Five-Year Report, 2007-12

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5The title of this piece that you hold in your hands says it all. For the last five years, Austin Peay State University has seen tremendous progression.

From the President.

I t’s hard to bel ieve that f ive years have passed since Lee and I f irst arr ived in Clarksvi l le and began work with the wonderful faculty and staff serving at APSU. Together, we have committed ourselves to making our students ever more successful and, through the relentless pursuit of excel lence in al l we do, to raising Austin Peay’s profi le in the state and the nation. That commitment is paying off. Our retention and graduation rates are at al l t ime highs. Furthermore, Austin Peay now receives regular attention in state and national publications as a leader in innovation and for fostering a campus cl imate conducive to student success. The New York T imes and The Chronicle of Higher Education have heralded Austin Peay as a force for innovation in higher education. Bi l l Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has singled Austin Peay out publical ly for its innovative use of technology in helping our faculty advise students.

Along the way, we have taken care to cult ivate a campus cl imate supportive of not only our students, but of our faculty and staff as well. The most important things happening at a university do not happen in the president’s off ice. They happen in classrooms and laboratories and in al l the varied places where our faculty and staff encounter our students. The most important things happen because our faculty and staff are heroes when it comes to going the extra mile for our students. I guess it’s no surprise then that this past

summer The Chronicle of Higher Education announced that Austin Peay was one of 106 universit ies across the country recognized as a “great col lege to work for.” No other public university in Tennessee earned this recognit ion. In fact, APSU also earned a spot on the honor rol l of 30 universit ies ( including Notre Dame and Baylor) recognized for being on the honor rol l of the very best col leges to work for.

In the report that fol lows you wil l receive an overview of the progress we have made over the past f ive years. There’s always a danger that the facts and f igures we use to recount this progress wil l not suff iciently recognize the extraordinary things done by our faculty and staff in classroom and off ices al l over the campus, every hour, every day. The report also can’t hope to convey the extent to which the University has been able to press forward through the generosity of our alumni and fr iends. Their gifts and support have been crucial to the progress of the last f ive years. So as you read, I hope you wil l imagine the many faces standing behind the numbers and charts: the faces of faculty and staff and students and supporters whose actions, col lectively, make Austin Peay a great university.

Sincerely,

Dear Austin Peay family and fr iends,

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The Leaf-Chronicle

Progression.

It has become the recurring theme in all that we have done and continue to do – growth in student enrollment, the addition of more faculty, construction of more student residence halls and academic buildings, gains in student success and increases in research funding and fundraising.

While this five-year report is quite informative, it only tells a portion of the full story about the record enrollments APSU has been experiencing and the many accomplishments that have blessed our University since 2007.

Progression at APSU only occurred because of our students, faculty, staff, donors and supporters.

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Bigger isn’t necessarily better, but at APSU, our enrollment growth is fueling more opportunities for our students with new programs, new student organizations and new forms of student assistance.

The rising student interest in APSU can be attributed to many factors, including the greater number of opportunities available to them in and out of the classroom. APSU strives to offer students more opportunities so that they have access to more opportunities when they graduate.

5-Year Total Enrollment (Headcount)

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More Students.

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

8,000 8,500 9,000 9,500 10,000 10,500 11,000 11,500

10,188

9,094

10,723

10,873

9,401

At the same time our enrollment has increased overall in the last five years by 20 percent, we have deliberately added new faculty so that our class sizes and our student-faculty ratios are smaller today than they were five years ago.

A substantial investment in adding new faculty positions is proof that APSU can accommodate the increased number of admitted students. Since July 2007, there has been a net increase of 62 faculty lines, or full-time faculty positions added. This has helped to drop the faculty-to-student ratio to below 20. Adding faculty lines affords students the opportunity to work more closely with their instructors and professors in the classroom.

John Schnettler, director of athletic bands and assistant professor of music, leads a rehearsal session. Since coming to APSU in 2010, Schnettler has worked to recruit greater numbers of high school students to the Governors’ Own Marching Band.

Dr. Dwonna Goldstone, professor of English, presents a class lecture to students. In addition to her teaching duties, she is the coordinator of the African American studies minor.8

More Faculty.

Barry Kitterman, a creative writing professor, talks with students. He is a published author of a short story collection and an award-winning novel.

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A growing university needs a growing physical plant, and APSU’s facilities have continued to expand – even during a challenging budget period.

