I am a sap. I like college football. I believe football and other team sports create reasonable rivalries and help bind people together who are committed to being members of a campus community. When my band plays my school songā¦
I know I will be accused of being old fashioned and out of touch with reality and if so I admit it, but here it is.Ā The position of a university regarding sexual crimes, a growing campus concern, should beā¦
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.Ā No bureaucracy in public service or private enterprise ever starts out as anything but a step towards fairness and excellence.Ā Yet, time and power jointly contrive to pollute legitimate ordering principles.Ā ā¦
Retirement systems that devalue the contribution of people, or constrain meaningful participation in post retirement work are dysfunctional, costly, and shortsighted.Ā In universities, it is essential that valuable experience be put to best use for as long as possible toā¦
Fifth in a series on Corporate Cultureā¦ Where we work shapes us, our work, and those we work with. Ā Places create culture. āI like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to seeā¦
Standardized measures never capture the essence of anything, although they provide dimensions: length, width, and depth ā descriptions — but not essence.Ā Tests, grades, and performance measures devoid of dreams and desires are gibberish. Measures are frail rhetoric and detrimentalā¦
Increasing college costs and decreasing employment opportunity have produced an avalanche of studies regarding the value of college degrees. Sometimes more information is not better. A āback to basicsā understanding would be valuable to all. āNowadays people know the priceā¦
Finding the right college to fit individual needs is critical, and one size does not fit all. Only thoughtful personal consideration should guide decision making. However, some issues cannot be overlooked. “The college search doesn’t have to begin and endā¦
University systems are political organizations. Universities are academic organizations. The two coexist symbiotically only with determined leadership. In a speech opening the legislative session, House Speaker Dean Cannon said Floridaās public university system is āracing toward the middle,ā a hodgepodgeā¦
Universities are defined by their traditions. They can take many forms, some positive, and some negative, but all communities have traditions shaped by citizens who reside there, and a university is a community. Traditions cannot be regulated or imposed, butā¦
Each personās head and heart, the twin seats or our identity, lie just eighteen inches apart, about a cubit. The connection between them is being stretched to the breaking point by universities and other institutions that have tried desperately toā¦
The separation of private beliefs and public expression of those may be acceptable in many settings (though I am not convinced that is the case) but it is absolutely unacceptable for university leadership. University leadership is private morality expressed publically.ā¦
Universities have a duty to help create a more effective republic.Ā While this purpose has remained constant over the centuries, the means and methods necessary to accomplish that purpose must continually evolve to keep up with an advancing society.Ā Inā¦
The season and current events cause me to offer this slightly modified piece originally published on July 11, 2008.Ā The importance and value of voluntary military training in universities cannot be argued, nor can the interdependence in mission of aā¦
Universities across the nation are rushing to ābrandā themselves.Ā There is the āD+ā branding idea at Drake, the genius of a high priced expert no doubt.Ā An unfortunate choice for a university identifier. I know. Ā I received a D+ oneā¦
There is an old Madison Avenue adage suggesting that interviewees make sure the heals of their shoes are shined as that is the last thing the interviewer will see when they leave the office.Ā Good point, but first impressions mayā¦
University leaders decry the idea that universities are becoming more like private enterprises, seeking increased fees, grant support, philanthropic dollars, and auxiliary incomes to make up for the relentless loss of state funding over the past few decades.Ā Even moreā¦
All universities have histories.Ā Some aspects of those collected histories are powerful while some are minor nuances of institutional life.Ā Look at the impact of the shootings at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966, at Kent State onā¦
There is a cloister of monks that makes wooden bowls from green, uncured lumber.Ā The bowls are very beautiful but they immediately begin to crack as the wood dries out and shrinks as wood is prone to do.Ā This isā¦
I know I am trouble already with that title, but hear me out.Ā For all the discourse about universities being like businesses, they are not run in a business-like fashion. Great businesses run on the nexus of merit, productivity andā¦
The concept of āthe Ivory Towerā is used in a negative sense when referring to universities to indicate a separation from reality and the practical concerns of the world. āIvory Towerā first appears in the Song of Solomon 7:4, butā¦
In the study of architecture at any university there are always a few courses on professional practice.Ā They are required by accrediting agencies, but that burden is of little consequence.Ā Ā Practitioners want the discipline to flourish; therefore standards of behaviorā¦
Diversity is a catalyst for strength.Ā There is a great deal of discussion at our university, as there is on other campuses, about diversity and its importance to the campus culture.Ā This dialog is usually viewed through the lens ofā¦
Distinctiveness is the strength of any organization.Ā True at any time, in any place, its importance is magnified when the competitive climate intensifies.Ā We own geographic distinctiveness.Ā The location above, the front steps of the recently renovated Morris Library, isā¦
Barbara Bush acknowledged a number of years ago, possibly when First Lady, what she believed was the most pressing problem in America. āGreed.ā We have heard a great deal about greed on Wall Street.Ā Bankers who want to makeā¦
The greatest challenge of any university is building a community.Ā This probably could be said for any enterprise, including towns in Southern Illinois that so many of us call home. Individuals sometimes get things done, communities almost always get thingsā¦
Calcification is what happens to soft tissue when it is taken over by calcium.Ā It gets hard. It is no longer resilient.Ā It becomes immobile. And eventually, it cannot work or act the way it was intended to.Ā While Iā¦
Ā Ā St. Paul was a brave man.Ā He summed up the purpose of the Christian Church in ten words uttered to the Church at Corinth: Ā āBe imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.ā Ā The simplicityā¦
I recently had the opportunity to spend time in Vietnam.Ā For veterans who served “in countryā Vietnam is a different place today.Ā It is teeming with free enterprise, the entrepreneurial spirit.Ā New business start-ups are everywhere and there is aā¦
Universities are affected by many forces at work in the environment.Ā Location, student population, faculty composition and a multitude of other factors shape what a university is. On occasion, an individual will come along and join a university, sometimes asā¦
In places of worship we often think about the importance of lay leadership. No matter how powerful the spiritual leader, how driven by God, how adroit at understanding the business of the organization, how gifted in dealing with people helpingā¦
In a great universityā¦ this could probably be said for any great organizationā¦ individuals must feel responsibility for the future, that it rests on their actions and decisions. This creates a powerful kind of accountability, a deep sense of purposeā¦
Creating a strong sense of community for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends is crucial to building a strong university. There are many avenues through which communities are built, but one that is undeniably powerful for public research universities isā¦
Wanting our university to grow in stature and importance, because it will be a better friend to our region, is an appropriate and powerful aspiration. There is only one way to do it. Seeking quality, defined and heralded as academicā¦
