Noble Citizenship
What follows is, in part, from a speech I gave at the invitation of the Honorable Judge Phil Gilbert on March 26, 2004. At a naturalization ceremony, the polyglot of peoples that sat before me holding American flags were…
Search Results for noble
Open Letter to the High School Class of 2025
Originally published over a decade ago in the Chicago Tribune (May 17, 2012), but updated here. Dear Graduating Senior, I am begging your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of the near completion of high school, not to be a…
Truth Telling
Originally penned on February 19, 2020, but is possibly more valuable now than it was then. One of the greatest challenges for leadership is to get people, in all parts of any organization, to tell the truth about how things…
Educating a Workforce
Written almost 15 years ago these points are still relevant. National economic growth requires education beyond high school. College, in the conventional sense, is not always the answer to a stronger economy. Neither the traditional 20th-century view of higher education from the…
A Culture of Engagement
Any organization that attempts to serve people in any way—A hospital, an automotive service center, a mom-and-pop candy shop or a big box behemoth, a family-owned bank, a public library, a doctor’s office, an automotive manufacturing facility like GM, a…
Individuals and Groups
The Hechinger Report recently published a piece regarding rural college students feeling “overwhelmed on big campuses.” California State University, Chico is targeting rural students and working diligently to address their needs. A worthy and noble effort to be sure, but…
Expectations As Students Apply For University Study
Fifth in a series on strength in regional universities While it is impossible to catalog all of the expectations that any university has for applicants, there are some general considerations that all students should consider if college is in their…
Our Regional Strength: Who We Are
Second in a series on strengths in regional universities. The following quote was posted regarding a class I taught in 2015: I teach in a classroom that has students from Nepal, Benin, Moscow, Vietnam, and China, as well as first-generation…
Leading a Public University
Above, speaking to students at Randall High School. I will resume the reflections on university research next week. University leaders are required to make bold and innovative decisions. Never has innovation in higher education been needed more. However, ideas are…
A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing.
West Texas A&M University will not host a drag show on campus. It was advertised for March 31, 2023, as an effort to raise money for The Trevor Project. The nonprofit organization focuses on suicide prevention—a noble cause—in the LGBTQ…
The Value of Hard Work
Second in a series regarding Panhandle values and quality of life. Hard work is a well-understood value in many places. West Texas A&M University appreciates its’ import. In the Texas Panhandle, it’s a fact of life. Diane Meyer claims hard…
Open Letter to High School Class of 2022
Originally published over a decade ago in the Chicago Tribune (May 17, 2012), but updated here. Dear Graduating Senior, I am begging your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of the near completion of high school – not…
College Debt and Single Parents
Third in a series on student educational debt. While indebtedness for a college education can be debilitating for many, it can be especially crippling to single parents. For instance, one 48-year-old single mom has a cumulative debt of $430,000 for…
A Plan for One
As seniors in high school contemplate graduation at the end of the school year, their possibilities are nearly endless—no matter a student’s class rank or personal opportunities and challenges faced, are facing or will soon face. Configuring the post-high school…
Student Debt
Originally published December 4, 2017. While some specifics have changed and some data has been updated, the general ideas are more important than they were in 2017 as students prepare to enter college in 2021, a time unlike any other.…
A Strong Sense of Self
Self-reliance, free will, critical thinking and control over one’s destiny are the essence of human purpose—a nearly valiant purpose—in achieving satisfaction following accomplishment. This is not to be confused with selfishness. Universities should help students mobilize these resources powered by…
Open Letter to High School Class of 2021
Previously published but updated here. What a year. Old council sometimes retains its value. Dear Graduating Senior, I am begging your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of the near completion of high school – not to be…
Regional Universities – Our Students
Walter Wendler, West Texas A&M University President and John Sharp, The Texas A&M University System Chancellor Third in a series on Regional Universities. Comprehensive Regional Universities (CRU) are the quiet centerpiece of the Texas higher education constellation. Often founded as…
Strength of Working Together Overcomes Fear
First in a series on the reopening of West Texas A&M University in the midst of COVID-19. In the coming weeks, I will address a number of issues regarding our return to campus—things such as residential life, classroom and community…
University Realities for 2020
Universities face issues spawned during the past half-century that will cripple effectiveness if unaddressed. The standing and ranking perception of campuses will always be important. The best campuses will attend to excellence in teaching and scholarly work, affordability and rigorous…
Considering College – Last Words
Tenth and final in a series on what to look for in college. In August 1975, I started teaching at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. After 45 years of service to students in universities, I thought I knew something.…
Considering College – The Centers of the Universe
Fourth in a series on what to look for in college. Cotton Center, one of the smallest independent school districts in the Texas Panhandle or the South Plains, has a total enrollment from pre-k through grade 12 of 100 students.…
Summer Graduation 2.0
Posted last year on the occasion of summer graduation. The advice is still sound. West Texas A&M University had its summer graduation last week, as did many universities around the nation. People are always willing to give advice to recent…
Organizational Trust
[Third in a series written about WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.] Trust is confidence—the reliance on the integrity, strength, ability and security of a person or thing. It enables and creates expectations and hope. Universities that don’t…
Open Letter to High School Class of 2019
This has been published a number of times at spring break over the past decade. It is updated here and refreshed in its importance for the honesty and transparency required to make a good university great for a region. The…
Love
Jesus Christ responded to a question from a student regarding the greatest commandment in the Law: “And he said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all…
Summer Graduation
West Texas A&M University had its summer graduation last week, as did many universities around the nation. People are always willing to give advice to recent graduates, and I am no exception. Hold on to your hat. Don’t delay paying…
No Two Alike – Purpose, Population and Place
One of the challenges for students and parents trying to select a place of study is that no two postsecondary institutions are the same. If for no other reason, the laws of physics assert that two things cannot occupy the…
Dear Graduating Senior:
I am begging your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of accomplishment—not to be a wet rag on the festivities of high school graduation, but a bright light on the realities of post-secondary education. If your GPA is…
Universities and Citizenship
A Continued reflection on citizenship from last week. There are significant relationships between education and citizenship. I am, before anything else, a professor—a teacher. I work to provide students the opportunity to learn. For me, this relationship between opportunity as…
The Core of Any College Curriculum
image from The Market of Ideas www.college.columbia.edu. The center of every university experience worth its salt is a grounding in the fundamentals of the human condition. For full and lasting impact on students, it should also be rigorous and challenging.…
Student Debt
image from o-MONEY-facebook.jpg-photos Universities endeavor to transfer the burden of blame to bankers and politicians. Sallie Mae holds almost $200 billion dollars of the debt. Like the housing bubble, much of the student debt problem involves politically driven, unsecured, unchecked…
Teaching – The Genesis of Reputation
Marc Edwards, MacArthur Fellow, and Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, created consternation regarding the polluted water supply of Flint, Michigan by telling the truth. His water research and expertise predicted the lead laden…
In Over Our Head, with Overhead
Ninth in a series on university struggles Administrative and bureaucratic operatives at universities have grown at rates that exceed even the rates of cost increases experienced by students and families. Rules rather than academic purpose govern too many institutions. Bureaucratic…
Trends For 2016
This piece originally ran in 2014. I am running it again. The basics don’t change much. WVW Every sector of the nation’s economy is in flux. Change breeds strength, but if pursued for its own sake may pervert primary purpose. …
Strictly Business
This reflection was originally published on November 13, 2012. Some circumstances have changed regarding veterans, but the thrust of treating learners correctly continues to have value considering debt and underemployment of college graduates are both at record highs as we start…
Four Rough C’s
Student life on university campuses should be challenging and rewarding. The honing of the student mind into a unique and individually tailored instrument of thought is a noble aim. That result helps create educated human beings who enhance personal and…
Educating a Workforce
National economic growth requires education beyond high school. College in the conventional sense is not always the answer to a stronger economy. Neither the traditional 20th century view of higher education from the student and family vantage point (outside looking…
Leadership and a Moral Compass
Third in the IMTE series My reflection on October 6, “I’m Mad, too, Eddie,” (IMTE) suggested that university leadership appears to operate without a moral compass. Of course it does appear to be so, because, too frequently, it is so.…
Partnerships between Universities and Community Colleges
Universities serve the same purpose as community colleges, differences are matters of degree. (Pun intended.) “People look at me like I’m crazy when I say that our greatest partnership here at Ohio State should be with the community colleges.” Gordon…
Our Universities: The Graduate Albatross
Student debt recently surpassed total credit card debt. Payments can be delayed through graduate school enrollment; and the accrual of more debt. “Making loans accessible to millions of the previously unbankable customers is a noble goal. Getting them hooked to…
