 Partnering for National Leadership
In January 2003, Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell and I co-hosted “Great Universities and Their Cities,” a daylong national colloquium that explored how universities and their cities can best work together. With that gathering, we committed ourselves as a great university to finding new ways of partnering with our home city. A stronger community will help us recruit and retain the very best faculty and students in the nation.
We took what we learned, rolled up our sleeves, and got down to work, toward the goal of helping to encourage a revitalization in the city. Linking with corporate, civic, and other partners, we started new programs and breathed fresh life into existing ones.
The results? They tell an optimistic tale. As the community grows stronger, so does Case and its national leadership position. One indicator of that is the number of undergraduate out-of-state applicants, a figure that, at this writing, is significantly higher than last year’s number.
Case’s commitment to community partnerships is taking many forms. Last fall, for instance, Case hosted the 2004 Vice Presidential Debate. The “Race at Case” was a series of programs that we and our community partners built around the October 5 event. We’re thrilled about all the debate did for the university and Greater Cleveland. The Cheney-Edwards face-off attracted some 64 million television viewers. More than 1,500 journalists traveled to Cleveland. The event attracted an estimated $24.3 million into the local economy, and it helped attract many of those national applicants I noted earlier.
Another partnership example is Case’s new homebuyer program, which helps faculty and staff purchase or renovate homes in Cleveland.
Another way we contribute is by continually improving our standing as a powerful learning and research institution. In my two-and-a-half years as president, I have been privileged to witness remarkable achievements. Our astronomy department discovered a new galaxy. The engineering school has won renown for its advances in fuel cell technology. Using stem cells from umbilical cord blood, a medical school team has just discovered a promising new treatment for leukemia.
Researchers in the School of Dental Medicine have uncovered a possible link between the mouth’s natural antibiotics and protection against HIV infection. In the law school, the International War Crimes Research Office—featured in this issue—is taking a leadership role globally.
Our SAGES (Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship) program is revolutionizing undergraduate learning by uniting content and context. Further, two of our graduates recently have won Nobel prizes, bringing to fourteen the number of alumni and faculty who have earned that distinction.
The momentum continues to build. We are forging an ever more powerful partnership with our community for a stronger Case, Cleveland, and country.
Edward M. Hundert, President
president-one@case.edu
Photograph by Gabriel Amadeus Cooney
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