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All right, then, let's go ahead and get started
on this very beautiful day.
I am wondering who ordered this beautiful weather.
It makes me feel great,
and I understand that tomorrow it will probably be in the 70's.
So we can expect another great day.
So with that, let me go ahead and get started.
We all know the news from Egypt which has filled our lives
during the last three weeks.
As I consider Egypt, my thoughts, and my heart,
are with the people of that historic nation.
We have seen peaceful street protests.
We have sadly seen violence in the streets.
We have, through it all, seen the faces of a proud people.
We are all touched by what we are witnessing.
And we all hope peace will result.
I was affected by one news story from Egypt.
I was captivated to learn that individual citizens
formed human chains around their museums.
They formed barricades to protect their antiquities.
They were protecting treasures
from the time of the pharaohs.
It is a lesson for all of us.
Our past is so fragile.
And we must become guardians of the heritage left for us.
How persistently we must act to protect what is ours.
We can all turn to ancient Egypt for inspiration.
No, I am not an Egyptologist.
And no, I am not an ancient.
Well, not too much of an ancient...
Today I will talk about two lessons for us
from those treasures of the Egyptian past.
First consider the temple complex of Karnak
near the Egyptian city of Luxor.
Some historians say the temple required
1,000 years to complete.
Perhaps 40 generations worked on the temple.
Think of the work done with primitive tools.
Consider the size of the building blocks
of this temple and of the pyramids.
Consider the needed foresight.
We live in the age of instant gratification.
Can you imagine anyone today beginning a project
that would require 1,000 years to complete?
Consider the needed fortitude.
Consider the personal and mental strength
needed to make progress on this project.
Consider the needed faith.
Could any of us believe that what we started
would be finished 1,000 years in the future?
Building the future requires foresight.
Building the future requires fortitude.
Building the future requires faith.
My second lesson from Egypt comes from poetry.
Look at the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley.
Part of that short poem appears on the slide.
From a great civilization almost nothing remains.
Its lesson is the decline, perhaps inevitable,
perhaps not, of a civilization.
How do these important lessons from the past
inform Gallaudet University today?
As I consider our future
we too work with building blocks.
Our building blocks are not as glamorous
as the enormous stones used in the temples or the pyramids.
We will put together our future
from our planning documents.
You are familiar with the Gallaudet Strategic Plan,
the PPTF and the APSRC.
You are probably less familiar
with the Clerc Center Strategic Plan.
The Clerc Center is a jewel on the Gallaudet campus.
It will become an integral part of the university.
Not only does it serve its current students
but it also serves as an excellent lab environment
for so many others locally,
nationally and internationally.
We are delighted it is a part of the Gallaudet University
You may not be aware of number 5 on the slide -
our master plan.
Every ten years Washington, DC requires us
to prepare a master plan.
It establishes a framework for the development
of capital projects on campus.
We have begun work on our next plan which is due in 2012.
Our planning documents talk of the future
in general terms.
But the processes that created them
were not designed to generate innovative ideas
to carry us strongly into the future.
Let me provide examples.
Consider the Gallaudet Strategic Plan.
One strategy says: "decide on majors, programs,
or departments to grow..."
Another strategy says:
"identify student-specific auxiliary enterprises..."
The Gallaudet Strategic Plan does not provide
the innovation for either strategy.
The responsibility for original, innovative thinking
is our separate responsibility.
You may have noticed a blank line on the slide.
Let me fill in that blank line which is number 4 on the slide.
We are announcing the formation
of an "Innovation" group.
We will ask that new group to collect
innovative ideas to transform the campus.
The abbreviated charge to the group
is shown in the slide.
We will ask this small group
to complete this work in several months.
Their report will form another critical building block
to move the University forward.
Consider our age.
We are approaching our 150th anniversary.
No, we are not thousands of years old
like the Temple at Karnak or the pyramids.
But, yes, almost 150 years later we are still here.
Consider the pride and the joy our founders would feel.
Was our survival imagined by our founders?
Did they consider we would be here 150 years later?
Would they be startled we are here?
There is no easy way to answer those questions.
I always consider our future.
But my perspective is not 1,000 years into our future.
And my perspective is not on tomorrow.
I try to envision a horizon a generation into the future.
Yes, my job is to ensure
we are here tomorrow and the next day.
And yes, my job is also to ensure we are here
for the next 20 to 25 years, and beyond.
Our projects are not 1,000 years long.
Instead they are the realities of the near future.
They are the realities of the Gallaudet Strategic Plan,
the Clerc Center plan, the PPTF, the APSRC,
the master plan, and the Innovation report.
They will take us forward.
They will prepare us for another generation.
They will change our future.
How do we build the future?
How do we find the inspiration?
How do we bring forth the will to change?
To build the future we must believe in what we do.
I believe our strengths will carry us forward.
I believe in each of you.
I believe you will fulfill our destiny.
We are not the remnant of a giant.
We are not like Ozymandias.
I believe we are a sleeping giant.
I say "watch out as we awake."
First we must believe in ourselves
to take us into our future.
Second, to build our future,
we must convince future students of our strengths.
Look at our total enrollment
of undergraduate and graduate students.
We must ensure the enrollment increases
of recent years become trends.
We must embrace all new students.
We must embrace non-traditional students.
We must embrace all students who arrive on our campus.
We cannot allow one student to tell another
he or she does not fit here.
We cannot allow that to happen.
We will not allow that to happen.
Instead, our environment must welcome
all students who come here.
Let us recommit to accepting differences.
Let us recommit to welcoming all students.
Let us recommit to embracing all students.
Third, to build our future,
we must ensure that Congress
and the U.S. Department of Education
are aware of our strengths.
They start with a strong belief in our work
with deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
They want us to be well managed.
They want us to succeed.
They want to believe in the best of us.
But they are also looking for results.
They insist we measure our activities.
We measure enrollment.
We measure persistence and graduation rates.
We measure post-university outcomes.
We measure cost-per-graduate.
The University and the Clerc Center measure
30 variables for the Federal government every year.
You know the climate of the country.
Everyone receiving Federal funds faces demands
for less and less, and still less.
Our story is that the number of employees
has gone down while the number of students has gone up.
We are doing more with less.
Last year was a period of intense resource management.
The following slides list actions to control costs.
The second slide please.
These were difficult decisions.
They affect the finances of employees
and of students and of their families.
Fourth, we must also convince the outside world
of our strengths.
How do we do that?
One major way we communicate
with the outside world is through my travels.
The map tells the story of my last 14 months.
Each of the thirty-nine stars is a city I visited.
Here are more details of those trips
during the last few months and the coming months.
The following slide shows the cities visited
and the purposes of those trips.
When we meet outside after this presentation,
I'll be happy to tell you a little bit more
about what each of those trips entailed.
All of my trips have multiple purposes.
In a sentence, I am building support for Gallaudet.
I travel to discuss gifts with potential donors.
I travel to communicate with alumni.
I travel to speak at conferences.
I travel to bring attention to the wonders
of Gallaudet.
We live in a time of change.
We do not have the same project to work on for 1,000 years.
Instead we must build and rebuild Gallaudet.
It is our destiny to survive.
It is our destiny to build and rebuild.
It is our destiny to change.
Come with me into the future.
Come with me in excitement as we shape our future.
Come with me as we fulfill our destiny.
Thank you.