From the President
With our Mission as our compass and many fine copilots

Jo Young Switzer President Related link: Manchester's Mission, Values, Vision and Strategic Priorities

MY DAD USED TO JOKE about an airplane pilot who told passengers: “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that we don’t know where we are going. The good news is that we are making good time.”

Leadership requires a clear sense of direction, and at Manchester, our Mission charts our path. Our Cabinet of vice presidents embodies best practices of good decision-making. We are diverse – with extroverts, introverts, comfortable risk-takers and cautious voices. We have diverse opinions about politics, religion and technology. We are solidly unified to advance Manchester’s Mission.

We discuss possibilities and review current practices with openness. We work hard and laugh together. We review research, do cost-benefit analysis, chuckle and moan together about the results. Always, we keep the Mission in plain sight. We disagree, yet when we reach a decision that advances our priorities, we are unified in our support of it. The 2005 Strategic Plan invited input from hundreds of people who care about Manchester. It continues to guide our work. From it come our four strategic priorities.

In recent years, we’ve embarked on bold ventures. We developed a Doctor of Pharmacy Program and opened a new campus to support our Mission. We rejuvenated Holl-Kintner Science Hall into the Academic Center. We sought, and received, a $35 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., and we began a $100 million fund drive. At the April Board of Trustees meeting, we decided to change our name to Manchester University to reflect multiple campuses, increased academic complexity and our need to be understood better by prospective students here and abroad.

None of these decisions is simple. The name change in particular is dramatic and, for some, difficult to support. In the end, University supports our Mission as we move into the future. So, unlike the pilot, I am pleased not to fly solo as president of Manchester. Our Mission is our compass, and that’s very good news.

JO YOUNG SWITZER
president@manchester.edu