Our University – Competition
When I was seventeen, like many young men I wanted a cool, fast car. Many of my generation will remember the significance of a ‘55, ‘56, or ‘57 Chevy. There were other cars, but all where second fiddle to…
Category Leadership
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…
Our University – The Fix is In
There is a cloister of monks that makes wooden bowls from green, uncured lumber. The bowls are very beautiful but they immediately begin to crack as the wood dries out and shrinks as wood is prone to do. This is…
Our University – Like a Church
I know I am trouble already with that title, but hear me out. 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 and…
Our University – The Ivory Tower
The concept of “the Ivory Tower” is used in a negative sense when referring to universities to indicate a separation from reality and the practical concerns of the world. “Ivory Tower” first appears in the Song of Solomon 7:4, but…
Our University: Moral, Ethical and Legal Decision Making
In the study of architecture at any university there are always a few courses on professional practice. They are required by accrediting agencies, but that burden is of little consequence. Practitioners want the discipline to flourish; therefore standards of behavior…
Our University – Reverse Transfer
Reverse transfer is the growing phenomenon of students leaving a four-year institution, like our university, and going to community colleges. This is called reverse transfer because; when community colleges were initially established the purpose was for technical training, adult education,…
Our University – An Arm of the State
For all of the bad news about Illinois politicians and their appointees, pay for play, rigged bidding and contract decision making, favoritism, patronage, back room dealing, sinecure, influence peddling, and plain old back scratching, I have become very fond of…
Our University- Multiple Perspectives
Diversity is a catalyst for strength. 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. This dialog is usually viewed through the lens of…
Our University – 37°42’55.85”N, 89°13’16.01”W, 444.00’
Distinctiveness is the strength of any organization. True at any time, in any place, its importance is magnified when the competitive climate intensifies. We own geographic distinctiveness. The location above, the front steps of the recently renovated Morris Library, is…
Our University – Lessons of a Struggling Economy
As the eternal optimist, I have pondered the lessons available from watching the national response to the economic challenges that we face, and how some instruction or, should providence smile on us, some wisdom might be valuable for our university. …
Faculty at Work
Our university has an excellent architecture program. Architecture students have ACT scores that are over two points higher than the university average. We are oversubscribed and turn away applicants. Bringing in more students than can be properly…
Our University – Reducing Costs for College Students
I have previously commented on the various ways that families can reduce the cost of attending university. In my own case, I attended a community college and completed my AAS degree earning 70 hours… almost all of which transferred to…
Our University – Entitlement
Entitlement is the state of being owed that which you have not earned. We see workers of all kinds, at every level, from classroom teachers to state and national political leaders who suffer from the notion that they are…
Our University – Final Exams
It is that season of the year, when the smell of turkey and Christmas tress is in the air. It is that time of year when finals occur. I really have never liked to think of final exams as final. …
Greed – Our University
Barbara Bush acknowledged a number of years ago, possibly when First Lady, what she believed was the most pressing problem in America. “Greed.” We have heard a great deal about greed on Wall Street. Bankers who want to make…
Our University – Building Community
The greatest challenge of any university is building a community. 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 things…
Our University – Merit
When Mary and I go out to eat we always decide where we are going before we leave. Sometimes we even talk about it on the phone before I get to the house. In other words, this is not a…
Our University – Calcification
Calcification is what happens to soft tissue when it is taken over by calcium. It gets hard. It is no longer resilient. It becomes immobile. And eventually, it cannot work or act the way it was intended to. While I…
Our University – Purpose
St. Paul was a brave man. He summed up the purpose of the Christian Church in ten words uttered to the Church at Corinth: “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” The simplicity…
Our University – Trust
I shop at a local hardware store. I have since the day I got into town. Mary and I needed a washer and dryer for our new home and someone we met, our new friend, suggested we go to this particular store. He…
Our University and Significant Debt
My mother worked as a riveter sewing sheet metal to plane wings in a defense plant on Long Island during the big war. Countless others did too. My in-laws worked at Grumman on Long Island for a combined total of…
Our University and the Creation of a Middle Class
I recently had the opportunity to spend time in Vietnam. For veterans who served “in country” Vietnam is a different place today. It is teeming with free enterprise, the entrepreneurial spirit. New business start-ups are everywhere and there is a…
Our University – Dr. Seymour Bryson
Universities are affected by many forces at work in the environment. 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 as…
Our University – Lay Leadership
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 helping…
Our University and Social Purpose
I had occasion recently to reflect on the social purpose of a university. Actually, this reflection took place as I held my grandson and thought a bit about this little fellow’s future. My life’s work is the university, so my…
Our University and the Idea of Accountability
In a great university… this could probably be said for any great organization… 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 purpose…
Moral Perspective at Our University
Moral perspective is the legitimate work of a university, for without it there is no possibility of intellectual fulfillment, advancement, achievement, or satisfaction. Intellect and morality are like inhaling and exhaling, one without the other is of no real utility. …
Athletics Builds Community
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 is…
Aspirational Leadership
You may have heard the old adage; the value of real estate is determined by three factors, location, location, and location. Here is a twist as we think about our university; the quality of the university is determined by three…
Our University: Stock Certificates
Stock certificates are used to prove partial ownership of a corporation. A bearer’s stock certificate entitles the holder to exercise all legal rights associated with the stock. Holders of stock certificates want the value of the stock to increase thereby…
Private Giving – Public Learning
The greatest example of a beneficial public-private partnership in our nation is public higher education. Any student of history knows the key to glory in our republic is the balance between the private lives of citizens and their support of…
Quality is Our First Job
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 academic…
Beat the High Cost of College
Everywhere you look you hear about the high cost of college. You see it in this newspaper, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Houston Chronicle. Costs are going up at a rate that exceeds inflation here and…
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…