Brownell's Speech

Congratulations to all the graduates on the completion of one stage of your life and work, and on the commencing of another. This is always an exciting time, but it is more so for me today since I am, in a sense, graduating and commencing too. This is the last time I will address a Ball State commencement as your president. That being the case, I wish I could impart to you the Meaning of Life, or something equally profound. But I don't know the meaning of life (and I suspect that life would be less interesting if we did know). So I will only attempt to leave you with a few thoughts, mostly relating to higher education.

As we all say, "there's a big world out there." This is wrong. The world is not "out there." Not any more. The world is here in Indiana and Muncie and Delaware County. We can ignore it, or try and keep it at arm's length, or pretend that we can be sheltered while we prepare for itbut it is here now, all around us. But we're not really ready for it.

This is not a unique challenge for Hoosiers. The dean of architecture at the University of Hong Kong once told me how eager he is to overcome the provinciality of his students, some of whom never even took the Star Ferry over from Kowloon until they enrolled in the university. Anyone who has ever experienced the swirl of life and commerce in this cosmopolitan city and cultural crossroads will find it hard to believe that provincialism can exist there. But, it can. Wherever we are, we must work to overcome our natural provincial instincts, based on an outmoded notion that our world is delimited by concentric circles centered on home, and the further away the circles are the less relevant they become. I think September 11, among other things, but a big dent in this notion, not only here in the U.S. but throughout the world.

No one is born a cosmopolitanexcept perhaps my granddaughter Eloisa. Cosmopolitanism is gained by education and experience and is, more than anything, an outlook on life. New students at Ball State are rarely cosmopolitan, but they can be and they will be if the university prepares them as it should for life and work in a global milieu. But for the university to do its job, faculty and staffand even administratorsneed to be comfortable in an international environment and constantly learning about other cultures and ways of doing things. You can't teach and direct what you don't know. I hope that one of my legacies at Ball State will be a renewed emphasis on the importance of global competence and perspective. Because this university can succeed in making this perspective a part of its academic core and daily life, in complete harmony with its strong campus focus.

As Frank Rhodes, the former president of Cornell University, put it in his book about higher education in the 21st century, The Creation of the Future, "The successful university will be campus rooted but internationally oriented."

You have heard that education is a life-long process. It is, and thankfully so. One of the compelling aspects of my new joboverseeing quality assurance for academic projects of Universitas 21, a consortium of 17 major research universities in 10 countriesis that I will learn more on a daily basis than at perhaps any time since my own college years. I have already visited with the leaders of U21 Global, the new on-line university in Singapore, and I am awed by the power of modern technology to bring the benefits of higher education to students throughout Asiaand indeed the worldwho could not benefit from it otherwise.

If preparing future citizens for success in a knowledge-based society and economy is important in the United States, it is just as important to us that this happen elsewhere in the world. Creating learning and professional communities that cut across national and cultural boundaries is also critical to success in this century. To have a role in extending such opportunities to potentially hundreds of thousands of students is both daunting and exciting, and I am looking forward to it.

Education comes in many formsformal and informal. Ball State has chosen to concentrate on one of the most successful and rewarding approaches: high quality, full-time, residential undergraduate study shaped by dedicated faculty members and supported as an institutional priority. It doesn't mean that we can't do other things (which we will do), but that we have identified what we will try to do as well or better than anyone else. Over time, I am convinced that technology will also permit us to increasingly offer this degree of attention and quality over the internet.

Whatever their size or character, universities are unique organizations. They are special communities and not merely large agencies or non-profits. They are both incredibly strong, having evolved in much the same form over 500 years, and very fragile, relying on essential levels of trust and momentum and a sense of direction to succeed. Those who lead universities successfully must either know universities well, or be entirely aware of what they don't know. The temptation to treat universities like any other big business or institution is fueled in part by our increasing tendency to see education as a commodity, a "thing" to be acquired as a way of achieving employment and status. But knowledge is never really a "product" and knowing is always a process.

Universities are among the few institutions we have that are centered on knowledge and its pursuit in the context of broad public responsibility and accountability. As such, they have never been more important. But their ability to contribute depends on their continued existence as vibrant communities guided by shared governance.

The public university is not owned by the President or the faculty or the Board of Trustees. It belongs and is accountable to the people and especially those who are participating members of its community, whether faculty, staff, students, administration, or alumni. To all of you I simply offer a reminder that it is your university as much as anyone else's, and that its future depends on your active interest and participation.

As Frank Rhodes also wrote, "The successful university will maintain institutional autonomy, lively faculty independence and vigorous academic freedom, but will enjoy strong, impartial public governance and decisive, engaged presidential leadership."

One of my favorite deans at another university once gave me an unusual cap to illustrate a point about leadership, especially in an academic community. This cap has been close at hand in a drawer in my office, but I haven't brought it out until now. In vivid Ball State colors, it says on the front: "I am their leader. Which way did they go?" And its most salient feature is that it has not one, but two billspointed in different directions.

When you head a creative and energetic organization, following the lead of your people is actually not a bad way to approach things. But "decisive" leadership cannot depend on taking a poll or trying to do whatever the majority wants to do. And going off in different directions will not suffice either. But ignoring the culture and opinions in the university, pursuing an individual rather than a shared vision, and driving forward without appropriate consultation is a recipe for ultimate failure. The whole enterprise depends on the glue of trust, mutual respect, accountability, and shared commitment, without which a university will drift and falter.

I have tried here to follow a standard of leadership eloquently stated by the recently retired U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General Eric K. Shinseki: "You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader. You can certainly command without that sense of commitment, but you cannot lead without it. And without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance."

And a last word. Maybe it is all about vision. Certainly having a long view, even over the horizon, is important in tracing the path for today. But vision disconnected from reality, or imposed by fiat, or narrowly self-serving, or detached from an institution's culture, is useless or damaging. Since a vision is a direct comment on an institution and its long-term potential, our vision for this university must be set at the highest possible standard.

The relatively brief experience that my wife, Mardi, and I have had at Ball State has entirely convinced us of the remarkable promise of this university and its capacity to change for the better and to evolve to the next level and the levels beyond. Virtually all the pieces are in place, andat least for nowthey are all working together to achieve the vision we have formally declared for ourselves in the Strategic Plan: "Ball State University will be a national model for all who seek intellectual vitality in a learner-centered and socially responsible academic community."

As I depart, with my cap pointed toward the future, more or less in one direction, I ask you to promise me one thing: you will never have anything but the highest level of aspiration and expectation for what Ball State University can be and can accomplish. This university deserves our best performance and our highest hopes.