I was honored recently to present my 10th State of the University address to the campus community. I sometimes find it hard to believe that it has been almost a decade since I became UNLV's president, and yet I simultaneously marvel at how much has been achieved in what is really such a short period of time ¡V the blink of an eye in the otherwise long and distinguished history of higher education in America.

We have realized many incredible accomplishments at UNLV in the past 10 years. We have transformed the university into a major, national Research II (Doctoral/Research Universities- Intensive) institution under the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification system, and we are moving rapidly to Research I, or Doctoral/Research Universities- Extensive, status. This is certainly one of our proudest achievements, but there are many more:

• Enrollment has increased by more than 35 percent, from approximately 20,000 to more than 27,000 students. Doctoral headcount enrollment has grown a startling 215 percent (not including professional schools) since 1994.
• More than 100 new academic programs have been added, including 53 percent at the graduate level.
• We have constructed 17 buildings, have renovated six more, and are planning $91 million in student-centered facilities.
• We have acquired land in three parts of the valley totaling 773 acres (more than twice the size of the main campus), building an entirely new campus at Shadow Lane. As part of that land acquisition, UNLV received a 115-acre parcel located in a booming area of southwest Las Vegas for the development of the Harry Reid Research and Technology Park.
• We have raised $214 million in cash and gifts, received $142 million in pledges, and are aware of $100 million in estate expectancies.
• We have tripled external dollars from $19 million to $73.4 million, including research-dollar increases from $14 million to $58 million.
• We have increased faculty and professional staff by 63 percent, expanding from 972 to 1,585, recruiting individuals from the finest universities not only in the United States, but in the world.
• We have created two new professional schools in law and dental medicine, as well as professional programs in architecture, physical therapy, and public health. Moreover, the nursing program was elevated to a School of Nursing as part of the Division of Health Sciences. In addition, funding support for a joint pharmacy program with UNR is in the next biennial budget.
• We have added three new women's sports programs ¡V volleyball, soccer, and golf ¡V increasing by 17 percent the number of UNLV women athletes participating at the highest levels of NCAA competition.
• In my address I went on to list many other achievements, and I would be delighted to include all of them here if space were not limited. Suffice it to say that we have made remarkable strides in a variety of areas, and it is clear that there is much to celebrate at UNLV.

One of the other central themes of my address was community engagement. As a reader of UNLV Magazine, you are no doubt aware of our continuing commitment to our community and state. We are a metropolitan research university and, as such, we have worked very hard to become a resource, a partner, and a source of pride for our community. We have encouraged an outward-looking perspective and have begun to do what the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges believes modern universities must do: Change our emphasis from the traditional "teaching, research, and service" mantra to the more proactive and interactive "learning, discovery, and engagement" orientation. As a result, our numerous community engagement and research activities now extend beyond traditional campus boundaries through efforts demonstrating that we are all citizens of a much larger community.

There are so many wonderful examples of faculty finding innovative and useful ways of contributing to the greater good that I cannot adequately describe them here. I must note, however, that faculty are engaged in research and program development on a number of issues pertinent to Southern Nevadans, from sustaining water resources to preparing students for careers in entertainment engineering, from addressing the devastating health indicators present in our state to transforming nuclear waste into a less destructive and possibly more useful substance.

Some of our engagement activities are specifically designed as services to the community. For example, our law school provides free legal advice to the public through its several clinics. We are providing oral health care to some of our neediest citizens through our School of Dental Medicine. Our many student life and co-curricular activities embody the very essence of community engagement by enabling students to volunteer for service and charity. And there are literally dozens and dozens of additional examples of our university reaching out in every way to create synergies with the community to which we are so inextricably bound. These activities demonstrate how we are continuing the rapid development of academic programs and related scholarship while connecting vitally with the world around us to create new opportunities for our area and our state.

One such opportunity I discussed in my address is the Midtown UNLV project, a redevelopment effort that will help transform the areas in the vicinity of our campus. This project, which is in its earliest planning stages, calls for private businesses, various government entities, community members, and the university to join forces to improve the physical space around the campus, starting with the areas immediately to the east along Maryland Parkway at the campus entrance.

The goal of Midtown UNLV is to create a university district at our front door ¡V a neighborhood of restaurants, cafes, outdoor gathering places, small-scale galleries, and welcoming residential and retail opportunities. This district will revitalize the area, serve as an attraction to the creative people the university seeks to serve and employ, and literally and figuratively transform our surrounding community.

UNLV Foundation board member Michael Saltman, a business owner in the area and one of our most valued supporters, plans to spearhead the project. He has exhibited wonderful leadership on this partnership project, and we are grateful to him for sharing his vision and energizing community partners to become involved.

In my view, this project can become a visible metaphor for, and physical manifestation of, our commitment to community engagement. As an incredibly young enterprise, UNLV is already employing the f lexibility, nimbleness, and entrepreneurial spirit necessary to become a major metropolitan research university. What we may have underestimated in the past ¡V and what is clearer to me every day ¡V is how the development of our university links directly and vibrantly to the development of our community and our economy. We are in the unique position of generating the synergy that can improve the quality of life in Southern Nevada, and we are committed to that endeavor.

On a final note, I would like to share with you that it has been my sincere pleasure to serve the campus as president for these 10 years, and I look forward to the years ahead. With all of our remarkable accomplishments, there is still much to achieve.