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The Little College that Could: A Fable for our Time
Convocation Address
Dr. Catherine Gira
April 12, 2005
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Once upon a time, in a little mountain village, a group of citizens had
a vision. Some of those citizens were wealthy landowners; some, influential
politicians; some, laborers who each day went into the mines to extract
black gold from the hills. The vision was a simple one: to provide for
their children and their children's children the opportunity to continue
their education beyond a grammar school level. Two documents help to tell
the story of how that vision -- that dream -- became a reality. One is
the bill that created State Normal School #2 in Frostburg, Allegany County,
passed in 1898 after much debate in the hallowed halls of Annapolis. The
State, in its restrained generosity, was willing to build a building if
the community could find the resources to acquire a suitable parcel of
land on which it could be constructed. The second document that tells
the story of the founding of the Normal School is the list of donors who
made contributions to purchase the land. Many of those donors were miners
who, week after week, donated twenty-five cents or fifty cents or even
a dollar from their modest wages. Within a surprisingly short time, hundreds
of donors throughout the community, including the miners, raised the money,
proving that the little village was the little town that could.
Following its opening in September, 1902, the Normal School for decades
produced generations of teachers and principals known throughout the state
for their excellence. But it knew it could do more and be more, and in
1934 the Normal School became Frostburg State Teachers College, with authority
to grant the Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education. It was
a new day, and the future looked bright for the little College on the
hill.
But then came the war years of the 1940's, when many young men found
themselves enrolled in military service, rather than in higher education,
and enrollments plummeted. With that decline came another threat to the
future and the very existence of the College on the hill, far removed
from the corridors of power in the state house and the legislature. In
February of 1947, the Maryland Commission on Higher Education recommended
to the Governor the "abandonment" of Frostburg State Teachers
College. And therewith began another test of the tenacity and resolve
of the community. The role played by then President Lillian Compton in
leading the fight to preserve the College is legendary, and I will not
recount here the names of all those who fought bravely and won the battle
to preserve the institution. Suffice it to say that the kind of courage
and determination manifest in the initial effort to establish the Normal
School surfaced again, generations later, and once again prevailed.
It is not my intention today to review the complete history of Frostburg
State University. What I do want to do is to note some major hallmarks
that have defined and redefined not only the nature of the institution
but also the nature of those who have guided its development. In the 1960's,
following yet another name change to Frostburg State College, the institution
continued to expand its curriculum and to draw students from wider and
wider venues. The name change was in no way a rejection of the rich history
of the institution in teacher preparation, for programs in education continued
to prepare gifted teachers and principals and supervisors for schools
throughout the state. But the new name signaled a new direction: one in
which a broad array of programs in the arts and sciences was offered,
as well as teacher preparation.
Shakespeare posed the question in Romeo and Juliet: "What's
in a name?" Sometimes, as we know, the change of a name can be merely
cosmetic, without any change in substance. When, in the 1980's, many colleges
became universities, as defined by the Carnegie Commission, there was
some skepticism as to whether that was merely a cosmetic change. In 1987,
because of the dauntless efforts of the then president of the College
and a strong cadre of legislative and community leaders, Frostburg State
College was renamed Frostburg State University in recognition of the breadth
of its undergraduate programs and the number and size of its graduate
programs, as defined by the Carnegie Commission. That recognition, in
essence, marked yet another stage in the growth of the little Normal School
that became the little State College that overcame significant obstacles
in its history to become the little College that could.
Now we are, and have been for nearly two decades, Frostburg State University.
As I often remark when I am called upon to speak to various groups around
the state, we are not your grandmother's normal school. What are the implications
of that statement? To what extent are there embedded in our identity vestiges
of the Normal School of over a century ago? Of the former Teachers College?
Of the College of the 1960's, 70's, and early 80's? Indeed, are we the
same institution that first took on the name "University" in
1987?
The historian David Lowenthal has written, "The past remains integral
to us all, individually and collectively. . . not simply back there, in
a separate and foreign country; it is assimilated in ourselves, and resurrected
into an ever-changing present." (The Past is a Foreign Country,
Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. xvi) An ever-changing present. "O,
call back yesterday, bid time return," cried Shakespeare's Richard
II, just before his deposition, as Death drew near his castle wall (III.ii.69).
For us, as for Richard, there is no literal returning to time past. Yet
the threads that create today and tomorrow are woven upon the warp and
woof of yesterday, and change does not require us to abandon what should
be preserved from our past.
