[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Part 1 Text” _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
The day before Kelley and I started working at Winona State, we were at an AASCU conference in Santa Fe.\u00a0 Not too far from the hotel flowed the Santa Fe River.\u00a0 Anybody here been to Santa Fe?\u00a0 What\u2019s your assessment of the river?\u00a0 The Santa Fe River flows the way a raindrop flows down a filament in a spider\u2019s web.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ve seen real rivers!<\/p>\n
Back in 1995, I had co-written a Young Scholars grant proposal funded by NSF and they sent a group of us to a conference at Saint Michael\u2019s College in Burlington, Vermont.\u00a0 (Michael is often depicted holding a flaming sword.)\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember now if this was one of those PKAL Kaleidoscope conferences, but if not it was along those lines \u2013 the pedagogy of science.\u00a0 You know: inquiry-based methods.\u00a0 Do any members of the faculty here use inquiry-based teaching?<\/p>\n
The workshop wanted to expose us to new methods, and the pedagogy focused on the Winooksi River.\u00a0 We were divided into teams.\u00a0 My team\u2019s assignment was to measure the \u201csurge\u201d of the river \u2013 the amount of force or power the river exerted.\u00a0 We were given a tape measure, tennis balls, and a stop watch.\u00a0 We timed the ball over a certain distance at the surface, then created neutral buoyancy and timed it at different depths in the river.\u00a0 We compared our notes afterwards with others who were logging flora and fauna, testing pH, and so on, and drew conclusions about the river from a multidisciplinary perspective.<\/p>\n
We learned a lot that day.\u00a0 If knowledge was the sword given to King Arthur, then it was like the Lady of the Lake was lying in the Winooski River, and she handed us a little symbol of knowledge, a sword, a little Excalibur, not only to learn about the river, but to learn about learning.<\/p>\n
The life of the mind is often associated with water, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n
The Santa Fe wasn\u2019t much of a river.\u00a0 The Winooski was impressive, but I hadn\u2019t seen anything yet.<\/p>\n
This is the great river.\u00a0\u00a0 By \u201cthis is the great river,\u201d I don\u2019t mean the Mississippi per se, I mean that we are the great river.\u00a0 Learning is a river, and we are that great river, great at being that river, and we have been, are, and will continue to be great.<\/p>\n
The less figurative among us will note that we are certainly in the river \u2013 we are certainly a part of the river \u2013 and that\u2019s right.\u00a0 Most of you know that Winona is actually in the Mississippi River.\u00a0 Once upon a time, there was a lot more water here.\u00a0 The Mississippi was deeper and wider.\u00a0 As the glaciers melted and the flood waters receded, the sediment piled up here, hundreds of feet above the original river bottom.\u00a0 The island that is Winona is part of these sediments.\u00a0 And the valley is still forming.\u00a0 Rain and wind and ice still move the sandstone and siltstone.1<\/sup><\/p>\n Water formed us, carved us out — and like water we have formed and carved out an unparalleled force of learning.\u00a0 Water forms and carves.\u00a0 Learning forms and carves.<\/p>\n We and the river have joined forces.\u00a0 We and the river are one.\u00a0 With our friends in the community, we and the river together forge the future of this place.<\/p>\n But I don\u2019t only mean literally that we are in the river or on the river \u2026 I mean figuratively that we are the river.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t believe that we are the river then you need to revisit the Science Lab Center atrium , where you can see the water molecule above you, see the sediment carved out around you, see your fellow river creatures swimming amidst the islands while dreaming of the stars.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not just \u201ca\u201d river \u2013 we\u2019re \u201cthe\u201d river \u2013 the great river!\u00a0 We are a force, powerful and good and independent, that carves out a pathway of knowledge in the wilderness of ignorance.<\/p>\n In Arthurian legends, water is associated with leadership and with wisdom.\u00a0 The water is the knowledge.\u00a0 The Lady of the Lake confers a symbol of that wisdom and leadership through the sword.\u00a0 And we do the same.\u00a0 This university is like water, and we offer symbols of knowledge throughout the journey, like diplomas.\u00a0 No one is predestined to hold this knowledge \u2013 it is a gift to all.<\/p>\n If you know your Arthurian legend, then you know that in many tellings of the tale, the sword Excalibur has a message etched on its blade.