UNLV President David B. Ashley outlined his vision for the university today in a speech delivered during his inauguration ceremony at Artemus Ham Concert Hall.

At the outset of the speech, Ashley paid homage to UNLV's past presidents and praised their leadership during the institution's first 50 years, setting forth a decisive new mission for the university in the balance of his comments.

"Now is the time for UNLV to stop keeping pace and to start defining the pace," Ashley said to an estimated attendance of 1,000 faculty, staff, students, alumni, community leaders. " . . . The new UNLV will be a nexus of research and innovation - a place that industry and enterprise looks to as a leader . . . and, as we advance as an institution, the community will advance along with us."

Ashley named four core values - equity, ecology, economy and excellence - as the guiding principles of his vision for the university, which includes transforming UNLV into an institution committed fully to research and to recruiting the best and brightest students to support that endeavor.

"The new UNLV student will arrive on campus with a different set of basic skills," Ashley said, referring to more selective admissions standards. "As we challenge our young people to be better students, they challenge us to be a better university."

Ashley identified a variety of actions necessary to fully realize his vision, including increasing the amount of competitive funding for research priorities; strengthening the undergraduate curricula and further enriching the graduate programs; developing a revised strategic planning process based on measurable results; creating a model for shared governance between faculty and administration; and, finally, collaborating with fellow Nevada institutions.

He also acknowledged that great universities inherit their defining characteristics from the communities they serve, and he pledged to embark on bold research initiatives that will advance UNLV's contributions, not only to Southern Nevada but to the region, nation and world.

David B. Ashley officially became UNLV's eighth president July 1, 2006. He has held academic and leadership positions at Ohio State University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most recently, he served as the executive vice chancellor and provost of the University of California, Merced. Ashley holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University.

Eds.: For a copy of the inaugural address, visit http://president.unlv.edu/speeches.html