Shock The World

I was given a copy of "Empowered University" as I attended the Middle States Council for Higher Education annual conference this year, and it sat on the corner of my desk alongside the carnage of other books I've been intending to start reading when I had a free minute. This past weekend, I had a colleague write to me to tell me about this book that she was reading whose similarities seemed so resonant with our story at Fairleigh Dickinson University . She included an excerpt that highlighted the improbable and first ever upset of a 1-seed by a 16-seed, and it went on to describe how University of Maryland Baltimore County had shocked the world on a basketball court almost five years to the day prior. It described how their story on the basketball court was a mirror of their story on campus, about how they were a university built to defy the odds, and built to provide opportunities for students whose grit and determination would be met by the supportive community on campus to help them realize their goals, sometimes against the most improbable of circumstances.

I've sat down this morning and begun reading the first chapter, entitled "And Then We Did It" which highlights the most improbable of victories as a microcosm of the story of this institution, and it is remarkably like looking in a mirror of what we can be, what we hope to be, and what I envision us becoming. My goal and dream is that the story of a most improbable basketball run during a week in March becomes the blueprint for our future, and that as it says in the chapter, "if you work hard, there can be these special moments where you're moving toward greatness."

So much of this aspiration requires us to re-calibrate our mindset. Our goals have to be the success of our students, and how we get them across the stage at commencement. One remarkable change I've felt since assuming this role a few months back is the incredible burden I feel for our students and their success. I recall talking to a colleague at a two-year college with one of the highest graduation rates in America, exceeding 30%. I recall him saying that everyone celebrates this achievement and recognizes them for it, but his burden is for the nearly 70% who never cross that stage with diploma in hand. What about them?

The most profound alignment with where I believe we are going institutionally comes from the statement of philosophy that we often hear at institutions of higher education. At freshman convocation, the statement of "look to your left, look to your right; only two of you will make it." Hrabowski goes on to say, "we say, look to your left, look to your right; all of you will succeed, and if you don't, we haven't done our job." This is the institution I want to build, and the philosophy I want to aspire to. Where success is not guaranteed, but what is assured is that the community we build will do everything in our power to support students' journey from orientation to graduation and beyond.

The final part of the chapter states that "as a campus, we are a community, we are inclusive, we are unapologetically aspirational, we aim high and courage our students to do so, we work hard to get there, and we punch above our weight. We aim to be what America wants to be. Why? Because education matters for our students and for America."

I believe that we too can be unapologetically aspirational, and that we can build a community and a culture that accepts nothing less than student success. That we can rewrite the narrative from framing students as challenged and unprepared to seeing them as awaiting their opportunity to show greatness. More often than not, when you give students the tools, community and power to succeed, they will far surpass your expectations for what they can do. It's time to put the tools in front of them and allow them to shock our world, much like they did for 40 minutes this past month!