\u00a0 What embodiment of wisdom would be complete without a message?\u00a0 And so it is for us.\u00a0 An arm clad in \u201cpurest shimmering samite\u201d2<\/sup> holds forth the sword from the water, and here is what is inscribed on its blade:<\/p>\n Nos sunt communitas Translated into English, the inscription says:<\/p>\n We are a community [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Part 2 Text” _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n This has two meanings:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about the Community Within.\u00a0 We need to seek a common understanding of our purpose and direction.\u00a0 This will help us continue our leadership role.\u00a0\u00a0 How do we do that?\u00a0 How do we promote the best possible community within?\u00a0 Here\u2019s how I believe we do that:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have been so successful at educating our undergraduate students.\u00a0 Generally speaking, we are the best in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System and one of the best in the state at this.\u00a0 But the success has not been shared among all of our students.\u00a0 We represent the promise to so many for access and opportunity, but low income students and students from underrepresented minorities have struggled.\u00a0 Success here should not depend on family wealth or gender or race \u2013 success should be open to all.<\/p>\n But what we know from the NSSE and A2S Education Trust data is that all of our students do not have the same experience of Winona State.\u00a0 For example, while our six year graduation rate for European-American students is 55%, for African-American students the rate is 32%.\u00a0 We can do better.<\/p>\n So, to ensure the highest quality of our undergraduate experience, we need to focus on access, success, and completion of all students, but given the differential, especially of underrepresented students.\u00a0 Every Winona State student should feel welcomed and supported and have full access to the excellence we offer.<\/p>\n As we build community within, we need to conclude many searches for leadership positions.\u00a0 We have a lot of interims at the moment.\u00a0 I\u2019ll look forward to conversations at the Meet and Confers about how many searches we can do in one year and how best to order them.\u00a0 My goal is first to resolve the question of the two Cabinet-level interim positions, then move on to the Dean-level interims and beyond.\u00a0 I hope to get the major questions resolved by the end of the next cycle of Meet and Confer and get some of the searches started soon thereafter.<\/p>\n Hopefully we can attract some strong interest because you have already built a great community here.<\/p>\n You chose this path because of your passion to improve our world and your belief that education improves the world better than anything else.\u00a0 You chose the most noble path … helping others to achieve their dreams.\u00a0 So, what are OUR hopes and dreams?\u00a0 In the next few weeks I hope to begin conversations on campus about our hopes and dreams, to use them as a basis for envisioning where we will flow.<\/p>\n Those conversations are not only for the Community Within, but also for the Community Without.\u00a0 They have hopes and dreams for us, too.\u00a0 After all, \u201cWinona\u201d is the first word in our name.\u00a0 We are known nationally for civic engagement and service learning.\u00a0 The world out there craves to work with us, learn from us, partner with us.\u00a0 The world out there is wise to see us this way!<\/p>\n So we need to be a part of this community, this beautiful Winona community, serving it every way we practically can, learning from it as it learns from us.\u00a0 And this commitment should not stop here.\u00a0 We already serve Rochester well.\u00a0 Can we serve it even better?\u00a0 And that\u2019s still not where it stops.\u00a0 Minnesota is counting on us.\u00a0 America is counting on us. The world is counting on us.\u00a0 These are all our community.<\/p>\n As I learned from the diversity of flora and fauna in the Winooski, rivers are a community.\u00a0 My question is: If we are a great river of knowledge, then where will community flow next?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Part 3 Text” _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Part of what makes us such a powerful force for good is that we are the \u201cPeople\u2019s University\u201d \u2013 we belong to everyone.\u00a0 We are great at what we do!\u00a0 And this is not mere self-assertion. (Michael\u2019s name means \u201cwho is like God?\u201d and his sword is a sword of humility!)\u00a0 We know this objectively and through external validation, such as:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The drought is behind us.