Inaugural Address—Sept. 8, 1995
Delivered by David C. Hardesty Jr.
President, West Virginia University
On the Importance of West Virginia University
This past fourth of July I represented West Virginia University in a parade in Morgantown. As Susan and I stepped from the vehicle to take our position on the speakers’ platform, I was greeted by an elderly gentleman, who said to me: ?Mr. President, I wanted to meet you. You see, I didn’t go to college myself, but I sent all eight of my children to WVU.?
As Basil Callen’s eyes filled with pride in the accomplishments of his family, my heart filled with emotion. In his eyes I saw the eyes of my parents. At that moment I was again reminded of both the extraordinary importance of the institution I had been chosen to lead and the challenges this position presents to those that are privileged to be its president.
Thirty-two years ago this month I arrived in Morgantown, the son of loving parents, the product of our public school system, and one who had been nurtured by the people of Shinnston, a beautiful small town located on the West Fork River just 40 miles from where we gather today. I left four years later, prepared to meet the rigors of Oxford and Harvard universities, and the workplace beyond. My mind had been opened to the world of ideas by the distinguished faculty of this institution. I was transformed by this institution and by the thousands of taxpayers and volunteers who supported it while I was here.
It is, therefore, with a deep sense of gratitude and humility that I stand before you today as this university’s twenty-first president. Mere words seem inadequate to express my thanks to those who taught and mentored me while I was a student here and those who have made it possible for me to assume the mantel of leadership today.
My wife, Susan, was one of my classmates here, and I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to her and to my children Ashley and Carter. Susan and I have made our journey through life together and we will serve our University together. Our children will share in our joys during my service here. They will also share in our trials and tribulations. Their steadfast love supports me and enables me, and I want them to share in this inaugural moment with me.
This university makes a true difference for the better in the lives of those who spend time on its campuses. And as I stand before you today I am reminded of the words of our friend Dr. Maurice Brooks, set forth so eloquently in his book on our region, called The Appalachians.
He wrote, ?In some manner, a mountain country places its mark on those who dwell within its shadows. Scots carry with them a Highland pride of birth and place, even though they may wander thousands of miles from heather-covered moors. Natives of Switzerland see the Alps, although those peaks are far below the horizon. And thus it is with those nurtured in Appalachia—they leave, but they look back, remembering pleasant things. The land has claimed them, and its ties will not be severed.?
So it is with our mountains. And, so it is with our University. It has claimed us. Our ties are strong?they will not be severed?and they beckon all of us to serve it when we are called.
One of our most illustrious graduates, Jerry West, recently said, with simplicity and humility, that as he looks back on his life, he realizes that almost all of his personal dreams have come true. He went on to say that the roots of his good fortune were firmly planted at West Virginia University.
What is notable about his remarks is that they are representative of testimonials that can be given by leaders in almost every walk of life in our society. Our 120,000 living alumni know that dreams come true at, and because of, WVU.
On the Mission of Land-Grant Universities
But our alumni are not alone in their realization. The citizens of our state and region are touched daily by our service and research. This is the true greatness of the comprehensive university. This is the historical significance of land-grant universities.
Since 1867 West Virginia University has served society, especially West Virginia and the region of which it is a part. It has always had the same mission: teaching, research and service. The manner in which it has met its mission, however, has in large measure been determined in the context of events influencing it at various times in its history.
Our generation of leadership at West Virginia University is challenged today, just as prior generations of leadership have been challenged. We will succeed in moving the university forward in our time, just as prior generations have in theirs. We will succeed for three reasons.
On the Teaching Mission of West Virginia University
First, we always have and we still do care deeply about students, teaching and learning on our campuses. We want our students to have rich and rewarding experiences while they are with us. We want them to learn about the world of ideas and how to think, to communicate, to respect others who are different from them, to participate in the international community, to lead, to serve, to address ethical problems, and to accept civic responsibility.
And, we want our students to have bold dreams and to believe that they too can make a difference. We believe we will prepare them to do just that.
