13]
By the end of 2016, the University had grown to 29,473 full- and part-time employees, an increase of 1,883 employees last year and 5,988 over the last five years. The University today is the sixth largest private employer in New York State.

[SLIDE 14]
AIM Photonics, after a slow start, made progress last year with AIM headquarters and a Testing, Assembly and Packaging facility now planned to open at Eastman Business Park.

[SLIDE 15]
The University’s High Tech Rochester, the region’s only state and federally designated business incubator, in November 2017 will locate in the Sibley Building and serve as an anchor of Rochester’s Innovation Zone.

[SLIDE 16]
High Tech Rochester is leading the Photonics Venture Challenge, a new startup accelerator program, with $10 million in support from New York State to further establish Rochester as a global hub for innovation and growth in photonics.

[SLIDE 17]
We have never had a stronger entering class than that beginning next year in our undergraduate Arts, Sciences and Engineering program, with applications substantially up and our two-score SAT on track to cross 1400 for the first time, continuing a rise from the 86th percentile in 2005 to the 97th percentile for the fall class.

[SLIDE 18]
Nor is our good news limited to one school.  The School of Medicine and Dentistry is accepting only 4.2 percent of the 6,200 applicants to its M.D. program next year – an admission rate as good or better than virtually every school of medicine in the country.

[SLIDE 19]
The Eastman School of Music next year will welcome seven stellar new faculty – including three internationally renowned piano professors, a Grammy award winning viola professor and a six-time Emmy award winning composer to be the inaugural director of the Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media.

[SLIDE 20]
The key to the University’s recent success is people.  Our greatest strength is our ability to welcome and support faculty, students and staff of enormous talent regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, military status, or disability and to honor all individuals who work, research, teach and study here.  Together we have accelerated our progress as a University.  Together we are building an ever better future.

Let me offer a few illustrative recent examples of the achievements of our outstanding faculty and students.

[SLIDE 21]
Assistant professor of urology Ahmed Ghazi and neurosurgery resident Jonathan Stone have developed a technique to produce simulation models of organs with the help of a 3-D printer that parallels simulation used in airplane pilot training.  The technique enables doctors to visualize and practice a difficult surgery before an operation and has led to safer and more successful surgical results.  As with airline simulations, it is incredibly realistic – organs look real, bleed and give the surgeons the opportunity to test out different approaches before the actual surgery.

[SLIDE 22]
  Microbiology professor Minsoo Kim recently published an article describing early tests on the use of light and optics to steer immune cells toward tumors.  This is a highly promising illustration of immunotherapy.  Rather than using radiation or chemotherapy to directly kill cancer cells, immunotherapy directs the immune system to use its own T cells to attack the cancer.

[SLIDE 23]
LaRon Nelson, assistant professor of nursing and the Dean’s Endowed Fellow in Health Disparities, has been selected as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and was named to the National Institutes of Health’s Adolescent HIV Prevention and Treatment Implementation Science Alliance, which will seek to overcome implementation challenges related to the treatment of HIV among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa.

[SLIDE 24]
This past year Wendi Heinzelman was installed as dean of the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.  She is the first female dean of the Hajim School.  During her remarks Wendi addressed the importance of increasing opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in engineering.

[SLIDE 25]
Our students also were incredibly active last year.  This winter Kylee Bartlett ’19 became Rochester’s first national champion since 2006, when she won the pentathlon at the NCAA’s Division III indoor track and field national championship.  Kylee set a new Rochester record for the five-event competition.  She finished a remarkable season by capturing the national title in the heptathlon at the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championships at the end of May and became the third athlete ever in the history of Rochester athletics to win multiple individual national titles.

[SLIDE 26]
Twelve University of Rochester students won Fulbright awards in 2016-2017, including Julissa Thompson ’16, a Bronx native who graduated with a degree in psychology and is headed to Barbados to help establish a national data bank on childhood nutrition.

[SLIDE 27]
The University’s squash team was ranked No. 1 by the College Squash Association for the first time in the team’s 59-year history and finished fifth at the end of the season.  Senior Ryosei Kobayashi received the Squash Association’s Skillman Award, intercollegiate squash’s highest honor.

[SLIDE 28]
Sometimes the most poignant stories concerning our students and faculty overlap.  Laura Lockard ’17, a microbiology major and accomplished track and field athlete, participated in a volunteer MRI study at the University’s Neuroimaging Center.  Unexpectedly, the scan revealed a tumor deep within her brain against the brain stem.  Howard Silberstein, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at our Medical Center, performed a 10-hour surgery, successfully removing the tumor.  A few weeks ago Laura graduated with a 3.9 grade point average.  During her recovery, she focused on her studies.  “It was one of the few areas of my life that still felt normal to me.  I didn’t even really tell my professors what was going on…. I just wanted to feel like a normal student.”

CHALLENGES

[SLIDE 29]
As inspiring as these stories are, we face an indeterminate period of extraordinary challenges.

[SLIDE 30]
For all leading research universities today, there are significant challenges, starting with the federal budget and the legislative program now being considered in Washington.  There are many large risks, largely in health care, which we are monitoring closely.  After the House of Representatives enacted a repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act in early May 2017, it is uncertain whether the Senate will follow suit.  We are particularly focusing on the consequences of transforming Medicaid to a block grant system, which would result in a loss of insurance coverage for the patients we serve and have a major financial impact on providers such as Strong Memorial Hospital, potentially reducing our ability to provide accessible quality care for all.

[SLIDE 31]
A few weeks ago, the current administration released its budget proposal for the 2018 fiscal year.  The budget proposal would cut research funding by 16.8 percent, or $12.6 billion, in FY 2018 – the largest proposed cut in more than 40 years.  The 2018 budget proposed to cut federal education programs by more than $10 billion.  The Department of Education’s total operating budget would be slashed by $9 billion. The budget would eliminate the public-service loan-forgiveness program, begin to phase out the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities; and allow the Perkins Loan program to expire.  It would cut spending in half on Federal Work-Study programs, slash the budget of the National Institutes of Health by a fifth, eliminate programs that foster foreign-language study, and reduce spending that supports international education programs and exchanges, such as the Fulbright Scholar program, by 55 percent.  Each of these funding cuts would directly affect the University.

The 2018 budget proposal is just that – a proposal.  As with the Fiscal Year 2017 budget, what Congress enacts will likely be quite different.

[SLIDE 32]
These are real risks for the University, but it is worth stressing that the nature of a large, complex institution such as the University of Rochester is that we always face risks.  The impact of the new budget and legislative program will be clearer by the next year.  For now, our approach is to closely monitor events and develop mitigation plans on a timely basis.

[SLIDE 33]
There is a different type of challenge I want to address tonight.  When transitions of power occur, political preferences invariably change, sometimes in quite far-reaching ways.  There is nothing wrong with this.  This is the way democracy is supposed to work.

But from time to time in our country, we face periods when power may go too far.

[SLIDE 34]
One example of such a period occurred during the presidency of John Adams when the Sedition Act of 1798 was enacted with the consequence that ten individuals from the rival political party were convicted for publications whose major fault was being critical of the party in power.

This Act subsequently was broadly condemned for offending our First Amendment, which prohibits any law which abridges the freedom of speech or of the press.

The lessons of 1798 endure today.  When suggestions are made, as they have been in recent months, to change our libel or criminal law standards to make it easier to prosecute journalists, we all should be on guard.  We should do everything we can to preserve the most vigorous, untrammeled political debate.  This means the airwaves and Internet will include many points of view we personally abhor.  So be it.  As Churchill memorably stated, “democracy is the worst system there is, except for all others.”

[SLIDE 35]
But there is no partisan approach to truth.

We all are allowed to interpret facts and should be allowed to do so without fear of prosecution or judgment.

The interpretation of facts is quite different than attempting to erase facts or deny their validity.

It is wrong to assert, as some have both on the left and the right, that those who bring up facts with which one disagrees are spreading Fake News.  If the facts are false, prove it.  Policy should not be based on character assassination.

It is wrong to assert that any judge who issues a decision with which you disagree is acting politically or from an ulterior motive.  Such assertions should be justified by proof, not mere belief.

And most of all, it is wrong to assert that there are two types of facts – ones you like and alternative facts that support a reality you do not like.  This is not new.  We have seen this construct before in countries which have subverted their governance systems.  It should matter to all of us when the democratic process itself is challenged.

Why does this matter so much to all of us in the University of Rochester community?  Because we are associated with an institution whose very purpose is the discovery and dissemination of knowledge based on facts.  The centuries’ long history of universities and colleges bears testament to the proposition – facts must be respected even when they lead to conclusions on policy different from what we personally prefer.

A fundamental responsibility of universities and university leaders is to defend the integrity of fact finding.  This does not mean we are left wing or right wing – it means our basic commitment is to the truth.

