McMurry University President Dr. John H. Russell presented his vision for McMurry University’s future to faculty, staff and students during a speech at Radford Auditorium, Jan. 23.

Dr. Russell reviewed the progress McMurry has already made toward “shaping the journey to McMurry’s Centennial…2023.”

He emphasized curriculum and McMurry’s vision statement, Cultivating Leadership, Excellence and Virtue … Every Student, Every Day, as leading component of that vision.

“The curriculum of 2023 began to take shape and continues to do so today,” said Dr. Russell. “It’s a curriculum that first attracts students to a university…and it’s at the core of our mission. It’s the curriculum that provides the depth and breadth in knowledge and skills graduates need to address today’s complex problems…and those of tomorrow.”

Dr. Russell outlined what emphases McMurry University might see in 2023.

“Students of 2023 will be pursuing more than an education as they consider McMurry University. Students will be shopping for…and pursuing an experience” said Dr. Russell. “That experience will continue to have a strong academic element at its core, but will need a new level of “Team McMurry” collaborative engagement to develop, refine, reinforce and market that experience. That experience will be defined…our campus will be defined…by programming that cultivates leadership, excellence and virtue.”

These initiatives for McMurry’s future include: (Excerpts from Dr. Russell’s speech)

I envision learning communities on the McMurry campus. Communities that encourage living and learning in a more seamless environment; where students are in identifiable tribes, live together in residence halls or special living modules, and take classes as a cohort group. The opportunity to learn in an interdisciplinary setting—from a core group of faculty who collaborate in the development and delivery of curriculum to these students—will be powerful. Students will study different topics; learn different bodies of knowledge; develop different—less compartmentalized—perspectives…and do so in a more coherent and connected fashion. They will be learning in a non-traditional fashion…while living on what might still be considered a traditional campus…learning in class, between classes, in “tribal settings”…and will breathe further life into the value this community places on lifelong learning. This initiative will provide abundant opportunities for individuals to develop and practice leadership skills and attitudes…and to do so in an environment that reinforces that all-important virtue of civility.

It is my vision that by 2023, every student will be required to complete a portion of his or her course work using asynchronous learning modes. Web-based courses will not become the entire portion of any of our undergraduate degree programs. But their presence and the requirement to participate in that type—or a similar type—learning experience will reinforce still another non-traditional learning opportunity. We owe it to our students to expose them…in a meaningful experience…to this increasingly relevant mode for educating and training. McMurry course offerings currently available on the Internet demonstrate our commitment to begin that movement now. To further facilitate this journey, this week I will ask our Board of Trustees to approve formal integration of tablet personal computers—wireless capable—into this campus…beginning this fall. I will ask that all freshmen entering with the Class of 2011 be issued these laptop computers and that the curriculum be shaped to take advantage of this great learning opportunity. The journey to 2023 has measurable steps and the tablet PC is another of those steps.

Before 2023 arrives, every graduate of McMurry University will be required to participate in two mini-term experiences that involve travel and engagement in a non-traditional learning experience away from the McMurry campus. These experiences will involve an academically rigorous challenge and/or an element of service…and they will involve travel. Trips to London, Paris, Boston and such…provide great prototypes for what will ultimately become a graduation requirement…as do our typical mission trips. Each of us is challenged to understand our place in the world and to develop the virtue of doing for someone else. By traveling in conjunction with McMurry-sponsored educational and service activities, students will stretch themselves to live, learn and contribute in ways they only imagined. The cultivation of leadership can have no more effective element than one that awakens one to uncharted areas…and service to one’s neighbor.

