Taking Stock: State of the University 1999-2004, Office of the President, University of Maryland

1999-2004: How far have we come?

In my remarks today I want to talk about the transformation of the University over the last five years and about what the next five years portend for us.

In my inaugural address in April of 1999, I laid out three themes for my presidency. They were:

i. build a culture of excellence across the campus,
ii. enhance the educational experience for all our students, and
iii. build the greater Maryland Family.

Then in my 1999 Senate address, I proposed specific, and rather aggressive, achievement goals under each theme that we were going to reach by 2004. That is, by now. I recall Bill Walters, Senate Chair at the time, was surprised by my specificity. But I needed to say where we were going if I expected anybody else to want to go there too. Along the way both good and bad things happen unexpectedly, like the dot.com collapse. But many good things popped up too and we hitched on to them.

So how did we do over the last five years and what does it mean? The short answer is ... we did very well ... and it means a lot! Should I sit down now? No. Of course, you deserve a more complete discussion. First let me say, I remain very happy with the three themes. They turned out to be as right for us then as they are today.

The first theme, building a culture of excellence, is the most critical, and risky, of the three, because building the culture of excellence across the campus calls for: self-examination, self-evaluation and self-determination.

· Self-examination asks each of us, "Who are we? What is our mission?"

· Self-evaluation asks us: "How good are we?"

· Self-determination is the critical question: "How good are we committed to become?"

These are heady questions for us as individuals and as a community.

It is so much easier being good than becoming excellent, and even being very good tolerates many flaws. Greatness does not. Becoming a great institution requires an unrelenting, unforgiving and unapologetic commitment to achieving a standard of the highest quality in everything we undertake. That standard is the fulcrum underpinning excellence. When you want it and have it, it's a thing of beauty. When you don't have it, it's the reality of frustration.

So you can see that building a culture of excellence is a "really big deal." It's not hyperbole by the president and it's not about apologies and excuses. It's about demonstrable results. And it does not happen overnight. But you have to get on the right road, if you expect to arrive at the right place.

>>Marking the road to excellence

Office of the President, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742