Jul 6, 2020
Dear fellow Pacificans,
Jean and I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of warmhearted welcomes during our first official week at University of the Pacific. Letters, posts, texts, calls and emails from faculty, staff, students, alumni, supporters, community leaders and our regents vividly demonstrate what makes Pacific such a special place: our people and their devotion to our university. This experience was another reminder of why Jean and I are so excited to embark on the newest stage of the Pacific journey together with you. Thank you all.
因为我们现在没有能力聚集成一个社区, I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some thoughts on our university’s future. 但在此之前，请允许我得到一些当之无愧的认可.
我就任总统的第一天是星期三, but I have been working closely with the Pacific leadership team for the past two months. 这让我有机会在COVID-19期间观看我们大学的行动. 我曾近距离看到玛丽亚•帕拉维西尼(Maria Pallavicini)坚强而镇定的领导, who selflessly embraced the role of interim president and guided us safely through these unchartered waters. 我们都欠玛丽亚一个巨大的感激. 我很幸运有她这样的合作伙伴带领我们的大学前进.
我也感谢许多人的巨大努力. Our regents, 由前任主席凯文·休伯和新当选主席诺曼·艾伦领导, the vice presidents, the deans, 尤其是迈克尔·亨特·施瓦茨, 离开他深爱的麦乔治法学院担任临时教务长, and our amazing staff, who have made sure Pacific has not skipped a beat despite COVID-19 forcing us from our campuses.
但也许最令人印象深刻的是我们的教员. Our faculty colleagues seamlessly redesigned and transformed their in-person courses to fully remote experiences in a matter of days in March, making sure that our students received the top-flight Pacific education they expect and deserve. And now faculty are designing their fall courses to deliver in class and remotely at the same time, 为所有突发博彩平台网址大全排名做好准备.
感谢你们所有人的辛勤工作和支持, 我们处在一个非常有利的位置，可以迎接未来的挑战. 未来几天和几周将面临重大挑战.
We simply don’t know right now whether COVID-19 will allow us to safely return to our campuses next month. We do know, however, that our faculty will be ready to provide the best education possible to our students—no matter how or where it is delivered. We also know that our staff will continue to work tirelessly and adapt to support our students and faculty. And we know that our regents, 校友和支持者将在那里为我们的大学和学生, as they have been throughout.
Meanwhile, the murders of Black Americans by police and the Black Lives Matter movement are leading to a broader reexamination of Pacific’s role in social justice issues. I spent most of my first day as president on Wednesday speaking individually with faculty and staff who have been immersed in these issues. 从这些早期的谈话来看，很明显我们还有很多工作要做. This month I will hold a series of conversations focused on Black Lives Matter and social justice issues at Pacific, 今天从太平洋黑人校友俱乐部开始. Conversations are an essential first step, but they need to be quickly followed by actions. “做得更好”已经不够了. Pacific should be a national leader on diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. That process must start now.
这些都是我们今天必须面对的历史性挑战. But I also want to take a moment here to talk about other dimensions of our long-term future.
It is common that the appointment of a new university leader comes with a new mission and vision. Some schools need that. We do not.
我们最大的优势是我们坚定不移的原则、价值观和清晰的使命. We are focused squarely on the success of our students in a way that few universities match. We smartly integrate the liberal arts and professional education while providing students a powerful learning combination of immersive academic study, 体验式学习和对社区的服务. 我们提供真正独特的教育机会:个性化, caring learning environment of a small college combined with the choices of a major university. 我们知道我们是谁，我们想要实现什么.
I firmly believe that University of the Pacific can be the very best university of this kind in the nation—the student-centered, small, national, comprehensive university. 我们有这样的条件:充满激情和多元化的学生, inspiring faculty, dedicated staff, three campuses in a strategically important region of the nation and the traditions and values of an authentically student-focused institution.
