Lexington, KY - If there was the sound of percussion coming from the University of Kentucky around noon on Thursday, it wasn't a UK marching band practice, it was outgoing President Lee T. Todd, Jr. beating the drum for elevating UK to a ranking among the nation's top research institutions.
Todd has had practice since taking office in 2001, pounding the drum of making UK a top 20 public research school: from his inaugural speech in which he said his first goal was to stop having eyes roll at the mention of top 20 status, to today as he calls for the campaign to continue beyond his tenure.
"Some (People) have implied that this would be a good time to wave the white flag on our Top 20 planÖ that would be a mistake. That certainly is nothing that I intend to do and intend to continue to sell that plan as much as I can," Todd said in his State of the University Address front of a crowded room in UK's Main Building. "I'd like to remind those folks that our mission to become a Top 20 public research university wasn't my concept, it was passed into state law by Gov. (Paul) Patton and our legislature in 1997, four years before I took this position."
"We have innovation bubbling up from about every corner of this campus," he said citing examples like the new state of the art emergency department at UK's Chandler Hopsital. "We are a research university and these students I see out there every day deserve to see creativity and innovation from day one. That's why they should come here."
Though heralding the accomplishments of the university over the past year and decade, Todd wanted to make clear he has no plans of taking a victory lap before his term ends on June, 30.
"After last week's announcement of my pending retirement I fielded several questions about today's remarks. It's been suggested by some that this would be a farewell speech. This is not a farewell speech. I'm president of the University of Kentucky for nine more months. We're going to be busy," he said.
Accomplishments of the past year Todd highlighted included: