Paying Tribute to Dr. William E. ''Brit'' Kirwan Upon his Retirement as Chancellor of the University System of Maryland

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to one of our Nation's greatest higher education leaders and a great advocate for accessible quality higher education. He is a dear friend and a colleague of mine for the last 40 years.

On June 30, Dr. William E. ``Brit'' Kirwan will retire after 12 years as chancellor of the University System of Maryland. Under his leadership, the University System has transformed from being a national leader in public higher education into a national model in several areas; these include campus diversity, academic innovation, and efforts to close the achievement gap.

There is, of course, a lot I could say, Mr. Speaker, to my colleagues about Dr. Kirwan's distinguished career and commitment to improving higher education across the country.

Mr. Speaker, on June 30, Dr. William E. ``Brit'' Kirwan, who has served as chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM) for more than twelve years, will retire after a career dedicated to advancing higher education.

Dr. Kirwan has left his mark on academia and the State of Maryland in a way few others have. After a quarter-century as an educator and administrator at the University of Maryland, he was President of the University of Maryland, College Park, before serving as President of The Ohio State University. Later, he returned to Maryland to assume the position of USM Chancellor. Common threads throughout his fifty-one-year career in public higher education include an unwavering commitment to affordability, a passion for excellence, and a drive to increase access, especially for underrepresented minorities and low-income students.

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Kirwan's leadership has helped move the USM from a national leader in public higher education to a national model in several areas. The USM's groundbreaking Effectiveness and Efficiency (E&E) initiative--a reengineering of administrative and academic processes to cut costs and improve quality--has been profiled in national publications and specifically cited by President Obama. The ``Closing the Achievement Gap'' Initiative, which USM launched in 2007, targets the gap in college participation, retention, and graduation rates between low-income students, first-generation college students, and underrepresented minorities, on one hand, and the general student population on the other. With this enhanced focus, these gaps in diversity have been narrowed--and even eliminated--on some USM campuses.

As President of the University of Maryland, College Park, Dr. Kirwan helped make that institution one of the most diverse public research universities in the United States. As President of The Ohio State University, he made diversity a centerpiece of the University's Academic Plan. When he left Ohio State in 2002, the University added his name to its interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to understanding racial and ethnic disparities worldwide, now known as the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

Dr. Kirwan's effort to establish a productive working relationship with Maryland's elected officials is another testament to his leadership. By aligning higher education goals with state priorities, the USM has ushered in an era of academic and research excellence, targeted workforce development, greater economic impact, and improved affordability. In fact, the average tuition for undergraduate in-state students at USM institutions, once the nation's seventh highest, has now dropped to twenty-sixth.

With the launch of its Course Redesign Initiative in 2006, the USM became the first university system in the nation to use innovative new technology to redesign entire courses. To facilitate academic transformation and excellence even further, in 2012 the USM established the Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) to develop, apply, and evaluate more ways to deliver high-quality courses optimizing technology and other resources system-wide. Today the USM is recognized as a national leader in the burgeoning academic innovation movement.

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Kirwan's impact has also been felt beyond Maryland's borders. He currently serves or has served as Co-Chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics; Chair of the College Board's Commission on Access, Admissions, and Success in Higher Education; a member of the Business-Higher Education Forum, and Chair of the National Research Council Board of Higher Education and the Workforce. Dr. Kirwan has also been called upon by U.S. Presidents from both parties to advise on national higher education efforts. His impact on higher education has been honored with two of the most prestigious awards in the field: the TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership (2010) and the Carnegie Corporation Leadership Award (2009).

Under Dr. Kirwan's leadership the USM has flourished, and his lifetime of achievement and service will be celebrated on April 18 at a special retirement gala that will raise endowment funds for the Center for Academic Innovation, which promises to continue exploring the themes of access, affordability, and excellence in higher education that have been hallmarks of his career.

I hope my colleagues in the House will join me in thanking Dr. Kirwan for fifty-one years of service to higher education in our country and congratulating him on his retirement.

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