Opinion: Building toward our highest potential

By Dr. E. Gordon Gee, president, West Virginia University

Last month kicked off the first day of classes and the beginning of West Virginia University’s fall semester. The start of a school year always represents potential. There is a sense of excitement in the air. Optimism is contagious. There are numerous opportunities to make new friends, try different experiences and continue to develop as a person.

Personal growth is key to a well-rounded education. It is not just about learning what is taught in the classroom. It is also about transforming lives and thinking about the world in ways one has not before. Higher education – the college campus – is the stomping grounds for self-discovery. I believe education is about more than pursuing a major. It is about pursuing the path you want to travel for a lifetime. It is about knowing who you are and using your strengths to their fullest potential to reach your highest purpose.

With our land-grant mission driving our purpose every day, West Virginia University takes very seriously the goals of improving education, healthcare and prosperity for all. These three pillars have been our polar stars for the past decade. And I believe all three areas must rise together if our state and its people are to be positioned for brighter futures.

Higher education has faced difficult challenges in the past several years. Loss of enrollment. Financial strains. Lack of trust from the American people. And I believe it is the latter – the lack of trust from our constituents – that has hurt higher education the most.

Recently, Gallup and the Lumina Foundation conducted a poll that shows Americans are equally divided among those who say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%), some confidence (32%) or little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. When Gallup measured public attitudes about higher education in 2015, 57% of respondents had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and 10% had little or none. In 2018, 48% said they had a great deal/quite a lot of confidence, and 16% reported little/none. The decline in confidence is shocking – but not surprising.

In my book, “What’s Public About Public Higher Ed? Halting Higher Education’s Decline in the Court of Public Opinion,” my co-author Steve Gavazzi and I explore the reasons why there is so little trust in higher education. We assert that critical problems have arisen because university leaders often assume that our constituents want the same things the university wants.

Another survey conducted by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation in 2013 reported that 89% of Americans believed that colleges and universities needed to change to better serve the needs of contemporary students, yet not quite half (49%) thought that universities were actually making those changes. That was over 10 years ago – and unfortunately, not much has changed.

I do understand and empathize that change is hard – but it is often necessary. And better understanding what students want and businesses need helps to guide those changes to be relevant and accepted. In a book called “Higher Calling,” authors Thorp and Goldstein cited a Brookings Institution article that reported on the disparity between the percentage of business leaders (11%) who believe current college graduates are adequately prepared for the workforce in comparison to the percentage of chief academic officers (90%) who believe the same thing. That is quite a chasm.

That is why I feel it is so important that West Virginia University be transparent with our campus community and our state regarding the challenges we face and the opportunities we have before us. And that is why we are investing in those areas that will set our students up for success while also providing them the skills they need.

Our robotics major is being well-received by incoming students. We already have a great foundation, and in fact, we have the best-in-the-world student robotics team that makes next-generation Mars rovers, winning competitions and beating out teams from around the world year after year. Students are working beside faculty mentors to conduct first-in-the-world clinical trials and treatments for addiction, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. And our students are learning how to solve global challenges in our sustainability studies program.

Through Project 168, we created an innovative approach to add purpose to the student experience. Ultimately, it allows them to demonstrate to potential employers or graduate programs that how they have applied classroom learning to their real-world experience.

That real-world experience is vital as evidenced during my interactions at this year’s West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Business Summit. West Virginia University was proud to be the lead sponsor. I was encouraged to see so many discussions taking place that demonstrate how education and economic development go hand-in-hand.

Sessions focused on important areas such as cybersecurity, what a National Cancer Institute designation would mean for West Virginians’ health care, innovation in higher education and partnerships like the one that has developed between the WVU College of Applied Human Sciences and Kanawha County Schools to help teachers pursue a master’s degree. And I was grateful for the opportunity to talk about the power of education and purpose which have always been driving forces throughout my life.

A new semester indeed signals new beginnings. And as we all come together to work toward our highest goals of education, healthcare and prosperity, we will indeed reach our fullest potential. And that is my most fervent wish for everyone who loves West Virginia University.

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