I envision and embrace a more diverse campus. The demographics of the region are changing. The Abilene Reporter News reported recently that we can expect the Hispanic population of the Big Country to grow significantly. The number of first-generation college students will increase throughout the region and the Hispanic population can be expected to be the largest growing group within that group. And while we will increasingly recruit students from population centers to our east, we will embrace the opportunity to provide the McMurry Experience to our Hispanic neighbors. We’ve begun to travel that path to 2023 with the Catholic student initiative. An upcoming spring break trip to the four-corners area will open doors for Native-American access to McMurry and serve to further our effort to develop a warm and welcoming environment for all students to live and study…but especially those who would be first generation college attendees. We demonstrate our commitment to human dignity…we cultivate that virtue…when we reach out to others in kindness and generosity.

I see it vital that we strengthen our relationship with the United Methodist Church. Our sponsorship of the Academy for Faithful Ministry provides only a glimpse of the effort we’ll need to undertake if we are to make McMurry University the university of choice for the UMC and for the youth in the congregations of our church. I had earlier highlighted our commitment to the religious life program and the excitement it engenders. Just as I described our cultivation of virtue…on-campus…through the religious life program, I maintain that we—the faculty, staff…clergy and laity of the church…demonstrate …cultivate leadership as we reinforce the relationship between McMurry University and the United Methodist Church.

I will look for opportunities for collaborative programs co-sponsored by the higher education institutions of Abilene. The School of Nursing—stronger than any one school could hope to have done alone—is a superb template for such collaborative adventures. An agreement with the Texas Tech College of Engineering will continue work to the advantage of our computer science program. Similarly, we are working in cooperation with ACU, HSU, TSTC and CJC to create information technology jobs for the region and to find internships and student work for McMurry students choosing to study in this and similar areas. We will not jeopardize the position of McMurry University. But we will be good stewards of our own resources—in a most real sense—cultivating excellence. We will seek to minimize unnecessary duplication and will partner where it makes sense to do so. Cultivating leadership means this campus must model leadership and faithful stewardship of tuition dollars and donor gifts—most worthy virtues in any age!

And we will experience increasing collaboration with the public school system. My vision for that collaboration is a complex one…one that finds us more deeply supportive of the high school and middle school education process. Dr. Jackie Simpson and Professor Ann Spence are on campus at Cooper HS offering an early college experience to those young folks…and we’ll do more of that.

We will start the Center for Research in Teaching Mathematics and Science. I am concerned about the preparation of students in math and science. Not withstanding the change to HS graduation requirements that will soon require four math and four science courses for success in HS, the need to engage…to energize young people in the learning of math and science is becoming more acute by the day.

I propose that we do something about it. My vision is to partner with local school districts to investigate and develop strategies to energize young people…middle schoolers and those in high school…in the study of math and science. That partnership is shaping up at this time and I am committed to make it grow. In support of this initiative, I will shortly ask the Board to approve a creative funding method to start a Center for Research in Teaching Mathematics and Science. This center will leverage some of our strongest and most creative faculty to develop methods to enhance the learning of math and science…at the college level …and in the high schools and middle schools.

And we will use this initiative as a springboard to 2023 and the development of other centers for undergraduate research at McMurry—through the McMurry University Research Institute—or MURI. These centers will focus primarily on interdisciplinary research relevant to our undergraduate mission. Faculty and students alike will be invited…encouraged…rewarded…to create research-based learning opportunities through these centers. And as much we’ve found that experiential learning is so advantageous to higher education, partnering strong faculty-student research teams will serve as a most effective catalyst to unsurpassed learning. The potential for these centers to promote external funding and revenue streams is most promising. And equally important, the centers that grow within the MURI should have a positive impact on jobs in the Abilene-area. Effective leaders need to be out-of-the-box thinkers, demanding in their standards, and straight-forward in their reporting—the MURI proposal will provide an effective opportunity to cultivate leadership, excellence and virtue.

“On our journey to the year 2023, we’ll cultivate leadership and we’ll continue to cultivate excellence,” said Dr. Russell. “What will make us special, what excites me about the journey…and students…what I hope will energize you and your children as we approach 2023…is that we’ll cultivate leadership and excellence…and we’ll cultivate it in an environment—on a campus—that values…that cultivates virtue.”