President Theobald Gives Second State of the University Address

President Theobald made his second-annual “State of the University Address” in Mitten hall.

He addressed faculty, staff, and students discussing the breakthrough year for the University.
Temple has seen records broken this year, and not just in football. A total of 30,037 applications were received from potential students. This freshman class was particularly smart as nearly 600 freshman enrolled in the honors program, along with the highest average high school GPA of 3.51. The freshman class also has helped keep the name ‘Diversity University’ strong, with freshmen from 49 countries from all over the world. The percent of African-American freshmen rose by 20, and Latino Freshmen is up by 26 percent.

Students are not only breaking records with their demographics, but in the classroom as well. Temple is seeing its highest rankings, ever. The online MBA program is number one in the country along with number two in trail advocacy for best law schools, according to the U.S News & World Report. The School of Media and Communication’s Communication and Journalism is now top ten in the country as it sits at number nine and the college of education is ranked 19, according to USA Today. Record breaking research has been made in the nationally ranked Fox Chase Center. Nearly one billion dollars has been requested for researching funding, which led to the top 100 in research expenditures in the National Science Foundation survey.

Students have all been seeing the changes around campus. Liacouras walk was ripped up to add some green space, along with plans to add more green space throughout the entire campus. What was once Barton Hall, is now rubble as the school makes way for the multi-million dollar, state of the art Library. New classes are being added to campus, as Wachman Hall received 26 new classrooms, and the addition of SERC last year. There are also minor facelifts being made to buildings such as the Temple Performing Arts Center (T-PAC) and the College of Engineering.

As Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Communications Karen Clarke at Temple said, “Temple red has never been this red hot.”

President Theobald will not only address all of the great things Temple has achieved in the past year, but also what his plans are for the future. He has worked with a panel of faculty and staff throughout the year to create projected goals the university will try to achieve within the next year.

You can watch President Theobald’s inaugural speech, along with his full 2015 State of the University address on Temple’s website.