<\/p>\n So, what is our essence as learners, and where does the river flow next?\u00a0 We are already superb at the undergraduate experience.\u00a0 Therefore, we must extend the promise of our excellence in undergraduate education, and remain the best by innovating with quality in mind.\u00a0 We must ensure that students who come here are able to succeed here, regardless of family wealth, ethnicity, gender, or anything else.<\/p>\n We must ensure that we remain technology leaders.\u00a0 This has been one of our defining attributes and it needs to remain so.\u00a0 By carving out technology as a marker of distinction we have set a high bar for ourselves, and we must remain national leaders in a high-speed, evolving technology environment.\u00a0 Technology helps us find the answer, but it isn\u2019t the answer itself.\u00a0 And therein lies our ultimate victory.\u00a0 How do we compete with TED and the Khan Academy and iTunes University?\u00a0 According to Roberta Ness, we can provide something more than content: we can provide context.4<\/sup>\u00a0 We can coach students to learn how to learn, to adapt, grow, and innovate.\u00a0 This is not just about technology, though technology is a powerful tool.\u00a0 This is about creating a robust learning environment.<\/p>\n Our commitment to sustainability must continue.\u00a0 Our theme house just opened.\u00a0 If you ever doubt its importance, please meet the students who are living there.\u00a0 Our commitment to civic engagement and volunteerism must continue.\u00a0 Our students are beloved, and we are too.\u00a0 These markers of distinction must continue to define us even as we look for new ways to innovate and express them.<\/p>\n At the undergraduate level, students must have a grounding in the liberal arts and sciences regardless of their major.\u00a0 I believe that there is no intrinsic conflict between liberal studies and the professions.\u00a0 Each has its place in this academy.\u00a0 Employers tell us that they value both.\u00a0 The professions are how we make our living, and the liberal arts and sciences tell us how to live our lives.<\/p>\n We already offer outstanding graduate education in selected areas.\u00a0 We have shown we can do this with high quality and without damming up the undergraduate mission.\u00a0 We must seek out a few select, distinctive, high quality, relevant and responsive graduate programs that meet the needs of Minnesota and that can be delivered in ways that best serve students.\u00a0 I think some of these are already in development, and others are being imagined.<\/p>\n We must reframe the way we think about learning lest our river stop flowing.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say we already provide the finest learning experience that is.\u00a0 Let\u2019s not ask \u201cdo we provide the finest education that is?\u201d but, given our constraints, let\u2019s ask \u201cdo we provide the finest education that can be?\u201d\u00a0 Because we are learners, we should not rest on a verdant shore, at the end of the trail, even though we have surely earned the right to do so, but we should put the boat back in the river and go exploring again.\u00a0 Only in doing so will we remain the leaders that we have been.<\/p>\n In short, being a \u201cCommunity of Learners\u201d means doing everything we can to deliver the highest quality education with the highest value \u2013 the best deal in Minnesota, and the best investment in the future that a person can make.<\/p>\n Rivers learn.\u00a0 So, my question is:\u00a0 If we are a great river of knowledge, then where will learning flow next?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Part 4 Text” _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n This means that we are willing to improve inside and out, first improving how and what we do, then using those improvements to help build a better world.\u00a0 I suppose that there are three counterproductive ways to think about improvement, innovation, and change:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at each of these.<\/p>\n We might think that we are powerless to do anything.\u00a0 We were blessed with fantastic performances of \u201cKing Lear\u201d this summer at the Shakespeare Festival.\u00a0 In Act I, Scene II, Edmund makes fun of those who feel powerless and blame their fate on others, in particular fate imposed from above:<\/p>\n Edmund: This is the excellent foppery of the world, Many folks feel this way these days.\u00a0 Maybe some of us feel this way.\u00a0 We have come through very challenging times, times when budgets were slashed and our common future drawn into doubt.\u00a0 But how could we of all people believe that we are powerless?\u00a0 Of course as individuals and together we sometimes lack power, but isn\u2019t the very core of our enterprise the belief that education transforms \u2013 that learning makes the world better, helps improve our world?