Our Universities: Ethics
Universities, to their demise, confuse what they think they can get away with, and what serves their true mission. Moreover, institutions seem to believe they can be known by something other than their actions. Shortsightedness in spades. “Values are like…
Our Universities: Merit and Value
Universities that deny the relationship between merit and value undermine quality. Without recognition of meritorious achievement results fall. So desperate are organizations to be perceived as having value they replace excellence with its appearance, real performance with placebos, and the…
Our Universities: Trends For 2014
Every sector of the nation’s economy is in flux. Change breeds strength, but if pursued for its own sake may pervert primary purpose. Our universities should ask, “Who do we serve?” Statehouses, communities, and industry? Absolutely. But, the pinnacle of…
Our Universities: Online Economics
An education has value. If genuine, it has real worth. Striving to get the experience at the lowest cost may prove wasteful and disheartening if it does not “perform” as anticipated. “It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse…
Our Universities: God, Rick Perry, and the Daily Egyptian – Three Degrees of Freedom
Universities must be free to deliver their greatest benefits. Even with the best intentions, the priorities and purposes of a university can become obscured. When they do, universities suffer, and the brunt of the burden is borne on students’ backs.…
Open Letter to High School Graduates
This was originally published on May 14, 2012. It may be worth a second read. Walter V. Wendler ______________________________________________________ Dear Graduating Senior, I am begging your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of accomplishment: not to be a…
Our Universities: Everyone Must Have a B.A. or B.S.?
We have begun to hold a readily visible evidence of education, the degree or certification, as valuable in and of itself. But these are emblems too often having little to do with knowing something or having the ability to do…
Our Universities: Strictly Business
Knowing the genuine interests and educational needs of students is good business. Serving those interests well, with energized faculty, serves the institution. That too, is strictly business. “Listen, I want to congratulate you and Macy’s on this wonderful new stunt…
Our Universities: Serving the Public Good
Service from universities to the extended community always has value. The best universities have codified a service imperative into their mission statements and are committed to providing insight and ideas to the community through individual students, faculty, and staff. “The…
Our Universities: Principles and Pragmatics
Student loan default rates are three times higher at for-profit institutions than at public universities. Those borrowing the most, default the most. Disturbingly, non-traditional college goers based on race, gender, or age, subsidize higher education through bogus loan programs in…
Our Universities: Open Letter to High School Graduates
Dear Graduating Senior, I must beg your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of your accomplishment: not to be a wet rag on the festivities of graduation, but to shine a light on the realities of post-secondary education.…
Our Universities: Enough to go Around
The university is a mirror of, or window to, the world. St. Paul suggested to the Church of Corinth that at times we “see through the glass darkly.” Things are not as sharp or bright as they should be. So…
Our Universities: Financial Aid and Its Impact on State Support
Third in a series on state funding for higher education Addressing how the Monetary Assistance Program (MAP) is affecting the students of Illinois, the IBHE Task Force observed: The first issue is the increasing demand for financial aid. More students…
Our University: In State Out of State
Costs are always relative and secondary to value. Governments cannot make universities by enactments of laws: Nor corporations by erections of edifices: The church cannot create them under the authority of heaven: The flattering eulogies of orators cannot adorn them…
Our University: Shared Governance and Collective Bargaining
The Congressional Record, August 1985, provides a revealing perspective held by Albert Shanker, former President of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 and President of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997, regarding his job…
Our University – Bologna
The Bologna Process is an ongoing effort of the European Higher Education Area to “tune” universities from 47 countries so that more predictable outcomes and consistency across national and institutional boundaries, leading to transparency in expectations, employment preparedness and certification,…
Our University – Truth Telling
One of the greatest challenges for leadership is to get people, in all parts of the organization, to tell the truth about how things are. It is not that they actively lie, but that they never want to be bearers…
Our University – History and Habit
All universities have histories. Some aspects of those collected histories are powerful while some are minor nuances of institutional life. Look at the impact of the shootings at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966, at Kent State on…
Opportunity is Southern
All universities are a consequence of the cultures in which they exist. Simultaneously, however, universities continuously act to change those selfsame cultures. The philosophical bedrock on which public higher education in America is constructed comprises these conflicting causal relationships. Seeking…