Let me identify what I believe are some of the core characteristics that
have defined this institution -- by whatever name --throughout its history.
Relatively small, interactive classes; faculty for whom teaching is both
a profession and a calling; accessible, dedicated staff who go beyond
their job descriptions to help students; a lovely, well-kept campus; a
sense of pride. In our current vision statement, we declare that "At
Frostburg State University, students will always come first." For
literally thousands of alumni who have remained in touch with their alma
mater over the years, this mantra became a reality "resurrected"
decade after decade.
But the needs of our present students -- and of the broader society
for which they are being prepared to become a vital part -- are not the
same as they were in 1902 or 1957 or even in 1987. Accordingly, the mission
of our institution has been expanded to address those needs. We are all
familiar with what has become over the years a negative metaphor for institutions
of higher education: ivory towers disconnected from the world around them
and indifferent to the needs of that world. Everywhere, the towers have
come tumbling down; the drawbridges have been raised; and students are
receiving their education in living laboratories outside traditional campus
settings. If we were not to provide those opportunities, we would be derelict
in our responsibility to prepare them for life and work in our changed
and changing world.
Today, a symbiotic, tri-fold mission is traditionally ascribed to public
institutions such as ours. First and foremost, of course, is the need
to provide academic programs and support services of the very highest
quality, programs that foster our students’ intellectual development,
their curiosity, their ability to think critically, to partake of the
rich reservoir of knowledge available to them from both the present and
the past -- in short, to prepare them for careers, for lifelong learning,
and for life.
A second focus in our mission is community service. As I noted earlier,
at few times in our history has there been more emphasis on the need for
students to experience life outside the halls of academe and to apply
to real life situations the knowledge and skills that they have obtained
in the classroom. Terms like "learn and serve" and "service
learning" have become embedded in our vocabularies, and virtually
thousands of our students each year engage in programs and activities
directed toward those ends. As an institution committed to fostering community
service and providing opportunities for students to learn and serve, Frostburg
State University has become a national model, singled out by the Corporation
for National Service, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities,
and two Governors of the state of Maryland. Just a few weeks ago, I received
the following letter from a man who lives in Philadelphia who had met
some of our students:
"Dr. Gira -- I wanted to drop you a note to let
you know of an encounter I had with some of your students yesterday.
(At this point, I was almost afraid to read on!) My 5 year old daughter
and I were on the way home from work/school and got on our usual bus
to take us across the city. My daughter ran to her usual seat in the
middle of a group of kids who I could tell were visiting the city. To
make a long story short, I wound up offering some directions and found
out that the kids (boy did I feel old at the tender age of 39) were
from your university and were spending spring break doing some kind
of mission work and seeing the sights. I thought you should know what
a positive impression they left me with -- the kids were friendly, polite
and way more mature than I remember being at that age. I've been telling
my daughter that, when she wears her uniform to school, she should always
remember she's representing all of her students and teachers and the
impression she leaves people with may be their only impression of her
school. Your students I encountered did you proud. I hope they have
a great time in the city I love to call my home.”
I cannot begin to count the number of letters I have
received, recounting similar stories of the contributions our students
have made to communities in our area and elsewhere, many of them fostered
by our dedicated community service and volunteerism staff. In other instances,
students perform spontaneous acts of kindness to others in need. Whether
our students are tutoring young children or illiterate adults, tending
to wounded birds in an aviary, clearing paths through natural woodlands,
or building homes for needy individuals, they are applying the cognitive
and interpersonal skills that are the hallmarks of truly educated individuals.
Thus far, I have discussed community service in terms of the need to prepare
our students to become concerned, engaged citizens. On an institutional
level, we also bring to thousands of residents in our region each year
a rich array of cultural and educational programs of unmatched quality.
When the Performing Arts Center opened a little over a decade ago, Dr.
Philip Allen, then Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, predicted
that the Center would become a "central link in a network of performing
energy from mountain to valley, from the lake at Rocky Gap to Deep Creek
Lake ... a place of revelation, of encounter" that would welcome
"city and county, children and adults, minority and mainstream."
Like those visionaries who first united to bring Normal School #2 to Frostburg,
the visionaries who brought the Performing Arts Center into being and
those whose talents have made it the kind of vital place it is today were
and are dreamers who continue to enrich the lives of our campus community
and our neighbors..
