Spring 2007 TODAY Column

It’s an inevitable question that’s been asked in recent months, at groundbreakings or while discussing the University’s first year of offering doctoral programs: “Where will we be in twenty years?”

I’d like to offer my answer to that, to share with you my vision of where this university is headed. It’s a vision based not just on hopes and optimism but on tangible achievements—by concrete columns in the air, by partnerships signed and Centers for Excellence established. By teachers challenging themselves to raise their own high standards of teaching and by the institution taking on a new academic identity.

In twenty years we will have more living space for students, a process underway with the construction of the 608-bed Julia A. Sears Residence Hall, another jewel on campus and an attractivelooking home away from home for potential recruits. In twenty years, we will have enhanced laboratory space, an achievement in motion via the construction of a new addition to Trafton Science Center as well as a 16,000-square-foot renovation to the building. (This phase will be complete in 2008. The second phase—a 52,000-square-foot renovation—will be complete in 2010.) In twenty years, I see this campus as a more pedestrian-oriented place to work and study. And as campus beautification efforts continue, as our reputation grows as a site for alternative energy research, it’s only fitting that we emerge as an institution devoted to sustainability in every practice.

In twenty years, we will offer several applied doctoral degrees, another goal already in shape today as we launch in Fall 2007 the first two applied doctoral programs at Minnesota State Mankato—in nursing and education. In two years we’ll be set to offer four. And it is a reasonable goal to increase the number of doctoral programs in the future. In twenty years, I see our enrollment numbers increased significantly, to at least 18,000 students. Those numbers are the backdrop of my vision for this university, and I’m heartened that an enrollment management committee is hard at work with the goal of exploring ways in which we can achieve those numbers at a time when high school numbers are down. It will take energy, imagination and dedication—qualities this university has in abundance.

Toward all of these goals, we’ll need even stronger relations with business and industry, and to that end I have created a position in my cabinet for a Vice President of Strategic Business, Education and Regional Partnerships. I see this position occupied by someone with at least ten years of highlevel corporate experience, perhaps a CEO, to help all of our departments connect with businesses and industry so we can better serve them with applied research, interns and job opportunities.

If I have a general vision for this university, it is one that makes our recent advancements seem like stepping stones toward a greatness we can only imagine, a greatness that seems beyond possibility.

Where we’ll be in twenty years is right here. What we’ll be in twenty years is ahead of our time.