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uh huh. From Gainesville, Florida. Mm, hello. I'm Mike Cannon. And this is conversation. As a matter of fact, this is the first conversation of the 1981 82 season. It is our seventh season on the air. All of our broadcasts originate in the studios of W UFT, Channel five on the campus of the University of Florida.

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Most of our programs, almost all of them as a matter of fact or produce live. This is one of them in these programs. We talked with members of the faculty of the university and with others, lecturers, writers, people who can help us understand what is going on and why, in this remarkable, diverse, sometimes baffling world and universe in which we live.

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We have an immense amount of talent on this campus, and we're trying to take advantage of it, talking with men and women who come from research laboratories and classrooms to explain to us what they are doing. But one of the things that I thought it would be important for us to discuss as we begin our seventh season is the state of the university itself.

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It is one of the largest and most important institutions of higher learning in the United States. Indeed, in the world we're going to find out why and exactly where we stand in comparison with other research institutions across this country and for the purpose of finding out.

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I've invited that person who knows more than anybody else. By way of answer. He is the president. Dr Robert Q. Marston and Dr Marston and I will return for a conversation in a moment. Conversation from the University of Florida, a discussion of social, political, scientific and religious issues of the day.

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Your host is Dr Michael Vegan in professor of history and ethics and assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. Dr Marston. Welcome to conversation, Mike. It's good to be back. It was two years ago that we discussed the state of the university and embarked upon the academic year 1979 80.

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Now I'd like to find out from you what kind of a start we've made this time or Mike. The first classes were held on this campus 75 years ago, and without Christ in by all of the measures that we have, we've gotten off to the finest year in the history of the University of Florida, kept perhaps by this remarkable weekend in which we had more than 50 legislators on this campus, all of them left full of pride for the University of Florida.

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We dedicated that remarkable structure and named it after a remarkable man, the Stephen C. O. Connell Student Activity Center. And we had a great football afternoon in which our team performed splendidly. It's been that way all spring, all fall in every area. That's great, Bob. When you measure how the quality of a university, I assume you start with the students and the faculty.

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So let's do that. What kind of student body do we have this time? Well, I've just gotten some of the figures for this fall, and we show the continued growth in the quality of the students in our freshman class. Indeed, the whole student body. Three years ago, 73% of our students scored at a level above the nice to mean on S a.

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T. Last year, there was a 10% jump, 83% good above the nice domain. These figures get compressed as you get in the high ones. But this year, 85% of our incoming freshmen scored above the national mean more than 250 students on merge scholars or achievement scholars on this campus again, a constant increase in the number of highly talented, highly motivated students who have come to the University of Florida and chosen us.

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And that number of merit and achievement scholars does not count those of which we have no record who are in our graduate and professional schools. I understand that's right. It's only the undergrads with one's Well, there's a tremendous demand for the education that's being offered here.

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Didn't I see the figure that something like 12,500 students applied for the 2900 openings in the freshman class this year? I spent a fair amount of my time at meetings of our alumni explaining why our students were not able to be admitted when they have perfectly well qualified students and I, you know, as a state university and a land grant university, I worry sometimes that we may become too competitive, but the fact is that students love to come here.

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They enjoy it while they're here. and they hate to leave. Yes, I know. Well, with so many Florida students applying for enrolment, does that mean that the university has to turn away a good number of bright students who apply from other states? Well, the whole residents question in in Florida is is less keen than in Virginia where I came from.

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Uh, and the reason for that is any student having lived here and intending to live here, having lived here for you can be classified as a as a Florida resident, 60% of our juniors and seniors transfer students. So we we really don't have the problem in the vast majority of our students, all Florida residents.

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And given the I, I don't mean 50%. I mean something 90% of SUVs classified as Florida residents. And given the diversity of backgrounds to Florida residents today, you could say that our student body is very cosmopolitan. They come from all over the United States in terms of origin.

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What about the faculty? It seems to me that there has been a dramatic jump, a quantum leap, if you will, in the quality and productivity of our faculty as well over the same space of time. I think that's true. I think one has to be cautious when one talks about new faculty to give proper credit to the faculty that has been here for years and that not only has supplied the base for the constant growth but has grown in stature while they have been at the University of Florida.

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But having said that, then we do find that, along with other institutions in the Sun Belt that we're able to attract and whole faculty members to bring them from institutions with, uh, great prestige to come here because they have the sense that this is the part of the nation that has the most dramatic, uh, feature.

