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To John Lewis, Ward Smith, and other members of the Board of Trustees; to my friend and colleague, Malcolm Gillis; to the Reverend McMickle; to members of the faculty and staff; to students and alumni; to representatives of sister institutions of higher learning; and to all of the many distinguished guests and friends of Case Western Reserve assembled here today-thank you for joining in this inauguration ceremony.
Before I begin my formal remarks, I would like to make an important announcement. My colleagues and I in the physics department, along with 200 students, have just conducted a most important experiment. We have just launched a large and a small pumpkin from the roof of Strosacker Auditorium and timed their descent to the pavement below. Although the results were somewhat messy, as science often is, we have conclusively verified that Galileo was correct. Next year we will test the work of our very own Michelson and Morley by timing cellular telephone calls racing around our spinning planet in opposite directions.
So much for my research career, and now to the business at hand.
Mr. Chairman, in accepting what you have just conferred on me, I want to say that it is indeed a great honor and privilege to serve as this University's president. But I must acknowledge that it is also an enormous responsibility. Never before has a university education been more important, and never before have the challenges facing both students and educators been so great.
My predecessor, Agnar Pytte, built a strong foundation on which to construct an agenda for the future. It would be very easy to relax and not set an ambitious program of change and further strengthening. But, as Will Rogers said, "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
It is not sufficient to keep doing what we are already doing and merely do it better. We must also adapt to the changing needs of our students, to seize new opportunities to enrich the educational process and pursue new fields of research. Both the world in which we live and the world of higher education are changing-and at a pace that is accelerating.
Since arriving on campus four months ago, I have spent considerable time talking to and listening to faculty, students, staff, board members, alumni, and many other friends and supporters of the University-and even a few dissenters who for their own reasons, which I respect, do not support our cause. I have used these dialogues as opportunities both to learn about the University and to test some options for strengthening it and-where necessary-to recommend changes that will capture the opportunities and meet the challenges that we will face in the next decade.
What have I learned from these discussions, and what are some of the avenues for strengthening and changing the University? In what follows, I will outline a strategy for the University in the next decade-a strategy that I believe will position it to serve our students better, to excel in research and scholarship, to develop new partnerships and strengthen existing ones with the Cleveland community, and to position the University so that it becomes recognized locally, nationally, and internationally as an outstanding center of excellence in research and learning.
I want to emphasize that these are preliminary recommendations and, as all good strategic plans must be, changing circumstances require that we revise them as we go forward. I also want to emphasize that I have tried to capture the views and suggestions of the many stake-holders of this University-faculty, students, staff, our Board of Trustees, alumni, and other friends and supporters of the University. The suggestions range all the way from a student who recommended that we prop open the doors of the offices in the central administration building to a discussion with Governor Taft about the need to build a new industrial base in Ohio-and we are doing both! I am indeed very grateful for the many comments and suggestions that I have received and encourage everyone to continue to respond as you have done thus far.
Before I outline a specific action plan, I would first like to make some comments about some of the current issues in higher education, and-more important-to point to some of the trends that are pressing for change. Hockey great Wayne Gretzky said: "The secret of success is to skate to where the puck is going to be." Where will the puck of higher education be in the next decade?
There are five trends that I believe are especially important. These are: the accelerating growth of knowledge, the information revolution, the changing role of universities in our society, the globalization of work and life, and the rising costs of research and education.
The growth of knowledge is accelerating, and educators and students are increasingly presented with a dilemma of choice: what to teach, what to learn, and what fields of research to pursue? New courses, programs and degrees are being introduced at a rate that makes the university of the early part of this century look downright medieval. It is sobering to remember that it was only 125 years ago that electives were first introduced into the undergraduate curriculum at U. S. universities. This enormous expansion of the human intellectual repertoire-much of it generated by research universities-presents both an opportunity and a challenge for researchers, educators and students.
University presidents know better than to tamper with the curriculum-that is the responsibility of the faculty-and I do not intend to depart from that tradition. But I do want to express a concern about the tendency toward increasing specialization, especially as it applies to undergraduate education.
