In the past year, our aspirations have resulted in measured success in every area of the College.
Provost Beth Dobkin outlines the new Academic Blueprint and the New Core Curriculum.
During the 2010-11 fiscal year, Saint Mary's raised $39 million, breaking all previous fundraising records. Much of the money was given to support capital projects that will have a lasting impact on campus.
Saint Mary's is increasingly making its mark in today's media landscape. During the 2010-11 academic year, the College and its faculty, students and alumni were quoted or discussed in the media on more than 2,000 occasions, and SMC faculty were mentioned in news stories 235 times, up 97% from just two years ago.
When SMC's two communities of Christian Brothers agreed to craft a treatise on Catholic intellectual tradition, they had no idea how much fun they would have.
As a result of a strategic partnership between the College and media partners KTVU-TV, KQED-FM and the San Francisco Chronicle, the phrase "live from Saint Mary's College" was broadcast into more than a half million California households, distributed statewide to a network of California Public Radio stations and on CSPAN-TV.
When Forbes magazine ranked Saint Mary's fifth in the nation among colleges that prepare students to succeed beyond expectations, it might have had Shayna Olesiuk '99 in mind. For Leo Guardado '04, Saint Mary's helped him achieve a different kind of success.
This fall Saint Mary's not only enrolled the most students in its history it also enrolled the smartest, most geographically diverse group ever.
It started as a show of support for the Saint Mary's Gaels and became the unofficial anthem for the school and the basketball team. Now, almost a year after its debut on YouTube, the celebrated "Gaels Gone Wild" video has been viewed by over 175,000 online visitors.
More than half of all SMC undergraduates have had a study abroad experience (Jan Term travel courses are the primary reason), which places the College seventh in the nation in study abroad opportunities among institutions awarding master's degrees, according to a study by the International Education Exchange.
Low achievement in reading is a problem whose effects reach far beyond the classroom. More than $2 billion is spent every year on public school students who repeat a grade due to reading problems, data from the federal government shows. The Saint Mary's College Reading Recovery program is working to change that.
The College should be able to continue to make strategic investments and grow its net assets. The College also appears to be well positioned to weather a slow economic recovery and a volatile financial environment for borrowing and investing.
I am pleased to report that the 2010-11 fiscal year was the College's most successful year in generating external support.