Our efforts resulted in increasing our final non-reoccurring appropriation of a little more than $168m in the Governor’s original recommendation … to nearly $184m in the conference report that was adopted, passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor. This represents an overall increase of more than $15m — slightly more than a 9 percent increase — a stark contrast to the original 5 percent recommendation. The FY20 education budget reflects the largest increase for Auburn in more than a decade, and it confirms the Legislature’s commitment to Auburn and to equitable funding for higher education.

During the last week of the legislative session, I personally met with Speaker McCutcheon, Pro Tem Marsh, House Budget Chair Poole, Senator Whatley, Rep. Lovvorn and Lt. Governor Ainsworth to reinforce our message and deliver our requests for the conference committee.  These efforts resulted in Senator Whatley being appointed to the conference committee. It also resulted in an increase in our Operations and Maintenance appropriation, which was adopted with a 6-0 vote by the conference committee, followed by adoption by the Senate on a 30-1 vote, and a final vote in the House of 100-0. It was transmitted to the Governor, and signed on May 31. In addition to our increased O & M funding, we received $1.1 million in earmarks for poultry and forest products projects. These are two areas where Auburn is already making impactful advancements, and this appropriation will ensure our great work continues.

Separately, as a result of conservative budget policies and a robust economy, we will also receive $7.8 million in Advancement & Technology funds this year. These nonrecurring funds have statutory restrictions, but may be used to purchase technology and equipment which will be utilized by the Office of Information and Technology.
Overall, I am pleased to report that we had a successful legislative session. This was a result of our combined efforts, aggressive messaging and presence during the session. We had a direct impact on this budget process, an impact that will also affect future budgets. Our efforts were most certainly amplified by Trustee Rane’s involvement. Trustee Rane — you were a catalyst who helped move the needle in Auburn’s favor, and we appreciate your leadership in this effort.

And while I am not taking credit for any of our success during the legislative session … I WILL take credit for hiring Steve Pelham. Steve was truly instrumental in this process, and his expertise and relationships with our legislators have proven to be incredibly valuable to Auburn.

Moving forward, our priority is to be fully engaged with decision-makers. This will afford us the opportunity to contribute to future budget discussions on the front end, as well as play a key role in developing alternative budget models for consideration. I have been assured Auburn will have a seat at the table when future budget decisions are made regarding higher education. We will continue to be good stewards of our appropriated resources and set the standard by which all others are measured regarding performance and utilization of public resources.

We can advocate for Auburn in more ways than participating in budget decisions. Sometimes, legislators in Montgomery and influencers across the state need a reminder of how much Auburn does to move our great state forward. To make sure Auburn stays top of mind, in May, we launched a campaign called Advancing Alabama. The goal of the campaign is to ensure we make it well known the tremendous positive impact Auburn makes on our state.

To support this strategic effort, former Foundation Board chair Jeff Stone penned a wonderful opinion piece for us that ran on AL.com. For the past few weeks, we have leveraged the university’s social media accounts and website to promote stories about the many ways Auburn benefits the state.

For example, Auburn advances Alabama through research, and to illustrate, we shared how Bill Walton, a marine scientist in the College of Agriculture, is the driving force behind the up-and-coming off-bottom oyster farming industry. Last year, he received a $450,000 grant from the USDA to continue his research. His work is not only providing valuable information and assistance to Gulf Coast oyster famers, its ensuring that the oysters we eat are safe and high-quality.

Auburn also advances Alabama through opportunity. Our land-grant charge mandates us to always consider our students’ needs alongside the state of Alabama’s needs, and because of this, we are committed to offering innovative and responsive degrees. The wildlife industry is growing by leaps and bounds, and there is a strong demand for professionals with field-based practical knowledge. As an answer to this increasing demand, Auburn now offers a degree in wildlife enterprise management. There is only one other school that has this type of degree program, and we are the only one in the Southeast. Our graduates will hit the ground running in this emerging sector of our economy.
I encourage you to visit auburn.edu/advancingalabama to learn more. Auburn has a robust portfolio of research, outreach and innovation. It’s one of the reasons we achieved the R1 Carnegie Research designation, and it’s one of the reasons we are steadily increasing our national visibility. We know the countless initiatives underway and groundbreaking discoveries that happen at Auburn every day, but it’s important to show others the tremendous impact they have on our state when viewed in totality.

We’ve asked deans and key administrators to incorporate these messages in all of their communications. We’ve also tasked them with looking for every opportunity to elevate the work happening in their college, school or campus unit so we may amplify their contributions.

There is a card in front of you that we created to complement this campaign. As you can see, we are emphasizing three top-level facts:

• Auburn educates more Alabama students than any other university in the world.
• Auburn is the top-ranked public institution in the state of Alabama.
• And for every $1 the state invests in Auburn, we give back an impressive $8 return.

