And from those discussions, the outlines of a longer term vision for the university began to emerge. We want to attract and reward faculty who are committed to and active in scholarship, but who are also outstanding teachers. Overall, we aspire to a stronger national profile and reputation than we currently enjoy, especially for our undergraduate programs. On the graduate and professional level, aspirations will differ by program for example, the Law School and School of Dentistry might aspire to attain a preeminent regional reputation while the graduate program in biomedical engineering aims to move up in national ranking but palpable academic quality must be present in all our offerings. Finally, we need to track and constantly aim to improve, the percentage of graduates who say Marquette was worth the cost and that they would recommend Marquette to others.
Academic excellence is certainly possible without big-time athletics.
However, athletics can serve as a common denominator for the diverse stakeholders who comprise a university community. The investment we choose to make in athletics can provide almost priceless national publicity and visibility that generates a halo effect for all other university undertakings, but it is also a very expensive enterprise that can draw resources away from academic opportunities. For that reason, we should closely monitor and regularly evaluate whether we are getting an appropriate return on our investment. But at this point, because of its overall benefits, as well as Marquette's tradition, the university is committed to supporting a basketball program capable of becoming competitive at the highest levels nationally. There will be a common core more common than is, in fact, the case today for all undergraduate students although it will likely be specified more in terms of educational objectives involving knowledge, skills and values rather than specific courses.