President Robert Kelley giving the annual State of the University address. Photo by Larry Philbin/The Dakota Student.

UND has seen many changes in the last year, and is going to see many more in the year to come.

Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., UND President Robert Kelley delivered the annual State of the University Address in the Memorial Union Lecture Bowl.

“We have a lot to talk about today,” Kelley said. “Much has changed since the last State of the University Address.”

Kelley first discussed the Higher Learning Committee visit for the re-accreditation of UND, giving thanks to everyone who helped with the Exceptional UND campaign. He particularly thanked Joan Hawthorne, Patrick O’Neill and Donna Pearson for their work over the last three years on Exceptional UND.

“I was pleased to hear that many of the comments made to the HLC members were in reference to the exceptional UND values,” Kelley said.

He added that the university expects to hear back soon regarding the results of the re-accreditation visit.

“Overall we are down significantly in grant support” Kelley said. “We need to do better in this arena.”

Kelley said he was directing Provost Tom DiLorenzo to deal with this problem and improve UND’s research enterprise.

Kelley also discussed the need for budgeting improvements at UND.

“Although UND is financially sound, expert consultants have advised us that we should consider some revisions regarding management of the institution’s fiscal resources,” he said. “Our historical method of budgeting does not follow the fiscal practices of some other higher-performing universities.”

Kelley said he has given Vice President for Finance Alice Brekke and Dilorenzo the task of examining the budget with the goal of increasing efficiency and flexibility for program growth.

After mentioning improvements that could be made, Kelley outlined goals UND is working toward this year. He announced UND’s plans to increase admission standards, stating that doing so would be beneficial to both students and staff.

“Students will benefit from being in an educational setting with other high achieving students who are focused on reaching their educational goals,” Kelley said. “We are also designing programs to identify at-risk students.”

While discussing goals, Kelley also brought up plans to build a “one-stop-shop” in the Memorial Union for students — the purpose of the shop is to ensure the success of students and to speed up graduation.

“We have been working to eliminate what students have long called the Twamley shuffle,” Kelley said.

Kelley ended the address by saying while the university has a lot of work to do in years to come, it has also made tremendous improvements toward enhancing student success in the past year.

Kelley discussed state government and its relationship to UND, mentioning the recent contributions to expand the law school and construct a new medical building.

“I think it is very clear that the state of North Dakota is in a very good financial state,” Kelley said. “We look forward to breaking ground (for the law school expansion) next year.”

However, Kelley was also critical of UND and places that it could improve. He was especially critical of the lack of grants for research, particularly in the medical laboratories.

“In summary, UND is taking a very fresh look at everything we do to enhance student success” Kelley said. “Together we are building an exceptional UND. Thank you for all that you do for the University of North Dakota.”

Larry Philbin is the news editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at lawrence.philbin@my.und.edu.