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this a core shared belief for us \u2013 that wisdom is the gift we bring?<\/p>\n Our budget picture has improved considerably.\u00a0 There are opportunities to reinvest.\u00a0\u00a0 We have a Chancellor who invites us to be distinctive.\u00a0 We have the people of Winona, Rochester, and others behind us, willing to help.\u00a0 We are not powerless.<\/p>\n Or, we might think that we should utterly abandon the past, start over, re-route the river like the \u201cMr. Go\u201d (MRGO) canal in New Orleans.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know a lot about the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, but we do have this wonderful quote from him \u2026 That phrasing is kind of cryptic, so here is how Plato rephrases Heraclitus:#<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All things move and nothing remains still.#<\/em>7<\/sup><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everything changes \u2026 and you cannot step into the same stream twice.<\/em><\/p>\n Here is a vision of a river we do not want to be: constant, ceaseless reinvention.<\/p>\n Change is certainly a constant and appears unceasing, but change is never purely chaotic.\u00a0 Some changes can be predicted, like the decline in birthrate in industrialized countries, and what that might mean for enrollments.\u00a0 Given how excellent we are, Winona State has no call to blow things up and start over!\u00a0 So much of what we do is best-in-class that we need to honor our traditions.\u00a0 Improvement at Winona State cannot mean the abandonment of all we have been.\u00a0 Heraclitus\u2019s river is chaos.\u00a0 And some climatologists think that re-routing the Mississippi through Mr. Go brought chaos to New Orleans.9<\/sup><\/p>\n Or, we might believe that we must not change a thing: that we should repeat what we always have done and preserve tradition.\u00a0 This is the opposite perspective from Heraclitus.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand much of James Joyce\u2019s Finnegans Wake, but I know he is playing with repetition.\u00a0 The opening sentence says:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 commodius vicus of recirculation back \u2026<\/em>10<\/sup><\/p>\n \u201cCommodius vicus<\/em>\u201d seems to mean \u201cvicious circle.\u201d\u00a0 Here is a portrait of another river we do not want to be.\u00a0 Joyce is true to his word because the novel itself is a vicious circle \u2026 the novel ends \u2026<\/p>\n A way a lone a last a loved a long the \u2026<\/em>11<\/sup><\/p>\n … which loops back to the beginning \u2026 Here\u2019s another example of that thinking from the Bruce Springsteen song \u201cThe River\u201d: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I come from down in the valley where mister when you’re young#<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They bring you up to do like your daddy done \u2026#<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019d go down to the river#<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And into the river we\u2019d dive.#<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Down to the river we\u2019d ride.<\/em>12<\/sup><\/p>\n Here, the river represents repetition, not change.\u00a0 In this view, we are condemned to do what those who came before us did.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not right, either.\u00a0 We did not become who we are by staying in place.\u00a0 Three of our great markers of distinction\u2014digital technology, sustainability, and civic engagement\u2014would not have been our markers 20 years ago.<\/p>\n So, I want to encourage us to think of our great river neither as powerless, nor as chaotic, nor as repetitious.\u00a0 Is that the choice?\u00a0 Either we are powerless to do anything, or we are obliged to do everything, or we are condemned to repeat ourselves?\u00a0 There\u2019s always another way.<\/p>\n And right here in Minnesota we have an example.\u00a0 Does anybody remember the old Paul Bunyan-land on the corner of Highways 371 and 210 near Brainerd?\u00a0 They used to sell a book there full of Paul Bunyan tall tales, printed by the folks at the Brainerd Daily Dispatch.\u00a0 I still have a copy.\u00a0 In one of these stories Paul\u2019s lumberjacks are frustrated when floating their lumber downstream.\u00a0 Rather than flowing down to Winona, the lumber keeps coming back to the same spot because it\u2019s a circular river \u2013 it just flows in a circle.\u00a0 (This is Paul Bunyan meets M.C. Escher I think.)\u00a0 So, Paul takes a huge shovel, scoops out the middle, and makes \u201cRound Lake\u201d which is just a few miles north of Paul Bunyan-land toward Nisswa.<\/p>\n We are not powerless.