President Benjamin Allen

• I thank you for coming out on this beautiful late summer day to help officially start the academic year.

I want to extend a special welcome to the new faculty and staff. 

• Thank you for deciding to make your professional contributions at UNI.

• I have been very pleased with my decision to join the UNI community and I am sure you will be also.  

I want to extend a very special welcome to you, the new students, and thank you for choosing UNI as your academic home for the next several years.

 

My colleagues at UNI and I are very appreciative of your decision and feel a great sense of responsibility to provide excellent academic programs. 

 

The start of the academic year is an extraordinary time of the year—faculty, staff and students share a sense of optimism, excitement, hope, some anxiety, and high expectations.

 

You can feel the energy on campus--In fact, I could hear that energy last night.

 

To those students, faculty, staff and, I might add, administrators, who are new to campus, these emotions are elevated. 

 

My brief remarks today are for the students new to UNI, and, yes, in a sense, for me. 

Each of us has a set of responsibilities. 

 

Meeting these responsibilities will help us make the challenges manageable, in fact, make some of them disappear, and to make the opportunities, at least some of them, realities.

 

Let’s look at some of those responsibilities that we have in common.

 

Responsibility No. 1:

My most important responsibility is to ensure that you:

• receive a very high quality education;

• and to provide a safe environment for you, as well as for faculty and staff, to explore new ideas, to challenge old ideas, to reformulate ways of thinking—in short, to learn.

• I believe you will be impressed with the quality of the faculty and their commitment to the student and student learning; and their engagement and contributions to their disciplines—they are scholar-teachers.

  • The faculty seated below are dedicated scholars who love to teach, and are very good at their profession.

• I believe you will be impressed with the quality and service orientation of our staff—they want you to succeed.

• I believe you will be impressed with the quality and technology associated with our classrooms and labs, andVery importantly, I believe you will be impressed with your fellow students.

All of these are critically important elements to obtaining a high quality education.

 

Two of my responsibilities in this area are to ensure that:

• We recruit and retain the faculty and staff who are best for this university and its commitment to students and learning.

• We recruit and retain students who enhance the quality and diversity of the student body, which in turn enhances the quality of education for all students.

Your corresponding responsibilities include the following:

• To prepare for class, to expect classes that are rigorous and challenging—to expect less is cheating yourselves out of the best experience.

• To meet with the faculty teaching your classes; to engage in conversation with the faculty, to challenge the faculty—they will challenge you.

  • Frank Herbert captured the value of having questions when he stated:

    • “The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand."

• To be open to new ideas, new knowledge, new ways of thinking, new ways of looking at old problems:  In short, I encourage you to maintain an intellectual curiosity—

  • In the introduction of his book on great editorial writers and editorials, Michael Gartner notes a lesson provided to Vermont Connecticut Royster, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, by his college professor Horace Williams. 

    • Royster wrote in 1983 the following:

    • “He (Horace Williams) taught me that it’s only by challenging every idea that you can be sure of what you think, for then you know why you think what you think.

  • I want you to leave here knowing why you think what you think.

  • I do not care what you think; I do care that you know why you think, what you think.

• To respect and appreciate differences among people, and to practice civility.

To attend a four-year university is a very special opportunity—it is a time of your life that will not be replicated—get fully engaged in the learning process.

 

Responsibility No. 2:

A second responsibility that I have is to ensure that the money that you, your parents, and the citizens of the state of Iowa invest in this University is spent prudently so that you receive the highest quality of education possible.

• I, and all of the administrators, faculty, and staff, must allocate all of the University’s resources carefully and strategically.

Your responsibility is to take full advantage of all of the services and opportunities that these resources provide. 

• Attend classes and be a participant—not an observer.

• Meet with our great faculty outside of class to ask questions and seek advice.

• Use all of the academic support and services provided—including the library.

• Participate in the Study Abroad program.