Over the past five years, new buildings and improvements have appeared all over campus:

The Austin Peay Center @ Fort Campbell (APCFC) opened in Spring 2009, with APSU becoming the only on-post university in the nation with an individual facility. APSU also continues to maintain a campus at the post’s Glenn H. English Jr. Education Center. The APCFC serves more than 1,700

soldiers, dependents and civilians each semester. All students enrolled at APSU are eligible to take courses at the satellite location.

Honors Commons is APSU’s first designated space for high-achieving students. The 8,000-square-foot space, which opened in Fall 2010, houses both the University’s Honors Program and the President’s Emerging Leaders Program. The space also includes classrooms dedicated for honors classes, a quiet study area and a music practice room.

The Hemlock Semiconductor Building, which opened in September 2010 on the corner of Eighth and College streets, houses the chemical engineering technology (ChET) associate degree program and laboratory. The classroom building is named in honor of Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor Group for its $2 million gift to APSU for the purchase of laboratory equipment for the building.

Castle Heights, a 416-bed student residence hall, opened in Fall 2011. Designed not only to be a home but a root to the success of students, the facility is part of the Freshman Experience model to help first-year students

More Facilities.

The Austin Peay Center @ Fort Campbell Honors Commons Hemlock Semiconductor Building

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Castle Heights Phase II Residence Halls under construction Maynard Mathematics and Computer Science Building groundbreaking

become more connected to the University. Not long after Castle Heights opened, work began on the second phase of new residence hall construction on Drane Street. Three new residence halls – being built where Cross, Killebrew and Rawlins once stood – will form APSU’s first residential mall, defined by a traditional collegiate “commons” or “quad” lawn. The $29 million, 404-bed project, scheduled to be open at the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year, is envisioned to provide a cohesiveness to all the housing on the west side of campus and a renewed identity for the residential portion of the campus.

In Fall 2012, directly behind the Hemlock Semiconductor Building, APSU broke ground on a new $6.7 million Maynard Mathematics and Computer Science Building. The two-story building, projected to open in the spring of 2014, will house two of APSU’s growing departments – mathematics and statistics, and computer science and information technology.

APSU also is improving athletic facilities. In the Dunn Center, a whole new floor surface is now in place. The floor in Dave Aaron Arena has been replaced by a state-of-the-art PermaFlex flooring system. The Dunn Center, opened in 1975, is considered one of the south’s top mid-major facilities.

Meanwhile, progress continues toward a multimillion-dollar renovation of the 66-year-old Governors Stadium. The entire home side of the stadium is scheduled to be torn down at the end of the 2013 football season and replaced with a new structure that would include skyboxes and about 800 club-level seats. There also would be 5,000 regular seats. Additional renovations will be made to the visitors side.

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Active and energetic faculties are characterized by their research. Since 2007, research funding that has been awarded has nearly doubled, increasing by a total of 69 percent in five years. The number of grants awarded also has climbed.

In addition, within the last five years, APSU has reinstituted the APSU Summer Research Fellows Program, which provides an opportunity for up to 20 tenured or tenure-track faculty to receive an award of up to $5,000 to develop a research project (scholarly/creative activity), during a month of the summer, that may place them in a better position to seek external funding. This program is a collaboration between the Office of the Provost, the Office of Grants and Sponsored Research, and the College of Graduate Studies.

The increases in grant funding and research endeavors not only represents the positioning of our faculty on the cutting edge of their disciplines, but it translates into more hands-on research opportunities for our students. We have created several new avenues to encourage students to pursue their research activities.

One is the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), which provides up to $3,000 in support of selected independent undergraduate research projects. All full-time undergraduate students at APSU, with the support of a faculty mentor, are eligible to apply.

For the graduate students, APSU has launched the Graduate Student Research and Creative Activity Extravaganza, a celebration held each spring to showcase the scholarly and creative pursuits of APSU’s graduate students.

More Research.

Dr. Steve Hamilton, professor of biology and director of the Center of Excellence for Field Biology, published the results of two-plus decades of work, titled “Twenty-four new species of Polycentropus from Brazil,” with a colleague from Minnesota.

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$1,000,000$2,000,000$3,000,000$4,000,000$5,000,000$6,000,000$7,000,000

2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

Grant and Research Dollars Awarded

The chart (right) illustrates the funding APSU has received in the

last five years for various research projects pursued by faculty and

academic departments.

Dr. Sergei Markov, associate professor of biology, has earned an international reputation in recent years for his groundbreaking biofuel research. Aside from being published in more than 70 research publications, he has been profiled by media outlets worldwide.