\u00a0 We can change the world.\u00a0 We can bring innovation without bringing chaos.\u00a0 And that change can move us forward in new ways while also respecting our traditions.\u00a0 We can preserve the past and make something new.\u00a0 Rather than thinking of change as a straight line or a circle, in terms of metaphor, how about change as a helix?\u00a0 A river empowered, preserving its shape and traditions, but also innovative and new.\u00a0 Always moving forward, yet also always returning to familiar parts of the curve.\u00a0 Innovation plus tradition.<\/p>\n We preserve our cycles and rhythms, we preserve our way of doing things, but we always strive to make things new and fresh, like a river.\u00a0 We can do things that are new while preserving our traditions.\u00a0 We can go about things the way our forebears did \u2013 with integrity, passion, community commitment \u2013 but we can change and grow too.\u00a0 These are not in conflict.\u00a0 These go side by side.\u00a0 We can innovate and improve not because we have to, but because we are so strong that we choose to!<\/p>\n How do we do this?\u00a0 Looking only inward is good for preserving traditions but not for innovation.\u00a0 We have to look out as we look in.\u00a0 Improving our world means a willingness to partner with those whom we serve.\u00a0 Where appropriate, this means partnering with our community, with K12 schools, with businesses and industry, with nonprofit organizations, with our colleagues Southeast Tech and RCTC and Riverland and other sibling institutions.<\/p>\n If we take diversity seriously, then we must partner in ways that help us serve our students in the ways they most need to be served.\u00a0 We can absolutely do this without compromising our quality and identity here at home in Winona.\u00a0 This is one way of improving our world.<\/p>\n We should be the most respected and valued partner in higher education: “we love<\/strong> to work with Winona State!” just as I\u2019ve heard so many of you say, \u201cI love to work at Winona State.\u201d<\/p>\n Look around you and please never take any of this for granted:\u00a0 This beautiful campus, this beautiful city, this beautiful state.\u00a0 We benefit from these in untold ways.\u00a0 We have a duty to honor and preserve them, stewarding the next 150 years.\u00a0 All that we do here is possible because of the river, both the figurative river and the literal river.\u00a0 You built this: you, the river.\u00a0 The purpose of normal schools was to change the world through education.\u00a0 That was there from the beginning, and that hasn\u2019t changed.\u00a0 We are, at heart, still that normal school, still changing lives every day through education.<\/p>\n Rivers improve our world.\u00a0 So, my question for you is:\u00a0 If we are a great river of knowledge, then where will \u201cimproving our world\u201d flow next?<\/p>\n The river has left its mark on this valley.\u00a0 Humans sometimes leave a mark, and sometimes leave just a marker.\u00a0 On the Island of Santorini there is a relic from 2,600 years ago, a 1,000-pound Volcanic stone with this message carved on it: \u201cEumastas, son of Kritobolos, lifted me up from the ground.\u201d13<\/sup>\u00a0 Who was Eumastas?\u00a0 Who was Kristobolos?\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 All we have is the marker.\u00a0 Or think of Percy Bysshe Shelley\u2019s \u201cOzymandias\u201d:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing beside remains. Round the decay #<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,# <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The lone and level sands stretch far away.<\/em>14<\/sup><\/p>\n All that\u2019s left around that marker is just a dry, sandy waste \u2013 not a fertile valley.\u00a0 Markers of nothing.\u00a0 Signifiers with no signified.<\/p>\n Will we leave a mark, or a marker?\u00a0 150 years from now, will our descendants look back on us and wonder who we were and what we did?\u00a0 Or will they look back on us and say, thank heaven for those Warriors!\u00a0 Thank heaven that they improved the world that we inherited!<\/p>\n The river left its marker and left its mark, and like Winona State the river is still here.\u00a0 We will both be here for a long time to come.\u00a0 As you know, there\u2019s a statue on the mall called End of The Trail by James Earle Fraser, a Winona native.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see this same image on the cover of the Beach Boys album \u201cSurf\u2019s Up.\u201d\u00a0 As usual, Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks are writing about water!\u00a0 Trails might end at the edge of the river.\u00a0 They don\u2019t end because we have no place else to go.\u00a0 They end because we are at the riverside, and the river can take us to places far beyond this trail, places we haven\u2019t even imagined.