AUBURN, Ala. (EETV)- Auburn University President Dr. Steven Leath announced drastic new plans to hire an additional 500 faculty members along with major campus housing expansions during his installation speech Thursday.
See the full speech, here.
One way Leath plans to accomplish that goal is by hiring roughy 500 new tenure-track faculty members who would be scholarship and research focused. This plan, one Leath described as “transformational,” would result in an over 30 percent increase in faculty on Auburn’s campus.
Leath also discussed the new strategic planning process being lead by Dr. Beth Guertal and Dr. Bruce Tatarchuk, in which a major focus will be ensuring the facilities are in place to recruit graduate students.
In the speech, Leath also outlined his plan to expand Auburn’s facilities including the Auburn Research Park located off of South College Street. Leath announced plans for new health sciences, childcare and administration buildings in the park.
The park improvements, in addition to the new Gogue Performing Arts Center scheduled to be completed nearby in 2019, would as Leath put it, “Turn the Auburn Research Park into an Arts and Innovation District -- a go-to destination for start-ups and new business enterprise collaboration.”
The final portion of Leath’s speech focused on campus improvements aimed at benefiting Auburn’s students.
Leath announced that he would like to add enough residence hall capacity to accommodate all freshman students wishing to live on campus. This would be a substantial change for Auburn which has traditionally relied heavily on off campus student housing.
Leath ended his speech by discussing ways in which he would like to raise the national profile of Auburn. Leath encouraged students, staff and members of the Auburn Family to promote what he calls “the unique value and promise of Auburn” to different stakeholders.
