University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Chancellor, FYI, February 2008 2008 FYI


	Our first Mid-Year Convocation provided a chance to celebrate the noteworthy achievements of fall semester, honor distinguished colleagues, and turn our attention toward growing academic excellence. Mid-winter greetings from Green Bay's University of Wisconsin! Only a few weeks into another semester, I feel the excitement and sense of optimism that comes from the renewed presence of students on campus after their extended semester break. Their return to the classrooms and hallways of the campus reminds us of why we are so passionate about higher education and its promise for building brighter futures. This year, the campus community celebrated the start of the Spring Semester — and what it means to be a community — with our first-ever Mid-year Convocation. As I told the gathering at the University Union that morning, the event reaffirmed the fact that ours is a shared calling. In our campus community, we share not only our triumphs and achievements but also our defeats and disappointments. To say we all are in this together may come off as trite. But I want no part of an enterprise in which it isn’t so.	My challenge to the campus at Mid-year Convocation was to continue to build. Continue to build and strengthen bridges to a community that was there with us when we needed its support and advocacy for Northeastern Wisconsin’s Growth Agenda. Continue to build academic excellence by setting the bar high while also thinking in different ways. Continue to build connections between our campus and the global community. Please allow me to expand on the vision I first shared that day, a vision of excellence that will become reality only through the combined efforts of our faculty, staff, students and community friends. Interdisciplinarity The word itself still may pose a challenge for our students and community. But make no mistake, our historical commitment to interdisciplinarity — to connecting learning to life from multiple perspectives — has set us apart from other institutions. Our recent accreditation self-study affirmed our commitment to interdisciplinarity. That affirmation is reflected in our new Select Mission Statement approved by the Board of Regents last fall. Other universities around the country have realized the wisdom of our innovative academic approaches and have adopted those approaches. That’s no reason for us to rest on our laurels. When it comes to interdisciplinary education, we must continue to innovate and lead. Diversity Diversifying our faculty, staff and student body remains one of our greatest challenges. Our university will not reach its full potential if we are not up to this challenge. We have devoted a great deal of time, energy and resources to raising the aspirations of young people from our communities of color. We are doing so through Phuture Phoenix and other valuable pre-college programs. These efforts reflect the priorities of leaders of the diverse communities we serve. They also will produce results that can be sustained over the long term. I am heartened by the commitment to diversity I see on campus and the progress we are making. But we must continue to build pipelines to students and faculty of color, put out the welcome mat to them when they arrive here, and remove potential barriers to their success. The face of our community is changing rapidly. Diversifying our campus is the right thing to do and is crucial to the social, economic and cultural well-being of our region. . . . continued



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Office of the Chancellor, David A. Cofrin Library, Suite 810 University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 920.465.2207 Comments to: Chancellor's Web Manager E-mail: Chancellor Revised 03/26/2008