This is just to let you all know how I feel. I’ve been on the job for less than a week, but I would already like a contract extension!
All of my suspicions have been confirmed—the Bulldogs are postured for greatness. Thanks to some incredible vision and hard work by a superb faculty, staff and student body, MSU has a well-earned reputation for academic excellence, fundamental and applied research and extraordinary service-both on our campus and across the state.
But you’re only as good as the last report card. So, to remain relevant, this week we started down a path that will produce a bottoms-up review-a process that brings all the stakeholders around the same table to assess where we are and where we want to be.
Since everybody on the State Team can make a difference, it’s important to have as many inputs as is logical to enable the State of the Future. This work is too important to rush through, so we’ll be deliberate but act with a sense of urgency. I’m excited! This will be our architecture for achieving a vision to be the most respected land grant school in the Southeast. We’ll work to eliminate urban myth and rely on facts. No good idea will be excluded from the radarscope!
Now, before I forget to say something really important—thanks! What a warm, friendly welcome for “Doc” Foglesong. Whether I’m running across the campus, slipping into a classroom, talking to the women’s tennis team, checking out the library or talking to hundreds of faculty members, and on and on, your hospitality has been incredible.
I owe you my best, and I promise you will get it. As you taxi home for the summer, be safe. We need you back on the team next fall. Thanks for letting me be a part of a system that gives meaning to One STATE—One TEAM.