As we have in the past, we will meet these challenges, thanks to the great team leading VMI today, headed by Gen. Peay. Let me begin by giving you a quick report on all of the positive things that have been happening over the last eight years at VMI that, in my judgment, have propelled us into the top rankings of such prestigious publications as U.S. News and World Report and Forbes Magazine. In case you did not see it, several months ago, Forbes ranked VMI 10th in the nation among all public colleges, just behind UVa and William & Mary. And yes, we were ranked ahead of VPI, JMU and George Mason and all of the other state colleges in Virginia. Tenth in the entire nation – truly, VMI is being heard from today! In its annual edition, Best Colleges in America, U.S. News and World Report ranked VMI third among all public liberal arts colleges. Our engineering programs were ranked as one of top 20 programs in the entire country. Of course, just last year, we had our 11th Rhodes Scholar, Cadet Greg Lippiatt ’09, who is studying history at Oxford before reporting for duty in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant. While we are on subject of commissioning, let me note that 56% of VMI’s class of 2009 commissioned in Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force, up from just 30% a few years ago. The citizen/soldier concept is alive and thriving at VMI! Another statistic that I think you can take great pride in is the fact that among all Virginia colleges and universities, public and private, VMI has had 11 Rhodes Scholars, putting us just behind UVa with 14, but ahead of William & Mary, W&L, University of Richmond, VPI and all other state colleges. A remarkable performance when you consider our relatively small size compared to UVa and William & Mary, who admit 10 to 20 times more students than we do. We truly are a premier college and our graduates receive an education for life, far more than simply academics. Let me tell you about the Corps of Cadets, starting with this year’s Rat class. With almost 490 cadets, it is the largest class in VMI’s history. We had over 1700 applications. The metrics for this year’s class are extremely strong. Average GPA was 3.4. The middle 50% of the class had SAT scores that ranged from
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1060 to 1210. Almost 50% of this year’s Rat class have selected science or engineering as their major. Applications this year are up again for the fifth year in a row! Not to be outdone our upper classmen are performing extremely well. One example: Just last spring, one of VMI’s undergraduate research teams was selected to compete in a national competition hosted in Boston by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for Innovative Projects. Only 10 teams were invited. The VMI team was led by Cadet Brad Simpson ’09, an economics and business major, and Cadet Mario Capuozzo ’09, an EE. Their project was an underground seismic communication device which is now the subject of a patent application and is expected to be approved by the U.S. Department of Mining for underground mining safety. In addition to VMI, MIT, Johns Hopkins, University of California at Berkeley, Penn State all competed, and VMI came in fourth among some of the nation’s best colleges and universities. The VMI entry was made possible because of the wonderful support provided by the Jackson-Hope Fund that has provided the funding for our undergraduate research program since this fund was established in 2002. Jackson-Hope has also been the source of funding for many of our new faculty members. We have to compete with the other top colleges for the best and the brightest faculty. State funding does not always allow us to compete favorably. In the
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