President's Corner

I first want to give my thanks and appreciation to everyone who was involved in last week’s Board of Trustees' meeting. The Trustees had an excellent meeting and were very pleased with the progress the institution is making. Of particular interest to them was their receiving the final report on the sale of Vermont College. They were very complimentary to the staff and wanted to give particular recognition to Rick Rebmann, who led the administrative team for the sale.

The Trustees also approved the creation of a new major in Computer Engineering. This has been in the works for approximately one and one-half years, since the Trustees originally authorized the expenditure of funds to research the creation of this major and pledged their financial support to stand it up. It has now been approved, and we look forward to admitting our first class in the fall of 2002. The Trustees enjoyed meeting with many faculty, staff, and, particularly, our students. Although our meeting went through the major part of Saturday afternoon, they were able to watch a portion of both the soccer game and the football game. They had nothing but wonderful things to say about their time with our students in the focus groups on Friday afternoon.

With the sale of Vermont College, I recommended to the Trustees that we return to the Mission Statement of 1843. This Mission Statement is written along the mezzanine floor of the Kreitzberg Library and is attributed to President Ransom. The Board unanimously approved the new Mission Statement and chose not to change a word of what we believe is a timeless and elegantly written Mission Statement. The Norwich Mission Statement is now:

To give our youth an education that shall be American in character – to enable them to act as well as to think – to execute as well as to conceive – “to tolerate all opinions when reason is left free to combat them” – to make moral, patriotic, efficient, and useful citizens, and to qualify them for all those high responsibilities resting upon a citizen of this free republic.

I have become increasingly concerned over the lack of time available for students to adequately study and prepare for their classes. Plan2000 has as its primary focus to improve learning and academic outcomes of our students. This plan will be leading our institution over the next ten years, and you will be hearing more about it in the future. I have asked the Commandant and Vice President of Student Affairs, along with Bob Schmidt, our Director of Institutional Research, to conduct a time allocation study of our students, specifically as it relates to academic preparation time. We will report the result of this study to the community as it is concluded. For a guide, however, every student should expect to spend, on average, approximately three hours of study for every one hour of credit hours.

I am most concerned about Rook and Freshmen study time and have asked the Commandant to come forward with a plan to ensure that every student can be academically successful at Norwich by having the appropriate amount of study time for their courses. Passing courses and doing well academically is the primary responsibility of all students. While a rook may be the most squared away Cadet we have ever seen, if he/she is not passing his/her courses, he/she will not become a sophomore in the Corps of Cadets.

I have been struck lately by the comments of our more senior faculty members and those of our older alumni, that they had much more study time when they were students at Norwich. They recall that although the Corps was challenging, it was clear that everyone knew what business we were in – that of academic success. We will be talking more about that as a University community this fall. Based on the mid-term grade reports, I have encouraged the Commandant and the Corps leadership to consider making Sunday an academic day, so all students can prepare for the next week.

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