我同样相信，我们的成功之路是通过真正的、大胆的创新. 这是否意味着改变我们的使命、价值观或原则? Absolutely not! 但这确实意味着我们需要创新我们所做的事情和我们做事情的方式. American higher education, like so many other sectors, 它的经济和结构模式是否出现了巨大的破坏. Pacific is not immune. 我们也面临着同样激烈的生源竞争, escalating costs, 不确定的政治环境, 快速变化的就业市场和摇摆不定的公众对高等教育的信心. We have seen how those challenges have manifested themselves—sometimes in negative ways—at our university. 我们必须以不同的方式思考和行动，否则将面临下坡路.
The good news is there are few American universities better positioned to innovate than Pacific. Innovation is in our DNA, as former Provost Phil Gilbertson meticulously detailed in his excellent history of our university, “Pacific on the Rise.“169年前，我们在加州创办了第一所大学. 我们是加州第一所招收女性的大学. We created the first music conservatory west of the Mississippi and the state’s first medical school.
Tully Knoles, our longest-serving president, 领导了将博彩平台网址大全从70英里外的圣何塞校区搬到斯托克顿的大胆尝试. 在他标志性的24年总统生涯中, Robert Burns moved Pacific forward dramatically by designing around the concept of differentiation. And President Don DeRosa focused on innovation from the very beginning of his extraordinary 14 years leading Pacific, urging his new colleagues to be “pioneering and risk-taking” in his inaugural address 25 years ago.
How do we return to pathways of innovation that made Pacific both excellent and distinctive? To start, 我们必须先把结构拆开, 在许多美国企业中存在着阻碍创新的心理和文化障碍.S. universities.
我们需要不断质疑现状. 为什么我们要这样做呢? And is there a better way?
我们需要摆脱对地盘的保护, 让许多大学陷入瘫痪的狭隘思维的领土主义.
我们需要精简官僚程序.
我们需要避免僵化的等级制度和等级思维.
我们需要质疑自我强加的规章制度.
我们需要向外寻找解决方案.
We need to seek and build new partnerships to grow and to reduce our reliance on tuition.
我们要积极地思考和行动，表现出不知疲倦的乐观精神.
我们需要再次把自己视为一所国立大学.
我们需要着眼于未来，而不是沉湎于过去.
我们需要有一种紧迫感.
最重要的是，我们需要共同努力.
一旦我们打破了创新的障碍，一切皆有可能. 创新的货币是创意，我们有大量令人惊叹的、有创造力的头脑. 想象一下释放我们教授的创造力, students, staff, alumni, supporters, 在我们展望未来的时候，董事们和领导们将继续巩固我们的优势. 可能性是无限的.
I will add one final note here. 很多时候，想法的开始和结束都与财务有关. We are told we don’t have the resources to seize on an opportunity or leverage a great idea, 所以这个想法在有机会之前就被扼杀了. Sometimes it seems like there is a race at universities to get to “no” as fast as possible. 我相信这种想法会导致失败. I would ask us to apply our collective creativity to think about new revenue sources in the same way we think about new programs, new markets, 新的受众和新的教学方法. 与许多高等教育一样，传统的收入模式正变得站不住脚. 我们的绝大部分资源都依赖于学费. 然而，对于许多学生来说，学费已经太高了. 我们必须共同努力，通过创造性的伙伴关系找到新的模式. 而且，重要的是，我们必须决定我们要放弃什么. As Harvard’s Michael Porter wrote in his seminal 1996 work, strategy is about making choices. “战略的本质，”他写道，“是选择不做什么.”
现在，如果我们不能驾驭这种创新和创业精神，会发生什么呢? I believe we would survive, following our current path and making incremental changes along the way. 但我不认为维持现状应该是我们的目标. We have the opportunity to take our very good university and make it great—to be the finest university of its type in the nation—by charting a new course with new thinking and new approaches.
但我们只有齐心协力才能做到这一点.
我希望你们把今天看作是对话的开始.
我期待着与你的旅程.
Sincerely,
Christopher Callahan
President
