Huddleston highlights record fundraising year in address

Hundreds gathered in the Granite State Room at the University of New Hampshire on Thursday, at 1 p.m., to hear UNH President Mark Huddleston deliver his annual State of the University Address.

To open his speech President Huddleston alluded to the campaign for the presidency, suggesting that currently the university itself is participating in four separate campaigns: UNH 2020, a renewed focus on fundraising, the recently announced UNH Works and an effort to restructure the University System of New Hampshire.

All of these, President Huddleston stated, will make the University of New Hampshire more affordable for students.

With the UNH 2020 effort, President Huddleston stated several different examples as to how UNH is doing whatever it can to improve the landscape of the university as well as to make it more affordable.

Some examples he cited were the university’s cost cutting initiatives and push for more innovation in how UNH is run by shifting some of its focus towards eUNH. President Huddleston described how the university has been working on increasing its global reach, with the results yielding 200 students from 12 different countries over the past two years.

In an effort to try and supplement some of the money UNH lost after the New Hampshire legislature cut the university’s funding by 50 percent in 2011, President Huddleston also pointed towards UNH’s increased efforts on the fundraising front. Citing a record-setting fundraising year this past year – including a senior class gift given by the class of 2012 that was the largest in UNH history – President Huddleston made it clear that this was still an issue that he hoped to improve upon.

But fundraising is not the only way President Huddleston wants to increase the amount of revenue UNH receives, as he brought up the campaign UNH Works. With this effort President Huddleston, along with others in the USNH system, hope that the New Hampshire state legislature will restore the funding that was slashed in 2011.

To cap off his address Huddleston also told those in attendance that USNH is also working on restructuring the way it governs itself with the hope that additional freedom will allow for the universities within the system will be able to better compete with other universities and colleges in New England as well as across the United States.

For more information on President Huddleston’s State of the University address, look for Tuesday’s issue of The New Hampshire.