Brian Manzullo

How do you define a presidential legacy? Is it the number of new buildings erected during a tenure?

Is it increased enrollment? Increased affordability?

Or is it simply that a clear vision for the future is carried on by those who are left behind.

University President Michael Rao will depart Central Michigan University for Virginia Commonwealth University in early July, but several CMU officials say that his legacy will be measured by the improvements to campus under his leadership.

Several new academic buildings and residence halls have been erected since Rao arrived in 2000. Freshmen applications have steadily increased. So has tuition.

“I have exceeded the goals that I had planned on when I arrived at CMU,” Rao said during a conference call with reporters on Saturday.

Gary Shapiro, former interim provost and current dean of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences, said Rao has successfully followed through on several projects for the Board of Trustees.

“The board was very satisfied with his performance, so obviously he’s met their expectations,” Shapiro said.

Rao has overseen the construction and opening of the Health Professions Building in 2004, opening of the Charles V. Park Library in 2002, and has readied CMU to renovate the Bovee University Center in 2010.

The construction of The Education and Human Services Building is scheduled to be completed in March.

“He himself made a significant contribution to the education building,” said Karen Adams, dean of the College of Education and Human Services. “I very much enjoyed working with him, he was what attracted me to coming here.”

He also established the foundation for an accredited medical school, a project he has pledged to bring to closure before he leaves.

Also during his tenure, the admissions office has seen a substantial rise in applications.

“To be the third largest applicant pool in Michigan is amazing,” said Betty Wagner, director of admissions. “How your campus looks is very important to students and parents.”

However, alongside that rise in applications has come the tripling of tuition rates. In 2001, the cost of an in-state credit hour for undergraduates was $108.15. That July, Rao and the board upped tuition 12.5 percent.

As of the latest hike in July 2008, incoming in-state undergraduate students are paying $324 per credit hour.

The CMU Promise, a fixed-rate tuition guarantee program that debuted in 2005 was dropped in 2008 as well.

Inversely, along with the rising tuition has been the decline in appropriations each year in state funding, traditionally a signifying source of college budgets.

Shapiro said only time will tell what Rao’s defining accomplishment ends up as.

“What will end up as being the most memorable is obviously for history and not for speculation at this time,” he said.

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