Coming Home

Lynn and I recently celebrated our first homecoming at URI. Practically every moment, except for the disappointing outcome of the football game, was engaging and fun. The weekend culminated in the presentation of the Distinguished Achievement Awards, one of the most enjoyable and inspiring events that I have participated in since coming to Rhode Island. The night celebrated the achievements of many alumni from all across the university, and I could not help but be amazed at their commitment to excellence, their dedication to making a difference in our world and what they had accomplished. At the heart of their terrific work (and for some the foundation of their families) was an education at URI - an education that had prepared them for a lifetime of achievement. Their stories - their testimonies - are, by far, the most compelling evidence to the quality of the University of Rhode Island and the great value of an education here.

Over the course of the weekend, we met many alumni, spanning several decades of URI's educational mission, all of whom were enthusiastic about the university, what it meant to them, and its future. A common element in all their testimonies was the lasting value of the relationships they had built here and the sense of community that existed during their years at URI. I have been thinking about that: how important it is for education to be centered in a community, and the value of the relationships within that community to learning and growth.

I also attended my first Faculty Senate meeting last week, and that meeting reinforced an early assessment of mine about some of the internal issues we must face at URI. Those issues also involve community - it appears to me that our sense of community has been fractured at times and that there is a lack of trust, and a lack of confidence in the institution and among ourselves. Some of the underlying events occurred years ago, and we need to let go of those. Members of a vital and supportive community must be willing to forgive and be willing to allow members of the community to make mistakes, to fail - and to learn from those mistakes and failures. The flip side is mutual accountability - we must be willing to be accountable to members of our community, willing to admit our missteps and to be corrected, regardless of our position. I see very encouraging indications that URI is moving in that direction.

If we succeed in strengthening our community, our trust in one another, and our confidence that we can resolve whatever problems and difficulties that we face by working together, the University of Rhode Island will be even more successful, and the value of an education here will be even higher.

Visiting URI - West (Montana State University)

As I wrote this a few weeks ago, Lynn and I were flying to Minneapolis, on our way back to Rhode Island from Montana. It was a great visit to a great place and a great university, but we were happy to be headed home. As some of you know, I’ll be making regular visits to Montana State University because my research group is still located there and working hard on the continuing projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. My group was very supportive of the move to URI and continues to be very productive. I’ve included some pictures of them and my laboratory at MSU. Working with my research group is always energizing, frequently exhilarating, and invariably rewarding. I continue to learn a lot from them. Those pictured are (starting top left) are: Fumi Ijima; Koyu Fujita; Doreen Brown; Kim Hilmer; and Dalia Rokhsana and Alta Howells. Not pictured: John Bollinger

Teaching and research have been an important part of my life since I was an undergraduate at UCSD. In fact, the initial attraction for me to become a professor began at UCSD when I was engaged in both undergraduate research and served as a teaching assistant for a first-year laboratory in chemistry. I learned more in those settings than I did in many of my formal courses – even though those courses were taught so well and were superb learning experiences in their own right. But working on problems, or investigating phenomena, for which no one has the answer or an explanation, and developing strategies for teaching others what you think you understand, provide opportunities for learning that simply cannot be attained any other way. In brief, my undergraduate research and teaching experiences gave me the motivation and momentum for an academic career that ultimately led to my appointment as the 11th President of the University of Rhode Island. Who would have thought? Not me, certainly, but the value and impact of those experiences remain real to me every day. That is one reason why I am so passionate about expanding or creating such opportunities for our students here at URI.

I was also fortunate to attend graduate school at Caltech – one of the nation’s premier research universities. Of course, Caltech has a highly distinguished faculty and first-rate facilities. More than that, Caltech has a very student-centered culture – as a graduate student in chemistry, it was abundantly evident that the faculty regarded students as colleagues and cared deeply about our success. Caltech also had low, or nonexistent, barriers to interdisciplinary research and collaboration. As a consequence Caltech earned a very well-deserved reputation for innovative research. These are some of the reasons why I am interested in expanding interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary graduate education and research at URI, and building a strong, student-centered culture for both undergraduate and graduate education.

The economic climate creates many difficulties and challenges for URI, as it does for the great majority of universities and colleges across the country. But we can still succeed at building a culture centered on the success of our students, at creating more opportunities for undergraduates to be engaged in research and creative work, and in facilitating interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scholarship and learning.

