OPPORTUNITY Louisiana Tech University / Tech Report 2014 CONTENTS
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OPPORTUNITY Louisiana Tech University / Tech Report 2014 CONTENTS 6 Opportunity to Grow 14 Opportunity to Lead 22 Opportunity to Connect 33 Opportunity to Compete 41 Opportunity to Adjust 45 Opportunity to Advance The Tech Report is made possible through the support of the Louisiana Tech University Foundation. Louisiana Tech, a member of the University of Louisiana System, is an equal opportunity educator and employer. LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Louisiana Tech has reached an exciting and pivotal point in its 120-year history. With a solid plan and a willingness to work together, this University can quickly grow to an even greater level of excellence. The hallmark of our country has always been growth. And so it’s been for our University, which began with a graduating class of one in 1897 and has grown into a graduating class of nearly 1,000 in the spring quarter of 2014. Louisiana Tech has not grown just for the sake of growing. Our progress has been strategically planned to benefit the individual student and the University as a whole. Tech has never lost sight of the goal of educating one student at a time. If we continue to grow for the right reasons and in the right way, the results will produce an expanding but closer Tech Family. More student success, more diplomas, more doctorates, more breakthroughs in research, in academics and in athletics. What that means is that we’ll have more of ourselves to offer to our community and to our state and region. Accomplishment binds us all. The 2014 Tech Report illustrates many of our footsteps this past year. We’ve taken some leaps, too, and plan others. Our goal of 15,000 students by 2020 will bring increased financial stability to the University, enhance our educational offerings, and enable us to compete more effectively for great talent. To compete, we must be financially equipped to reward our hardworking faculty, staff and students. As those numbers grow, so will Tech’s opportunities. Opportunities to lead, to connect, to compete and to advance. We’ve gotten where we are through the help of alumni, supporters and friends. We’ll get where we’re going by the dedication and commitment of us all. President, Louisiana Tech University Investiture of the President, April 8, 2014 (right) 2 3 ”Our focus is on growing our University so that we can provide new opportunities for our students and can contribute even more, as only a first-class University can, to the growth and betterment of our region and state.” – Dr. Les Guice, President, Louisiana Tech University FAR FROM THE 16TH FLOOR: Dr. Guice is constantly visible around Tech’s vibrant campus, whether in the Quad between classes or in the mix during special events like Time Out for Tech or Orientation. This fall on the patio of the president’s home after brunch and before a Saturday Military Appreciation Day football game in Joe Aillet Stadium, Guice presented a Skip Holtz-signed Tech football helmet to Lt. Gen. Stephen “Seve” Wilson, Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command. On Investiture Day – April 8, 2014 – with the help of son Bret and grandson Christopher, he planted the 14th presidential tree along the entrance to Alumni Walkway, each tree in honor of the men who’ve served in Tech’s highest office. 4 5 OPPORTUNITY TO GROW In April, the South End Zone Complex in Joe Aillet Stadium began to become a reality. The project (right) is on budget and on schedule for completion by late summer of 2015. Not since the early 1980s and construction of the Thomas Assembly Center has the Tech athletic department basked in the possibilities presented with a building project of this scope. But this is much more than “just a building for athletics.” While it will put Tech’s athletic complex on equal footing or beyond when compared to the facilities of any other mid- major, the completed three-story structure will be used for all sorts of student, campus and community events. This is a structure that will not only inspire pride through its atmosphere and housing of Tech memorabilia, but will also serve to remind students, student-athletes, alums and community supporters that they are part of a historic tradition of winning, of teamwork and of not giving up. $20+M FINANCED: Donations from loyal supporters and a student body self-assessed fee provided funding; no operating funds were used. FEATURES: Football offices, meeting and locker rooms, and a strength and conditioning complex used by all 16 of the University’s athletic programs; club level with luxury premium seating options, dining room with field view, full-service commercial kitchen. ARCHITECT: Tim Brandon, Tim Brandon Architecture CONTRACTOR: Lincoln Builders 6 7 OPPORTUNITY TO GROW Louisiana Tech is nearing completion of a campus master planning study that will provide strategic guidance in building and renovating facilities and developing the campus during this next crucial decade. Meanwhile, as the University has in the