Continuing to climb at such a rapid rate in the competition for research funding is truly an amazing accomplishment. The credit for all this growth belongs to our faculty, who have won competitive grants from federal, state and private sources. Yet, the college's healthy total still decreased as a percentage of the overall research budget, as other areas of the university logged major increases. The new center's first project will focus on teen smoking prevention. The Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at USF was yet another heavy-growth area.
Some institutions grow disproportionately in individual areas.
What we're seeing here, however, is a very complete effort, with significant increases in such disparate areas as Psychology, Biology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Geography, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Community Mental Health and on and on. I schools reported their research progress earlier this week. As the university and its research programs continue to grow, USF is ever closer to reaching its goal of being a model metropolitan university for the 21 st century. What will be even more fascinating, however, will be to watch what unfolds over the next few years. This university is on an unstoppable path toward greatness.