Inaugural Speech
The following is the Inaugural Address given by President Arthur C. Vailas during his Investiture Ceremony on Friday, September 14, 2007.
It is a privilege and an honor to be here today. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to each of you for your support and your attendance at today's ceremony. I would like to acknowledge Governor Otter, members of the State Board of Education, government leaders, members of the academic community and the many distinguished visitors who have joined in the celebration. Thank you.
"Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us." So said David Sarnoff, who was born to a poor Jewish family in Russia before immigrating to the United States at a young age. Sarnoff found opportunities in this land, and he rose from his humble roots to become a pioneer in telecommunications, eventually becoming the founder of the National Broadcasting Company, which we now know as NBC. Sarnoff knew about the power inside each of us, and the potential for innovation which will lead to opportunity.
You may have seen the pairing of these two words — opportunity and innovation — throughout our campus. We tout the phrase "leading in opportunity and innovation" as a branding image of Idaho State University. Indeed, this community-established institution has matured through the 20th century and has entered the 21st century with the capacity to do more. It has granted opportunity to tens of thousands of bright young minds who have become leaders and innovators in many fields of medicine, health care, the arts, engineering, science, business, education and technology.
I am honored to lead this great university, and I want to outline the opportunities that exist today, as well as the ones we can create, that will continue to lead Idaho State as one of the greatest generators of opportunity and innovation in this corner of the world.
We live in a time of great challenges. We face challenges globally, as nations, as communities and, of course, as individuals.
Education is about challenge. It is about how we overcome challenge. Often, in that process, we uncover new challenges. It is an amazing cycle, and it drives the engine of progress for humankind.
Education is also about opportunity. Past challenges have been overcome by the meeting of opportunity and innovation.
In higher education, we face innumerable challenges.
We must look for more opportunities to partner with the private sector and private individuals. Benjamin Franklin once said, "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." What Idaho State University has to offer is an incredible return on a modest investment. And students are not the only beneficiaries. Everyone in our society has cause to contribute to education.
We need to identify our constituencies and look to them to help us understand how we can turn the forces of the marketplace in our favor. This will impact how we market our services and will compel us to identify the unique assets we have to offer.
We can showcase our attractions in the competitive market, and fully expect to capture the minds of those entrepreneurs and philanthropists who can make the difference in higher education today.
We are also presented with countless opportunities in higher education.
It is true that the world is being flattened. The marvels of the global economy and its accompanying technological advances have brought the continents closer than ever. Idaho State University collaborates with colleagues in every hemisphere. As we work together, we can learn to serve one another and solve the greater questions that face us. Having a global vision requires having a global perspective, and I intend to exert all my efforts to promote our global mission and ensure we look at the world with hope and understanding. We must have a desire to comprehend and value the contributions the people of the world can make together to the body of human wisdom.
The expansion and creation of knowledge is the noble charge given to institutions of higher education. We must fulfill our sacred obligation of taking knowledge and disseminating it to students in an effective learning environment.
We are the crucible in which humankind is refined by the fires of challenge and opposition. The raw ore becomes precious metal, ready for shaping. Benjamin Franklin said, "Genius without education is like silver in the mine." We intend to mine that genius, shape it and reveal treasures that will benefit people throughout the world.
The blessings of technology have expanded the influence of what we can offer to the people Idaho and beyond. Living in rural communities like Montpelier or Ashton or Mackay is no longer the obstacle it once was to participating in college courses. Idaho State University channels knowledge from our main campus into dozens of other locations around the state. We will continue to grow through the internet, our outreach locations and any other means possible to provide access to all of Idaho, the nation, and countries everywhere.
Idaho State University also wants to help better prepare high school students and administrators to make the transition to college learning. Our faculty are meeting in high schools and providing a bridge, restoring confidence in students while giving high school teachers the privilege of being a part of ISU's instructional team. High school administrators are working with us to help overcome the challenges that have plagued such partnerships in the past, and they know what it takes to identify those students who have exceptional abilities or remedial needs. Knowing who these students are before they come to college helps us empower them so they can be confident and successful once they enroll at Idaho State University. We are making great strides in this alliance to provide early college preparation through ISU's early college program.
Novelist Frank Herbert observed that "the beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand." I believe his sentiments aptly express how we can couple exceptional instruction with the unlimited benefits of research.
An increase in research activity on campus assures us that Idaho State University can produce meaningful results for the global community. This leads to the creation of new knowledge, the dissemination of vital information and the continued development of critical thinking and experimentation. This is as valid for chemists and mathematicians as it is for sociologists and artists. I have long said that I cannot think of a discipline that cannot engage in research, and that the coupling of research and instruction provides a synergistic effect. Pushing creativity beyond the realm of the known and into that of innovation stimulates the minds of those who are undertaking research and those who will benefit from its findings.