I hope I am overstating the risk we face today.  Nothing would please me more.  But if I am not overstating this risk, let all of our voices ring out in defense of integrity of fact.  We should not countenance an assault on truth.

OUR STRATEGIC POSITION TODAY

[SLIDE 36]
Let me shift gears.  Where is our University in strategic terms today?

During the past 12 years, we have stabilized the trajectory of the University and in many instances accelerated our progress.

[SLIDE 37]
The University today has seven schools, a Medical Center with significant clinical operations, the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, the Memorial Art Gallery, and our University libraries.

[SLIDE 38]
 75 percent of our revenues are from hospital and patient care; 14 percent from core revenues, transfers and endowment to support the University’s schools, libraries, and central expenditures; 7 percent from sponsored research; and 4 percent from auxiliary and other uses.

[SLIDE 39]
In 2004, we had 8,300 students; we now have more than 11,200 students, an increase of 35 percent.

We have grown from 2,009 faculty and instructional staff in 2004 to 2,662 today.

Our budget has grown from $1.66 billion in 2004 to close to $4.0 billion today.

Our endowment payout has decreased from 6.9 percent in 2000 to 5.7 percent this year.

[SLIDE 40]
TheMeliora Challenge capital campaign ended on June 30, 2016 and raised more than $1.373 billion, 14 percent above our initial $1.2 billion goal.  The campaign resulted in adding 103 endowed professorships, deanships and directorships, and providing more than $225 million in student support, creating 406 new endowed scholarships and fellowships during the campaign.  Since the campaign began in 2005, we have completed or initiated 28 new building projects, with a budget of $891 million.

The University’s reputation is based in large part on our seven schools.

[SLIDE 41]
During the past 12 years, Arts, Sciences and Engineering has increased its tenured and tenure track faculty from 312 to 370, its undergraduate student body from 4,057 in 2006 to 5,534 in  2016, and its master’s students from 152 in 2006 to 353.  Arts Sciences, and Engineering also has seen a substantial increase in undergraduate engineering students from a total in all classes in 2006 of 681 to a total of 1,749 this year, and master’s and PhD engineering students from a total of 412 in 2006 to 585 in this year’s class.  Key programs such as data science, optics, photonics, computer science, the humanities, earth and environmental sciences, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, and dance have been amplified as notably has been our Laboratory for Laser Energetics.  The six-year undergraduate graduation rate has increased from 80.7 to 86.0 percent in the past 11 years.

[SLIDE 42]
Over the same 12 years, the School of Medicine and Dentistry has become upstate New York’s biomedical research leader with National Institutes of Health funding rankings in the top quartile of 139 U.S. medical schools.  In 2006, the Medical School was named one of the first 12 institutions to be funded with a Clinical and Translational Science Award by the NIH.  Housed in the Saunders Research Building, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute has successfully renewed funding twice through the competitive CTSA program.  Together with the School of Nursing, the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and Strong Memorial Hospital, the School of Medicine and Dentistry launched the Institute for Innovative Education in 2012, which is driving a focus on experiential, inter-professional learning.

[SLIDE 43]
During the same 12 years, the School of Nursing, now ranked third in New York state for master’s nursing programs, has increased the size of its clinical and research faculty by 171 percent, from 62 to 168, while student enrollment has increased 56 percent, from 340 students to 532—driven by a 176 percent growth in the accelerated program for non-nurses.  The school’s strong commitment to research faculty and investments in infrastructure has returned it to the top 20 with a ranking of 19th in research support from the NIH in 2016.
[SLIDE 44]
The Eastman Institute for Oral Health, which is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year, trains dentists and other qualified individuals from throughout the world for academic careers in oral health and disease-related research.  The Institute is built on the vision of George Eastman that oral health is fundamental to the health of all of us.  Today, 131 trainees are enrolled in the Eastman Institute, 66 of whom are U.S. citizens or permanent residents from 19 states, and 65 of whom originate from 24 countries; 42 percent are women, 11 percent are underrepresented minorities.  The Eastman Dental Center has seven fixed locations, largely in underserved areas of our home county of Monroe, and four SMILEmobiles.

[SLIDE 45]
The Eastman School of Music is considered one of the premier music schools in the world and in 2021-2022 will celebrate its 100th anniversary.  The school remains at the forefront of music education, holding fast to the school’s core values of artistic and scholarly excellence, with the recent creation of the Eastman Audio Research Studio and the Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media; the implementation of new programs in film and video game composition, improvisation, and music leadership; redesigning the curriculum of traditional music offerings such as music history and providing a new online certificate program; and committing to a comprehensive plan to increase diversity at Eastman.

