University has lofty goals after ambitious expansion
In his time here, Chancellor Michael Ferrari has helped raise the university’s prestige through various efforts including fund-raising drives, the Commission on the Future of TCU and raising student enrollment. Ferrari will retire at the end of this school year.
By Alisha Brown
Associate editor

Chancellor Michael Ferrari began his last Fall Convocation speech with encouraging words reminiscent of the accomplishments of the university in the past few years. The crowded Ed Landreth Hall Auditorium and solemn attendants left an emotional feel to the room, reflecting Ferrari’s resignation and the solace of the day after Sept. 11.

In the past four years the faces, faculty and facilities of campus have undergone construction in a number of ways. Ferrari came to TCU with the energy and experience to begin major fund-raising projects, initiate a commission for the university’s future, restructure academic programs and seek a revamping of the curriculum.

In his last year here we will see what comes to fruition as Ferrari take his final lap down the Boardwalk.

Pass GO
Dr. Michael D. Ferrari Jr. was named chancellor of TCU March 25, 1998,by the Board of Trustees with a unanimous recommendation from the executive committee. Ferrari, then 57, joined TCU in its 125th year from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he served as president for 13 years.

“Mick Ferrari is the right man at the right time for TCU and Fort Worth,” trustee R. Denny Alexander was quoted as saying in a press release. “As a national leader among peers in higher education, he is a person who appreciates TCU’s potential and who has the particular talents and skills necessary to keep it moving full speed ahead.”

At Drake University he accomplished many goals during his tenure that reflected his ambitions as he assumed the position at TCU.

As the 10th president at Drake he sharpened the strategic vision, led growth in enrollments and selectivity, increased the endowment, doubled the number of minority students and international enrollment, completed a $50 million facility-improvement program, completed the largest fund-raising effort in Drake’s history a year ahead of schedule and began that university’s ongoing fund-raising effort of $190 million, according to a press release from the office of communications.

Chance
When Ferrari stepped into his office on the third floor of Sadler Hall as the ninth chancellor in 126 years of this university, TCU was a much different place. TCU was ranked at the bottom of the second-tier academically, tuition was $345 a credit hour, estimated at $11,590 a year and there were 7,395 students enrolled, according to the 2001 Factbook.

In his first address to the university Ferrari outlined three goals and said the university needed a plan for the future.

Plans for a technology center were already underway and $8.4 million had been raised by November. From the December meeting of the Board of Trustees, Ferrari proposed a task force to define a mission statement, a council on diversity and a technology task force, past Skiff issues report.

“I didn’t think my goals were too high at the time,” Ferrari said. “My hope was that the faculty, staff and students would come together and embrace that ambition.”

At his official inauguration Feb. 26, 1999, Ferrari announced his plans for a Commission on the Future of TCU. The next month at the Board of Trustees meeting the Chancellor’s Council on Diversity was formed, chaired by Cornell Thomas. Bob Schieffer, news anchor for CBS and host for “Face the Nation” was chosen to lead the Commission on the Future of TCU and the mission statement was finalized: “To think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.”

Community Chest
The next few years would bring the bulk of physical planning and budgeting at TCU, most of which was molded by the Commission that launched in November 1999. Economic planning became a focus for the university and over the span of a three years we would see three new colleges, increases in tuition, a cap on student enrollment, the peak of our endowment and the attacks of Sept. 11, which put TCU’s stability in limbo.

In his second year, enrollment was at 7,551 and feeling a bit crowded within school, Ferrari said.

“During the second year we went from having five colleges within the university to eight,” he said.

Add Ran College of Humanities and Social Sciences split into two schools; the college of Fine Arts and Communication split into two separate schools. Also, Ferrari created a College of Health and Human Sciences with a school of nursing.

Tuition increased 5.7 percent to $365 a credit hour and plans for further university marketing were made.

At the Board meeting in March, a $169 million budget and $25 a credit hour raise in tuition was approved. The same month the university endowment reached its highest point ever at $1 billion.

