Courage to Change

In my final blog as chancellor, I hope you’ll indulge a little reflection on my time with the State System. When I arrived here four years ago, a member of the General Assembly jokingly asked if I saw the billboard as I drove into the state that said, “Welcome to Pennsylvania. We don’t change anything.” We laughed at the time, but I have since come to realize it really wasn’t a joke.

In this remarkable place that my family and I have called home—this place that catalyzed American democracy; this place that values education; this place I have grown to love—we are in danger of losing the very thing we cherish if we’re not careful.

The State System represents the best hope for affordable, accessible, quality education for our sons and daughters, but we must be willing to change in order to ensure its existence for the next generation, and the generations after that.

Over the past four years, we’ve sounded the alarm regarding the challenges facing our 14 universities—from fluctuating enrollment, to lagging state funding, to skyrocketing operational costs. We’ve also undertaken a hard look at our State System—top to bottom—including a thorough external review to provide us even more insights.

And that is what we received.

In July, the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) presented its recommendations as part of our Strategic System Review. NCHEMS was clear that the report is not a commentary on the people in place today; rather, it’s an estimation of how decades of inertia and aversion to change have hindered the ability of people to do their jobs. Things have to change, and the real heavy lifting is only beginning.

The Board of Governors will continue to gather stakeholder input—working with our talented students, faculty, staff, administrators, trustees, and others— as it identifies next steps in the Strategic System Review. What’s crystal clear is that Pennsylvania needs the State System’s 14 universities to continue providing access to opportunity and to help fuel the economy.

Earlier this year, my family and I decided that this fall would be a good time for the next transition of our life, so I informed the Board of my decision to retire from the State System. Throughout four decades of public service—most of it in education—I've always believed that true leadership requires one thing above all: courage. In my estimation, it took real courage for the leaders of this system to launch the Strategic System Review in the first place—courage to tackle fundamental systemic issues that have lingered for decades.

Every leader wants to leave an organization better than he or she found it. Certainly we’ve made some changes that will better position the State System for the future (securing increased funding three years in a row; updating policies and procedures to enhance local flexibility; creating tools to make data-informed decisions for the future). But, the most important thing we’ve done is open the door for an honest, candid, strategic dialogue about how the State System will evolve.

This is our opportunity to make bold choices that will have a lasting impact for decades to come. This is our “moonshot,” and I’m convinced the Board of Governors and the State System will have the courage to make the hard choices necessary to ensure the future is bright for our students. Let's watch it shine.