There are roughly 22,000 students at all of the campuses of WVU. We care about each and every one of them. We care about what they learn and how they learn it. We care about the quality of their experience while they are with us. We care about their ability to learn continuously throughout their entire lifetimes. This is the message Presidents Paul Miller and Harry Heflin put forth while I was a student here. This is my message as well. Students are the primary reason West Virginia University exists.
We will support this caring attitude toward our students by providing them with the best faculty available to us, and by supporting that faculty with the libraries, laboratories, and other resources necessary to provide students with an education that enables them to compete in a technologically advanced, global economy.
We will also express our caring attitude toward students by enriching the learning environment inside and outside our classrooms. We will aspire to offer exceptional student living experiences. And in everything that we do, we will foster student success. As Cicero said so succinctly, there is no greater gift that we can give the Republic than the education of its people.
On Service by West Virginia University
Our second message is that we will vigorously serve our state, our region, our nation, and our global community. We care about those we are charged to serve. As a land- grant institution and as a comprehensive research university, we are supported by the people of our state and nation. They expect us to serve and we will meet their expectations.
We will provide exceptional rural health care, we will foster community development, we will look for ways to assist our public system of education, we will address the quality of life of those around us, we will continue the education of professionals, we will provide useful and practical knowledge to the people of West Virginia through our extension service, we will foster new industries and revitalize older ones in order to provide meaningful work for future generations, we will assist our governments and we will help those whose circumstances require helping hands.
We will, every day, make service a priority and by so doing, we will earn the respect of those we serve. We will enter into partnerships with those we serve to help make their dreams come true.
On Research at West Virginia University
Finally, we will extend the frontiers of knowledge. Our research will be meaningful, competitive, useful, and relevant. Our more than twenty centers and institutes that now return over $10 to our campuses for every $1 provided by our state, will continue to work to expand our understanding of our environment, our natural resources, our bodies, our minds, and worlds both past and future.
Our professorate and their departments will look for ways to teach better, to use technology better, to live better, to serve better. Forty percent of our research is engaged in finding cures for disease and health problems. Much is devoted to our natural resources. Some is applied. Some is basic to our understanding of human and natural processes and we know not where it will lead. But it is all important.
We will, therefore, remain a comprehensive research university. We will do so because it is important to our teaching and service missions, because it is important to our state and nation, and because it is important to future generations.
On the Relationship of Teaching, Research, and Service at West Virginia University
We urge the citizens of our state and nation to ponder with great care the interrelated nature of the teaching, research and service elements of the mission of universities like ours.
My father-in-law, Clifford Brown, taught at WVU for thirty years. He held many university positions, including chair and assistant dean, but his first love was teaching. He was a mentor and teacher of the first rank. He loved nothing more than to witness the successes of his students.
One such student was a young man from nearby Pennsylvania who came here in the late 1950’s. In Phil Faini (currently Dean of Creative Arts on this campus) he saw great promise. He nurtured Phil and worked hard to help him achieve success. Phil was to later say that he considered Professor Brown the ?grandfather? of his students.
Dean Faini, picking up the torch, became interested in expanding our knowledge of percussion, especially the instruments and rhythms of East Africa. His research, now widely recognized as seminal in the world of percussion artists, eventually infused our campus with beats and sounds rarely heard on this continent before. Our bands, groups and ensembles became well known for their excellence in percussion.
Phil Faini has himself mentored dozens of young artists and teachers. One, David Satterfield, became interested in service and extending the College of Creative Arts into our state. One of his projects involved sharing the exciting rhythms of the Pride of West Virginia Drum Line with the high schools of West Virginia.
During one of David Satterfield’s outreach visits, a young man from Ripley watched from the sideline while his high school band was instructed. He had decided against college. His future was uncertain. As he watched the WVU band that day and talked with Mr. Satterfield, he was inspired to dream again about what could lie ahead. He decided, then and there, to enroll at WVU and to become a part of the ?Pride of West Virginia.?
