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Read
the text of Chancellor Ringeisen's remarks at the conclusion
of the National Commission on the Future of UIS
Remarks
to the campus community on October 31, 2003.
Read
the text of John Blackburn's remarks at the conclusion
of the National Commission on the Future of UIS.
Remarks
to the campus community on October 31, 2003.
Read
the text of Chancellor Ringeisen's remarks at the formation
of the National Commission on the Future of UIS.
Summary
of Remarks to Task Force Members on March 28, 2003
Entire
Remarks to Task Force Members on March 28, 2003
Remarks
to Alumni Leadership Roundtable on November 15, 2002
Chancellor
Richard D. Ringeisen
Summary of Remarks to Task Force Members
National
Commission on the Future of UIS
March 28, 2003
I believe we can make UIS one of the best small public liberal arts
universities in the region, if not the nation. When I talk about
a wonderful liberal arts university, I always envision a university
with outstanding professional, science and public affairs programs.
I want to be clear about that.
When I look ahead 10 years, I see high-caliber faculty interacting
with highly motivated students, supported by an incredible staff
on a campus energized by new kinds of student activities. Bubbling
up everywhere will be pockets of excellence.
The idea of a course for all UIS students on Lincoln's leadership
and legacy, which originated with our Leadership Roundtable last
November, is now with the Campus Senate.
Vision: It is important that we all see the same thing at the same
time, and then go after it together.
I see only one risk in doing this, and I can sum up the risk in
one word: cynicism. We can choose, instead, to learn from history
that a small group of people, working together, can always be catalysts
for progress.
We have an idea of where we're going. But we don't yet know exactly
how to get there. There is not yet a mutual vision that leads us
all to a shared goal. Let's create that vision.
I want to be very clear about what this national commission is and
what I want you to do. I want to mention several points about the
work of this commission.
1.
This is a not a strategic planning process. It is a visioning
process. We don't have to develop detailed plans. We have to think,
to dream, to envision what UIS will be in 10 years.
2.
Your task today is simple. Speak up in your task force meeting.
3.
At your second meeting later this spring, you will write a one-page
vision statement for your college or area of interest. That might
sound difficult, and in fact, writing one page is more difficult
than babbling for 20 pages. But if I asked you to write 20 pages,
the result would be a campus document that is 20 pages times 13
task forces - or at least 260 pages -- and nobody would read it.
4.
We have placed very few boundaries on your discussion. We do expect
to grow to 6,000 on-campus students, with 2,000 of them living
on campus. We do expect to expand our programs for freshmen and
sophomores. We do expect to have adequate resources to do what
we need to do, and we expect that our fundraising efforts will
mature in the next 10 years.
5.
The 13 visions submitted by the task forces will be forged into
one later this year, with the guidance and perspective of our
staff and our national chair, John Blackburn.
6.
Once we publish a UIS national commission document in October,
I will work with UIS leaders and our important consultative groups
such as the Campus Senate, the colleges, and the Student Government
Association to consider the overall vision and engage them in
a more detailed strategic planning process.
John Blackburn, when he was here last fall, mentioned a book called
Good to Great by Jim Collins. The author starts out by saying that
"being good" is the enemy of being great, because if you
settle for being good, or good enough, you will never step up and
become great.
Level 5 leaders (as explained in Good to Great) have two characteristics
that put them at a higher level. First, they have the professional
will and the unwavering determination to produce the best long-term
results, no matter how difficult. They never blame poor results
on external factors, other people or bad luck. They accept responsibility.
The second characteristic of a Level 5 leader is humility. The ones
who build enduring institutions act with quiet determination and
channel their ambition into the institution, not themselves.
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