Transparency and teapots

On Wednesday night I met with the Student Senate of URI for the first time. I was very impressed; they are a dedicated, thoughtful, and articulate group of student leaders, who clearly care about the University and what’s best for students. We met to talk about some of the issues, opportunities, and challenges that we might face, or will likely have to deal with, in the near future. Our conversation was candid – most importantly we talked openly, with other students and a reporter from the Good 5¢ Cigar in the Senate chamber. And we talked about some difficult issues around the ongoing state budget problems and their possible consequences for higher education. I believe that this is how we want to work together as a community here at URI – openly, transparently, and inclusively. I believe that faculty, staff, and students should be involved in deciding how we can take advantage of our opportunities and meet our challenges. To facilitate that we have to be willing to share information, possibilities, and ideas prior to a decision being reached, and that’s exactly what transpired at the Senate meeting. I had previously discussed these budget issues with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and look forward to opportunities to discuss these with representatives of our staff.

In several ways, the Wednesday Student Senate meeting and the resulting flurry of interest from the media illustrate some likely consequences of the new planning and budgeting process that is now in development for implementation this spring. A new, representative planning and budget council will hold open meetings, where anyone would be welcome to attend, including, I am sure, a reporter from the Good 5¢ Cigar, and perhaps other media. The council, composed of senior university leadership, deans, faculty, staff, and students will discuss and consider strategic priorities, possibilities, opportunities, and challenges for URI. The Council will develop the budget recommendations for my review and approval. We should anticipate that some meetings will generate debate and discussion across the campus. Honestly, I think it would be a great outcome to see students, faculty, and staff discussing the council’s meetings, sharing ideas, and providing feedback. To be sure, at times this kind of open and transparent process will generate external attention, even concern, and occasionally surprise and confusion. I think that’s ok – it can be considered the price we pay for participation and transparency. As we grow accustomed to our new approach to planning and budgeting the instances of surprise and confusion will diminish. The outcomes – the URI community will have the opportunity to share in creating our future, people at URI and across the state will know what we are doing (and planning) and, also importantly, why – will certainly be more than worth the cost.

Listening to Rhode Island

As everyone seems to be aware, I have been interviewed a lot recently; check out www.uri.edu/president/media.html. It’s been fun! And the people involved, ranging from Heidi Watney to Dan Yorke, have invariably been friendly and engaging. Some of the questions have been challenging, but all of them (so far) have been fair and certainly of interest to Rhode Islanders. But to me the best part has been what the questions themselves, as well as sideline conversations, reveal about what folks here think about URI, education more generally, the state, their communities, and the challenges and opportunities that they face. Outside of the formal interviews, there have been many other conversations that have taught me a lot. Here are some initial observations; I expect that I’ll return to this theme in subsequent posts, following even more conversations and additional time for reflection.

First, folks here seem to love Rhode Island, even though they appear to think that the state is much bigger than it truly is, and have no idea how to provide directions to someone who isn’t already intimately familiar with the history of the place. Despite their affection for Rhode Island, many Rhode Islanders seem to project what strikes me (as a newcomer) as an exaggerated sense of the state’s shortcomings. People seem to underestimate just how great a place Rhode Island is. Interestingly, this attitude seems to carry over to the University of Rhode Island. I heard on several occasions, from long-time Rhode Island residents, that they had been recently surprised to discover the degree of excellence that exists at URI. The quality of specific academic programs, the achievements of students and faculty, the prominence of URI’s reputation in particular areas, the overall value of an education here – all of these were a source of some surprise. On one hand, I enjoyed hearing such very positive comments. On the other, I was a little surprised myself by the fact that people in Rhode Island were unfamiliar with the quality of the state’s research university. During move-in weekend, Lynn and I met many parents and students from outside the state who were attracted by the quality and value of a URI education. In many disciplines, URI has a national reputation for excellence and faculty who are renowned among their peers. URI has a strong reputation for a high-quality intercollegiate athletics program – our teams compete hard and our student athletes perform well both in their classes and their sports. I could go on.

So where’s the disconnect? Let me be candid: our success and quality are not uniform - there are certainly areas in which URI should, and will, improve. As a university we should aim for excellence in everything we do. That is one reason why we should not do everything, and perhaps why we should stop doing some things. We also need to be more effective in getting our messages out. The recent efforts in branding and marketing are very positive steps, but we need to do more. If you are an alumnus or supporter of URI, well, we need your suggestions and your help with that. Most importantly, though, we need to re-emphasize our focus on what matters most – the success of our students. Their enthusiasm, their achievements, their commitment to make a difference in our world – that will be the greatest testimony, and the most remembered, to the quality and value of URI.