Robert Dehart decided to succeed. He completed his bachelor?s degree in history, and this fall when Mr. Dehart is awarded his masters degree in secondary education, he will be the product of three generations of teaching, research, and service at our University.
Thus, today I reaffirm, without reservation the three-part mission of this great land-grant, comprehensive university.
I am confident in its future because I know those it serves care about it as much as those who comprise it care about those they serve.
On Campus Values that Foster Leadership at West Virginia University
As we move forward into the next millennium, exceptional leadership, across our University will be essential. How is it to be fostered? To lead effectively, it seems to me that all of us must execute our mission, and demonstrate our caring attitude, by exhibiting behavior which demonstrates our commitment to a clear set of values. They must be shared by those who comprise our university. The complexity of our times and the scope and breadth of activity at each of our campuses make it impossible for University administrators, including the president, to make every decision.
Leadership is not accomplished by unilateral action or micro-management. It is not accomplished by detailed proscription or prescription. None of us can solve every problem or address every issue that is raised within the University. What we can do when we have the opportunity, however, is to help establish values by which others may lead, select people with leadership potential and hold those selected accountable to those values. I suggest, therefore, that the following values guide our actions in leading the University into the twenty first century.
On Excellence
First, we must foster excellence and continuous improvement at our University. We are, of course, very proud of the achievements of our faculty, staff and students. And we are pleased to note the extraordinary contributions to society and this institution of our graduates, friends and contributors. But excellence is a journey, not a destination. We must never be comfortable with our achievements.
Improvement is a never-ending process. We must foster a culture that keeps asking questions, challenges how and what we do, and creates bold new approaches.
And, we must foster an atmosphere in which quality is rewarded and all of our employees feel empowered to affect positive change. We cannot afford to let any worthwhile idea go unstated or unused. We must continuously improve, inside and outside the classroom.
To achieve true quality it seems to me that we must attract to this institution the strongest faculty, the best students, and the most competent administrators and staff that we can. The best will also be people who care about West Virginia, its people and its flagship University.
In the years to come, our excellence will come from our focus. Our focus will come from our obligation to preserve and transmit knowledge, and it will come from society’s needs as we find them.
On Stewardship
Second, we will exhibit stewardship. The men and women who lead our University bear a special responsibility for assuring that it moves forward, constantly. We are stewards and guardians of this wonderful place.
Our responsibility for stewardship is particularly apparent when one reflects upon the achievements of those who have gone before us. From our first President, Alexander Martin, a Methodist minister from Scotland, to our twentieth President, Neil Bucklew, each of our Presidents has left his mark upon the institution.
So it is with those who have taught since 1867 in the halls among which we sit, and so it is with those who have supported them. WVU is great today because of the contributions of countless persons, some well known and some unheralded.
Our stewardship will take the form of sound administration, prudent budgeting, effective planning, collaboration within our institution and with other institutions, holding ourselves accountable, efforts to preserve our culture and traditions, and efforts to assure that we offer value to those who pay our tuition and fees. Good stewardship both inspires generosity in support of our efforts and honors our obligations to those who have preceded us and the generations to come.
On Our Campus Community
Third, we will foster a close University community. At a commencement address here in 1963, Dr. Henry Steele Commanger said that ?It is a primary duty of the University to instill in all of its members … a sense of membership in and responsibility to the larger community… .?
I agree completely, knowing full well that the effort to foster community will require much more effort today than it did some three decades ago.
Building a sense of community today involves more than acquainting each member of our community with the backgrounds and aspirations of the others. It involves developing a sense of trust among members of our community, and developing trust between those on our campuses and those served by them.
Like building excellence, building a sense of community is not a one-time task, but a continuing challenge, rooted deeply in our mission and values. Mindful of the similarities and differences of those represented in the community, we must – each of us – accept responsibility to and for our community. We must encourage freedom of expression in dealing with difficult issues in ways that bridge our differences. We must continue to find ways to increase tolerance, and foster collective aspirations and pride.