past half-dozen years, we are moving ahead with well-thought-out, solid plans that will serve the expanding student body and faculty immediately. • The University has secured private, grant and capital outlay funding to add a 20,000-square- foot wing onto the new College of Business building (below); groundbreaking is scheduled by early 2015. • Thanks to generous contributions of alumni, friends and corporations and the strong support of its legislative delegation, the University received $37 million in the summer’s capital outlay bill for a 110,000-square-foot integrated engineering and science education building (left). A definite site and architect will be assigned soon. • The University received $3 million to completely upgrade its campus water distribution system and reconfigure the old system for campus irrigation from the campus lake water, a beneficial move in many ways, especially in reduced costs and aquifer use. • These plans come on the heels of $50 million in new and upgraded athletic facilities during the past five years, in expansion of Enterprise Campus, and in the clearing of the west side of Tech Drive for green space or campus expansion; demolition of Caruthers Hall and Neilson Hall (left) were completed in early 2014. 8 9 OPPORTUNITY TO GROW Louisiana Tech’s 2014 spring and summer commencement exercises were historic in two special and never-done-before aspects. Both point toward where Tech is growing. One, at spring commencement on May 24, a packed Thomas Assembly Centered honored a graduating class of 957, Tech’s largest ever; degrees conferred included nine dual degrees and 11 doctorates. Then on August 21, also in Thomas Assembly Center, Gergana Georgieva Nestorova received the first Ph.D. in molecular science and nanotechnology (right). She is the first College of Applied and Natural Sciences doctorate. Her accomplishment completes what could be considered an interesting circle within the Tech Family: Nestorova was hooded and advised by Dr. Eric Guilbeau, who was the recipient of the first Ph.D. awarded by Tech, years ago in chemical engineering. Guilbeau’s advisor at the time: former Tech professor Dr. Dan Reneau, who retired in 2013 after more than 50 years at Tech, the last 26 as its president. She felt more than relief after receiving her doctorate: “I was happy and proud,” she said, “to become part of the Louisiana Tech University family of alumni.” From Pleven, Bulgaria, Nestorova came to Tech in 2009 when her husband, Dr. Dentcho Genov, accepted a faculty position as an assistant professor in physics. She was initially employed as a research associate in biomedical engineering and later worked at a startup, Biovations, which focused on developing DNA sequencing technology with applications in personalized medicine. In the meantime, she earned her master’s in molecular science and nanotechnology science (MSNT) and began pursuit of her doctorate, a degree shared by biology and chemistry, within the College of Applied and Natural Sciences. Today she is a research assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Science and works with Dr. Niel Crews on a NASA-funded project focused on developing a lab-on-a-chip system for detection of radiation-induced DNA damage in space. Why she pursued this particular doctorate: “This Ph.D. program within the molecular science and nanotechnology discipline offers a unique opportunity for the students to receive training in molecular biology, nanotechnology and engineering.” Where she sees herself in five years: “Contributing to the Louisiana Tech community by engaging in cutting-edge biomedical research that can have significant impacts on society, as well as training next-generation scientists.” What Dr. Nestorova thinks makes Tech’s applied and natural sciences programs, combined with the University’s engineering and science programs, special: “The uniqueness here lies in the multidisciplinary approach to research combined with an extremely encouraging environment that fosters collaborative scientific projects.” 10 11 OPPORTUNITY TO GROW ”This is a tremendous student body. As we incrementally increase the size of the freshman class The University’s earnest focus on growth during the next five years is born of a combination of and grow our campus population to 15,000 students by the year 2020, we are simultaneously timing and opportunity. The University’s strategies for increasing the quality and quantity of growing the brand awareness of our University. This effort has already generated tremendous the student body is already paying dividends; for the second consecutive year, Louisiana Tech enthusiasm on campus as we recognize the financial benefits of this new economy of scale. By has seen a substantial increase in both. everyone working together to accomplish this strategic priority, we will be able to continue to increase the depth of our first-class faculty and staff and create exciting new opportunities for The number of first-time freshmen enrolled at Tech grew by nearly 20 percent in each of the the brightest students in the region.” past two years.