\u00a0 The end of one trail is the beginning of another trail.<\/p>\n The surf is up again \u2013 the river is ready to roar.\u00a0 It will sweep away ignorance.\u00a0 It will make the valley green and fertile.\u00a0 And we can make a paradise of learning here between these bluffs.<\/p>\n The river invites us to explore, to learn.\u00a0 Mary Shelley describes learning as precisely this type of adventure in her novel \u201cThe Last Man\u201d:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have chosen my boat, and laid in my scant stores.\u00a0 I have selected a few books; the <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 principal are Homer and Shakespeare.\u00a0 But the libraries of the world are thrown open <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 to me \u2026 and in any port I can renew my stock.<\/em>15<\/sup><\/p>\n We can go anywhere.<\/p>\n You have chosen the noblest profession, all of you.\u00a0 Whether you teach in the classroom or provide frontline service to students or maintain these beautiful buildings and grounds, or sit behind a counter or desk or on a tractor or stand behind a lectern or with a rake or broom in your hands.\u00a0 You have chosen the noblest profession: helping others realize their dreams, helping others put their boat in the river and explore.\u00a0 Each of us does this.\u00a0 All of us do this together.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter what job you do here \u2013 we are all part of the river and we all help students realize their dreams.\u00a0 We all do!<\/p>\n You\u2019re all part of the river \u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>All the professors are part of the flow, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Somsen, Gildemeister, Kryszko, Minn\u00e9, All of us together, every IFO, ASF, AFSCME, MAPE, MMA, MSUSA, ABC, 123, Do Re Mi, Baby you and me!16 <\/sup>\u00a0 We are a community, we are learners, and we improve our world.<\/p>\n What great place will community discover next?\u00a0 What great place will learning discover next?\u00a0 What great place will \u201cimproving our world\u201d discover next?\u00a0 If our thoughts and passions and beliefs and actions align, we can flow anywhere we want to go.\u00a0 If our minds and our hearts and our spirits and our hands work together, we can achieve anything.<\/p>\n We are the great river.\u00a0 We can stand in the Science Lab Center atrium and feel a part of it \u2013 surrounded by water molecules and sediment, creatures of that clean, deep, strong force.\u00a0 You know, nationally there is a drought.\u00a0 Nationally, more than half of all counties are without water, the highest proportion ever.\u00a0 But not here.\u00a0 Here, the valley is green.\u00a0 Here, the river is rising.\u00a0 Here the water will wash away all the pain, wash away all the hurt, wash away the ignorance, wash away all the dreams unfulfilled.\u00a0 Warriors, trouble the water!17<\/sup><\/p>\n The river is rising with hope.\u00a0 The river is rising with abundance.\u00a0 The river is rising with opportunity.\u00a0 The river is rising with wisdom.\u00a0 The river is rising with dreams.\u00a0 So, come on students, let\u2019s go down, let\u2019s go down, let\u2019s go down!\u00a0 Let\u2019s go down to the river today!18<\/sup><\/p>\n As for the Lady of the Lake:\u00a0 The Lake is Lake Pepin.\u00a0 The Lady is Princess We-No-Nah.\u00a0 She lives!\u00a0 She jumped into Lake Pepin from Maiden Rock but she lives, like us she became one with the water, flowing downstream, making her home here, where she waits.\u00a0 We-no-nah offers knowledge like a flaming sword to all who seek it.<\/p>\n Despite all the adversity, knowledge lives.\u00a0 The sword of knowledge is truly magical.\u00a0 According to Thomas Malory, it\u2019s “\u2026 so bright in the eyes of the enemy that it gave light like thirty torches.”19<\/sup>\u00a0 The flame of knowledge here in Winona burns so brightly that the water doesn\u2019t diminish it \u2013 in fact, the water acts as a prism and beautifully refracts Winona\u2019s knowledge in hundreds of ways.<\/p>\n Wade in the water and the Lady in the Lake will greet you \u2026 the sword of knowledge lies in her hands, in Winona\u2019s hands, in the water \u2026 waiting for you to claim it, knowledge yours for the taking!\u00a0 Look at the top of our logo \u2013 the \u201cFlaming W\u201d \u2013 and you will see its brilliance.\u00a0 150 years?\u00a0 That\u2019s nothing!\u00a0 \u201cTil every river it runs dry \u2026 \u2018til every star falls down from the sky \u2026\u201d20<\/sup>\u00a0 We can do this together.\u00a0 We will do this together.\u00a0 Knowledge is a river, powerful, ageless and new.\u00a0 We\u2019re a community of learners and, like a great river, we improve our world.