Our community must involve shared goals, freedom of thought and expression, justice for each member, self discipline, a caring attitude, and a celebration of the heritage of this institution. As we go forward, let us all resolve to act with integrity in all that we do, and to create the trust upon which a true community can be built. Dreams come true when members of a community resolve to help each other achieve them.
On Innovation
Next, we will foster innovation. Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, has said:
More and more, the United States will have to live by its wits, prospering or declining according to the capacity of its people to develop new ideas, to work with sophisticated technology, to create new products and imaginative ways of solving problems. Of all our national assets, a trained intelligence and a capacity for innovation and discovery seem destined to be most important.
If this is true of our country, it is also most assuredly true of our University. True, we are part of a tradition that is a thousand years old. My room at Oxford was built in 1344. Exploring ideas is not new to our planet. But, we must find new ways to do our ageless tasks.
We must innovate in the class room, in the laboratory, in the library, in the office, in the dormitory, and everywhere else. We must embrace technology and use it not only to educate ourselves and our students, but also to serve.
We may need to ask others to free us to innovate and find new means of accountability. We may need to invest at times when investment dollars are hard to come by. We may need to reeducate ourselves and others. We may need to adopt new administrative methods.
But innovate we must. We must model innovation and creativity for our state and region. Our future and the future of those we serve depends on our willingness to be bold, or as some say, to go “outside the traditional box” to find solutions.
On Communications
Finally, our individual and collective dreams will best be realized if we talk to one another effectively. All that I have mentioned today?teaching, research, service, excellence, stewardship, community and innovation?can best be fostered and achieved if we communicate our ideas to one another effectively.
We must reach out to one another, to those we serve outside the University community, and to the society beyond.
Last month I told our new students that I believe there is clearly a limit as to how far they will progress in the work place if they do not learn to communicate their ideas to others. The same is true of our University. It must be a place where communications are effective and complete. Our progress depends upon it. Our challenges require it.
In short, we must each do our part to lead the University. We must offer our students an exceptional learning experience, inside and outside the classroom. We must reach out to our state and nation with vigorous service. We must press forward into the frontiers of knowledge. And in all that we do, we must foster excellence, stewardship, community, innovation, and good communication. We are all called to lead. We are all called to serve. We must all accept the call.
The University as a Place Where Dreams are Realized
I would like to close my remarks by reminding us all what a wonderful University this is. It is truly the crowning achievement of the people of West Virginia. It binds us together as a state; it fosters progress; it paves the pathways to the future. But most of all, it opens minds to the world of ideas, and in doing so, it opens the way for dreams to come true. Is it any wonder, then, that one university president said that a university campus is hallowed ground? Is it any wonder, then, that “our hearts with rapture thrill” as we contemplate the magnificence of our University?
Ruel Foster, one of our most beloved emeriti professors, who came to Morgantown in 1941 and is still here today, in writing about our campus in Morgantown, said, ?...Look on these buildings, these paths, these students, and in imagination tread again the heel-gnawed steps, the myriad walks, and see again the faces that once were with you in this place. ...May we not say that the university…is, in a manner of speaking, the collective dream of all the past and present generations of students?students who in their…tenure have left pieces and patches of their lives on this…campus.
As you leave today, and every time you walk across our campuses, look into the eyes of the students you encounter, and just imagine. Will you see a future faculty member who is more than anything else dedicated to teaching future generations of our students? Will you see a future public servant who may change the course of history? Will you see a young man or woman who will by his or her research relieve others of misery? Will you see our next major athlete, or a social activist who will bring justice to our society?
See if you can find the budding novelist who will achieve national recognition. See if you can find the next Fortune 100 CEO. See if you can find the next president of a university. Just as important, see if you can find a successful parent, friend, neighbor. Look hard. They are all here, in the form of dreams yet to be realized.
I accept the mantel of leadership of my alma mater, and as I do so, I ask you to join with me in helping to make dreams come true at West Virginia University!