President Steven Leath addressed students and staff this morning in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union regarding how he plans to lead faculty on advancing the university.

Leath began his speech by addressing Iowa State’s record enrollment of more than 34,700 students two days after the official numbers were released.

“We’re now home to more than 34,000 students,” Leath said. “That’s an exciting number, a little bit of a scary number, but I’m thrilled that that many people want to come to Iowa State.”

One of the university’s biggest focuses is to increase the number of quality faculty numbers in order to provide a quality education to all 34,000 students, Leath said.

When Leath came to Iowa State three years ago, he said one of his goals was to hire 200 new faculty members. The number of new hires is now 245, and Leath said he plans on hiring around 100 more during this academic year.

“It’s not just a matter of hiring more people,” Leath said. “I want to make sure we’re hiring the right people and we’re hiring the right people in the right areas.”

The ratio of students to faculty is 19-to-1, Leath said. The regular class size is about 29 students per class.

The university is also expanding on research centers and buildings. Elings and Sukup, two new engineering buildings, will add an additional 190,000 square feet of education research space. Office complexes that will be built on State Avenue, in Campustown and at the ISU Research Park will free up another 60,000 square feet of space on campus that can be used by students and staff.

Since 23 percent of students at Iowa State identify as multicultural or international students, another area of focus for the year is student diversity on campus.

“I’m also focused on another goal and that is to make our campus as inclusive and welcoming as possible, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation,” Leath said.

A chief diversity officer position was created to work on representing multicultural and international students and ensuring their success.

“We’re also working hard here as a land grant to make sure that family background and socioeconomic class are no longer a predictor of success here at Iowa State or success after you leave Iowa State,” Leath said.

Besides providing an optimal experience for students and faculty at Iowa State, Leath said the other focus for advancing the university will be research.

In addition to the six or seven new buildings that will be built at the research park, Leath said there will be plans to develop an $80 million biological sciences facility that “will add a lot of capacity in research and a tremendous capacity in teaching labs.”

The Board of Regents also approved a student innovation center that will bring additional lab space. The center will help foster the university’s reputation for student-driven innovation and learning, Leath said.

The last development at the forefront of Leath’s agenda is the Cultivation Corridor that will promote research for agricultural and biological problems throughout the world. Issues for research include local issues like crop production, but they will also focus on concerns such as food security and disease prevention and treatment.

“The idea behind the campaign is to make central Iowa the premier region in the nation for [agricultural and biological] sciences,” Leath said. “I really believe this is a key component to our future economy here in Iowa. It’s how we’ll find new sustainable ways to help feed the world and create the kind of good-paying jobs for our area our state wants and needs.

“It’s a great time to be a Cyclone.”