Photo taken from http://www.wvmtr.org/page/32/?s=ace
[The following post is part of President E. Gordon Gee’s State of the University address given on March 1, 2016]
As you have just seen, West Virginia University is on the move. And we have reached a brand-new level of accomplishment and prestige, as you well know.
The brightest signpost of our current stature is our ranking as a “Highest Research Activity” — or “R1” — university. We are one of just 115 R1 universities among the nation’s more than 4,500 higher education institutions.
This designation, in my view and in all of our views, is important. First, it reflects years of innovative and rigorous work by our faculty, staff, administrators and students. Second, it will enhance our ability to attract and retain top-ranked scholars. But, while R1 status elevates our University, it does not represent a pinnacle or an apex.
We are not done. We have the potential to reach even higher peaks.
In fact, while this accomplishment is worth celebrating, it does not even mark a plateau where we can stop and catch our breath. We cannot stop progress — because the future is coming. And it is approaching far faster than most of us imagined. One need only scan the latest headlines to understand that the pace of change is accelerating rapidly, exponentially, across the world.
And so we find ourselves perched, not on a plateau, but on a precarious boundary between today and tomorrow. A boundary between excellence and eminence. A boundary between conventional wisdom and new ideas. A boundary between West Virginia’s problems and solutions that lead to success.
As we balance on this lofty verge, without the time to admire the view or even pose for selfies, we have only enough time for one thing, and that is charting our next ascent.
That is why I am here today — to start a conversation on our campus about our future.
I’m here to ask, “Where do we want to be in five years? In 10 years?” And to begin collaborating with you to craft that journey. To reach our destination, we will have to shred our outdated roadmaps and eschew the comfort of well-worn paths. We must demolish any obstacles that bar our way, so we can blaze new trails and conquer new frontiers.
We will face challenges here at home, from continued pressure on our budget, to the way higher education is structured in our state, to our own bureaucracy. And we will feel reverberations from the wider world’s shocks: Turmoil in the stock market. The downward spiral of the Chinese economy. A dwindling faith in our country’s institutions that has marked this very strange election season.
But challenges can create opportunities — if we have the courage to seize them. And seize them we will and we must. We have no time to lose. Because transforming the arc of higher education can transform the arc of our future. As our recent achievements show, West Virginia University is on an upward trajectory.
Our momentum gives us the power to lift our entire state. Our land-grant heritage deeds us the moral obligation to do so.
President Abraham Lincoln changed American education forever when he signed the Morrill Act in 1862 and put success within reach of every person in this country.
Today on March 1, 2016, we can begin to change West Virginia forever.
The people of this University community have the perseverance, vigor and knowledge to be skilled architects of our state’s future. But like the world’s tallest buildings, West Virginia can only rise from a strong and stable foundation. That is why, today, I am pledging our University’s time and talent to reinforcing that foundation. We will reinvent West Virginia’s future by strengthening three critical pillars: education, health care and broad-based prosperity.
Prosperity will remain elusive if our workforce lacks education and our citizens are suffering from disease and despair. Young people who are sick, or whose families languish in poverty, will struggle to fulfill their educational potential. A lack of knowledge or financial resources will keep some of our citizens mired in ill health.
Education. Health care. And prosperity: They are inseparable. They are essential. And they are what West Virginia University is uniquely empowered to generate.We will reinvent education for our young people, on our campuses, throughout our state and beyond. We will transform health care for our citizens. We will cultivate prosperity in our communities. And we will do it now because time is of the essence.
So today, I want to discuss how we radically change education in West Virginia — forever.
To read the rest of President Gee’s address, or to watch the full address on YouTube, click the button below.
