Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Adversity is the mother of progress.” At the University of Southern Maine, we are emerging from a period of transition and toward a new era of prosperity – an era where administrators and faculty work side by side to ensure the success of our students and serve the needs of our students and our community.

As we begin our respective tenures as president of USM and chair of the USM Faculty Senate, we will make civility and mutual respect, between all the employees of our university and all of our students, the touchstone of our efforts. We will work together to solve the challenges of the present and the future, and together we will leave a troubled past behind us.

Working in a shared governance model means we will jointly, and collaboratively, use our tremendous resources to serve students. Our vibrant region and beautiful state, the challenging and engaging curriculum of our impressive faculty and the university-wide commitment to real-world experiences for all students allow us to offer an unmatched university experience.

The essential question that arises is: Are we doing everything we can to ensure our students are successful during their time at USM and beyond?

With this in mind, we are committed to bringing students, faculty and administrators together to focus our collective energies on aligning the entire university toward one clear vision of student success: creating an environment that provides students with the tools and experiences needed to ensure they are successful once they leave USM. When we bring together the talent and dedication of the entire university, we will succeed in creating an institution that is singularly focused on the needs of our student.

• First, we must build an institution that is truly centered on students – a university where students, without exception, feel respected, supported and valued.

This can be done only when we work together, regardless of job titles and duties, to ensure students feel known, appreciated, inspired and prepared for future success. We must become that place where parents and students feel confident their investment will yield a high-quality education at an institution that is, and will remain, affordable and accessible.

On the day a new student arrives at USM, we will ensure he builds a personal relationship with the faculty and staff who will accompany him on his journey, all the way to graduation. What makes USM unique is its faculty members, who are experts in their fields.

A professor has the opportunity to touch the life of a student and mentor her in her chosen field of study. This mixture of world-class expertise and one-on-one support with faculty is an experience that is unequaled in our community.

By creating a student-centered environment and experience, we will be able to grow our enrollment through increased recruitment of both in-state and out-of-state students.

• Secondly, faculty, staff, administrators and students must work together on the implementation of the metropolitan university initiative. A lot has been written about becoming a metropolitan university, leaving many people to wonder, what is a metropolitan university?

Simply put, a metropolitan university works with the state and region to identify, address and respond to the needs of the community and solve problems in ways that benefit the community, the university and our students.

In serving the community as Maine’s public metropolitan university, we will instill in our students a world-minded character, giving them a larger worldview through imaginative interdisciplinary programs. Faculty from diverse disciplines will work together with students in learning experiences that are challenging and beneficial to the students, and that address real-world problems facing our community, both inside and outside the classroom.

It is with this vision for USM that we will be able to meet the needs and interests of our students, state and region.

• Finally, for the USM resurgence to take hold, we must work to heal a fractured university while developing and executing a decisive plan of action with buy-in from faculty, administrators, staff, community leaders and students.

We are confident that with a balanced budget, a new president committed to student success, a powerful vision of deep civic engagement and a determination to make students the center of our university, parents, students and the community can be proud of USM and excited about its future.

It’s an exciting time for USM and a privilege to be part of the university’s transformation. The potential is limitless and the future very bright indeed. Working together, we can ensure a prosperous and sustainable future for USM, and lay a solid foundation for growth and prosperity.

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