The Iowa Stater
May 1996
Jischke embraces
land-grant mission
A lot has happened at Iowa State since President Martin Jischke took office five years ago. The university has implemented two strategic plans, weathered several budget cuts, survived the flood of '93, received prestigious Carnegie Research I status and won its first-ever Big Eight basketball championship.
In this issue of The Iowa Stater, Jischke reflects on his first five years in office and the university's journey toward becoming the best land-grant university in the nation.
"All the ingredients are in place for us to pursue this goal and to have every reason to believe that we will achieve it."
Early on, I committed to pursuing the university's strategic plan and its aspiration to be the best land-grant university in the country. That aspiration is actually a rather profound one. When we say we want to become the best, there is explicitly an assumption that we're not there yet. It's a commitment to improvement. It's also a commitment to the basic land-grant values: access and opportunity, practical and liberal education, basic and applied research, and outreach and service. It's an educational philosophy that is absolutely right for this state.
I believe all the ingredients are in place for us to pursue this goal and to have every reason to believe that we will achieve it.
"We want them to command their language well, understand their history, develop values of citizenship and participate in society."
We've done a lot of things over the last five years to improve under-graduate education. We've targeted additional faculty positions and encouraged senior faculty to teach basic foundational courses. We've invested in a Center for Teaching Excellence so that an already fine teaching faculty can continue to improve. We've improved facilities and added new high-tech classrooms. We've made a major commitment to improve teaching freshman English through computer learning laboratories, both on campus and in the residence halls. We've also worked hard to strengthen the quality of people at Iowa State and give them the tools and facilities they need to provide first-rate educational programs.
Yet, there is still considerable room for improvement. That's why we are emphasizing undergraduate education in the future. We will continue to search for ways to improve the experience students have in classrooms, to provide a more integrated experience for students so that their classes complement each other and to create an educational experience that is richer, stronger and more holistic.
We want all of our students to have the benefits of a strong general education. We want them to command their language well, understand their history, develop values of citizenship and participate in society. But we also want them to be well prepared to hit the ground running in the world of work.
We will try to improve the extra-curricular and co- curricular experiences that complement students' education. Part of the richness of an Iowa State education is the extracurricular activities that take place through literally hundreds of student organizations. It's part of learning to live a life that we emphasize at Iowa State.
"Financial aid has grown dramatically at Iowa State and we intend to see that it continues to do so."
The key factors in whether students attend Iowa State should be their abilities, interests, motivation and educational needs, not their financial resources. Financial aid has grown dramatically at Iowa State and we intend to see that it continues to do so.
The President's Scholarship Campaign, which aims to raise $26 million for student scholarships, is one way we're trying to make it possible for more and more students to get an education at Iowa State.
One-hundred beneficiaries of that campaign already are on campus and another 100 will arrive this fall. The Christina Hixson Opportunity Awards provide the chance for 100 Iowa students each year to pursue their dreams of a college education. They are fine people who otherwise would not have been able to attend a university due to financial or personal hardships.
"The issues of what students should learn, how they should learn it, what should be taught, are absolutely central questions."
The College of Agriculture has had a very extensive review of its curriculum. The College of Engineering is in the midst of a review. Last year, the faculty as a whole adopted a curriculum requirement for internationalization and diversity. All of these are elements of a rich and robust debate within the faculty on curriculum. From my perspective, that's extraordinarily important -- maybe more important than the specific proposals they adopt. The issues of what students should learn, how they should learn it, what should be taught, are absolutely central questions. The attempt to answer those questions is at the heart of having a first-rate undergraduate educational experience. It is in the process of debating the curriculum that the curriculum maintains its vitality.
"A land-grant university goes beyond 'why' to ask the question, 'Now that we know why, what does it mean and how can that knowledge or understanding be best used to serve the needs of the society?'"
Our research program has grown dramatically at Iowa State over the last five years by all kinds of measures -- the number of publications, recognition for faculty and staff excellence, sponsored program dollars, number of proposals issued, R&D 100 awards.
We engage in research because it speaks to a basic human need to answer the question "why?" But a land-grant university goes beyond "why" to ask the question, "Now that we know why, what does it mean and how can that knowledge or understanding be best used to serve the needs of the society?"
Transfer of knowledge, technology and information is something we have been doing for a long time. Our role in transferring the technology of agriculture goes back to the very beginnings of the university. But what's been going on in the more recent history is a broadening of that mission to include transfer of technology to business and industry, and transfer of knowledge or technology to service providers.
We're national leaders in areas related to technology transfer and management of intellectual property. The Center for Advanced Technology Development, which helps move discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace, is an example of "de-risking" university research so it is better positioned for commercialization.
We are in the midst of an evolution in trying to understand what the role of a land-grant is today and in the future, when it comes to extension, outreach and public service. I believe we are both well positioned to engage that debate and have already begun to do things to suggest where it is headed. We're seeing the development of extension and outreach activity that is more focused on the strengths of Iowa State and the needs of Iowa. And where we're not well positioned to provide leadership, we've begun to partner with others who are.
"There are tens of thousands of people who really believe in this institution and believe in the promise of being the best land-grant university."
Fund raising has become absolutely central to our strategy to improve the quality of Iowa State. Most of the major initiatives we've undertaken to strengthen Iowa State involve some kind of private fund-raising activity -- be it endowed chairs and professorships for faculty, financial aid for students, equipment, new technology we've brought to the university or new facilities.
I take the private giving as a very strong endorsement of Iowa State. In some ways, it's the most reassuring thing I've seen over the five years I've been at the university. There are tens of thousands of people who really believe in this institution and believe in the promise of being the best land-grant university. They're prepared to put their own money into it.
"It's a good time to be a Cyclone fan."
We've made a lot of progress. We have new leadership and quite a number of new coaches with whom I'm very pleased. The department's finances are in better shape. We've improved the facilities. We've made real and genuine progress in gender equity. I think we are seeing a greater competitiveness in a number of the sports. I sense a growing pride in the athletic program. It certainly has a growing vitality. It's a good time to be a Cyclone fan.
But the work is not done. There remain serious challenges in inter-collegiate athletics. Some of our older facilities have not been kept up. We still have progress to make, both in terms of the competitiveness of some of our sports and the challenge of fulfilling the scholar-athlete model of intercollegiate athletics. It's very important to me that our student-athletes be students first, athletes second.
"Education is extremely important to the people of Iowa."
Education is extremely important to the people of Iowa. They are proud of their educational system and, in particular, are enormously proud of Iowa State University. They understand the central role this institution plays in Iowa today and in its future. They have extraordinarily high expectations for us. At the same time, they believe we can get better. And they are prepared to support us as we try to get better. They absolutely support and embrace this aspiration to be the best land-grant university in the nation. They believe we can do it. In fact, many of them think we're already there.
-- Linda Charles, Editor
The Iowa Stater, stater@iastate.edu, University Relations
Iowa State homepage
Copyright © 1996, Iowa State University, all rights
reserved
URL:
http://www.iastate.edu//IaStater/1996/may/jischke.html
Rev
ised 5/16/96