Keep your eye on the goal

August 23, 2006

Keep your eye on the goal

Welcome Back!

The full flurry of fall begins this week on campus with the sound of marching band practices, the wild grasses turning brown, the Student Council barbeque, overheated copier machines, and of course, classes! We probably look a bit like the chipmunks (or 'stripies' as some people here call them) that dash around Lagomarcino Hall. Lest we lose sight of our focus, I urge that all of us stop and consider why we are here: to expand human potential! In that equation, students come first!

Multi-tasking is central to every CHS person's position responsibilities and there are always more tasks than we at first anticipate. With all the important duties, urgent activities, and crucial deadlines to meet, we easily lose our way in the woods of priorities. Let us make sure that we all re-center ourselves individually on a set of primary goals for this semester. I suggest you formulate 4-5 of them and write them down. What is the single most important thing that you can do to improve student outcomes (or teaching and learning) at this university? After that, what is the single most important thing that you can do to improve research — yours and/or others? Next, better service to your colleagues, department, college, and university? And finally, enhance outreach to the larger community of Iowa citizens?

If we all identify, refer to, visit, revisit, and work on our priorities, Iowa State will continuously become a better place to go to school, to work in, and to work for the future. It promises to be an especially exciting year. I invite you to grab hold of your hat, hang onto your priorities, and join the adventure. Remember always, no one will care how much you know until they know how much you care. Best wishes for the new school year!

Sincerely,

Cheryl Achterberg