Auburn produces game-changing graduates, and we do it exceptionally well. The vast majority of our students are Alabamians, and many of them will stay in the state to lead in Alabama’s growing innovation economy. Many of them will leverage their creative and entrepreneurial spirit — one that was honed here at Auburn — to launch businesses of their own and help support our state’s workforce. Auburn has a track record of graduating students who go on to engage, influence and lead in their professions and communities, and our reputation for this gets stronger every day.

Many of those graduates participated in athletics while at Auburn, and we know this greatly enhances their student experience and gives them a solid foundation for success. Seventy-six of our spring graduates were student-athletes. They are competitors in their sports, but they’re also highly competitive in the classroom. Last month, it was announced that nine of our athletic teams received perfect academic progress scores, which is how the NCAA measures how student-athletes are progressing toward graduation. If considering the average academic progress rates over the past four years, Auburn leads the SEC in teams scoring in the top ten percent. This is a huge accomplishment, and it speaks to the dedication of our student-athletes and the commitment our athletics staff and faculty have to their success.

One thing we know for sure, is that all our graduates emerge armed with an exceptional education and the support of our tight-knit network of accomplished alumni. They graduate from Auburn prepared to succeed in their careers and in life.

Just last month, nearly 4,500 students graduated from Auburn. They’re our largest graduating class in university history, and they’re the first class to graduate from Auburn since it became an R1 institution. Graduation is a special time for everyone on campus. It’s a culmination of the Auburn student experience and it’s the realization of our mission. It’s also a tremendous accomplishment for our students. They’re graduating from the top-ranked national university in the state, they’re graduating from a top-tier research university, and they’re graduating from a university committed to increasing the value of their degree long after they leave campus.

This year, we were incredibly fortunate to have two of our most accomplished alums share their wisdom and experience with our graduates: Paul Jacobson, who as you know is a wonderful friend to Auburn, and Ron Sanders, another outstanding Auburn success story. While their careers have led them down very different paths, the Auburn experience is a common theme along their road to success. We are grateful they were able to give the commencement addresses, and I am also grateful for the Trustees who were able to attend this wonderful occasion.

Students are our state’s biggest economic resource, but Auburn advances Alabama in many other ways. Auburn’s impressive return on investment is touted in the Advancing Alabama campaign, but this data is from our last economic impact study, which was several years ago. $8 back for every one dollar is superb, but we are estimating that figure to be even higher. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that Auburn gives the state around $10 back for every dollar invested in the university. That’s incredible, and we should not be shy about sharing Auburn’s value.

Our research endeavors are an excellent example of how we add value to our state. This is why we remain committed to expanding our research park and the expertise and offerings available there. This month, we will begin construction on the 100,000 square foot Innovation and Research Center. We expect approximately 300 full-time jobs to be created when the center is complete. Later this summer, in August, we’ll begin work on the new health sciences facility, which is a result of our collaboration with East Alabama Medical Center. Both of these new offerings will be huge assets to our region, and we are excited about future growth and opportunity in the research park.
We want to continue to grow our research enterprise, as research is a key tenet of our mission and it informs our instruction. Last month, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to gain insight into trends in the growth and development of research parks as exemplified by those in the Raleigh-Durham area. 

For those of you who weren’t able to join us, I’ll share a few highlights of our trip. We toured a few of the research parks in the area. They contain mixed-use space housing offices, start-up and entrepreneurial ventures, as well as retail and residential developments. We learned more about their focus on innovation, as well as more about the evolution of research parks from spread out campuses, to more dense locations with a mixture of academic, research, corporate and retail operations in nearby.

The primary focal point of the tour was our visit to NC State’s Centennial Campus. It’s home to 70 companies, government agencies and nonprofits, and it offers a unique mix of corporate and university buildings. This tour gave us a firsthand look at a large and robust research park, as well as how other institutions are building research collaborations and industry partnerships.

All in all, it was a very informative trip, and I believe we came back to Auburn with a renewed perspective and fresh ideas on how to move our research park and industry partnerships forward. Thank you to the Trustees who joined us. Your input and expertise are very valuable, and I’m grateful you were able to make the trip.
We have a full agenda today, so I’ll wrap things up. Before I close, I want to take a moment to recognize Dean June Henton, who is retiring after three decades as dean of the College of Human Sciences. She did incredible work to advance the college, including elevating Auburn’s role in the fight against world hunger. We are grateful for her leadership and wish her well as she enters retirement.

Last month, we announced that Dr. Susan Hubbard was selected as the new Dean of the College of Human Sciences, effective July 1. We had a national search for Dean Henton’s successor, and we identified quickly that Susan was the best candidate for the job. Susan has been the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the college since 2006, and she brings robust experience as an administrator and as an advocate for students. We are excited to see where the college is headed under her leadership.

I could spend the rest of the morning talking about the growth and progress at Auburn, but we have other agenda items. I thank you for all you do to keep our great university moving forward. Thank you for your time. I’m happy to answer any questions.