Online Exclusive: Eichner reflects on past 40 years and future

To all returning and new OU students, a hearty and enthusiastic welcome. We are glad you are here!Your faculty, staff and student leadership has been working diligently to prepare for the 145th year of operations at Ottawa University. You are the centerpiece of everything we do here. While we have obviously been at this work for a long while, each new school year on this campus brings with it a mix of traditions, new programs and high expectations that somehow manage to make each one very special. From the classroom to the dorm room and everywhere in between, there is an air of expectancy and excitement. I hope you feel it and are ready to contribute to it. Almost forty years ago to the day, I was a freshman (yes, your president is that old) moving into what was an almost brand new Brown Hall. I had come from a very large high school of 2800 students in Overland Park, Kansas, and was getting ready to participate in football and music-two of the big draws of OU to me-and even thinkinga little bit about my education and what I might ultimately select as a major. I wondered openly about how I would respond to a much smaller student body than I was used to, whether and how much I would get to play on the football team, how I would get along with my roommate (who remains a lifelong friend), whether it was always so hot and humid in Ottawa (it isn't), and many other questions some of which are probably best kept private. It was 1969 and we had just watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, the Vietnam War was raging, and Woodstock had rocked the world of music and culture. One year earlier, Martin Luther King, Jr. and presidential candidate BobbyKennedy had been assassinated. It was a time of tremendous energy for change amidst a growing uneasiness that all was not right with the world and we needed to do something about it. And yet it was a time of great optimism and hope. As I reflect on the beginning of this school year, I am struck by some of the similarities to that time four decades ago. There have been incredible technological advances such as those that allowed us to land on the moon in 1969. This time they are more in cyberspace than outer space as the Internet continues to transform everything fromsocial networking to commerce to even higher education. Our nation is again at war, now for the longest uninterrupted period in our American history. There are some signs that we may be emerging from the greatest financial crisis to strike our world since the Great Depression, but millions of our people remain un- or under-employed. Every day we see evidence of a raging health care funding debate in the face of the injustice of a system that costs more than any other in the world but still leaves over 40 million of our citizens with inadequate care. We are treated to constant examples of how not to be civil and how essential critical thinking really is. Despite much progress and awareness of the power of inclusion and diversity, issues of race and gender equality remain vexingly apparent. It is a time of great energy for change amidst uneasiness that all is still not right with the world. And yes, many of us believe we can and need to do something about it because we remain optimistic and filled with hope. In this macro-environment, each OU student has come to this campus with his or her special dreams, talents, issues and aspirations. Each is unique and each is to be celebrated even while we do our best to challenge and stretch your thinking, your ideals and values-even your very self-concept. This will be uncomfortable for some and a few may even experience us as somehow tearing at their inner fabric of assumptions, understandings, world view, and beliefs. But should you feel this way, be assured that our real and enduring purpose is to help you grow and to develop fully all of the different dimensions that make you a special human being. True growth usually requires that we push out on the edges of our comfort zones. This is true as students, and it is equally true for faculty, staff and administrators. So be prepared to be pushed and to do some of your own. College at Ottawa University is not a spectator sport. You are here to develop intellectually, spiritually, vocationally, recreationally, physically, and philosophically. We do not pour knowledge into you. You pour yourself onto a playing field of courses, activities, relationships and experiences all of which combine to make you a moreeffective, fulfilled and educated person-one capable of making your own way in what promises to be an incredible world of opportunities and challenges ahead. This is the promise-and the obligation-of a true liberal arts education in what is intended to be a caring, Christ-centered community of grace. A higher education is and always has been a joint effort. The student brings ambition, wonder, creativity, a certain work-ethic and preparation along with questions, some fears, mistaken notions and even goofiness at times. The University brings wisdom, academic content, facilities, tradition and commitment along with its own weaknesses and fallacies. Together, we make the music of ideas and personal growth. What a wonderful brew we stir here! Now, lest any of our students take that last metaphor too literally, I will end by thanking you for the commitment you have made to your personal and responsible development and for the many contributions you will make to our University while you are here and in the world as one of our distinguished future alumni. We are looking forward to upholding our end of the bargain with a learned and committed faculty, and many excellent programs in athletics, the arts, and religious life. Our new Adawe LifePlan Center for holistic development is being launched this fall and we look for some innovative and powerful output from our new schools of Education, Business and Arts and Sciences. To all of this we intend to add warmth, friendship, support and encouragement to our rigor, tests and challenges. Marylin and I will be pleased to welcome each of you to our home at Granger House during the school year, to meeting all of our new students and to renewing our connections with those of you returning. As we begin our second year of work together here at OU, we are filled with purpose, hope and optimism and grateful to be with you in this good work. I know our Provost, Dr. Tyner and his spouse, Patty, and our entire group of faculty, coaches, staff and alumni join us in looking forward to sharing their gifts with you as well. As the song says, "the Ottawa Spirit is part of you and you are part of the Ottawa Spirit". Have a wonderful, fun and meaningful year! Make the most of it. It will pass quickly. Forty years certainly have. Kevin C. Eichner President