September Newsletter

To the DSU Community:

As someone “gently” reminded me this week, it has been some time since I have written a newsletter to the campus. Clearly it has been a busy time with the start of our new academic year. Once again we had a couple of beautiful days to help new students move into the residence halls. I am so pleased with the turn out of our staff and alumni that helped serve students and their family members a “hot dog” lunch during these move in times. I am also grateful to the Student Orientation Leaders, our Resident Hall Assistants and Directors, the women’s volleyball team and some members of the football team (as well as Joe Walwik, a DSU professor – seen carrying several refrigerators up four floors – oh to be young and in shape) who helped our new students carry their belongings into the halls.

On Saturday afternoon of “move in” day we started our new student orientation program. This activity has really become a major focus of our retention efforts. We know getting these students off on a good start is so important to their long term success here at DSU. Mandy P and her team of Orientation Leaders did a great job of mentoring, shepherding and supporting these young students through these first few days. I also hear from several faculty who are leading our first year seminars that these students seem to have really responded positively as they share their experiences and prepare themselves for the start of their university experience.

In addition to all the greetings and activities that are a part of our start of a new academic year we have also been involved in promoting DSU in a number of ways. This week a group of DSU staff, a student representative and a member of the Madison community traveled to Brookings to participate in an open hearing conducted by a Legislative Review Committee. This committee is conducting their regular review of the Board of Regents. We were able to share several thoughts about DSU, our collaborations with other campuses, our role in economic development, and student experiences.

Then on Wednesday, I attended a full day meeting of this committee in Pierre. This meeting focused on two basic questions – “How well are our schools preparing students to enter college?” and “Are our graduates ready to enter the workplace?” One of the highlights of this meeting was the testimony of the Executive Director of the South Dakota Banker’s Association who described DSU’s programs and the essential function we are providing in information assurance.

During this beginning of the new semester I am spending a considerable amount of time positioning the campus to develop our new strategic plan. The theme we have set for this year is “The Next Step”. We will be using this theme to frame discussions on and off campus on the strategic activities that should be a part of the next 5 year future of DSU. Within the next week or two I will announce the strategic planning committee that will guide us through this process.

Another exciting development, that has come to fruition during this past couple of weeks, is the partnership with Great Western Bank and our DSU Foundation. This partnership has led to the purchase of the former Security Bank building located just a few blocks south of campus at the busiest corner in Madison. Plans at this time are to locate our foundation office, the alumni office and our university relations activities in this building. The visibility, the status and the overall impact of having this building be the hub for these activities will have a tremendous positive impact on the future of our foundation and overall development.

Here is a brief summary of some other activities that have been a part of my life over last couple of weeks.

We started up our monthly “First Tuesday” alumni event at Shenanigans in Sioux Falls. Our football Coach Nate Holtz made an appearance and we once again had a good turn out. If you are ever in SF on the first Tuesday of the month please try and stop by between 5-7 PM. Good reasons for a trip to the Mall.
I had a chance to see our women’s volleyball team win a match against Grand View College at a triangular tournament in SF. It was fun to watch them play again. We also had a great crowd at our opening football game against Waldorf here at Trojan Field. One of the largest crowds I have seen at a DSU game. Both of our teams are on the road this weekend.
The Madison Chamber of Commerce held its annual reception for educators in the community and I had a chance to introduce our new faculty members and give a brief review of events on campus.
We have started a process for providing a more systematic orientation and welcome for transfer students and I greeted them and welcomed them to DSU. It is great to see the number of students who find their way to DSU and how positive their response is to their reception here.
I continue to be an active member of the Lake Area Improvement Corporation. The LAIC is launching a fundraising campaign and I had the opportunity to sit in on one of their first strategy meetings. Of course, DSU and our graduates are a big part of bringing new and expanding businesses here in the Madison community. This is a great partnership between the university and the community.
Along with a committee of foundation members I have been meeting with some consultants who have proposals to help us take our first steps in a comprehensive (capital) campaign. These have been very stimulating meetings that help us understand the next steps we must take to get ready for such a campaign.

There are many activities I am looking forward to in the next week or so. We will charter our first honor society for first year students Phi Eta Sigma. We have 33 initial members of this honor society and we are excited to welcome this organization to campus. I will also have the chance to host a luncheon for our first learning community – a group of young women and their advisors who are together as a group of women going into technology.

In some ways I have left the best for last. Most of you should know by now that Dakota State University was the highest ranked Comprehensive College (US News Classification) in the Midwest. We have been number 2 for the past two years and we are very excited to have been placed in the #1 ranking. We will be finding various ways to promote and celebrate this wonderful accomplishment. This really is a team effort that is dependent on our staff, faculty, students, alumni, supporters and leadership and we can all be proud of this accomplishment. This “Next Step” is off to a great start.

Technology Addiction or "Extraordinary Responsiveness"

Technology Addiction or “Extraordinary Responsiveness”

submitted to the Trojan Times

Recently I was reviewing some material from one of my favorite books, “Thriving on Chaos” by Tom Peters. (I think I like the title more than anything else). One of the chapters is titled, “Achieve Extraordinary Responsiveness”. The content of the chapter focuses on how a business can get ahead of their competitors by being more responsive and spectacularly service oriented. The key was the speed of the response to customer demand.

This past summer I received a new Motorola Q – the latest light-weight, do-everything PDA. It is fantastic and I have been responding to e-mail with lightning speed. Okay, so my wife chastised me when I pulled it out in church and she commented loudly when I tried to respond to an email while driving down 41st street in Sioux Falls. But when it vibrates to tell me I have a new message there is just this irresistible urge to “respond”.

The last incident that sparked my thinking about all this connectedness and responsiveness came last week as I was watching an early morning news show on TV and the topic was “Technology Addiction”. Yes, my wife did look at me with that – see what I mean – kind of look. Addicted? Me? No. No. No. Just extraordinarily responsive!

As many have heard me state in a variety of speeches, I believe the keys to success in any field remotely tied to our information economy are one’s abilities in four areas. The abilities to access, organize, analyze and present information. I am also a believer that for a business or a university (yeah I know a university is not a business) to stay ahead of the competition it must perform better in these four areas. So how does DSU, with our very focused mission that puts us out as a model for technology infusion, incorporate this drive to excel in these areas keep from opening a “technology addiction” clinic? Hmmmmm a new service!

While I understand the need not to be consumed by the technology or overwhelmed by the amount of information coming to us, I am also convinced that our abilities to manage this environment effectively are a key to success. I know there are some individuals who only answer their e-mail at certain times of the day and those that basically ignore it for periods of time. We are human beings who are learning about our own individual tolerance for this new world. One of the real strengths of DSU is our commitment to examine our own responses to this technology enriched campus and to gain some insights on how this all impacts our work and our private lives. Examination and insight – isn’t that what a university should be about?

Well I need to answer my Q because it is vibrating at me and I see there are 15 new emails waiting since I started writing this column. I can’t wait to see who is writing and how many ways I can be responsive.