APSU art professor Cindy Marsh was awarded one of the University’s summer research fellowships, which provided her with $5,000 to study papermaking in Tanzania, Africa.

Marsh worked with the Twiga Women’s Collective, in the village of Mnenia, to make paper out of indigenous materials and create autobiographical art creations on this paper. The

works were bound into a book, now on display at the art gallery in Arusha. All the women who participated received a copy of the print they created.

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$3,854,297$4,250,402

$5,444,938$ 5,071,283

$6,507,992

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While growth in student enrollment is vital for any postsecondary institution, APSU, like other public institutions in Tennessee, is being assessed by retention and graduation performance. The Complete College Tennessee Act, adopted in 2010, implements a new outcomes-based funding formula, in which productivity rather than enrollment controls the funding distribution.

APSU’s upward performance in retention, progression and graduation makes the University the most improved institution among the four-year schools in the Tennessee Board of Regents and University of Tennessee systems. A Tennessee Higher Education Commission report recommended that APSU receive a 6.9 percent increase in funding for 2012-13, based on the first year of the new funding formula. That’s nearly twice the increase of any other Tennessee university.

In retention, APSU is retaining greater percentages of its first-time, full-time cohort of students, edging toward the 70 percent mark. The most recent retention rate is 69.49 percent of the Fall 2009 cohort students who continued their education at APSU. This is the greatest growth in recent years, from 2008 figures of 67.87 percent.

The significant growth in retention is mirrored by APSU’s increase in its six-year graduation rate, which measures each cohort of first-time, full-time students since 2000 when APSU began tracking the statistic. The six-year graduation rate for the cohort that started at APSU in 2004 is at 33.11 percent – the largest rate recorded this decade.

During the 2011-12 academic year, APSU awarded its highest number of degrees on record, 13 percent more degrees than the previous year. In the last five years, degree completions have risen steadily, increasing more than 25 percent.

More Student Success.

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Our students have accomplished a lot, and their accomplishments have placed APSU on the map of greatness.

For instance, physics majors Drew Kerr and Mason Yost received prestigious Goldwater Scholarships. Only five Goldwater Scholarships were awarded to students attending schools in Tennessee – and APSU was the only one in the state to be awarded two. The scholarship, named for the late Arizona senator and 1964 presidential candidate, is awarded each year to only 300 college students nationwide who are pursuing a degree in science or mathematics.

In the last five years, two of our ROTC cadets earned one of the country’s highest honors, the Legion of Valor Association’s Bronze Cross of Achievement, given to only a handful of cadets out of thousands each year. In 2009, former Cadet Shamai Larsen, now a lieutenant, was the University’s first recipient. Cadet Sean Hunt received the Bronze Cross in 2012.

In 2010, then-APSU graduate student Seth McCormick discovered a Little Brown bat with the white nose syndrome (WNS) fungus – which has afflicted bat populations nationwide – while conducting field research in the Dunbar Cave State Natural Area. The site was quickly closed off to the public, but state officials such as the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, recognizing the important work APSU students were doing, have allowed them rare access to the cave in order to continue their research. The APSU students are now involved in research with possible major ramifications. That’s because little is known about WNS, but its effect on agriculture and the economy could be devastating.

And there are plenty more similar student success stories to share. Every year, we are seeing more and more of our students take advantage of the opportunities standing in front of them. We will continue to expand those opportunities so that our students can reach greater academic and career success.

More Student Achievement.

Drew Kerr (left) and Martin Yost are recipients of the prestigious Goldwater Scholarships, awarded to only 300 college students nationwide who are pursuing a degree in science or mathematics.

Seth McCormick (left) and Morgan Kurz, now alumni, were instrumental in APSU’s bat fungus research, with their work helping to educate other researchers across the nation about the white nose syndrome fungus.

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Kelvin Rutledge, who graduated from APSU as a double major in political science and sociology, is now pursuing a master’s

degree in higher education administration. He plans to

work as a college or university student activities director.

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Head basketball coach Dave Loos, the dean of Ohio Valley Conference coaches, looks at the winning trophy his team received after winning the OVC Tournament title in 2008.18

Head basketball coach Dave Loos, the dean of Ohio Valley Conference coaches, looks at the winning trophy his team received after winning the OVC Tournament title in 2008.

Since 2007, APSU has claimed championships in the Ohio Valley Conference for the following sports — baseball (2007, 2011, 2012), men’s basketball (2008), women’s basketball (2009, 2010), women’s volleyball (2010), men’s golf (2009) and women’s tennis (2010).