Our graduates, unlike those of earlier generations, know that they will probably work for many different employers and may also make one or more career changes in their lifetime. We have a responsibility to give our students both a knowledge base that will permit them to navigate a complex and uncertain world and-most important-the intellectual skills to continue learning throughout their lifetime. Current content is important, but if it pushes aside the broader conceptual base, it will impair our students' ability to change and adapt to intellectual challenges that are as yet unknown. In the extreme, it can lead to an education that becomes obsolete in a short period of time. This concern is especially applicable to the rapidly evolving fields of science and engineering. Plutarch said it well: "The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."
An education must also be a preparation for life as much as it is a preparation for a career. As such, we must not lose sight of the importance of the context of what we know and the need for breadth in addition to the depth of understanding that comes from knowing one field of study well.
Scientists and engineers who lack an understanding of the subtleties of the human condition, or fail to acquire an appreciation for literature and for the artistic spirit, or cannot communicate their views to others, are missing important elements of their education. And students of the arts, humanities and social sciences who do not have some understanding of the physical and biological world in which we live, or of the technical complexity of life in the twenty-first century, will also be disadvantaged.
I am a firm believer in the importance of what has come to be known as a "liberal undergraduate education," one that teaches breadth and context and gives our students the intellectual and moral capacity to lead lives that are thoughtful, reflective, inquisitive and satisfying.
A second important trend that is related to the explosion of knowledge, but is distinctly different from it, is the information revolution. The latter does not generate more knowledge, but provides a powerful set of tools that make information more accessible and manageable. Some have predicted that information technology will revolutionize the way we teach and our students learn, and even make residential campuses such as ours obsolete. Predicting the course of developments in information technology is both difficult and hazardous. One thing about which almost everyone agrees, however, is that information technology will dramatically change universities. What those changes will be and how rapidly they will occur are difficult to predict.
I do believe, however, that there will continue to be an important place for academic institutions devoted to excellence, and for the residential campus where teaching and research go hand in hand, and where learning is enriched by the social interactions and the personal engagement of students and faculty, and where information technology will change and enrich the learning process, but not fully supplant it.
Our challenge is to position the University to take full advantage of these emerging trends by deploying information technology in creative ways to improve and expand the learning experience of our students, to enhance research, and to make administrative practices more efficient and responsive. Although the initial investments are enormous, I believe there will be some long-term cost savings.
Initially, these advances will not be ubiquitous, but will arise in specific areas that are most amenable to digital information systems. Most important, their development will be driven by the creative energy of the faculty, staff and students working as a team. Although some overall guiding principles will need to be devised, the innovative process will not and should not be a top-down process.
A third important trend in higher education is the bridging of national, racial, cultural and geographic boundaries. Advanced communications, changing political structures, travel, migration, and economic forces are drawing us closer in a world that is more populous than ever but is still fraught with tension and sporadic conflict.
We have an obligation to prepare our students to live and work in a world where cultural, racial, and national differences are the norm. But this is more than an obligation-it is also an opportunity to enrich the intellectual environment of the campus by fostering a diverse range of viewpoints. Learning does not stop when students leave the classroom or the library but continues in important ways throughout the social milieu of the campus in the residences, the dining halls, on the athletic fields, in the student center and in other casual and structured venues. The opportunity to learn from another person's experiences, to exchange opinions and perspectives, to debate the contemporary issues of the day-these are all important aspects of learning and they are best accomplished in a community with a student body and faculty that represent a wide range of racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds.
Fourth, the role of our universities in our society is changing dramatically. Once regarded as sanctuaries of learning, isolated and protected from the harsh realities of the world, universities have become major driving forces in our society, influencing social, cultural and economic developments. No longer limited to education, our universities, and especially our research universities, are now dominant sources of new knowledge in our society. Nowhere has this change been more dramatic than in the areas of economic development, where research advances in science and engineering have spawned the creation of new high technology industries such as computers, electronics, and biomedical technology.