The third prong of our mission as a public institution, particularly one
situated in a rural area, is to foster economic development. Now, to an
academic purist this might sound like an excursion far removed from the
core purpose of educating students. Let me try to illustrate why that
is not the case. It goes without saying that Frostburg State University
is a major asset for the City of Frostburg, for Allegany County, and for
western Maryland. We are a major employer; our students, parents, alumni,
and guests infuse the economy of the region far beyond that of any other
single institution; and our resources, in terms of both human talents
and physical facilities, are extraordinary. It is also true that, when
we thrive the area thrives and when we undergo severe fiscal restraints
the area suffers. But the mission to foster economic development reaches
far beyond simply budgets and fiscal health. For at least a decade the
University has been working very closely with business and community leaders
and appointed and elected officials from our region and elsewhere in the
state to form partnerships that will help the economy and also support
the educational mission of our institution. Much of what has been going
on has developed quietly behind the scenes. Some of it was dependent upon
securing the kind of facilities and faculty expertise that would enable
us to do more. Now, just within the past six months or so, those efforts
have begun to bear fruit. The opening of the renovated Gunter Hall in
the fall of 2002 and the opening of the Compton Science Center in the
fall of 2003 not only provided for our students in the sciences and engineering
state-of-the-art venues for learning under the tutelage of excellent faculty.
They also provided resources that could be shared with the business community
to the mutual benefit of students, faculty, and companies or agencies
with which we might develop partnerships.
A little over a year ago, representatives of the state Department of Business
and Economic Development (hereafter referred to as DBED) visited our campus.
During that visit, they recommended that we sponsor an event that would
showcase our science and technology facilities and the talents of our
faculty. Accordingly, in cooperation with the local business community,
particularly the Greater Cumberland Committee, DBED, and the Allegany
County office of Economic Development, we held such an event here in October.
Meanwhile, through the tireless efforts of the chair of the Geography
department we developed an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey that
would provide the agency space in Tawes Hall that was otherwise unusable
for instructional purposes. As a result of the showcase, a start-up bioscience
company moved into Tawes Hall in the fall, and just two weeks ago we signed
a lease with a GIS company located in Sterling, Virginia -- a subsidiary
of an international company headquartered in India -- that has established
a satellite operation here. They have already moved in and will have a
ribbon-cutting and open house in Tawes Hall on May 6. We are presently
in negotiation with two other companies that may well move into the remaining
unoccupied space in Tawes by the end of the summer. Meanwhile, we are
working with potential developers who could construct a new facility for
these and/or other companies on our designated business and technology
park by the time Tawes Hall is razed in the summer of 2009. These agreements
provide a revenue stream that will permit us to continually replace and
upgrade our equipment as needed, but they do much more. Internship opportunities
are provided for our students; in some cases employment opportunities
are available for our graduates; and our faculty have the opportunity
to engage collaboratively in professional colloquia and research projects.
Just as community service opportunities are the living laboratories for
our students to learn and serve, so do these partnerships in economic
development provide opportunities for students to apply what they have
learned in the classroom to "real world" professional activities.
I do not mean to give short shrift to the first component of our mission,
to our responsibility to provide academic programs of high quality. I
would like to share just a few thoughts about some significant changes
occurring nationwide in that regard. Among governing boards and other
policy makers, there is a general desire, and sometimes a mandate, for
institutions of higher education to identify programs and activities that
differentiate them from other institutions, on the reasonable ground that
none can equally be all things to all people. When the University System
of Maryland was formed in 1988, Frostburg State University had ascribed
to it by the Maryland Higher Education Commission four areas of programmatic
emphasis: education, business, the creative and performing arts, and environmental
sciences. I believe that the University has made significant strides in
each of the programmatic areas initially emphasized in its mission. Programs
in education, now, as has been the case for over one hundred years, continue
to enjoy the reputation throughout the state of producing excellent teachers,
and national accrediting bodies have lauded the College for its programs.
The College of Business is on the threshold of joining a cadre of elite
programs accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of
Business, and it is beginning to hone its emphasis on entrepreneurship
as a defining strength. Individual faculty within the creative and performing
arts have achieved national and international acclaim for their artistic
works, musical performance, and creative writing. And the faculty in the
sciences not only have played a major role in forging our economic development
partnerships with other entities; they include individual faculty recognized
internationally for their research. And within other areas -- the humanities,
the social and behavioral sciences, human services -- reside other outstanding
faculty and programs justifiably identified as stars in our galaxy of
stars.