Academically, APSU coaches and players take pride in the classroom – and it shows in their achievements. In the last five years, 22 Govs and Lady Govs have earned the distinction of being named Academic All-District, including Carrie Burggraf earning APSU’s fourth first-team Academic All-America of the decade.

APSU has had three student-athletes earn the honors of OVC Scholar-Athletes, based upon scholarship, leadership and athletics, during that span.

APSU also has seen 59 student-athletes over the last five years earn the OVC Medal of Honor, awarded to student-athletes with the highest grade-point average in a conference-sponsored sport.

Three APSU student-athletes (Carrie Burggraf twice and Jon Clinard) were awarded with the prestigious Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship award, based up on character, leadership, academics and sportsmanship.

The Lady Govs golf team earned four straight OVC Academic Achievement team awards.

Athletics.

The Governors baseball team poses after winning the OVC Tournament in 2011. The Lady Govs golf team has shown tremendous strength, both on the course and in the classroom.

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The Reagan Giving CircleThe purpose of the program is to cultivate women as philanthropic leaders, create new and substantial funding via the support of women, identify opportunities emphasizing the educational enrichment of women, allocate funds based on majority voting preferences and accomplish change and celebrate the impact on women’s lives. It is named in honor of Dr. Carmen Reagan, retired marketing professor and APSU’s first female dean of the College of Business.

Mabry Legacy CampaignFor more than three decades, Drs. George and Sharon Mabry worked to build a nationally recognized creative arts program at APSU. They’ve mentored thousands of young, talented musicians, many of whom have established successful careers in the

music world. To thank them for their efforts, this fundraising effort was unveiled to rename the campus’s Music/Mass Communication Building’s Concert Hall after the Mabrys. The Mabry Legacy Campaign raised $500,000 for scholarships and renamed the venue as The George and Sharon Mabry Concert Hall.

The Mayfield, Wood-Boercker, Sears EndowmentThe endowment, funded by private donations, will provide scholarships for deserving, hardworking physics students. This effort is named in honor of Melburn Mayfield, who founded the physics department at APSU, and two former physics chairs, Sara Wood-Boercker and Dr. Robert Sears.

Fundraising and Support.

$2,000,000

$4,000,000

$6,000,000

$8,000,000

$10,000,000

$12,000,000

$14,000,000$16,000,000$18,000,000$20,000,000

$13,965,071

$12,073,043

$14,658,544

$18,653,773$18,942,936

2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

APSU Foundation & University Endowment Values

APSU’s previous capital campaign, “Changing Minds. Changing Lives,” ended a f ive-year run in Apri l 2008 on a successful, resounding note, as it was announced that $39.4 mil l ion had been committed. As you have been able to d iscern throughout this report, APSU has achieved much greatness in the last f ive years. We have to keep this progression bui lding – and that takes resources. That’s why we are now in a new capital fundraising effort, The Legacy Campaign. We are pleased to announce that The Legacy Campaign has produced great results so far.

Since its launch in 2010, The Legacy Campaign has establ ished many new fundraising init iat ives and several key g i f ts . Here is a br ie f look at a few of them:

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The Robertson Endowment This endowment, in honor of Jim and Nan Robertson, will award scholarships each year to a full-time student pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art with a concentration in photography and to a full-time student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in art education.

Women in AthleticsThis endowment is part of the Austin Peay Celebrates Women in Athletics, to laud all current and former female athletes at APSU and recognize the growth of women’s sports. For the inaugural year, the 2011 Austin Peay Celebrates Women in Athletics featured the 25th anniversary of the Lady Govs softball program. In addition, the softball field was named in honor of Cheryl Holt, a longtime coach and assistant athletic director at APSU. Each year, the Women in Athletics event will focus specifically on one sport

and/or milestone. The goal is to celebrate women’s achievements in athletics and raise money for the women’s athletic programs.

DeWald EndowmentThis endowment, created by local dentist Dr. Ernest DeWald in honor of his parents, was used to create the Josephine and William DeWald Memorial Scholarship for students enrolled in the nursing program at APSU. Josephine DeWald worked as a nurse for both a private practice and a hospital for 45 years. William DeWald worked as a nurse for Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and was promoted to an administrative position overseeing the hospital’s orderly staff.

