|
"Ruminations" from the
President
weekly message to the community
from Dr. Robert E. Myers
July 8, 2005
Dear Colleagues,
 Today
marks the end of my first week as President of Daniel Webster College
and I thought I would initiate a communication tool I’ve found useful
over the years at other institutions: an occasional set of observations,
ruminations, and signals of things to come that I would like to share
with the entire College community as we begin what I anticipate will be
an exciting and challenging journey together.
First, I’ve been overwhelmed by the
warmth of your reception here and the genuine expressions of welcome and
offers of assistance to both myself and Gretchen. We feel we’ve
found a home already, and my sincere thanks to all for helping to make
that happen.
Second, as each day has passed this
week and I uncover yet another “best kept secret” about Daniel Webster
College, its people, and its programs, I find myself giving thanks that
I made the right decision to come here. I’m learning every day and
my fervent wish is that I don’t stop learning nor stop pinching myself
to make sure I’m really at a special place at a special time.
Which brings me to my third point … We
are about to make a new beginning,
together.
And it is that last word that I hope you recognize as critically
important. Some folks have been waiting with bated breath, as they
say, for me to announce quickly a grand and eloquent “vision” to guide
us on our journey. Not wishing to disappoint, but that will not
happen immediately. I’m certainly not lacking for a compass or
strong feelings about any number of issues. But when that grand
eloquent “vision” surfaces, I want our sense of direction to be a
collective one, with the entire College community playing a role in its
conceptualization, its forging, tempering, and ultimately its unveiling,
championing and celebration.
So, how shall we begin? In the
absence of an immediate, dynamic, compelling statement of exactly where
we’re headed, I at least owe you a sense of how we’re going to develop
that statement. Here are my thoughts.
I plan to begin with a fairly brief
period of collecting information, data points, wishes, hopes, dreams,
and no small amount of tribal lore. From a fair number of
conversations, I intend to construct some general thrusts and potential
directions, what I call “institutional sense-making,” designed to
facilitate discussion, debate, and ultimately consensus. With whom
will I communicate? Certainly there are the “usual suspects”:
faculty, students, staff, members of the Cabinet (my senior leadership
team), members of the Board of Trustees, external stakeholders, friends,
and alumni of the institution. I will endeavor to engage
individuals and groups in ever larger concentric circles of influence
and affiliation, ultimately to get us to a point where we can each feel
we’ve been involved, consulted, and credible champions of the Daniel
Webster College story.
Ideally, and I recognize this is an
aggressive timeline, I would like to work towards the following
milestones: on Thursday, September 8, we will celebrate the beginning of
a new academic year with a traditional convocation, surrounded by a
number of activities intended by the Board of Trustees to invest in me
the responsibilities and accountability for the presidency, provide me
the opportunity to articulate themes and direction, and provide an
opportunity for us to solicit support from our friends, alumni, and
corporate sponsors. With the public articulation of where I sense
we should be heading, I would propose we use the ensuing several weeks
thereafter to test the soundness of those themes, with the objective of
having the Board of Trustees endorse same at its October meeting.
In the meantime, here are some initial
observations I’ve made, and a few signals of my interests.
First, let’s not confuse “mission” with
“vision.” Daniel Webster College has a sound mission that clearly
articulates who we are, what we stand for, and how our special purpose
serves the learning and professional preparation needs of our students.
So, we know who we are. The intriguing questions for all of us are
What can we be and remain true to our
core identity? What path will successfully take us to our
aspirations, our hopes and dreams? How will we know if we’re true
to the path, or when we stray from that path? And how will we know
when we’ve arrived at our destination of aspiration?
I focus on this distinction between
mission and vision for two reasons: one, the differences are real and,
two, I want to quiet any fears that we’re somehow going to lose sight of
our core strengths and the identity that have successfully brought us to
where we are today.
Second, and I think this is important
for all of us to acknowledge, we are not an institution in crisis.
To be sure, it is apparent to all of us that there have been some rough
spots for the College, particularly post-9/11. And we’re all aware
of the “financial fragility” of the College that led to an intermission
of retirement benefits and performance increases for faculty and staff.
However, we have strong financial leadership in the College, the
prescription for recovery is working, we’re slowly restoring lost
ground, and I think we can look to the new academic year as a real
turnaround that signals to me great things to come.
Third, there is no shortage of new
opportunities for us to seize upon, no limit on new ways of approaching
old challenges, and no constraints on our desire and ability to think
outside of the old box … at least, there shouldn’t be. What I
sense has been lacking, however, is the time, the luxury, or the
permission to turn away from the daily obsessions with examining the
blades of grass and turning our gaze instead to the horizon and to the
skies where we might gain a better vantage of direction and destination.
In other words, to put it as one member of the Cabinet put it to me, “We
need to spend less time watching the piggybank and more time thinking
about the upside opportunities walking past our front door.” And,
as one member of the Board of Trustees said, “Now is the time to start
making some important, targeted investments for the future.”
And so we shall. I continue to
sense eagerness, enthusiasm, and energy everywhere I’ve been this week
and with everyone I’ve come in contact. As we take our first steps
on this journey together, I look forward to continuing the
conversations, the dialogues, the debates, and the decisions that will
guide our way. I hope to come back to you next week this time with
more observations, perhaps some rumination as well on what’s keeping me
awake at night!
Meanwhile, let me hear from you.
Sincerely,
Robert (Skip) Myers
President
|