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And one can can see the example of the success in in sponsored research. More than 1000 of our faculty have research grants. We've continued to grow 15% 20% then all last year, only increasing by 10% and sponsored research. But that's a direct reflection of the quality of the faculty that we have here.

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When I when I came here and talked to people Mike, one of the benchmarks was, Well, when you get to the point that you have, say, about 200 faculty of the the level of graduate research professors that then nothing will stop the continued growth. You'll have a critical mass, and we're moving very rapidly toward that with the quality improvement funds that we have with the eminent scholars program that we have with our continued support for graduate research professors and for distinguished service professors.

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We we do have a faculty. That is now, I believe at the point of, uh, of my being able to talk with the governor last week how fast you want to move. We know we know now that we have the basis at the University of Florida and quality of students and quality of faculty, uh, in the support from the Legislature and the support and private giving and our ability to compete for for federal grants that you I can give you a 10 to 15 year plan or I can give you a 5 to 10 year plan, just depending on how fast the state is ready to augment the support that we're getting in terms of movement of this university.

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I'd like to echo what you said a moment ago about the high quality of the faculty that has been in place here on this campus over the course of many years and which made possible the tremendous growth in quality that some say, as you have just said, has occurred over the last three or four years.

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But one of the of the benefits that I would point to from my particular point of view, as one reason contributing to that advance is the quality improvement money that was appropriated by the Legislature. It's enabled us to do things that we could not have done before because it's enabled us to use money freely for the improvement of quality.

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As such. Would you agree to that? I would agree I would list very quickly the quality improvement money, dollars over and above workload for the specific purpose of improving quality, the augmentation of our resources in the library, the special appropriations for scientific and technical equipment that we've gotten, and the establishment of the eminent scholars program whereby and into raising $600,000 from private sources, the state will match it with $400,000.

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Transfer that money to the University of Florida. We have a million dollars in Dai Chao. We have established three we filled to. Just today I got the names of the finalist. In the third one, we will in. We have commitments for several additional ones, which we will be announcing, uh, in the next few weeks and months.

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This has been a tremendous stimulus to growth and development at this university, and I tried to thank the legislation everywhere I could this past weekend, so that if an individual donor contribute $600,000 the state will match that gift with $400,000 resulting in a $1 million endowment that then would finance the salary and work of a truly distinguished scientist or researcher or teacher.

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There's a great deal of flexibility and how the income from that endowment can be used. Um, part of it can be used for salary, all of it for salary. Part of it can be used for graduate assistants, part of it for equipment, part for travel, but it is is to support an individual at the national level of international level of accomplishment.

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Doctor Towel, who was a university professor at the University of Chicago. Uh, Dr Cousins, just this past week, it was announced that he's coming to us from Rutgers and international expert and also an excellent teacher. As the president Rutgers tell me, who will be working in a in an area that Florida has a rich tradition in, and that is trace elements and the effects in nutrition.

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It was the work of Dr George Davis that really converted this state from a barren wasteland into a productive area for agriculture, for the Citrus industry and for the cattle industry. I want to ask something about language you've been using recently gambling language you've been talking about parlaying that is, right out of, uh, gamblers lexicon.

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Uh, and it has to do with fundraising. Tell me a little bit about it and give me an example, if you would, please. Well, one of the difficult things to do in a university in which all of the components are important are important is to select one area for emphasis out of time.

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And we decided, actually, before I became president, that it was essential to do that so that if we get a major gift, then we will seek immediately to strengthen the impact of that gift with state funds and with federal funds. And there's so many examples of that that it's hard to pick one night.

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But I think to suddenly become, uh, the center of the study of butterflies, the biology of that in less than a year's time, as an example of using quality improvement money, getting a major, multimillion dollar gift of one of the great collections, uh, in the world, and of having this match than with with other funds.

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So this is what we mean by Paula. Give us give us a leg up, and we have almost always been able to move up and up and end up with something that is dramatically more effective. And that's that's starting investment. One major acquisition or one major gift or the recruitment of one distinguished scholar could produce that critical mass.

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That then would lead to more improvement within the same discipline. And the three stools essentially grants state support and private funds. And by bringing these together, we can, as a definition of Paul, we can. We can make more happen by putting these together now. Last year you had as a total I remember something like $19 million in gifts to the university.

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Are we running on about the same track this year? The audience haven't been made, but we're above 20 million this year. And how much above? I don't know. Uh, you know, you have to wait until the auditors go through the books. And, uh, but this will be the best year ever in the history of the University of Florida.

