Speeches and statementsRemarks to UIF Annual MeetingPresident B. Joseph White Thank you, Steve. Mary and I want to personally welcome all of you back home here to campus. It's a wonderful time of year. I hope you enjoy this weekend immensely. I'd like to recognize and thank the trustees of the University who are with us today. I thank my colleagues, Chancellors Richard Herman, Sylvia Manning, and Rich Ringeisen and the officers of the University, for their leadership. I want to take this opportunity to thank Mary for her love and support and for all she does for the University of Illinois. For Mary and me, this last year has meant making new friends … by the hundreds. Faculty. Staff. Students. And alumni and friends in Chicago, Champaign-Urbana, Springfield, Peoria, Rockford, Carbondale, Washington, New York, L.A. and more. It has been an opportunity to meet wonderful people we'd heard about — like Alice and Bob Campbell, Tom Siebel and Doris and Jay Christopher — all here today — and others who were brand new to us, including so many of you in this room. Mary and I will never forget the warm reception you have given us as new members of the U of I family. Thank you so much. A year ago, thanks to the trustees, the Foundation, and the initiative of Jane Donaldson, we had the opportunity together to experience a magnificent University tradition, a presidential inauguration. It was an opportunity to celebrate the rich history of this great university in academics, arts and culture, and athletics, and to challenge all of us to build a brilliant future for the University of Illinois. We have accomplished a lot in a year.
Looking ahead, there are five major challenges we face as a University. They come from the strategic plans:
With these aspirations, with resources from the Compact, and with leadership, passion, and every shoulder to the wheel, we will create a brilliant future for the University of Illinois. It's going to be a big job. It's going to require tremendous teamwork by the entire University community — faculty, staff, alumni and leadership — to get it all done. Together, we will have to recruit and develop extraordinary faculty and students, encouraging and enabling them to do their best work. We will need to frame intellectual work within and across disciplinary boundaries to ask and answer the most important questions in the arts and humanities, science and the professions. We will have to secure resources from all the parties to the Compact to fund achievement of our aspirations. To create a brilliant future for the University of Illinois, there's one other challenge that we face. It's a little different in character than recruiting talented people and gathering resources. We will need the wisdom to preserve what is sacred about the University and, simultaneously, the courage to innovate - to do new things in new ways with a new sense of urgency. This is very important. In the sacred category, I would put our four missions: to educate students, discover knowledge, serve society, and develop the economy. I would also include as sacred our campuses, our commitment to excellence, the search for truth, academic freedom, and the primacy of the faculty. Sacred sets a high standard for what is to be preserved. This is as it should be in a dynamic institution. Beyond what is sacred, we must be open to, indeed we must embrace, innovation if change will enable us to better accomplish our multiple missions. In this regard, let me say a word about the Global Campus, our fifth strategic challenge. There are thousands, tens of thousands of able people who want and need a quality university education but, because of personal circumstances, will never have the privilege of spending an extended period of time on our campuses, earning an education in the traditional way. While over 85% of Americans have high school diplomas or the GED, fewer than 30% of Americans have college degrees. Today, two-thirds of high school graduates continue on in school but no more than half of them are likely to complete college. This huge education gap in America — and in Illinois — between high school graduation and getting a college education is dashing individual dreams and hopes and threatening America's international competitiveness. We at the University of Illinois are already doing something about this. Today, we have several thousand students earning degrees partially or completely on-line at U of I. I introduced one of them at the inauguration — Jared Perry from the Illinois National Guard — who continued his U of I education from Baghdad while on duty in Iraq. And our top ranked Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Number One in the country, has a highly regarded on-line Master's degree program with many students. But I think we need to do much more. I believe we should aspire to be the national leader in developing and delivering high quality, highly affordable and accessible education from a distinguished university. The reason is that doing so is completely consistent with our mission as a premier public, land grant, research university. Creation of the Global Campus could be a logical next chapter in the U of I story that began with the Morrill Act and saw the building of this great campus, the development of our presence in Chicago through the medical campus, Navy Pier, the Circle Campus, and UIC, and most recently the addition of the Springfield campus to the U of I family. The Global Campus is about mission. It's about linking the knowledge and expertise possessed by the U of I faculty with the educational needs of thousands of able people, first in Illinois, then beyond, whose life circumstances won't allow them to earn it in the traditional way. If we combine innovation in the organization of teaching with high speed information and communications technology and our sometimes underutilized physical facilities, we can create a rich mix of on-line and in-person education and become the national leader — and the quality leader — in closing the education gap. A U of I grad sent me a letter about this recently. Here are excerpts.
That's what the Global Campus is about. Bringing a quality education to people who really need it. Innovation always stimulates debate. And that's good. The University of Illinois family isn't shy. I've heard both enthusiasm and reservations about this initiative. While my approach to people's worries is never just to say, "Trust me," I want you to know that when it comes to quality assurance, and increasing versus reducing the value of your U of I degree, and building versus tarnishing our reputation, and making sure that whatever we do is financially positive versus a financial drain … I'm on the case. So is Chet Gardner, a distinguished professor of engineering and recently Vice President of Academic Affairs who is heading this initiative. And so is the Board of Trustees, which is considering the matter carefully. Our commitment is simple: we're either going to do it right — and create something of which this University community is exceedingly proud — or we're not going to do it at all. We welcome your comments and we'll keep you posted. Let me close on two points. The first is about the upcoming campaign for the University of Illinois. Late next spring, we will announce the largest fund-raising campaign in this University's history — and one of the largest in the history of higher education. Its success is essential to making the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pre-eminent, to seizing the window of opportunity at UIC, to fulfilling the vision of UIS. It is a campaign for our children and their children and all the children. It is a campaign to create a positive future. And it is a campaign for this University that we cherish. Thank you for what you've already done for the University. You're in the lead. Now, I look forward to joining hands in the months ahead to ensure our campaign gets off to a great start, then settling in together to the marathon pace the campaign will require. It will be hard and it will be fun. Our success will be exhilarating and vital to ensuring a brilliant future for the University of Illinois. The second point is a little off-agenda and planned only by me. Earlier this week, I experienced the fulfillment of a personal goal when copies of a new book I've written arrived at my office. The book is entitled, The Nature of Leadership. For thirty years I've had the opportunity to think and write about leadership, to teach it and do my best to practice it. I've met, observed and worked with amazing leaders. As a result, I have wanted to write, in an interesting and accessible way, the answer to an important question: "What does it take to lead successfully?" The book was partially written when I arrived at Illinois. Since then, I've done a lot of revising. So now, the University of Illinois is on the title page and on page two. The Mannie Jackson story is in chapter one. Doris and Jay Christopher are in chapter six and so is Craig Tiley. Abraham Lincoln appears prominently. In the acknowledgements, I thank the Board of Trustees for entrusting me with leadership of the University for which they have ultimate responsibility. Knowing that we would be together today, I purchased and signed a copy of the book for each of you. (Don't worry; I get a big author's discount. The University's auditors don't have to worry; I paid.) If you are going to the UIF Board of Directors meeting or to the Board of Trustees meeting, books will be in your meeting room. If not, you can pick one up outside this room. I'd ask University staff to hold back and make sure all of our guests receive a copy. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think. Thanks for everything. I hope you have a great weekend! ### |
