NC State University remains focused on ensuring academic excellence for all our students, impacting lives through innovative research and outreach, and fueling economic opportunities. I invite you to join me in recognizing some of our most recent accomplishments that have taken place at our great university.

• Achieve! The Campaign for NC State reached our $1 billion goal 19 months early, placing our university among a group of select universities nationwide—and we’re not finished yet.
• We launched Pack Promise, our student-success plan that provides financial aid and support programs for 316 of our students with the greatest need.
• The Carnegie Foundation recognized us with its “community engagement” classification for our strong collaborations and partnerships with communities, businesses, government and other academic institutions.
• Kiplinger ranked NC State 12th among 100 universities and colleges as a “best value” in higher education.
• A record 15,236 applications for freshman admission were received for fall 2006, the largest number of applications in our university's history. NC State continues to receive the highest number of in-state applicants among all UNC system schools.
• NC State received research awards in excess of $209 million, ranking us second in industry sponsored research expenditures for all universities without medical schools and fifth in research expenditures among peer universities without medical schools.
• The Scientist Magazine ranked us third in patent pipeline power among all universities in the life sciences, and IEEE Spectrum Magazine ranked us ninth among U.S. universities in patent production, quality and strength.
• In 2006, a record 17 new companies joined Centennial Campus, including MeadWestvaco, which will bring 200 new jobs to our campus and a four-year investment of over $14 million.  Centennial Campus is now home to 71 corporate and government partners and 1800 employees.
• Through donations to the Achieve campaign and funds from the higher education bond referendum passed in 2000, the university completed several building projects including Engineering Building II, the second of five planned buildings for our College of Engineering on Centennial Campus.
• Twelve academic agreements were signed with eight universities in China, helping to ensure that our graduates--and our state--can compete and succeed in our knowledge-based global economy.
• The Industrial Extension Service provided $90 million in direct annual gains to the state and proudly celebrated its 50th anniversary as the oldest engineering technical assistance program in the nation.
• The E. Carroll Joyner Visitor Center opened as our university’s new front door.
• The Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center opened as our on-campus destination for NC State alumni and friends.
• And the Wolfpack family welcomed our new men’s basketball head coach Sidney Lowe and our new head football coach Tom O’Brien.

It is my belief that our success is measured by the future we create. We can be proud of our success—and look forward to continuing to impact lives in relevant and powerful ways.

Please take a moment to watch, enjoy and share this special recap. As you do, I hope you will be as filled with pride as I am about North Carolina State University and our collective accomplishments. As always, thank you for your support.

James L. Oblinger
Chancellor, NC State University