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_blurb title=”References” admin_label=”References Blurb” _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n 1 DeBruyckere, A., Kroeger T., and Annexstad, J.\u00a0 (2000).\u00a0 Minnesota geology.\u00a0 Unpublished webpage located at http:\/\/www.hutchk12.org\/geo\/mngeo\/index.html<\/a>. [\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The day before Kelley and I started working at Winona State, we were at an AASCU conference in Santa Fe.\u00a0 Not too far from the hotel flowed the Santa Fe River.\u00a0 Anybody here been to Santa Fe?\u00a0 What\u2019s your assessment of the river?\u00a0 The Santa Fe River flows the way a raindrop flows down a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-speeches"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1546,"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions\/1546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.winona.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Nos sunt discentium
Nos meliorem mundi<\/p>\n
We are learners
We improve our world<\/p>\nWe are a Community<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
We are Learners<\/h2>\n
\n
We Improve Our World<\/h2>\n
\n
that, when we are sick in fortune,
often the surfeit of our own behavior,
we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars;
as if we were villains \u2026 on necessity;
fools \u2026 by heavenly compulsion …<\/em>5<\/sup><\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n
A way a lone a last a loved a long the \u2026 riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Service faculty, with all that you know,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Student Affairs, Advancement, and Res Life,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>(I live in Lourdes Hall with Kelley, my wife)
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Office assistants and student workers
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>In ITS there sure are no shirkers.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>GMWs, Facilities crew,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>What do you know?\u00a0 Administrators too.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Maxwell and Pasteur, now what do you say?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Phelps and Krueger and Wabasha and Stark,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Gathering down at the river, and hark!
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Every student who\u2019s willing will ride
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>With us together in this rising tide.<\/p>\n
2 A reference to the film \u201cMonty Python and the Holy Grail\u201d for Provost Nancy Jannik.
3 Nemeth, C. (2012).\u00a0 Creative problem solving: Outsiders, dissenters, heroes and rogues.\u00a0 Unpublished presentation at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Summer Meeting, Santa Fe, NM.
4 Ness, R. (2012, July 15).\u00a0 Leadership for a new age: Creating and sustaining an innovative campus culture.\u00a0 Unpublished presentation at the AASCU Summer Council, Santa Fe NM.
5 Shakespeare, W. (1608).\u00a0 King Lear.\u00a0 Act I, Scene II, Line 58+.
6 Heraclitus, Praeperatio evangelica, 15.20.2
7 Plato, Cratylus, 401d.
8 Plato, Cratylus, 402a.
9 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.\u00a0 (Undated).\u00a0 History of MRGO<\/a>.\u00a0 Document at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website.
10 Joyce, J. (1939). Finnegans wake.\u00a0 New York: Viking Press, p. 3.
11 Joyce, J. (1939).\u00a0 Finnegans wake.\u00a0 New York: Viking Press, p. 628.
12 Springsteen, B. (1980).\u00a0 The river.\u00a0 From the album The River: Columbia Records.
13 Sweet, W.\u00a0 (1987).\u00a0 Sport and recreation in ancient Greece.\u00a0 Oxford University Press, p. 105.
14 Shelley, P.B.. (1818, January 11).\u00a0 Ozymandias.\u00a0 The (London) Examiner.
15 Shelley, M. (1826). The last man.\u00a0 Online PDF edition at http:\/\/www.freeclassicebooks.com\/Shelley%20Mary\/The%20Last%20Man.pdf<\/a>.\u00a0 Pp. 614-615.
16 Olson, S. (2005, August).\u00a0 \u201cOur train.\u201d Unpublished speech, with a reference to the song \u201cABC\u201d by the Jackson Five, written by Mizell, A., Perren, F., Richards, D., and Gordy, B.
17 A reference to the African-American spiritual \u201cWade in the Water.\u201d
18 A reference to the Appalachian spiritual \u201cDown to the River.\u201d
19 Malory, T. (1990).\u00a0 Book I, 19, from The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, Ed. Vinaver, Eug\u00e8ne, 3rd ed. Field, Rev. P. J. C. 3 vol. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20 Springtsteen, B. (1985) \u201cJanie don\u2019t you lose heart.\u201d\u00a0 B-side of the 45-rpm recording \u201cI\u2019m going down.\u201d\u00a0 CBS Records.<\/p>\n