During our Town Hall Meeting on Oct. 7 in the Joe Crowley Student Union, Provost Marc Johnson and I spoke about the University’s strategic plan. One of the themes of the plan concerns a renewed focus on entrepreneurship, across-discipline partnership and innovation. We realize that once the state recovers from double-digit unemployment and a recession that has hit all sectors of our economy with unprecedented force, things will never quite be the same again. As I noted in my remarks on Oct. 7, we can no longer count on the state to create the type of university that we wish to be. This task is up to us. More than ever before, if we are to realize our full potential as an institution, we must increasingly rely on the creation of new partnerships, both public and private, and we must determine the best ways to innovate and foster a more entrepreneurial culture on our campus.

We are also committed to improving education - all education, and not just higher education - in our state. One of the key points in Provost Johnson’s presentation on our strategic plan was “Prepare Nevada youth to participate in the world economy.” To that end, we feel that it is imperative that we prepare teachers who will serve as our educational partners in the elementary, middle and high schools of our state. This new wave of enterprising, innovative educators will not only help raise the achievement and help pave the road of success for their students; they will also help raise the aspirations of their schools and various school districts throughout our state.  It is vitally important that we dream big in this regard. Why? A recent New York Times column by the best-selling author, Thomas Friedman (”The World Is Flat”) tells us why.

Friedman argues that educational failure in our country has been the largest contributing factor to the decline of the American workers’ competitiveness, which has only helped to worsen an already ailing economy. To combat this competitive erosion, Friedman says the nation must focus on “the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work.” In essence, he says that it isn’t enough to simply show up to work each day. In challenging times, we must challenge ourselves to be exceptional, or in Friedman’s words, “untouchable.” He writes: “Those with imagination to make themselves untouchables - to invent smarter ways to do odd jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies - will thrive. Therefore, we not only need a higher percentage of our kids graduating from high school and college - more education - but we need more of them with the right education.”  

For those of you who have heard me speak in the past, you know that I have a few lines that I use often. One is the idea that “Nevada needs more education, not less.” I would like to amend that statement slightly. Today, more than ever, Nevada not only needs more education, it needs the right education … and we at the university have it within our power to provide it.

To read Thomas Friedman’s column, go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21friedman.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss