Towson University President

By now you may have heard that Towson University is the first University System of Maryland school to move toward operating our facilities year-round with a pilot trimester and asking students to “try a trimester.” Undergraduate and graduate students can register now to take advantage of more than 800 classes, labs and internships available between May and August.

At first mention, the idea of a trimester may not sound exciting or enticing. For some students, it may seem like the beginning steps of extending the school year—when many cannot wait to be liberated into summer after the spring semester.

So, for those of you who are in doubt, undecided, or just need to know more, I ask you to consider what the trimester can really do for your total college experience at Towson University.

Do your fall or spring semester grades need a tune-up? Try a trimester redo.

Do you need to take an 8 a.m. class in the fall, but are convinced your body will reject your alarm clock? Get your rest and the course during the trimester.

No luck getting into a popular course during the fall or spring semesters? Increase your odds during the trimester.

Seeing a pattern here? The trimester is all about increasing student access to classes and giving you the freedom, during the fall and spring semesters, to explore other educational horizons and accelerate your learning.

Use the trimester to get out and onto your career path faster. Give yourself the flexibility to pick up more internship or work hours, or take a course better suited for a particular time of year.

Give yourself a better chance to get a good grade in a tough course. If your college experience is anything like mine, capitalize on the trimester opportunity and ease your fall or spring workload by taking a study-intensive lab during the summer.

The summer trimester also offers enhanced summer services and resources from tutoring and writing lab support to extended library and dining services hours.

Remember this is just the beginning. If the pilot trimester turns out to be a success this summer, we will be able to expand the trimester course offerings to you and future students.

A few years ago I celebrated my 30th anniversary in higher education. Pondering that milestone I began to think about significant changes that have occurred over that time span. At Towson University several are obvious. Thirty years ago there were around 8,000 students. Today our enrollment is at 20,000. Over time there is also a commendable increase in the threshold GPA and SAT needed to gain entry at Towson. Time has brought change.

But perhaps the most striking change, and of greatest concern to all of us, is the significant increase in the cost of attending college. The cost of tuition is much different today than it was when I attended college. I am not going to tell you what it cost me to attend; you might not believe me and I would be providing an inaccurate comparison. Why this change? There are lots of reasons. In Maryland and much of the country, conditions have produced a kind of storm, a storm of many factors coming together. And unfortunately, it does not appear that the storm will pass.

First, more and more families want their children to attend college, in many cases becoming the first family member to go to college. As students and parents scramble for extra funds, university administrators and state decision-makers are scrambling to maintain access and quality education with fewer federal and state dollars to help do it. What is frequently overlooked is a key question — what does it cost to educate a student? Conventional thinking is tuition, fees, books, room and board. These are the costs to families, but it is not the full cost of their son or daughter’s education. The full cost is subsidized by the federal government, the state and the institution itself. Just five short years ago at Towson, it cost approximately $10,800 to educate a student. Today it costs approximately $14,000. Thirty years ago, it cost about $1,300 to educate a student.

Why? In the past 20 or so years tuition is up well over 200%. The estimate of inflation over that period is under 100%. Why the difference? Health insurance for faculty and staff has grown to unimagined numbers and states have transferred more and more costs to institutions. Older, larger and more complex facilities require higher operating and upkeep expenditure. The “halls of ivy” require more and more care, care that costs more and more each year. Students want heat, cooling and shuttle buses — energy users. We must keep pace with technology. ADA and EPA compliance is demanding and costly. Many other federal and state mandates come with reduced or no funding. All considered, the state has tried to keep pace with higher education funding, but keeping pace means falling behind. Today, only about 40% of the cost of funding a student comes from the state. Thirty years ago it was closer to 60%

The bottom line, ancillary costs have gone up and up and up. This is our new reality. As a result we need to work hard and smart to keep higher education not only affordable, but accessible. Institutions, the federal government, states, students and their families must be part of the solution. States must keep higher education a priority. Unfunded mandates must be minimized. There must be financial and need-based aid to help students come through our doors. There are many economic challenges and many of these challenges were not present 30 or so years ago.

