Auburn President Jay Gogue spoke in front of a crowd of 115 at Langdon Hall on Thursday, Feb. 20.
The 2nd annual State of the University Address was sponsored by Omicron Delta Kappa, the national honor society.
The State of the Union Address gives students the opportunity to come face to face with the man behind the University and hear his plans for the coming year as well as gain knowledge on important issues.
"I wasn't sure if I would see anyone here tonight," said Gogue. "It seems like we close every couple of days when it gets cloudy or rainy or whatever. The weather is supposed to get bad around 2 or 3, so when you wake up in the morning, check the weather and you might end up with a three-day weekend."
Gogue began his speech with a reference to Auburn football Coach Gus Malzahn and mentioned his surprise at the turnaround of the program. Gogue made ties between successful athletics and an improved number of applications to the University.
"We told him six wins and the fans would be ecstatic," said Gogue. "Then there was the seventh win, then the eighth and then the ninth, and before you know it, the number of applications received by the end of fall was up nearly 16 percent."
Gogue continued on to say the number of applications improves when the University has better athletics, whether it be football, soccer or any sport.
Secondly, Gogue spoke about the on-campus food that the University offers and the future plans to make an overall healthier dining venue.
"The construction next to the new parking deck, by the Old Beard-Eaves Stadium, will be the University wellness kitchen," said Gogue. "It will be open to all students and it's supposed to have all of these different choices of food that are color coated. So, if you are on a gluten free diet, you will be able to pick all the foods that are that color."
The third major topic Gogue discussed was the construction of the new medical school on Donahue Drive.
Although the only progress so far is the ground breaking and the clearing of trees, Gogue said the school is set to open in the fall of 2015.
"It will bring about 150 students per class," said Gogue. "The hope for this private medical school is to see students who want to go into family practice and want to go into underserved areas."
Gogue continued on to say that in this type of medical school, a non-traditional one, about 60 percent of students who go into those programs and graduate go into family practice and the other 40 percent go into surgery or oncology.
Perhaps the most important topic that Gogue discussed during the address was Auburn's low graduation rates.
"The area where Auburn is the weakest is graduation rates," said Gogue. "For the quality of students that come to Auburn, we should graduate, using the six year method, about 80 percent. When I came to Auburn we were at about 61 percent, which leaves 40 percent of students who don't graduate. We are not at about 68 percent, so we have made some progress."
Gogue continued on and said the University needs to look at how it can work with students to provide support services necessary to get more students finished in four years.
With rumors flying that expansion of the stadium is soon to come, Gogue said he denied such rumors that stadium expansion really lies at the hands of the Southeastern Conference.
"You increase interest by fan base," said Gogue. "So when you are playing a Florida Atlantic or a Wofford, there is not as much interest and therefore no need for expansion. If the SEC decides to add more conference games then there would be the need for expansion. It's really in their hands."
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