President Williams’ inauguration speech is launching new future for UAHuntsville

President David B. Williams provided a vision for The University of Alabama in Huntsville during his recent installation as the university’s fifth president. He said his five-year goals are based on the “Power of 10.”

1 international campus (10⁰)
10 new degree programs (10¹)
100 Ph.D.s a year (10²)
1,000 co-ops and internships/year (10³)
10,000 students (10⁴)
$10 million in annual giving (10⁷)
$100 million endowment (10⁸)
$100 million in annual research expenditures (10⁸)

Williams was named president of UAHuntsville last year and has spent several months meeting with campus and community leaders, gaining insight on how the university can best serve the region, state and nation.

“Any city that aspires to be a center of technology and entrepreneurship must have a great university at its heart,” he said. “I have spent much time meeting with individuals on campus as well as around the community, and the goals and plans outlined today are the culmination of the desires and wishes for the role and responsibility this university has in our community.”

Williams pointed out that UAH has made tremendous gains since it became an independent university less than 40 years ago.

“During the short life of this university, we have grown to the point where our annual research expenditures are in excess of $65 million,” he said. “For a public institution of our size, these research expenditures are the greatest in the USA. Several of our academic programs clearly understand the need for rigorous scholarship and are recognized by the National Science Foundation as being in the top echelon in national funding with atmospheric science ranking in the Top 10 and business and management in the Top 5.

“These achievements are extraordinary. Many older, larger and better-recognized universities would give large fractions of their endowments for such numbers,” Williams said.

However, he said the university has no choice but to grow to meet the workforce development needs of the region.

“We must grow because the community we serve is growing,” he said. “We are already challenged to meet Huntsville’s growing needs for technologists, nurses, entrepreneurs and communication majors.”

Williams said the growth of UAHuntsville is particularly important to support Redstone Arsenal, Marshall Space Flight Center and Cummings Research Park. “The shortage of technologists and entrepreneurs is reaching crisis proportions, aggravated by the need for U.S. citizens with security clearance to take highly educated positions.”

He said the university has tremendous potential for the future. “UAHuntsville is an adolescent institution. We are still a teenager, not quite sure who we are yet. But we will become an accomplished adult institution and we will enter the realms of recognized research universities.”

That will take the effort of the entire community, Williams said. “We can achieve full adulthood. But to grow to that level will take everyone’s support. If this community and state supports us, we will deliver — the graduates, the faculty scholars and the national visibility.”