coe-staff: Tomorrow's COE Meeting Agenda (Jan 23, 10am - Hedco 220)

[Randy Kamphaus]

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,

I look forward to meeting this Friday to initiate the process of charting our future. I have had the pleasure of entertaining innumerable ideas from faculty, students, staff, emeriti, donors, colleagues on campus, and alumni who wish to see us do good, field-leading, work. Faculty want to develop new academic programs in areas such as prevention science, educational gaming, journalism education, student athlete development and other areas. They want us to be intellectual leaders who create new disciplines, sub-disciplines, areas of inquiry, and yet unheard of research methods, models, and tools. Donors want us to recruit the best student talent. Staff members seek the highest levels of achievement through collaboration across units, and students want us to be diverse, inclusive, equitable, inventive, and culturally rich. Finally, emeriti want us to recruit the best faculty available anywhere, and to never lower our standards. 

All of these constituents want us to succeed, so much so that many have offered their personal treasure in support of our planning and implementation efforts. For example, we received a $10,000 donation from an individual who wants us to lead in digital learning - defined in the broadest of terms. We have another commitment for $100,000 to create a Dean's Discretionary fund; one that I will use to foster our planning efforts and help support new initiatives. These dollars serve as visible affirmations of our past accomplishments, and resources that help drive us to do the most important work needed by individuals, families, schools, and society. 

I want Friday's meeting to be interactive. Please come ready to participate. I have some ideas to complement yours but the ultimate product of our planning is unknown, which is to be expected, and is even desirable. 

We are a highly successful institution, which makes this a perfect time to plan. In the words of JFK, "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."

Until tomorrow,

Randy