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Why do people give what are the motives for giving to state assistant universities such as this? Well, I, um I think the simplest answer is that people like to put their money on a winner. They don't like to make gifts to a place that seems to be going down.

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Certainly that was the case in the how collection in which we were able to purchase that remarkable collection of early American writers and bring it here. It was the case in the New York based foundation, the Good Health Foundation, Minnesota Mining money, in which they believe that we would do a better job in conservation, uh, than anywhere else that could put the money, university, or elsewhere.

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And that has gone up now. So we'll probably end up with two or three and chairs from that gift with, uh, uh, 4 to $6 million in land and the money to to support it. So I think the first and most important thing is that, uh, you have to demonstrate that you can use the funds wisely.

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I wouldn't put my money into an institution, and you wouldn't put yours in it. I think the second one is, uh, the support of those who love this university. Um, not only people who have money, but lawyers who see their clients. Sometimes you want to know what to do with them their money.

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And I think we have had absolutely superb volunteer leadership and our fundraising efforts from really the leaders of the state of Florida who have given an inordinate amount of that time and advising us and helping us. And then third, you have to have an effective staff.

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You have to have people who understand the implications of of taxes who speak honestly, who have a credibility who can tell an individual. Look, you've got a tax problem. You can either pay the federal government this money or you can give the money to the University of Florida and those those three things.

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The rapid improvement of the quality of the institution, the support of people throughout the state and nation, and, uh, a staff and Vice President Wiggins and the director of development, Bill Stone, who know their job and who are professionals and who don't take advantage of people were most of the people who make grants, all of the people that I know of, who my grants to the University of Florida come to us and say Thank you for helping me do this thing that I feel is so, so important Bob does that extra margin of funding that is supplied by private giving enable us to do what many, uh, C is the dream of the faculty and administration and student body and now alumni over many years now to become a truly distinguished University of the Order of California at Berkeley or Michigan, North Carolina and so on.

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Well, Mike, I've have never liked that type of comparison, whether it's with institutions in the state or institutions outside of the state, and I really phrase it in a different fashion. I believe very deeply that this state has a destiny for the future of leadership to this nation and the world, much as the the great Midwestern states had thrust upon them with the movement West California and the West Coast had, with the settlement there that the Eastern states had at an earlier earlier stage in our history, in a state that's a thin population now will be fourth in population by the end of the decade.

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Simply has to have the resources of a major university to help it go forward. In its destiny, it has to serve. The undergrads with students will not force them to go out of state for the education. It has to have the the direct services to to the state and the research for the future that a a great and growing state is going to demand.

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And so that's our goal. To be sure that the University of Florida is in the position to fit the need of a state with a great destiny being thrust upon it, let me talk about building about construction you mentioned earlier the Stephen C. O. Connell Student Activity Center that was dedicated on Saturday.

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I understand that over the last six years or so, we have finally brought about a condition where every college on campus has its own building or complex of buildings. And is this a process that you see continuing? What is the outlook for continuing building? And I'm thinking, particularly of classrooms.

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We're running short on classrooms, particularly for large classes. Yes, well, we had two problems this year in the first week. The first one was that we have a registration process that needs to be revised and it will be revised. The vice president of Academic of House has assured me that we will have a more orderly arrangement for registration.

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But the second one has to do with space in chemistry and some of the business areas, usually in mathematics. Um, we simply did not have the lockers, the space, the laboratory benches to be able to meet the need of a group of students that's that surprised us some by a shift towards the towards the hard sciences.

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As as you might say, we have had the most remarkable growth in physical buildings on this campus in the last 10 years that we've had in history and we're leveling off in terms have leveled off in terms of the number of students. So why do we have a problem of space?

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Because it is a major emerging problem in many, many areas. And putting aside the age of some of our buildings and the deferred maintenance and all of the rest, it simply is that there is more to be done. Then we have the space for, and we have entered into a somewhat unusual arrangement with the research park that's jointly work out.

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I chaired the commission, the authority with members from the community, But our foundation is actually purchasing the land unusual for universe. Where is the research park? So people will have an idea? It's off. It's off of I 75 over toward Santa Fe, north of the city, an ideal, an ideal setting.

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We look first to find land that people would give us, and, uh, then we look to find the best line for the purpose, accessible to the university with easy utilities and things of that type. But we're buying the land. Granted, had a it really amounts to gift purchase in that our purchase price is $4 an acre and we believe the appraisal will be perhaps 50% higher than that.

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So we're protected in that we're not taking a chance with this money. Secondly, we'll have the same income index to government bonds or something Treasury notes or something of that type that we would expect another investments. But we have found that in engineering, for instance, and in the health center, we cannot do the contracts that we would like to do because we don't have the space.

