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That is my promise. But, I need a promise from you in return. Communication is
a two-way street. I need to hear from you: your ideas and your reactions, in person
and via phone, e-mail, or whatever works best for you. I look forward to hearing
from you. With this first issue, though, I’ll begin by sharing a little bit more about myself and a story from my own professional experience prior to my arrival in Green Bay last November. Each of us is, after all, in part a product of where we’ve been and what we’ve done previously. I was vice chancellor — the top academic officer reporting to the chancellor — at Eastern Oregon University. Before that I held faculty and administrative positions at Oregon State University. For the most part, I haven’t gone overboard in Green Bay with tales of “here’s how we did it in Oregon.” It’s not that we didn’t do good things at EOU or Oregon State. We did. I just know such sermonizing typically isn’t well-received coming from “the newcomer.” I also recognize that in significant ways Wisconsin is far ahead of where we were in Oregon. Still, I learned at least one lesson in Oregon that should be applicable anywhere. It was about serving the community. Oregon is a state rich in natural resources, with agricultural, timber, grazing and recreational land in abundance. The urban areas are clustered in a fairly narrow range in the western part of the state. Eastern Oregon, by any measure, is remote: Much closer to Boise, Idaho than the state capital of Salem, a six-hour drive to the west. Located in a city, La Grande, of only 12,327 people and serving a region the size of Pennsylvania but with only 145,000 inhabitants. This isn’t just rural, it’s "remote rural." We at Eastern Oregon University were exceedingly proud of the institution, but in reality it was a case of “out of sight, out of mind.” At least that’s what some in state government thought when a period of economic downturn required budget-cutting action. Need to save money? Let’s close little EOU. Better yet, let’s convert it to a drug-rehab center! You can look it up. It was actually proposed that the campus be turned into a rehabilitation facility for criminals with substance-abuse problems. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTOP OF NEXT COLUMN |
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Naturally,
we in La Grande had other ideas. We knew we would have to get the people in Salem
to take a road trip, to visit our small, remote institution, to get them to the
heart of our mission and to understand how we carried it out. It wasn’t easy, but we did get them to visit, and to listen. Here’s what they found: • An outstanding liberal arts institution geared to serving our region. • A university community - from the faculty to the students to the professors to the people who kept the grounds shipshape — dedicated to doing something to serve the community each and every day. • A community that was fiercely committed to its university. They came wanting to close us. They left saying, “Why can’t every institution in this state be more like Eastern Oregon University?” I consider it a textbook example of a liberal arts institution emphasizing service to the region AND the preparation of lifelong learners who will be tomorrow’s leaders. In that sense, Eastern Oregon and UW-Green Bay have something in common. This University was founded in 1965 on broad-based liberal arts education and the concept of “Communiversity.” We’ve succeeded in many ways, and in other areas we have room to improve in realizing our founders’ visions, but the blueprint is there. As I’ve mentioned before, I have found through meetings and discussions with hundreds of people that our image is very positive, yet people tell me they want us to be more engaged, more visible in reaching out to the community. I have also found that we are involved in the community in, literally, hundreds of ways. But few realize it. We need to do more. But, as important, we need to view such engagement with pride, as an important part of why we are a proudly PUBLIC university. “Chancellor’s FYI” is going to be another vehicle for us to spread the news about UWGB. I hope you enjoy the opportunity to read and react to what is written here. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, |
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