• Participate in extracurricular activities—join an organization, become part of the leadership team of that organization—great opportunities to develop or refine team building or leadership skills.

• Ask the administrators, including the president, about issues on campus.

In short, be demanding consumers—I conjecture that you are in other areas of your life—most of us are;

• Be sure that you get your money’s worth.

• Both you and I need to be good stewards of the resources:

  • I need to invest and spend wisely,

  • you need to consume and partake fully and wisely

Responsibility No. 3

A third responsibility that I have is to garner, or obtain, more resources and greater political support for the university.

 

In short I have the task of:

• raising more money from foundations, industry and private donors and,

• strengthening the social contract between UNI and the various political groups that can help this public university.

• These resources are needed to maintain and enhance the margin of excellence of our academic programs.

Your responsibility is to make sure that you are proud to be a student of UNI and to show that pride everywhere you go.

• You need to inform the administrators and faculty and staff of how we can improve the educational experience—not to make it easier but to make it better.

• You need to wear purple and gold here in the Cedar Valley and back in your home communities.

• You are encouraged to talk about the great educational experience at UNI when you visit with others.

• In short, each one of you should become an ambassador for life for the University of Northern Iowa.

  • Much of this is in your self interest – the greater the reputation of this university within the state and beyond, the more valuable your diploma becomes.

Responsibility No. 4

Both you, the new student, and I, as the new president, have the responsibility to enjoy our time here at this great university:

• to enjoy what we are doing

• to laugh, to make new friends, to have fun!

• Being a member of a university community is a special opportunity—take advantage of it.

My wife and I will be:

• attending concerts in this building;

• attending athletic events; and

• spending time with new friends that we develop here in the Cedar Valley.

• I assure you that we intend to work hard, to try to make significant contributions to UNI, and to have a good time during our tenure here.

I encourage you to do the same and to do more. 

 

I expect you to work hard to be successful academically—we want our students to be challenged and to be successful.  

 

I also expect you, as students:

• to have some fun,

• to develop new friendships that will last long after you leave the UNI campus,

• to attend concerts and lectures that are not normally available to you in your home town, and

• to become a member of an organization not associated with your professional interests.

Closing comments:

Note that our respective responsibilities are intertwined—we need to be partners for each of us to be successful.

 

I cannot be successful in meeting my responsibility to make this the best university it can be without you meeting your responsibilities.

 

You cannot be successful in meeting your responsibilities and your personal academic and career goals without me, and my colleagues at UNI, meeting our responsibilities.

 

However, together we can make a difference—a difference in the future of this great university, and more importantly, a difference in your future.

 

Together we will ensure that what happens at UNI is education, not training, but that we understand that each is important.

• A quote captures this issue clearly—from a graduate of another university, “You come to a university not only to learn how to make a living but also how to live a life.”

Together we will ensure that you leave here prepared for life-long learning.

• That life-long learning is no longer an expectation; it is a requirement in this fast changing world.

Together, we will ensure that both UNI as an institution and you as students and graduates will give back to the community.

• Unlike Las Vegas—what takes place at UNI does not stay at UNI—it is shared with the citizens of the state and the world.

Together, we will ensure that UNI is a university where high standards are expected by both faculty and students.

• You will be well prepared for the work place or graduate school.

Together, we will ensure that everyone connected to the University—students, faculty, staff and administrators—knows why they think what they think—in short, that we all are educated individuals.

 

Together, we will ensure that you become a person that understands and can succeed in the world that has become very flat, as noted by Thomas Friedman.

• You need to be a global citizen.

Together, we will ensure that a UNI education is transformational at the personal level for the students who study at UNI;

• and that the collective efforts of faculty and staff, and most importantly the students and alums of UNI help transform the State of Iowa and the world beyond.

I am really excited about the 2006-2007 academic year. 

 

This year will be an exciting journey—one that will not end in May but will continue for many years to come.

 

I also know that, together, we can and will make a difference.

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Last Modified: 4/14/03