We still can't figure out what she's saying.
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon announced a "major change" in MSU's mission at the Sesquicentennial Academic Convocation Thursday: The university will strive to become the top-ranking, land-grant institution in the entire nation by 2012 under her new "Boldness by Design" initiative.
Sounds like a Bob Vila show to us.
Achieving a top rank will include expanding the university's global networking to areas in China and South America, creating another residential college, increasing the National Institutes of Health research past $100 million and increasing MSU's involvement in local and government communities.
Becoming No. 1 is splendid, but how do we go about doing that? And what does it even mean?
Although her speech delivered an impressive proposal that will affect the future of Spartans for years to come, we're wondering how this will happen. Distracted by euphemistic terms and jargon, we find ourselves no closer to an answer.
The State News reported Friday that she has a set timetable to make this all happen, which seems more like a random year - 2012. We have seven years to be the best land grant in the nation, which begs the question of where we rank currently and what qualifies us to place higher than another university.
All questions Simon will hopefully answer on Founder's Day in February, which is her deadline for planning this endeavor. Until then, we can only speculate on what all this means. It's the ultimate cliffhanger.
The university is already active internationally with research facilities and the study abroad program. Although it might surprise some people to hear Simon go on about China and South America, we already interact with both currently. It sounds more like Simon is solidifying already-existing relationships rather than creating new ones, which isn't a new concept to MSU.
And some of Simon's plans sound eerily like a repackaged version of some of the components of her liberal arts reorganization, which she originally proposed as provost one and a half years ago. The reorganization plans involved eliminating and combining colleges, and adding a new residential college. Many faculty members discouraged the prospect because they felt they were not properly consulted.
After becoming president, it seemed as though she abandoned most of the reorganization. But now it would appear she's rebuilding some of her original ideas with new ones and grouping it together under the title "Boldness by Design."
This is a potentially large advancement for MSU and students and faculty need to be informed about it, but Simon needs to stop teasing us with vague ideas. By not telling the university clearly what she wants to do, we can't come together as a university and support her initiative.
Simon can't create a future without a direction.
