President Corrigan to retire as president after quarter century of leadership
Aug. 22, 2011 -- President Robert A. Corrigan announced at today’s opening meeting of the academic year that he will complete his term as president by the fall semester 2012. The 12th president in SF State history, Corrigan has served the campus since 1988.
"I love this University and take great pride in all we have been able to accomplish together. In an academic career that spans 54 years, I can say that you have been the greatest group of colleagues with whom I have had the great good fortune to work," Corrigan said at the conclusion of the opening meeting.
President Corrigan has led the campus through more than two decades of remarkable change -- and recent challenges. Crediting a strong administrative team of chairs, deans and vice presidents who have worked collaboratively to advance the University, Corrigan recapped a series of campus improvements built upon broad-based strategic planning and commitment to the "keystone value" of social justice and equity.
Highlights of the Corrigan years include:
- Recruitment and hiring of 1,002 new tenured/tenure-track faculty since 1989, of whom 529 have been female and 423 minority, resulting in a tenured/tenure-track faculty that today is 48 percent women and 37 percent minority.
- Improving support for faculty grants and contracts, which have grown from $9 million in the 1988/89 academic year to $56 million last year.
- Transformation from a commuter campus to a destination campus, a campus of first choice for students from across the state, outside California and other nations. Since the early ‘90s, the first-time freshmen cohort has more than tripled at SF State. Of the 3,500 new freshmen expected this fall, at least half will come from outside the Bay Area.
- A focus on student success, notably with the launch of the Student Success initiative under the leadership of Provost Sue V. Rosser.
- Expansion of the physical campus – with property acquisitions that have almost doubled our acreage and enabled more student and affiliate housing, opening of the Downtown Campus in 2007, and a 25 percent increase in the land at the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies. Overall, new buildings added to campus since 1988 include Humanities, Fine Arts, Student Services, the Village at Centennial Square, the A.S. Early Childhood Education Center, Children’s Campus, the Greenhouse and the Corp Yard, as well as major additions to Burk Hall, Ethnic Studies & Psychology, the Student Center and the Library. Complete remodeling and seismic upgrades of Hensill Hall and the Administration building as well as a complete rebuilding of the Towers residence hall have taken place along with new baseball and softball fields, new tennis courts and a rehab of Cox Stadium. The J. Paul Leonard Library renovation and extension, the largest construction project in CSU history, is 85 percent finished and scheduled for March completion.
- Growth of the fundraising and alumni relations programs, resulting in more than $16 million raised last year, and in recent years, two of largest private gifts in SF State’s history -- $10 million and $5 million. Our endowment was $3 million in 1989; it is $50 million today.
- Completion of the University Planning Advisory Council work to address the budget crisis, resulting in more than 20 recommendations to streamline university operations, save costs or generate revenues.
For President Corrigan’s complete remarks as written, please go to: http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/announce/165.html
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