Penn State is building a model for "America's University."

Pattee Library

This may startle some in our learning community, where there remains a healthy measure of humility, a quality that, in the proper amount, contributes importantly to solid achievement. But this humility exists in concert with the ambition and promise of a great university, which, I believe, has earned the right to aspire to be a model.

There is not another university I can name that parallels Penn State in terms of both the access it offers through its regional campuses and, simultaneously, its world-class academic quality.

Despite our fiscal challenges -- even in this time of budget cutting and reshaping -- Penn State puts together an impressive number of winning combinations: In teaching, we rank sixth nationally in the number of our undergraduates going on for doctoral degrees and professional education. In research, our faculty bring in more external dollars than any other university in this state, and the number of dollars generated continues to grow. In service, Penn State Continuing Education reaches 200,000 people each year, and one in six Pennsylvania households is served by Penn State Cooperative Extension. More than 400,000 graduates have gone forth from this University, and their collective record has built Penn State's reputation far and wide. Indeed, Penn State has more so-called subway alumni than most other universities.

Beyond this, the University can be proud of our cost efficiencies; our opportunities for personal and societal growth; our commitment to economic development; our partnerships with urban educators; and our abiding commitment to equity, ethics, and integrity.

When we speak of Penn State as a model for America's University, we see a learning community of the highest order, one that combines access and academic excellence to reap the benefits of higher education broadly for society. Our model builds on the land-grant tradition of teaching, research, and service that long has guided Penn State. It must use ever more fully the complementarities of this tripartite mission.

We must move boldly to support a continuum of learning across the discovery, acquisition, and application of knowledge throughout the lives of all who are a part of this learning community. We must reach out even farther beyond our campus gates, for the new learning community will be global in scope.

The model will make obsolete any restrictions of either time or space.The time dimension is lifelong, the space dimension is global.

I have said before that it is the rare person who has the opportunity to paint on a blank canvas. Most of my predecessors -- with the possible exception of Evan Pugh -- have refined a canvas already begun by those who came before them. Our multi-campus system is a case in point. In studying and coming to understand this system, I concluded that I might have created it somewhat differently, had that opportunity been mine. Nevertheless, we have a unique multi-campus structure that makes programs and services available locally in the Commonwealth and establishes productive and valued partnerships with communities across this state.

Our highly centralized system of offering academic programs at multiple locations through a single academic unit offers significant advantages to Penn State in the immediate future if we can move boldly to establish a telecommunications infrastructure that will enable us to utilize fully these advantages.

We can create a system capable of bringing Penn State's resources to the people in highly promising ways, as electronic pathways to and across our system make it possible for ever more individuals and organizations to be part of our learning community. This system is a vital part of our dream of Penn State as a model for America's University. It is admittedly a dream, but it is a dream with fulfillment already on the horizon.

The skeptics, those doubting Thomases -- or those who doubt Thomas -- need only be reminded that this learning community was startled in 1983 when the notion of moving Penn State into the top 10 public universities was dreamed about by my predecessor.But a decade later, Penn State is included in that ranking on many, if not all, measures.

Penn State does not rest on past achievements. In fact, it hardly ever rests at all. Instead, we relish new challenges as a means of placing new achievements within reach of all those in our learning community.