I am so excited to be your next president of St. Cloud State University. Go Huskies!
I’ve said those words dozens of times during these first few weeks as president, and every time is just as exhilarating as the first. There is a lot to be excited about at St. Cloud State and the value of higher education.
I truly believe in the transformative nature of public higher education because, like many of you, I am a product of public higher education. I’ve experienced it firsthand.
I was a first-generation college student. My parents didn’t finish high school – both dropped out to help support their family during the depression. My father was a truck driver and my mother worked for the local school district for more than 35 years calling substitute teachers. She believed that finding the best substitute teacher meant that students were going to have a good learning experience that day. I learned from their work ethic and carried it with me as I started college, which was made possible through scholarships, work-study and a job delivering pizzas. Although they didn’t have the opportunity to further their education, they encouraged me to further mine.
I am serving as St. Cloud State’s next president because I am the beneficiary of a high-quality education that changed the arc of possibilities for me and prepared me for my professional journey. I am committed to making sure that our students have access to that same opportunity to change the arc of their possibilities.
As you know, providing access and opportunities for students comes with a number of important challenges impacting higher education locally and nationally. A changing funding model is putting more reliance on funding sources outside of state appropriations. We must remain affordable and accessible while effectively demonstrating the value proposition of higher education. There are fewer high school students and increasing competition for those students. We also need to ensure that we continue our commitment to inclusive excellence and to ensuring a welcoming and supportive campus climate.
I treat these challenges as opportunities. When we embrace these challenges as opportunities, we open ourselves to reinvention, to new ways of thinking, to taking risks and being bold about how to deliver on our promise to provide a high-quality education. We become open to exploring innovative ways to support student success; to thinking differently about our how we create and deliver our curriculum and programs; to reaching out to new categories of students; to embracing cutting-edge pedagogy; and to finding more efficient ways to conduct the business operations of higher education.
But we can’t do it alone. So much innovation and outside-the-box thinking comes from community and business partnerships. I am so pleased to learn about all the work that is already being done to advance our partnerships in the community and am appreciative of the support I have found for on-going and thriving partnerships with St. Cloud State. I look forward to continuing to build on these partnerships because they are key to:
- supporting economic development;
- using faculty expertise and engagement;
- providing our students the experiences they need so they are ready to launch their careers and be successful in a global economy.
I also have been talking with St. Cloud Technical and Community College President Annesa Cheek to provide pathways for students to easily move between our institutions and to ensure that our programs work in partnership to provide students opportunities for educational advancement.
I look forward to continuing to work with the campus, our partners and the community to identify new and creative ways to carry out St. Cloud State’s mission and vision to positively transform students and prepare them to be global citizens of the 21st Century.
I’ve met so many people in this community who have already been transformed by a St. Cloud State education. Every day I meet someone who says, “I am a graduate and I love St. Cloud State. My experience there changed my life. I’m proud to be an alum.” It is an honor to be the president of such an outstanding university and as president, I am committed to ensuring that St. Cloud State continues its 150-year legacy of serving students and that the value of a St. Cloud State degree continues to change the arc of possibilities for our students.
I’m ready to put in the work and I look forward to seeing the results of what we can do together to unlock the unique potential in all of our students for the betterment of Central Minnesota, of our state and of communities we impact throughout the world.
This is the opinion of St. Cloud State University President Robbyn Wacker. To A Higher Degree is published the fourth Sunday of the month and rotates among the presidents of the four largest Central Minnesota higher education institutions.
