Simon
What a difference a year makes. Or, in the case of the annual State of the University address, doesn’t make.
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said her address last February focused on three key points: MSU’s global impact, the MSU College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids and public universities’ roles in the state economy.
Simon said her address at 3 p.m. today at Wharton Center will stress the implementation of the same topics.
“The focus now is on execution and staying the course,” she said.
Global impact
Simon said MSU’s presence in Dubai International Academic City, the first American university in Dubai, is the most visible of MSU’s global outreach projects.
“The theme is impact and innovation around the world,” she said. “We’re working to expand to every continent on the globe.”
Several key decisions involving MSU in Dubai have taken place since Simon’s last address, MSU spokesman Terry Denbow said. The university finalized the partnership between MSU and Dubai in September and appointed Brendan Mullan as executive director of MSU in Dubai. Mullan left for Dubai on Jan. 12.
“The naming of Mullan clearly is a big announcement,” he said. “He’s there working now.”
Denbow said MSU has began its advertising campaign for about 200 undergraduate spots that will be available when MSU in Dubai opens in August.
Grand Rapids expansion
The expansion of MSU’s College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids has been ahead of schedule, Simon said.
“All of the partnership contracts arranged have been signed, the plan for the building is going forward and the college is working very closely with physicians in the community,” she said.
Aron Sousa, senior associate dean of the MSU College of Human Medicine, said the progress of MSU’s expansion has been “excellent” so far.
The school is slated to open in fall 2010. As of January, $36 million of the $90 million necessary for the building had been raised.
State impact
Simon spoke of the economic potential of the University Research Corridor, or URC, in her 2007 address.
The URC is a partnership among MSU, Wayne State University and University of Michigan, the state’s three research universities.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm considered the universities’ research output as one of the top factors in recent budget proposals for higher education funding, said Leslee Fritz, spokeswoman for the Office of the State Budget.
Simon said the URC partnership was partially a push to receive more state funding, but that wasn’t the core of the arrangement.
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“We want to be a magnet for jobs into the state and a lever for change for the economic transformation required of the state,” she said.
