This is an important time in the history of Massachusetts' state colleges. The former state colleges of the Commonwealth officially become part of a new Massachusetts state university system. Salem State College becomes Salem State University.
The change from state college to state university recognizes the extraordinary growth and importance of these former "normal schools" within the Commonwealth's higher education structure. Indeed, the Massachusetts State University System educates more than 50,000 students annually and six of our campuses are among the 30 largest universities in the state. We have also become more comprehensive in our offerings and more oriented toward graduate education, reflecting changes in the educational demands of the modern work force.
Our campuses offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in nearly every field of study, and together our new state universities educate more teachers than any other institution in the state. To meet the state's economic needs, though, we have grown beyond our proud heritage as the nation's first "teacher's colleges." Today, nearly two-thirds of our students graduate in fields such as business, nursing, health and human services.
Our name change is about looking forward. It's about the future of our students, our graduates, our institutions, and our state. Our students are competing at the very highest levels. They are winning national collegiate competitions, presenting their research and scholarship at national conferences and being admitted to the finest graduate and professional programs in the country. Our faculty are engaged in research that is important to the future of our regions, state, and nation. We are building state-of-the art science centers, academic facilities, and student residence halls.
At a time when the state has had to cut public higher education funding, changing the designation of our state colleges to state universities not only enhances the value of our graduates' degrees, it helps them compete on a more level playing field for jobs, it strengthens our institutions as they vie for private and federal grants, and it enables them to continue to recruit the best faculty from national pools of candidates.
By more accurately conveying the breadth, depth and quality of what the state university system offers to prospective students and their families, the name change that takes effect today will help keep more Massachusetts students in-state, a most critical issue for the future economic development of the Commonwealth.
We don't see the change to a state university system as a capstone, but rather a calling: to continuously improve the quality and rigor of our educational programs, expand learning experiences and opportunities for our students, hold ourselves accountable to the highest performance standards, and maintain our distinction as the most affordable pathway to a four-year degree in Massachusetts.
These are not easy fiscal times. The current economic downturn requires us to do more with less. We are doing so by maximizing efficiencies, reducing costs in areas that do not impact educational quality and pursuing new opportunities to collaborate with our sister institutions to better meet the educational and work force needs of our regions.
Commissioner of Higher Education Richard Freeland's Vision Project is a bold new public agenda for higher education in the Commonwealth with its goal to produce "the best educated citizenry and most skilled work force in the nation." The project complements the state colleges' transition to a state university system by recognizing and building upon the strengths of the system while working to achieve the highest levels of excellence.
Like the Vision Project, the Massachusetts State University System seeks to enhance recognition of the important contributions that our institutions make and, at the same time, strives to provide the highest levels of academic excellence for our students so that they can continue to successfully compete on the national and world stages. Though our name will change today from Salem State College to Salem State University, our commitment to do the hard work to make our name synonymous with excellence, affordability and value in higher education remains unchanged.
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Dr. Patricia Maguire Meservey is the president of Salem State University.
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