University President Dan Mote boldly challenged faculty, staff and students in his annual State of the Campus address yesterday to come up with “transformational ideas” that will propel the university to a place among the top 10 public schools nationwide.

Mote’s “grand challenge” comes as the university approaches what he called the halfway point in its roughly 20-year “transformation from a fine university to a great one.” He said this university is on par to make a turnaround similar to those that took place at Stanford University, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, and called on the university community to fulfill the state’s need to have its flagship school be a premier institution.

“There’s a certain need to lead,” Mote said in an interview after the speech. “You never catch people by following them. You need to get good ideas and get them out.”

Yesterday’s speech to the University Senate was Mote’s most upbeat in years. With money flowing in from the state, Mote was freed from having to justify or predict effects of budget cuts as he had in the past. Instead, Mote discussed how the university can go from the 18th-best public school, as U.S. News and World Report ranked it in the 2007 list, to among the top 10.

“A dispassionate view of the overall state of the campus today is that it’s at its historical best,” he said.

To generate ideas, Mote gathered a group of deans and vice presidents at a retreat in June to mark the beginning of a “yearlong, big-thinking process” that Mote said was necessary, even with the gains the university has made since his arrival.

“We need to stop doing things that are good, but not good enough,” he said. “We want to live in the neighborhood that has transformational ideas – that neighborhood has the top-10 zip code.”

Mote emphasized that some of the keys to success are expanding and developing the various research initiatives on the campus, including new projects such as the School of Public Health and the Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, which will be home to more than 40 researchers. Despite the lofty goals, Mote says he is committed to keeping the university affordable and touted the accomplishment of his $300 million fundraising goal for October.

During the speech, Mote also ran down a laundry list of the university’s accomplishments over the last year, from professor Thomas Schelling’s Nobel Prize to the dedication of three new buildings. Yet he conceded problems remain – a $600 million maintenance backlog, 1.1 million square foot space deficit, graduate student quality of life and post-game “unruly celebrations” among them – but credited raised expectations with the university’s recent ascent.

Since his arrival eight years ago, Mote said the university has dramatically evolved from a fine to a great university.

Mote referenced an objective team of university presidents brought in by University System of Maryland Chancellor Brit Kirwan last spring to evaluate the university’s progress since Mote’s arrival in 1998. They termed the university’s evolution as “almost miraculous.”

Even so, problems persist, as was made clear during the question-and-answer session that followed Mote’s 25-minute address.

Behavioral and Social Sciences undergraduate senator Katie Hurlbut asked Mote to consider increasing funding for the humanities and social sciences “so I don’t have to have 40 people in a 400-level English class.” Hurlbut’s request drew a round of applause from the more than 100 people in attendance.

Mote smiled, and referred the question to Provost Bill Destler, who acknowledged the problem but said students switch their majors faster than the faculty can meet the need.

During his speech, Mote spoke of problems in terms of graduate students’ quality of experience and placed his faith in new graduate dean Chuck Caramello. Then graduate student senator Lisa Pfeiffer of the College of Life Sciences took Mote to task for what she called a lack of safe, affordable local housing for graduate students.

“It’s a big problem, I agree, it’s a big problem,” Mote said, citing the university’s past efforts and future development near the College Park Metro Station. “Graduate students are unwilling to live like undergraduate students. Not many people are willing to live like undergraduate students.”

Contact reporter Brendan Lowe at lowedbk@gmail.com.