It's Time to Begin (Again)!

It's Friday, September 4th. This week has been hectic, as every week has been so far, but with a new and very special element - all the meetings and activities surrounding the beginning of a new academic year. Obviously, it's my first academic year at the University of Rhode Island, so I will always have a unique connection to the Class of 2013 as we begin our first year together. I look forward to meeting many of you and your families as you move in and at our first home football game this weekend. You have made an excellent choice to pursue your future at URI. Our faculty and staff will work diligently and enthusiastically to help our newest students, whether entering higher education for the first time or transferring to URI to continue their studies.

I am also very much looking forward to meeting our returning students, many of whom are already on campus to assist our new students and help the university get off to a great start for the 2009-10 academic year. You will undoubtedly teach me a lot. That is one of the many, many reasons I love being at a university like the University of Rhode Island - I can be a part of a close and friendly community where all those who belong are learning together.

Hope to see you on campus. Look for me, Lynn, and Rhody, our dog (although I am sure that Rhody the Ram will be much more visible) and be sure to say hi!

We Deal in Hope

I’m a fan of the movie The Magnificent Seven, a remarkable translation of Kurosawa’s masterpiece – “The Seven Samurai” - to the Western genre. In the movie, a large group of marauding bandits come to a village to loot it of food and other supplies. But the villagers have managed to hire a group of seven gunfighters to defend them from the bandits. Recognizing the difficult challenge the gunfighters might pose, the leader of the bandits offers to make a deal with them. In one of the most memorable lines ever uttered in a Hollywood western, Steve McQueen, who plays one of the gunfighters, responds: “We deal in lead, friend.”

The University of Rhode Island deals in hope. As I mentioned previously, it is a special feeling to come to work in a place with the word “Hope” emblazoned on its seal. According to the state government web site, the word “Hope” was added to the seal for the colony in 1664 and is probably inspired by the Biblical verse: “We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6:19). As a university, URI is all about hope – the hopes of our students, the hopes of their families, the hopes of the citizens of Rhode Island, indeed, the hopes of our nation and much of the world. Every day our emblem reminds me that our goal, first and foremost, is to help people realize their hopes and dreams. I think that is why Congress created the land-grant university in 1862 and that is why our role has never been more important.

Over the past week or so, I have seen and heard the hopes expressed that URI can continue to provide the opportunities for students to pursue their goals and simultaneously to expand its research activities. As I shared with the Providence Chamber of Commerce, the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce, and many others, fulfilling these hopes is the heart of URI’s mission and a critical contribution to building a better economic future for the people of Rhode Island. The opportunity for upward mobility, a strong basic standard of living, a compassionate and generous society, and a life lived in joy and good health, are hopes we all share. I believe, and will always believe, that a quality education is essential for these hopes to become substance. And that is what the University of Rhode Island is all about.

We made it!

We made it! Lynn and I have been looking forward to this day since May – the day not only we, but also Rhody and our moving van, arrived in Kingston. And August 13th was the day. We enjoyed our trip from Montana, with its opportunities to visit family and friends and see parts of the country that we had never visited. A few short video clips of the trip are included: the first shows Rhody leaping in the car – enthused, I think, more not to be left than about his destination, but he’s an Australian shepherd and may be smarter than I give him credit for. The second shows Rhody (and us) admiring the statue of Lewis and Clark’s dog at the visitors’ center in Sioux City, Iowa. Rhody was a little less enthused to meet the Caprio’s friendly but gigantic Saint Bernard. Rhody also stopped to admire a memorial to some of the Rhode Islanders who fought at Gettysburg (the third clip). All in all, it must have been quite a trip for a dog that in May was listed for adoption on Craig’s List. We are all settling in, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who helped with the trip – our movers and the fine people from Conlon (in RI) and Mergenthalers (in MT) who actually got everything here in the same condition it left, and especially, all the great people who have worked so hard to get the house on campus ready. We appreciate it very much. One of our goals is to have the house serve as a welcoming and homey place for the entire URI community.

Finally, many people have asked us what Chris and Samantha think of our move to Rhode Island. Their views are very aptly summarized by the photo at the top of the blog, and now you know why I included it!