[SLIDE 46]
The Simon Business School is emphasizing its flagship MBA program and has determined that key areas where efforts will achieve the highest overall gains for the school include the student experience, increasing salaries of recent graduates, and reputation development among fellow deans and recruiters.  Simon’s full-time master’s programs are enormously successful, with the Master of Finance program receiving 2,100 applications last year.  The School enrolls more than 600 master’s students.

[SLIDE 47]
The Warner School of Education today is employing a dual-pronged approach to  attract a bigger share of the shrinking pie of traditional K-12 applicants and invest the future by creating new programs for those preparing for emerging education careers outside of  K-12 schools.  Warner’s goals include:  Creating a model for “turning around” failing urban schools; assuming a leadership role in promoting online and digitally-rich teaching in the region in both K-12 schools and colleges, led by the East High School program; and forging a productive partnership with the Medical Center to solve problems that benefit from synergy between education and health care.

[SLIDE 48]
In relative terms, however, the University of Rochester is one of the smallest private research universities with medical centers in the Association of American Universities (AAU) in terms of faculty and students, with faculty size approximately 65 percent of the average of 13 peers and student size of approximately 53 percent.  Two of our AAU peers are outliers – USC with 42,500 students and NYU with more than 49,000 students.  If we exclude these two universities, our faculty size today is 70 percent of the average of our AAU peers and our student size is 67 percent.

[SLIDE 49]
Our Long-Term Investment Pool, principally including our endowment, is $2.3 billion compared to a close peer mean of $4.0 billion.  Here too we have made some progress, including doubling the rate of additions to our endowment in the past 10 years.

OUR FUTURE:
THE NEXT LEVEL AND BEYOND

[SLIDE 50]
All of which brings me to our evolving plans for the future of the University.  We are developing our next strategic plan, which will run from 2018 to 2025.  That period is long enough to plan without being caught up in the latest political or economic news.  A period this long will give us the opportunity to articulate a new period of aiming high for our University.

During the first years of our plan, we are likely to focus on the aspirations of our 2015 Next Level White Paper.

[SLIDE 51]
The Next Level was defined by four core University priorities, each of which has the potential to make transformative progress for our University:

[SLIDE 52]
Data Science:  In 2015 and earlier the University made a $100 million commitment to developing best-in-class or near best-in-class programs in specific areas of Data Science.  To date, we have dedicated Wegmans Hall, been designated a Center of Excellence by New York State, hired 16 of 20 planned new faculty in computer science and data science applications and added undergraduate and master’s programs in Data Science.  The University has negotiated a consortium arrangement with Harris Corporation, which will become operative when New York State provides funding both for this project and University Data Science.  We anticipate that the consortium with Harris Corporation will be a model for other coordination with industry.  Between 2009 and 2016, federal and state awards for data science have totaled $330 million with notable NIH-funded projects in Respiratory Pathogens, the New York Influenza Center of Excellence, Health Informatics, RNA Biology and the Center for Immune Bioengineering.  Our strategic challenge in Data Science is to identify the areas which we can pursue at scale and be best-in-class or near-best-in-class.

We are focusing on:

• [SLIDE 53]
  Predictive Health Care, which at the University of Rochester means applying machine learning to electronic medical records and other data to help doctors recommend the best course of treatment for patients.

• [SLIDE 54]
  Human and Machine Intelligence – The University of Rochester is one of the few institutions in the world that has strengths in artificial intelligence, cognitive science and neuroscience.

• [SLIDE 55]
  And Augmented and Virtual Reality, being developed with neuroscience, which potentially can revolutionize the way we learn, work, play and communicate.  As with the Optics Institute in the 1920s, we have a chance to be the first academic center in an important emerging field.

[SLIDE 56]
 Our second priority is Neuroscience:  The 21st century will be the century of the brain as health care and the life sciences seek to conquer some of the most intractable challenges of the human condition, ranging from Alzheimer’s to stroke to aging.  We build on strong programs in Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Brain and Cognitive Sciences within our Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience.  We already are ranked among the Top 50 Global Universities in Neuroscience and Behavior, and in 2016 added eight new scientists in Neuroscience.  We have made several initial steps in Neuroscience, including hiring John Foxe as the inaugural research director of the Del Monte Neuroscience Institute.  Foxe currently is leading an effort to develop a comprehensive Neuroscience research strategic plan, which will provide a blueprint for accelerated progress in such areas as:

• [SLIDE 57]
  The Rochester Center for Alzheimer’s Disease:  This is an area of significant competition with a major opportunity to make a difference.  There currently are 5.4 million people with Alzheimer’s in the United States, a number expected to grow to 15 million within a few decades.

