<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap">2 Presidential Conversation
Building A Better Commonwealth Starts At UK
  People are talking about the University of Kentucky for all the right reasons.
  ?   Thanks to the Top 20 Business Plan and the General Assembly’s support for
  it, we are doing something very different and very important in Kentucky —
· ii I J-: - and people across the nation are taking notice. Prom media coverage in the
    3* * ' New Mrk Nmes, the Chronicle me I·hg}aerEdumti0n, and USA Bday to re-
n __;_ cruiting some of the top minds from the nation’s top universities, the higher
    education world has its eyes squarely focused on the Commonwealth.
Evidence ofthe University of Kentucky’s push to become a Top 20 public
research university can be found across campus. We created 60 new faculty
T g positions to help improve retention and graduation rates. We kept tuition in-
y T creases in the single digits for the Hrst time since 2000 and invested in scholar-
A g _ ship programs to make sure UK is accessible to all Kentuckians.
{ -   That momentum is not just good for UK; it is great news for the Common-
wealth. States with Top 20 universities are places where citizens are more edu-
cated, healthier, and more Hnancially secure.
Take a look at the areas that house the nation’s strongest — and most globally competitive — economies. Be-
fore there was a Silicon Valley, there was Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley. Before
there was a biotechnological beltway around Boston, there was Harvard University and the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology. Before there was a Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, there were three great research
universities. This is not a chicken-and-egg debate; strong research universities hold the key to a state’s prosperity.
That message has been — and will continue to be — at the heart of the university’s conversations with Ken-
tucky’s policy makers. Although I acknowledge that the state’s hnancial outlook is not as rosy as we had hoped, I
believe we need to continue to invest in UK’s Top 20 plan if we care about solving Kentucky’s most pressing
problems.
As an alumni member, I hope you, too, will continue to champion what we are doing at the University of Ken-
tucky. Whether talking to one of Kentucky’s elected oHicials or simply to a friend or neighbor, Ihope you will
share the UK story. Together, we can change the Commonwealth.
Sincerely,
Lee T. Todd]r.
President
S G G b I U G .
www.uka|umni.net 5 ((

</pre>