Dr. Preston Hubbard Scholarship EndowmentThe endowment is named in honor of Dr. Preston Hubbard, who taught history at APSU for 33 years. Hubbard suffered and survived the Bataan Death March and the brutality of more than three years as a prisoner of war, in the hands of the Japanese during World War II. After the war, he came to APSU as a student and later as a professor. After retiring from APSU, he penned his story in the book “Apocalypse Undone.”

The Legacy Campaign Giving to Date

APSU Total Giving

$30,568,34821

$4,000,000 $6,000,000 $8,000,000 $10,000,000 $12,000,000 $14,000,000$3,000,000 $5,000,000 $7,000,000 $9,000,000 $11,000,000 $13,000,000 $15,000,000 $16,000,000

2011-12

2012-13to date

2010-11

2009-10

2008-09

2007-08

$5,677,984

$16,421,384

$8,468,980

$3,852,439

$3,225,903

$6,091,658

Distinctions.

‘Great Colleges to Work For’In August 2012, APSU became the only public university in Tennessee to be named one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, based on a survey

by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The results were based on a survey of more than 46,000 employees at 294 colleges and universities. In all, only 103 of the 294 institutions achieved “Great College to Work For” recognition for specific best practices and policies. Results are reported for small, medium, and large institutions, with APSU included among the large universities with 10,000 or more students.

APSU won honors in five categories in 2012: Collaborative Governance, Professional/Career Development Programs, Teaching Environment, Confidence in Senior Leadership, and Tenure Clarity and Process.

Because of this recognition in several 2222

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categories, APSU received Honor Roll distinction.

‘Military Friendly School’ For the last three years, APSU has been named by G.I. Jobs magazine as a “Military

Friendly School” for its efforts in educating military and veteran students.

The honor ranks APSU in the top 15 percent of all colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide. The magazine surveys more than 12,000 schools each year for this honor. Here are some of the reasons why APSU is a Military Friendly School:

APSU has a Military Education Task Force, composed of individuals from all areas of campus to evaluate how the University is meeting the needs of the military-connected student body and to implement best practices that will enable those students to continue their studies and complete their degree. The panel also identifies the needs of military-connected students, assesses the way that

the University is meeting those needs and implements programs and services that will support the students as they progress toward completing their degrees.

In September 2010, APSU opened the Military Student Center inside the Morgan University Center, Room 120.

And in March 2009, APSU opened the new Austin Peay Center @ Fort Campbell facility, further strengthening its commitment to educating military personnel.

Degree Compass charts national headlines

From the first day students begin coursework at APSU, the No. 1 goal is to see these students through graduation. Since 2010, APSU has worked on a special project that has become the

center of a state and national effort to help students stay on track to graduation.It’s called Degree Compass, a course

recommendation tool that provides each student with personalized recommendations based on their academic transcript.

Degree Compass debuted in Spring 2011 at APSU, then became the centerpiece for a $1 million grant Tennessee received in July 2011 from the Complete College America fund with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since then, Degree Compass has made national headlines in mainstream media and academic publications, including The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The new tool, already being used by more than 40,000 students from universities and community colleges, will be deployed statewide to help boost the state’s higher education graduation rates among community colleges and four-year institutions.

In addition to course recommendations, Degree Compass predicts the grade a student might earn and aligns recommended courses with degree requirements and academic talents.

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Above: APSU’s increased performance

in retention and graduation makes APSU the most improved public

institution in the state.

Right: Beginning in 2011-12, Tennessee’s public universities

faced a new funding formula based on student success. APSU

outpaced all universities in the Tennessee Board of Regents and University of Tennessee

systems in improvements with student success.

Source: Tennessee Higher Education Commission

-2.0

-4.0%

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14

New Funding Formula

APSU UMETSU UTCMTSU

Total Funding

UTKTSU UTMTTU

2011-12

2010-11

2009-10

2008-09

2007-08

0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 1,800 2,000

1,892

1,776

1,566

1,583

1,493

Degrees Awarded

6,500 7,000 7,500 8,000 8,500 9,000

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

8,507

8,483

8,003

7,499

7,172

FTE Enrollment

50% 55% 60% 65% 70% 75%

2010

2009

2008

2007

2011Retention Rate

69.48%

67.87%

67.84%

66.95%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

37.44%

35.24%

33.11%

31.44%

Graduation Rate

32.59%

These charts show the progress APSU has observed in the last five years. These yardsticks are

now the basis for state funds for APSU.

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69.07%

APSU is an AA/EEO employer. AP 245/12-12/6.5M/Courier Printing/Smyrna, TN.

Office of the PresidentBox 4576601 College St.Clarksville, TN 37044