But this does not happen spontaneously. The cultural tradition of being inwardly directed impedes these developments and must be overcome to realize the enormous opportunities that an institution such as ours has to participate in the social, cultural and economic development of this region. Yes, there are some risks. We must be alert to potential conflicting interests between our faculty and for-profit enterprises, and we must never compromise our cherished tradition of freedom of inquiry. We must also keep our focus on the benefits that come from building long-term partnerships, not on short-term monetary gains. But I believe these can be managed. Cleveland's future and the future of this University are intertwined, and we must do everything we can to promote the social and economic welfare and vitality of this region-our future depends on it.
The fifth and last trend that I believe we must address is the rising cost of education and research, and the accompanying competition for students, faculty and resources. By its nature, education is a labor-intensive activity. In spite of our efforts to control costs, tuition increases nationwide have outpaced the Consumer Price Index for more than two decades, and although these have lessened in the past two years, we cannot with confidence assume that the matter is fully under control.
The pressures are enormous-students are becoming consumers of educational resources, seeking "best buys" and "shopping" for financial aid awards. Universities have responded with financial aid wars, offering greater discounts to high-achieving students.
But we must be very wary of competing primarily on price, and must not neglect the importance of the quality of what we deliver. For every percentage point that we increase the tuition above the Consumer Price Index, we must justify the added value of the education we offer. And for every dollar of merit aid that we offer, we must justify using it to discount the price rather than invest it in program enrichment.
I suspect this issue, which has always challenged us, will continue to do so in the future. I quote a letter from a student to his father in medieval times:
This is to inform you that I am studying at Oxford with the greatest diligence, but the matter of money stands greatly in the way of my promotion, as it is now two months since I spent the last of what you sent me. The city is expensive and makes many demands; I have to rent lodgings, buy necessaries, and provide for many other things which I cannot now specify. Wherefore I respectfully beg your paternity that by the promptings of divine pity you may assist me, so that I may be able to complete what I have well begun.
Although more than five hundred years old, this message is remarkably familiar.
The costs of research are also enormous. Start-up packages for new faculty and the continuing costs of equipment, facilities, and support increase each year as the competition for the best minds in the nation intensifies. Although government and other sources of support for research have grown in recent years and the prospect for further growth is good, the number of potential recipients competing for these funds is growing more rapidly.
These challenges must be faced. They are part of the landscape that we will travel during the next decade. Some have greater significance for our institution than for others. I am convinced that the research universities that thrive in this decade-and have no doubt that ours will be one of them-will be institutions that see these trends as opportunities and make the necessary changes to adapt to these new realities.
Thus far, I have spoken about some of the overarching issues that will define the playing field of higher education in the next decade. One of our Board members who believes in the power of direct language says: "the problem with you guys in universities is that you use too many words!"
With that advice in mind, I would now like to outline a specific set of goals and an action plan that will address these challenges and, I believe, position Case Western Reserve to become more widely recognized, nationally and internationally, as a center of excellence in education and research-a highly interactive, intellectually stimulating, richly cultured and enterprising community, attractive to a diverse and exceptional group of students, faculty and staff, who work in harmony across disciplines and departments, and in close collaboration with a variety of local, national and international partners, to create and apply knowledge for the benefit of Greater Cleveland, the country and the world.
I propose the following goals and objectives:
Some specific actions aimed at accomplishing these goals are:
In closing, I would like to emphasize once again how critically important it is that we work together as a team to develop and accomplish our goals. As your president, I am very conscious of both the influence and the limitations of my office-I can point the way, probe the issues, stimulate the dialogue, and help form the consensus that will guide us through the next decade. But the enormous energy, dedication, and hard work that are necessary to achieve our goals can only come from you-faculty, staff, students, trustees, and all the other members of our extended family, including alumni, friends, and supporters of Case Western Reserve. This is your University-working together we can achieve our goals. I am ready, and judging from the overwhelming expression of support that you have expressed, I know you are, too.
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