By Vanessa Nason, News Correspondent

       As Northeastern continues to reach unprecedented levels of success, President Joseph Aoun pushes students, faculty and staff to help the university achieve its goal of becoming a world leader in higher education.

        “Northeastern University’s best days are yet to come,” Aoun told a crowd in Solomon Court at last Tuesday’s annual State of the University Address.

        After noting some achievements the school has made in academics, sustainability and entrepreneurship in the past few years, Aoun announced his goal of continuing this upward trend, and urged everyone to help the university “move from being a leader in experiential education to the undisputed leader in global experiential learning at the undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D levels.”

        Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Stephen Director unveiled Northeastern’s plans for a new science and engineering building as part of the push to meet this goal. The 220,000-square-foot building, which will be LEED-certified and built on a large portion of the Columbus Avenue parking lot, stands to be six floors and supports the college’s stride toward innovation in research. However, Director noted that it is not solely a building that is going to help the university reach its goal of excellence, but also its goal of an extremely talented faculty.

“It is the people who will shape the future of the university,” Diane MacGillivary, senior vice president for university advancement, said.

She spoke about Empower: the Campaign for Northeastern University, which is set to boost financial aid, ensure and expand world wide co-op opportunities, and help the school continue to attract and retain an excellent faculty. MacGillivray said that the campaign, which seeks to raise $1 billion by 2014, “supports our students and faculty as well as the research and discoveries they so passionately pursue.”

        Early on, Aoun also sought to ease concerns some have about the college’s acceptance of diversity. He assured the community that Northeastern “[is] and must continue to be a place where everyone feels welcome,” and that the university has “zero tolerance for anti-semitism [and] zero tolerance for racism or any kind of hatred.”

        He also acknowledged Northeastern University’s public safety department, specifically thanking Joseph Griffin for almost four decades of service as director of public safety.

        Throughout his address, Aoun made it clear that the university’s significant accomplishments thus far have been largely achieved because of the strong foundations built by our predecessors.

“Make no mistake,” he said. “We are standing on the shoulders of giants.”

        The president emphasized that it is now the current communities’ turn to create a strong foundation for tomorrow’s accomplishments. It is, he said, the job of the students, faculty and staff to continue the trend toward success and to leave the school in a state that allows it to continue soaring to excellence.

        “The future of this university is in our hands,” Aoun said. “The future generations are counting on us.”