• [SLIDE 58]
  The Rochester Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Center:  The field of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities encompasses pervasive mental or physical impairment and occurs in 1-3 percent of the population.  Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Mark Taubman views this field as a priority to establish the Medical Center as a national leader, integrating research with health delivery, education, policy and advocacy.

• [SLIDE 59]
  The Rochester Center for Health and Technology seeks to become a national leader in transforming clinical neuroscience research efficiency, quality and impact, building on existing Medical Center expertise in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.

[SLIDE 60]
  Our third Next Level priority is the Humanities and the Performing Arts:  We believe that the finest students are more likely to attend our University with aspirations for careers in health, law, business, engineering, or fields that require a graduate degree, if we provide a broad liberal arts education that introduces students to the breadth of human experience and comparative culture.  We anticipate in the next few years a major fundraising effort to celebrate the Eastman School’s 100th anniversary in 2021-2022.  We recently have established a Humanities Center and an Institute for Performing Arts.  We believe that the ability to provide a liberal arts education will be one of the decisive ways that we can fortify our University as one of the leading research universities in our country.  According to a 2017 World University Ranking, the University of Rochester already is among the top ten best universities in the United States in the performing arts.

[SLIDE 61]
Our fourth Next Level priority is our Community:  Throughout our 167-year history, the success of the University of Rochester and that of the greater Rochester community have been inextricably linked.  In recent years these bonds have strengthened.  Unlike the more affluent communities that surround it, the City of Rochester today is challenged with a declining population, high rates of poverty and K-12 public school graduation rates perennially below 50 percent.  Consistent with our primary academic mission, the University is engaged in efforts to address job creation, workforce development, K-12 education, health and wellness and community enrichment in our region.  Highlights of these efforts include our [SLIDE 62]
Educational Partnership Organization agreement to supervise East High School, new regional telemedicine initiatives such as [SLIDE 63]
Project ECHO, [SLIDE 64]
AIM Photonics and [SLIDE 65]
the Mark Ain Center for Entrepreneurship.  The University’s technology affiliates, High Tech Rochester and Excell Partners, are relocating to [SLIDE 66]
Rochester’s Downtown Innovation Zone and will be important catalysts to the revitalization of our center city.
[SLIDE 67]The Mount Hope Family Center is a nationally renowned leader in human development, spearheading research and training in the areas of human development, child maltreatment, and mental disorders in both children and families.

[SLIDE 68]
Our most important community service is our clinical health care system.  As we prepare for what may be substantial changes in health care delivery and finance in the years to come, our clinical health care system will be a core priority of the University.  In the past decade we have substantially expanded.  Where we once had two hospitals, we now have a five-hospital system as well as Accountable Health Partners with 1,954 providers, five urgent care centers, and three ambulatory care centers.

Last year affiliates Highland Hospital and Thompson Health were joined by Noyes Memorial in Dansville and Jones Memorial in Wellsville.

The Wilmot Cancer Institute provides care through 14 regional locations.  The quality and cost efficiency of our health care is vital to patients and health care professionals throughout our region and in attracting and retaining outstanding doctors and scientists.

The Golisano Children’s Hospital is our region’s only children’s hospital, and provides a spectrum of care that spans more than 40 specialty areas, serving more than 85,000 children and their families each year.

We have been recognized for these efforts.  Endocrinology and Neurology/Neurosurgery earned Top 50 clinical rankings from U.S. News and World Report.  Dentistry, Family Medicine, Neurology, Orthopaedics, Pediatrics, Public Health Science, and Surgery were ranked among the Top 20 in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding.

CONCLUSION

[SLIDE 69]
Let me sum up.  For Dickens, it was not only the best of times and the worst of times, “it was the season of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”  Dickens’ full opening paragraph makes the point – it was like all times.

Universities are perpetual institutions.  The University of Rochester has continued through a Civil War, two World Wars, several business cycles.  We are now 167 years old.  We will be here 167 years from now.

Our commitment to the community of Rochester will be unwavering.

What research universities do – vital research, educating future leaders and serving our communities – will be valued over time as they have been throughout this great nation’s history.

Delores and I wish you a happy and healthy year to come.

Our best days are yet to come.

Meliora.