French novelist Anatole France accurately said, "The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards."
Students in the classroom and the laboratory take part in these breakthroughs, and few lectures or discussions can outperform the sense of accomplishment and learning that research offers. Applying theory and testing knowledge in real-world application provides an unparalleled thrill, and we owe it to our undergraduate and graduate students alike to open the doors to such opportunities. I'm confident that good teaching can only be enhanced by these experiences. Additionally, these kinds of goals will shore up our ability to attract and retain quality students, who look forward to each new innovation.
The rewards of research also include strengthened relationships with existing collaborators and the potential for new partnerships with others. We have prospects in medical care, alternative energy and the arts that we can explore, and it will bring something so incredible to our region that our founders could never have imagined. We can give new tools to school teachers, health care professionals, business leaders, public servants, creative artists, engineers and others by sharing the fruits of our discoveries and a newly trained workforce with a portfolio of real-life experience. This is the fuel that feeds the economic engine of our community and region, and even the nation and world. It attracts and retains a high quality faculty and students who want to challenge and be challenged. The symbiotic relationship of our university and the community of which we are a part bolsters each other's standing.
Idaho State University has firmly staked its claim as a leader in the arts with the construction of the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center. This magnificent edifice is a laboratory of creativity and culture. We must do our duty to the philanthropists who made this impossible dream a reality. We will do so by bringing the artistic performances of the world to the Center to share with the people of Idaho. Likewise, the Center will allow us to spread the traditions of Idaho to the world.
A significant undertaking that will make this effort possible is the establishment of a sizable endowment for the arts. Such an endowment will allow us to bring the best talents in the worlds of theatre, music and dance here to Idaho State not just to perform, but to instruct as well.
Perhaps no responsibility is greater at this time for Idaho State University than to lead the state in the education of health care professionals. The primacy of this state-given mission offers incredible prospects for those seeking to understand and care for the well-being of people here and everywhere.
For nearly a century, Idaho State University has forged the path of medical education in this state. To date, we offer more than 40 programs in the health sciences. The infrastructure which supports this effort covers thousands of square feet and would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replace. The partnerships we have established nationwide with health care professionals, researchers, clinics and institutions is remarkable, creating a vast network stretching from coast to coast and, in some cases, beyond the wide oceans.
This part of the world has often been thought of as a frontier. Even after centuries of exploration, we still have trailblazing to do. We need to expand our infrastructure, connect to more partners, invent more progressive methodologies. Serving in a largely rural state presents a unique advantage in the quest to develop solutions to the health care needs of rural America. Our Institute of Rural Health and the Telehealth Idaho program are just the beginning of what we can do. They have established the blueprint for quality health care in remote areas, and they have also taught us what we can do to serve people in urban areas. We will grow this. We will continue the flattening process of bringing the world closer. We will bring equality to those who need health care, affording them the same quality of care regardless of where they live. This should be a basic human right, and we will do our part to make it so.
The world is calling out to us to put our knowledge to the great task of saving the planet itself. The threats to the environment, including some we have created ourselves, can be chased back. We can rise to the occasion by exploring new ways to generate and transmit energy.
The possibilities of energy sources with low-carbon output — solar, wind, geothermal, biofuel, hydro and nuclear — are calling for further exploration. Idaho State University is at the nucleus of such opportunities, and it takes only a quick survey of our surroundings to recognize we can be a leader in this venture.
Our centers of excellence, such as the ISU Idaho Accelerator Center and the new center in Idaho Falls, the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, are testimony that ISU has taken bold steps in creating many partnerships that will improve our capability to deliver clean energy strategies.
The variety of opportunity available at Idaho State University reminds me of what Clark Kerr called the "multiversity:" a place that advances teaching, research, scholarship and service to the community and the world. The multiversity is a complex organism — at times even a confusing one — but it is that very complexity which offers so much promise. We can deliver all the benefits of the Carnegie research institution we have become since our modest beginnings over a century ago. Students at Idaho State can earn certificates, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral degrees in our programs. They have the opportunities to complete internships and residencies, or to simply explore continuing education programs. This incredible array is a strength and will surely yield many more wonderful opportunities for students who engage in its offerings.
By building on the foundation of those who have gone before us, we will build a future for the generations who follow; a future filled with promise and continued opportunity. We will create a better world for them.
"Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future," said American inventor Charles F. Kettering. Truly, we will let loose our imaginations so that nothing will stand between what we have done in the past and what we are able to do in the future.
I am eager to spend my days sustaining the fine minds of Idaho State University, and drawing even more talent to our endeavors. Let us hold sacred the charge to lead in opportunity and innovation, and exhaust ourselves in our quest to do so with dignity, nobility and equality.
Dr. Arthur C. Vailas
President of Idaho State University
September 14, 2007