It is like the tropical storm that becomes a hurricane. Conditions bring together the right mixture of heat, moisture and wind, and all coalesce to produce an awesome force of nature. Around the country in higher education there is this kind of storm, the sum of all the elements. It is a challenge to all. A university is not an island immune from social, economic, medical and political changes. We reflect changes in attitudes, dollars and other external factors.

Yes, today a college education costs more, but it is also worth more.

School spirit is not something you can easily define. That’s because school spirit consists of many things. School spirit is the feeling you get when you step into Johnny Unitas stadium for the first football game of the season.  It’s the indescribable feeling you get as you drive by Stephens Hall and see our bronze tiger standing there proudly. It’s the feeling you get when the Tigers are announced and the team runs onto the field at the start of the game, and watching Doc Minnegan run around the field after we score a touchdown. School spirit is proudly wearing the one-of-a-kind T-shirt you got during Orientation, Homecoming or Tiger Fest.

School spirit is more than supporting the team; it’s supporting the University’s entire community — attending campus events in the University Union and Center for the Arts, running for a leadership position in a student group, or participating in a community service project.

School spirit makes you feel good about your school and creates a positive learning environment for both students and their professors.  If you have pride in your school, you have pride in yourself. I hope you see the relation. After all, a positive learning environment is one of the many things that make college life so exciting. School spirit can improve your commitment to our school, your education and, in turn, deter bad behavior like skipping class, disrespecting school property or your fellow students.

Furthermore, school spirit helps to develop and foster relationships among your classmates.  And this bond is something you will share long after you’ve graduated. No matter where I am, when I see someone with a Suffolk University or University of New Hampshire sweatshirt (where I received my degrees), I feel a connection. I can strike up a conversation with them that lasts for hours, and the root of that bond is school pride.

So remember, college is not just about tests, mid-terms and report cards. It also involves relationships—and one of the most important relationships is between you and your school.  In the end, that is what makes college so exciting. It’s friendships, and the bonds that develop over the years. It’s having professors that are passionate about their students and what they teach and students who develop and grow and enjoy the growth and learning experience that college provides.

School spirit is more than wearing black and gold. It’s a culture and it’s the lifeblood of our Towson Community.  Got school spirit? Well then, let’s hear it! If not, think about it

What do you want to be when you grow up? When this question was posed to you in second grade most likely your answer was fireman, bus driver, doctor, astronaut, or teacher. Chances are you probably have shifted your career goals a bit since then. As a college student when I thought about where I would be thirty years into my career, college president was not on the top of my list. It never even crossed my mind. In fact, my goal at the time was to be a high school science teacher or chemist or perhaps an accountant—I liked math.

The inevitable future questions are bound to haunt you during your time here but I would like to share some advice – relax! The chances that your first job will be your last job are pretty slim. In fact, it’s downright unlikely. Writing the perfect resume and landing your first job interview is only the tip of the Career Iceberg. Impressing the employer on your interview and succeeding at the job that you finally accept will depend on lots of things. Skills that you acquired on and off campus such as multi-tasking projects, selling an idea, interacting with peers, study habits, ethics, school pride, being punctual, and balancing your school work with your social life will be considerable factors in excelling at your job in the real world.

Keep it all in perspective. Think big but start small. Broaden your skills and knowledge base, read a lot, learn from your peers, stay involved, and your path will unfold just as it has for me. Your college experience shouldn’t be a giant to-do list. The purpose isn’t to get it all done but to enjoy each step and get the most out of each experience along the way.

TU offers plenty of resources including internships and other service learning opportunities, student leadership opportunities, career fairs, and workshops to help prepare you for the “next step” — whether that’s graduate school or your first job!

Visit the career center website for more information at http://www.towson.edu/careercenter/.