The quilt is complete. The holidays are over. The AACSB Review Team has left the building. So my starting point for our discussion of a vision for the College is this:
I want us to lie at the cross-roads of both town and gown: to become an engaging place where people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives meet to get out of their comfort zones, collaborate across disciplines, take risks, and use data in ways that revolutionize how we think, create value and shape the future.
The rationale for this view will be the subject of my comments Friday night. The conversation about how we can embrace this vision and move from aspiration to implementation begins this Monday at 3:00 pm with the MPRC. It will continue in many venues over the next two months. For now, suffice it to say that achieving fundamental transformation will require us all to “walk the talk” by getting accustomed to living on the edge, overcoming failure, engaging in positive restlessness and getting rewarded for the right results.
I can’t wait to get started, but Tiffany says I have to dish up some of Brian Wheeler’s Gumbo in the Courtyard first.
Paul Jarley, Ph.D., is the dean of the UCF College of Business Administration. He blogs every week at http://www.bus.ucf.edu/dean. This post appeared on February 11, 2013. Follow him on Twitter @pauljarley.