On September 17, the first community forum was held by the University of New Hampshire’s newest President, Elizabeth Chilton, at 1 p.m. in the Granite State Room at the Memorial Union Building. It was attended by professors, faculty, and students. 

The forum was split into two parts: a speech from President Chilton about her goals moving forward, followed by a Q&A with questions sourced by the audience and online.  

President Chilton kicked off her speech by expressing her gratitude for the turnout, sharing her initial thoughts from her “spectacular” first 10 weeks as she recounted meeting various UNH employees, trustees, alumni, and board members. In the coming weeks, she hopes to meet more people on campus and learn about Durham, including a visit to every building.

Next, the President explained her deep commitment to transparency and communication, citing them as keys to building trust within our community. She says this open communication will help her make critical decisions in the future. 

“You can’t have trust without transparency, and you can’t have trust without strong communication that goes in multiple directions,” said Chilton, “so my communication isn’t just outward to you all, but it’s very important to me that there is communication and  conversation.” 

The topic on President Chilton’s mind was “Free Speech at UNH.” She explained her desire to foster an environment that allows community members to engage with diverse viewpoints. Chilton said that the events on May 1st, where 12 students were arrested and charged by university police for the use of a tent in a protest urging the university to divest from any funds assisting Israel in what has been called an “unlawful and discriminatory” occupation of Palestine that violates the prohibition on apartheid by the International Court of Justice.  7 of the twelve charges have since been dropped.

“We’re strongly committed to free speech and academic freedom,” said Chilton. “We’re also committed to keeping our community safe, and I will spend more time than any other topic trying to understand where we are in those conversations.” 

The events that occurred on May 1st took place before President Chilton had assumed her position, and she said that her response will come after an investigation led by UNH’s Chief Diversity Officer, Nadine Petty, as well as a working group appointed by her. President Chilton is having this group review current demonstration and free speech guidelines and looking nationwide to higher-education associations for better practices and policies. 

The next topic covered by the President was her strategic plan, setting up goals over five years by assessing the starting point, trajectory, and end point when tracking data and seeing which changes made meaningful differences. President Chilton encouraged all three campuses to consider which goals they would like to see on this roadmap, employing strategic planning implementation groups to track progress.

Over the last six years, the Durham campus’ enrollment has dropped by 2,000 students, which is why the school has felt its “belts tighten,”  negatively affecting support for groups across campus. President Chilton cites the biggest threat to enrollment as students deciding not to go to school at all. She feels like this can be fixed with specific attention to our status as a research school, hoping that exclusive research opportunities will drive enrollment. 

With this, President Chilton also proposed a plan to change from an incremental budget model to her strategic budget process that is transparent and data-informed.

“It should be absolutely transparent so that if we make decisions about allocation of resources and allocation costs, that everyone understands what is behind decisions in those areas. We may not agree on decisions, but we at least will do so in a transparent way, so that everyone understands the motivations and that we can align them with what we have decided are our strategic priorities.”

With this, President Chilton explained her process in interviewing for an Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, with the three finalists coming to campus to discuss the strategic budget planning process. By pairing this process with the five-year plan, President Chilton hopes to better focus efforts to address faculty and staff voicing concerns.

“I think that means that we need to find a way to decide on our fate together rather than being a victim of the so-called enrollment declines. Let’s determine where we want to be and how we want to navigate that together.”

President Chilton ended this speech by bringing up the university’s status as a “hidden gem.” This term encompasses all the important work being done at UNH, but the President explained that there is no need to market it as “hidden” because our university is a gem. This status will be achieved through research excellence as a land, sea, and space grant university, through student involvement in the community for events like U-Day, and our undergraduate teaching, maintaining high student retention rates in our four- and six-year programs.

As President Chilton concluded her speech, she explained her intentions moving forward surrounding these types of conversations.

“I want to leave you with a call to optimism. I am personally an eternal optimist, and I recognize the profound transitions that are underway at UNH but also across higher- education and in the world at large. As the state of New Hampshire’s public research university, our mission to offer high-quality educational programs and to serve the region through continuing education, offered extension, cultural outreach, economic development, and applied research could not be more important now than they ever were. I’m really excited for UNH’s next chapter, and I’m honored to work with you in the months and years to come. Thank you for being here.”

To encourage deeper dialogue, UNH will host several events to learn more about national and global issues. These dates are listed on the president’s homepage, where updates on these community dialog events and discoveries of the working investigation group will be shared.