September 2008 Archives

Last weekend I participated in my first "Leadership in Aging Academy" event.  This year-long project, sponsored by the New York Academy of Medicine and the John A. Hartford Foundation, aims to invigorate slowly evolving efforts to cultivate a health-related workforce prepared to address the social tsunami of aging in the U.S.  Toward that end, NYAM and Hartford have resolved to enhance the leadership skills of "promising" academic administrators from across the country.  Yours truly is part of an inaugural class of twelve deans, principally in social work, with a commitment to take on the aging challenge.

The experience was rich, and settled lingering doubts about the worth of investing time and energy (not to mention travel funds) in four events - and the "homework" in-between - spanning nearly a full year.  A kind of parallel curriculum emerged that features both "general" issues of organizational leadership and "specific" application projects related to developing an aging competent workforce (the term "geri-savvy" is being tested for traction).  Less a "conference" experience that a retreat-style working group event with excellent facilitation, the two-and-one-half-day weekend left no moment wasted or ill-used.

My impressions were many, as were - at least I want to think so - the insights gained.  Most striking of all, however, was the "blinding flash of the obvious" that the College of Health is superbly positioned to lead the charge on aging studies and, possibly, new program development in our region.  I'm excited, and hope others will be as well, that Susan Hubble-Burchell (Human Performance) and Susan Hrostowski (Social Work) are taking a lead in this critical arena.  In fact, they'll co-chair a meeting this week - October 1, 11 a.m., room 114 Fritzsche-Gibbs Hall - that will look at a number of issues related to aging studies.  All are welcome.  If you have any interest, please come.  After all, none of us are getting any younger!

Yesterday I rode with Katherine Nugent and Bob Lyman to Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula to celebrate the graduation of 21 students from the "RN to BSN" program there.  A cause to celebrate, indeed -- and not only the achievement of the students, but of the program itself -- a great program designed to meet both the educational needs of working nurses in a rigorous yet flexible way, and the need of heath care facilities for highly trained practitioner-leaders.  When provost Lyman characterized student-centered programs like the RN-to-BSN as an important response to the demands for life-long learning in a constantly changing global society, he hit a 60-penny nail on the head, I think.

The convocation went off well (in my humble opinion).  Despite a number of colleagues absent for a variety of very good reasons (a Faculty Senate meeting was going on at the same time, for example), we enjoyed a great turnout of faculty, staff and guests.  The latter included Beverly Dale, a member of the dean's advisory council and a great friend of the college and university, Mr. Rusty Anderson of Career Services, and both president Saunders and provost Lyman.  The president was as gracious and upbeat as always, despite suffering one hell of a day (her morning included the press conference announcing the charter revocation of Kappa Sigma after a hazing incident that left two students hospitalized) and needing to rush off to Auburn for pre-game activities.  The provost - still "new" to Southern Miss but a quick study -delivered complimentary words and expectations of great things ahead for CoH. 

Here's an excerpt from my own comments, summing up "likes" and "dislikes" accumulated during my brief time in the dean's office:

Most important, I've found that there's lots to like in our CoH community:

• I very much like where we've just been:

            Over 700 graduates last academic year - 700 professionals, virtually all of whom go to work immediately in their field.

            Over 60,000 student credit hours generated.

            Over $14 million in external funding across the college, for a dazzling diversity of projects - from school district money for the DuBard School, to nursing education, to delinquency prevention, to access recreation, to child welfare system reform, to nutrition education and walking programs and obesity study, to spectator sport security. 

            It's clear that the impact of our college is tremendous.  Consider just one dimension of this impace: Imagine what might become of the human services infrastructure in this state and region if we weren't pumping out the large quantity of competent graduates - the nurses, the med techs, the social workers, the coaches, etc. etc. - that we are?  It's not a pretty picture.... 

• I also like where we are now:

I like that enrollments are up about 8% both in Hattiesburg and the Gulf Coast.

Just as important, if not more, I like that our energy and enthusiasm is high.  One measure of this energy is the sheer quantity of great news constantly coming out of CoH.  Look at the website homepage anytime, and you can see a least a half-dozen current stories of outstanding work in progress.  We also have video and audio clips there now.  We're making news, generating good image, steadily.  Again, we are very demonstrably making a positive difference in the daily lives of people - our students, yes, but well beyond the classroom to the larger community, and often its most disadvantaged members.

I like the professionalism of the dean's office staff, and the consistent high quality of the work they produce.

I like the high caliber of our school/departmental and program leadership.  Our people are at once outstanding individuals and outstanding team members - our chairs and directors, yes, but also our program leadership - Maureen Martin at the Dubard School; Margaret Brinegar at the Children's Center; Laurie Risher  at Family Network Partnership; John Reynolds at the Child Welfare Training Academy - as well as all the assistant/associate directors, coordinators, etc. throughout the units who daily perform unsung heroics that keep our community afloat and alive.

I like that so many CoH faculty occupy position of responsibility and leadership throughout the governance structure of the university - Faculty Senate, Council of Chairs, Academic Council, Graduate Council, University Research Council, Grade Review Council....

• All this makes it easy to like, further, what our community is poised to do this year and into the future.  We have momentum, we have new and talented people coming on board, we have opportunities galore both in Hattiesburg and on the Coast, and I think we have the skeleton of a university strategic plan that will not only allow, but encourage, us to pursue those opportunities....

Now, I have to admit that the picture is not all rosy.  There are some things, big and ugly things, I do NOT like.

• I don't like the steep challenges we face in faculty recruitment and retention, and that it's so damned tough for us to compete on the market with the salaries (and bad history of few-and-far-between raises) that we can offer.

• I don't like that we have no CoH building, that we are as dispersed as we are, and  that we have faculty and staff working in buildings with mold and cracks and pipes that routinely burst or in buildings that have to keep sandbags by the door in anticipation of the next flood.

• I don't like that we're badly understaffed in a number of areas and that our hard-working and long-suffering staff are so poorly paid.

• I don't like having to squeeze every penny until Lincoln squeals, because we just don't have nearly the pennies we need.  (After 3.5 months in this job, I'm still looking for a problem that doesn't come down to money.  I'm sure they exist, but so far I haven't found any!)

Nonetheless, I do believe that our College of Health community is more than up to the challenges we face. "Our time is now," as much as it might be Barak Obama's or Larry Fedora's.  We - the community members in this room and the ones here in spirit -- are the "change that matters"; we have the power to do what needs to get done.  Recall our vision - Advancing health and well-being through excellence and innovation in teaching, research and service.

Health and well being is the common lifeblood of our community; and health and well-being means strength and resiliency; and resiliency means we have the capacity to see every problem as an opportunity, every challenge as a chance to show boldness, and creativity, and determination...

Let's have a great year.