“Our admissions process is working uncommonly well this year,” he said. “The quality of the applicants as indicated by test scores and grade point averages is the best in the history of the University.”

Sorensen attributed the record number of applicants to the success of the new Capstone Scholars program for students who are not quite competitive enough to be admitted to the Honors College.

Also, the University is offering a limited number of $3,000 stipends to undergraduate students to participate in research. “It is for undergraduate students so that they can work closely with those of you who are interested in sharing your scholarship with them,” Sorensen said. “I mean research in every sense—sculpting, photography, costume design, molecular biology, history.”

The University also is offering $2,000 grants for study abroad. Both the research stipend and travel grant are competitive.

This year’s budget is “without a doubt the best budget that I’ve had in my four cycles here,” Sorensen said. “This is the first time in four years that our budget has not been cut. I regard that as indescribably good news.”

Highlights from the proposed budget include:
• a 4 percent average increase in faculty and staff compensation that has been sustained by both the House and Senate
• defeat of a proposal to cut Education Lottery endowed chair funding from $30 million to $20 million
• defeat of proposals to eliminate USC Union and USC Salkehatchie
• $1.5 million for deferred maintenance
• $1 million in permanent funding for hydrogen research (USC faculty in that field have generated $10 million in external support for the project.)
• recurring status for NanoCenter funds.

Paul Willis, dean of libraries and chair of the search committee for the dean of the College of Nursing, announced that three candidates for the deanship will visit campus in May.

They are Linda Finke, director of the Professional Development Center, Sigma Theta Tau International (nursing honor society) and an adjunct professor in the Indiana University School of Nursing, who was on campus May 2–3; Peggy Hewlett, associate dean for research and director of the Ph.D. program and the Center for Building Healthy Communities at the School of Nursing, University of Mississippi Medical Center, who will visit campus May 17–18; and Inez Tuck, chair of the nursing department at Virginia Commonwealth University, whose visit has not been set.

Provost Mark Becker said four candidates for the dean of the Honors College have visited campus, and Patrick J. Maney, chair of USC’s history department, has been invited to interview for the position.

Four candidates have been identified for dean of the School of Music and their campus visits have begun. Members of the search committee for the dean of engineering and information technology will be announced soon, Becker said.

During the Faculty Senate meeting, which followed the faculty meeting, Don Stowe, chair of the Committee on Admissions and associate dean of the College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management, reported on a new admissions process that will begin in fall 2006.

In addition to asking for SAT scores and high school ranks, the new applications will ask prospective students a limited number of questions about their activities in high school and outside of school, honors and awards, special talents, work experience, and education information about their parents or guardians. Students also will be able to make an optional personal statement. The goal of the new process is to create a more inclusive freshman class.

The next General Faculty Meeting will be at 2 p.m. Sept. 7 in the Law School Auditorium. The next Faculty Senate meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. June 22 in the Law School Auditorium.

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