“When I came to the university the endowment was at $750 million” Ferrari said. “Even after it’s peak and fall we are still in the top 2 percent in the nation of 3,000 public and private universities and colleges.”

In April 2000, $400,000 was allocated for marketing and by June a full report by the Commission was issued to the chancellor with detailed suggestions and goals that will shape he university until 2003.

Foster Hall reopened to a full campus in August 2000. There were 1,403 freshmen and 7,775 total students enrolled paying $390 a credit hour — a 6.8 percent increase.

At the Fall Convocation of 2000 Ferrari set his sights on studying and replacing the University Core Requirements.

This process has been ongoing since. Three committees were created in September to head the Curriculum Outcome Committee. Toward the end of November the Board of Trustees approved the $30 million Rickel Building renovation and the committee issued a report outlining eight skills needed to revamp the curriculum.

In January 2001, the groundwork was laid for reaccreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The university set a fund-raising goal of $230 million by 2007.

Ferrari said he had hoped to take that fund-raising plan into full force last year, but with the events of Sept. 11 it will be a job for the next chancellor.

“Had Sept. 11 not happened I have no doubt we would be above the $100 million mark already,” he said. “It is best that the next phase be completed by someone who will be here for another five to 10 years.”

In March 2001, the Board approved a $189 million budget for the university, $30 million in classroom and laboratory renovations and a new flat-rate tuition for incoming freshmen.

By the fall 2001 enrollment was at an all-time high of 8,054, with 1,514 incoming freshmen. Tuition based on the credit hour rose 7.7 percent to $420 a credit hour and the flat-rate was set at $7,500 a semester.

Sept. 11, 2001
The tragedy of Sept. 11 changed the university in many ways. It was an unfortunate but important time to be leading a university, Ferrari said.

“Even though it was a rough year for many of our investors we still had the second best fund-raising year in the university’s history,” he said. “Seventy-million dollars was given to the university from private donors.”

But there was still uncertainty on campus. A core curriculum proposal was sharply criticized by some faculty members. In January 2002 plans for a parking garage were put on hold due to lack of funding and the Tucker Technology Center was reported to be lacking $6.5 million for completion.

“The latest figures I’ve seen report we have raised near $20 million of the $25 million needed,” Ferrari said. “ ... and $4 million of that includes the operating endowment.

“Just (Wednesday) we had a $25,000 donation. I have no doubts that we will secure the funding,” he said.

In February 2002, a decision was made to cap freshmen enrollment at 1,475 and total enrollment at 7,400 . The Board approved a $213 million budget for the fall and during the semester a final draft was issued on the Common Undergraduate Experience.

Illinois Avenue
This fall students pay $455 a credit hour, an 8.7 percent increase, or a flat rate of $16,300 a year, up $1,300. Enrollment numbers have not been released, and the endowment rests at approximately the same amount it was last September at $850 million.

The Tucker center will be dedicated Saturday, Ferrari said, and the University Recreation Center is set to be completed by December and there are hopes that the core curriculum will receive final approval this semester.

“I urge thoughtful final review this fall with the hope that formal action and approval by faculty will make possible the development of a phase-in plan for new students entering in the fall of 2004,” he said.

Ferrari signed a four-year contract five years ago and stayed an extra year at the request of the Board of Trustees, he said. His resignation as chancellor was not surprising, but was still a very difficult decision for he and his wife Jan, he said.

“Next year would be my 20th year as a university president,” he said. “I’m retiring to spend time with my six grandchildren who are under six years old, including the set of two-year old triplets.

“I have spent my life thinking and caring about other people’s children. Especially at this time after Sept. 11, when we are all looking for deeper meaning, you look back on your own and time you can’t go back and recapture those years,” he said.

Ferrari said he plans on moving to Chicago, Ill., to be closer to his family and will continue to advise new college presidents and working on university projects.