State of the University Speech Doesn’t Deliver
by Daryl Jeannetti
edited by Casey Williams
On Tuesday, March 2, President Birge gave his first State of the University address in Pierce Hall, and left the crowd wanting more when he was finished.
Normally, leaving your audience wanting more is a good thing; however in this case, the people that came to Pierce Hall Tuesday left empty and disappointed with the information given. The new President of our school failed to really update the audience on what the state of the University actually was.
President Birge delivered his State of the University speech March 2. Photo: Franklin Pierce University.
Birge began his presentation with a layout of what he was to cover over his pre-written speech, but when the time came to deliver, constantly went off topic to discuss his own forays into the community and accessibility. He did not speak about what was happening on campus.
To Birge’s credit, he did discuss the need for student retention and the excess income that came with the number of returning students that exceeded the school’s expectations. However, during his discussion of the school’s future, he dropped the ball again, failing to talk about anything on campus and only touching on the schools renovation project in Goodyear, Arizona.
Junior Richard Raymond, who was in attendance, said, “I thought he was going to talk about what we could expect here and instead I found out that we have a campus struggling in Arizona. I was very disappointed.”
Something to think about in the future for the President may be to watch President Obama give a State of the Union speech and use a similar format. After watching Obama’s speeches, the audience can walk away and feel better about the country that they are living in and know how the country will be handling the foreign affairs in the future.
A faculty member who asked not to be named in this article questioned the presentation, saying, “I don’t feel like I learned anything at all.”
After leaving Birge’s speech I felt as though our school was in trouble and the future looks dim, probably not the message the President wanted to give to his students and faculty in the audience. But when the people leave and all they heard was the need for retention and a struggling campus in Arizona, it makes you wonder.