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And we hope that this cooperation with industry well enrich the education of our graduate students, especially, um, to a lesser extent, undergraduate students. And we'll give faculty opportunities, which they do not have it. At present, many people use the research triangle at the University of North Carolina, Duke and North Carolina State.

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Participate in all the growth of high technology energy around Harvard MIT as the examples of what we see ahead of us. But one of the other driving purpose forces for us is this need for for facilities to be able to carry out the work that we need to do, and if I understand you correctly, you do not see the same pace of building on campus to take place in the years immediately ahead as we've experienced in the last six years.

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Well, I hope I didn't say that because I think it comes back to that basic question. If in fact, ah, this university is to match in quality the growth of the state. And if we go the 5 to 10 year route rather than the 10 to 15 20 year route, the main limitation is going to be the availability of classrooms and of laboratories to allow us to move more rapidly.

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So we do have needs for buildings, perhaps not at the level of the last five years, but significant improvement in an increase in the number of buildings, academic buildings on this campus. And I'd like to add to that shopping list offices for our faculty. Yes, okay.

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There and in great need. Right now, speaking of clouds on the horizon, that being only a small one. Um, what about the cuts in grants? Federal grants that have been made by the Reagan administration? They have been rather severe in my area of the humanities. I wonder if they have been equally severe in the other fields, such as the biological and physical sciences.

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Well, I, uh I talked to, Um uh, some of our people in Washington today and, uh, the U. S Senate came out with its markup and my old institution, the National Institute of Health. Uh, in a relative sense, remains, uh, somewhat protected, not getting the types of increases that it got in the years that I was directing.

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But compared to the the social sciences and the humanities and other things, one has the sense of a serious commitment to maintain the research base to the extent that one can do it. And I cut back for for everyone, for the hard sciences and the biological sciences, the one that I guess really worries us most of all.

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Excuse me, but even more than the cuts and the humanities and the social sciences is this whole question of student financial aid and we don't know the marketplace has been there. You just mentioned the figures, uh, of the people who want to come here. They have been states that have increased their tuition tremendously, 15 20% with no drop off at all in the number of students who wanted to come.

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But as a state university, we have to be worried about cuts that will remove the accessibility of high education to a Lloyd segment of our population. And if that occurs way out, we have. We're wasting our seed con. We're wasting the talent of the human resources of the of the future.

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I don't know what will will do about that. The other side of this is that no one is served. No one can be served if inflation is not brought under control. And if somehow there's not an economic turnaround, that's a very severe problem. I'm glad you addressed it.

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Let's look at the other end of the university experience graduation and the entrance into that status. We call, uh, the alumni, uh, for the couple of minutes we have remaining. Let's talk about the alumni. Do we have a noticeable increase in fervor and support among them?

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Not just in terms of money, but in terms of genuine interest in the university and its it's work. You know, Mike, I just have to cross my fingers. Have requested you give me. We've never seen anything like this year. I went to Houston, Texas. We had over 300 people to an alumni meeting to talk about academic programs.

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That was one out of every three known around in that whole area. Same thing in Dallas Houston. We had the largest crowd that we've ever had prior to the Miami game who came there and talked and express pride in their university. And the same thing is characterized the meetings all over the state and outside of the state.

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There's a groundswell of enthusiasm and help for this university, which, when I talked to my colleagues from elsewhere in the country who are facing the problems of the Detroit, the Michigan schools, Ohio, they it's a different world. But things really are going very well, and the alumni are playing a tremendous role and, uh, the support of this university and one of the things I've noticed is the new work of the Gator Clubs alumni clubs around the state of Florida in seeking out candidates for National Merit scholarships here at the university.

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Doing that with almost the same eagerness with which they've gone after candidates for football scholarships, our young graduates are coming to Houston. I would say that 1/4 of the group that I have, where students whose diploma outside that is who graduated in the last seven years.

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And can I very quickly tell in 1975 graduate at any time we have 15 seconds go Okay? She wanted to give $1000. She couldn't. She gave $250 because a company would match it with $750. And she was one of the most pleased people in that whole group.

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That's great. Well, that's a good story, that that's an upbeat story to end on it. Thank you very much. President Robert Q. Marston, for Being With Me is my guest on this first program of conversation for the year. 1981 82. We hope that you will join us again next Monday and subsequent Monday's throughout the year as we talked with representatives, faculty and administration and student body at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

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Thank you and good night