In encouraging institutions to identify programs that are unique -- or,
at least, that differentiate them from other institutions -- policy makers
often refer to "Centers of Excellence." By definition, according
to Board of Regents policy, a recognized "Center" is characteristically
interdisciplinary, bringing together faculty whose energies and talents
combine to create programs that, in terms of both scope and quality, could
not be achieved within a single discipline. The challenge for comprehensive
institutions like Frostburg in the years ahead, I believe, will be to
sustain quality in all of its programs at the same time that it attempts
to define its uniqueness. As I noted earlier, some of that uniqueness
resides in our location and in our beautiful and beautifully maintained
campus. But much of it will reside in specific academic programs differentiated
from those offered elsewhere, identified as Centers of Excellence. The
responsibility for developing and supporting such programs will obviously
rest with the faculty and academic administrators, but the imperative
to do so is likely to come from external bodies, including not only our
own Board of Regents, but also accrediting bodies and governmental agencies.
None of this should be seen as a threat, I believe, but rather as an opportunity
for Frostburg State University to be able to answer clearly why any student
should choose to study here, rather than elsewhere. We have been relatively
effective in doing that in the past, but the future is now, and, as David
Lowenthal has noted, the past must constantly be "assimilated"
and "resurrected into an ever-changing present." (Ibid.)
I believe that we are at an optimum juncture in our history here at Frostburg
State University to undertake the challenges of which I have spoken. The
year ahead will be an important one for taking stock through our comprehensive
self-study of where we have been over the past ten years since the last
evaluation visit by a team from the Middle States Commission on Higher
Education. The findings of the self-study and the recommendations of the
visiting team next spring should provide a valuable blueprint for moving
ahead. The implementation of the new undergraduate education curriculum
and the examination of the graduate curriculum hold the promise of improving
the quality and even the uniqueness of our programs. Collaboration with
social service agencies, with the business and professional community,
and with government agencies interested in supporting our work can continue
to strengthen community service and economic development activities. In
short, it will be a year of excitement and a year of change.
I would like to announce formally today that it will also be a year of
transition. As many of you may already know, I am planning to retire from
the presidency effective June 30, 2006. Two years ago, I discussed with
Chancellor Kirwan my intention to retire within the following year or
so. Because we are in the midst of our institutional self study for reaccreditation,
we agreed that I should stay on to see that effort through to its conclusion
so that my successor could take under advisement the results of the process,
rather than to be thrust unprepared into the middle of it. Our staff liaison
with the Middle States Commission agreed, and thus the date was agreed
upon.
Let me assure you that the coming year will not be a lame-duck year for
your president. I will continue to work assiduously to cement the University
System's commitment to the expansion of the Lane Center and the state's
commitment to replace Tawes Hall with a $40+ million Center for Communications
and Instructional Technology; I will help to launch the new capital campaign
being initiated by the Board of Regents that will target between $10 million
and $15 million for Frostburg State to raise over the next seven years;
I will continue to serve as the only System president on the Regents'
powerful E&E task group; I will advocate vigorously with the Regents
and the Chancellor for the Governor and the legislature to increase support
for our System and our institution. (Let me add that this has been a very
good General Assembly session for higher education. Our budgets have been
increased, with no cuts by the legislature; all the bills we favored passed
and those we opposed failed. The Chancellor and his staff, along with
the Regents, are to be commended for their leadership.) Finally, I will
continue to collaborate with community leaders on behalf of the region;
and I will sing the praises of Frostburg State University wherever two
or more are gathered anywhere in my presence.
The past fourteen years have been years of change, and, I hope you will
agree, of progress. Our campus facilities have grown; academic programs
have expanded in breadth and quality; the respect accorded our institution
by state policy makers at the executive and legislative levels has increased;
the assets in our Foundation and in the Common Trust have grown from a
little over $1 million to more than $13 million; our student population
is larger and more diverse; our faculty is comprised of excellent teacher-scholars;
and our role as a vital partner in community service and economic development
has never been stronger. I know that, over the years, some of you have
not necessarily agreed with some of our decisions, but I hope that you
will join with me in celebrating the positive results of our efforts,
even as we all recognize that the future under my successor will provide
opportunities for fresh ideas, new perspectives, new energy, and new direction.
Whoever that might be, he or she will surely soon recognize that Frostburg
State University is, in the final analysis, the little University that
can. I look forward to sharing yet another year with you on its behalf.
CRG/mg
4/11/05
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