Showing posts with label David Wright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Wright. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
President Wright Looking at Year Three
In his post today, President Wright tackles the question of what he sees as his focus in his third year. Read it here: "Third Year Questions: Focus for Year Three."
Friday, September 11, 2015
President Wright Looking Back
Today Dr. Wright gave some thought on his presidential blog to this question: "You are now beginning your third year as President of IWU. How would you characterize the first two years of your presidency and what would you say will be your focus in this third year?"
See his answer here, "The Stuff Presidents Watch."
Post any questions you have on his blog!
See his answer here, "The Stuff Presidents Watch."
Post any questions you have on his blog!
Wednesday, September 09, 2015
President Wright's Third Year Questions
I was thinking back to when Jim Barnes and Henry Smith were President, and it seemed at times like their world was sometimes far removed from the day to day life of the residential campus. In the case of David, I know he has been pioneering a trail in the South Pacific, making possible global connections for IWU as a fully international university.
The thought emerged for him to blog through some questions about the beginning of his third year. I came up with some questions Monday night and sent them to him. He's decided to take them on at his presidential blog, which you might notice shows up in my feed to the right from time to time.
Here is his first post, which includes the questions I sent him. I'm looking forward to hearing his thoughts at the start of his third year! You can also ask him questions!
Monday, January 05, 2015
Tuition and Fees at IWU
President David Wright writes on the affordability of getting your undergraduate degree at Indiana Wesleyan. $24,102 is very affordable up against other institutions, with average financial aid over $17,000 a student.
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
President Wright on university lines...
Don't have time to write this morning, but perhaps you will be interested in this post by President Wright at IWU: The Line That Defines Us. It is a very fair-minded reflection on the differences between the "lines" at a secular university like Ball State and those at a Christian university like IWU, using a recent decision at Ball State on the teaching of intelligent design in their science classes.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Vision of President David Wright of IWU
Yesterday, newly appointed President David Wright presented his vision for Indiana Wesleyan to the broad administrative leaders of the university. It was a deeply encouraging meeting. Here is a link to his presentation.
We have permission to share some thoughts from it. In fact, a good indication that he is a president worthy of our times is the fact that he recognized that some content from the presentation will have already gone out in texts and tweets while he was presenting. Gone are the days where you can control the release of information given to a group of people.
I thought I would just share three things that indicated to me, once again, that he is a president for our time. Of course there were the pieces we all knew would be there. The Chronicle-Tribune already captured his passion for global education. We all know that IWU needs to continue its diversification in terms of serving students of all ethnicities and having a faculty/administration that looks more like the diverse kingdom of God. We all knew those pieces would be there--and they were.
But here are three elements of his vision that to me were particularly important at this point in our history.
1. He would like us to steer toward the goal of IWU being a truly great university. In itself, there's nothing remarkable about this statement. It was how he defined it in terms of the story of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Anyone who would be truly great must be a servant.
In other words, he did not define greatness in terms of how much our faculty publishes or how good we look to the rest of the academy. He defined greatness in terms of how well we serve our students. You do things differently if your goal is to look good to academics and important outsiders than if your goal is to serve your students. The one approach says, "what makes this work best." The other says, "what will make other people admire us." I fear that some elements of IWU have been gravitating toward the latter.
2. Following on my first observation, he ironically began with a recognition that other institutions already look to us for ideas on how to innovate in the light of our changing technological times. IWU's online and distance programs have always been an ironic source of both admiration and mockery. Traditional academia has always tended to mock us (I think of the seminary president who, upon being newly elected, held up our seminary curriculum to his faculty and mocked, "This is not what we will be doing here." Yet here we are in the top 25% of seminaries after 4 years).
Of course we know that the kinds of institutions that used to mock things like online education are now often the ones that are in major financial crisis, even in danger of closing. It is deeply ironic that anyone would want to make IWU like institutions that, for all intents and purposes, are struggling to survive in our changing times. Dr. Wright did not say anything explicitly, but I noted to myself what was implied in his beginning: he recognizes that we are already more of a benchmark ourselves rather than an institution that needs to fix itself by benchmarking other, generally failing institutions.
3. The final thing that stuck out to me was his strategy on the structure of the institution. Again, he noted that across the academy, the prevailing practice is to structure an organization around disciplines. This is how everyone does it. You have schools of business that teach all the business in the university.
But he recognized that it has historically been more effective at IWU to structure by modality. You have to admire a leader who isn't afraid to do something different than everyone else--especially when it represents true insight. In effect, he proposes an operational grouping of the university around two halves, primarily residential and primarily non-residential. He proposed decentralizing leadership and to some extent infrastructure.
It was at this point that I tweeted yesterday what a smart cookie he was. This is brilliant and exactly the kind of thing the most effective organizations of our age are doing. Wright cited a term coined by Dee Hock, founder of VISA: "chaordic." You create structures that empower creativity on the part of your people. You structure a place around what it does, function over form.
What a breath of fresh air! Traditional academia is like algebra next to this calculus. It wants nice symmetrical boxes that look pretty on an organizational chart. Dr. Wright proposes a structure that focuses on functionality--to do the work--over formality. It is substance over form.
I was tremendously encouraged. This vision was the best of IWU past, poised to continue into the future. All the indications so far, from big statements to little things he has done, are very positive for his presidency going forward.
We have permission to share some thoughts from it. In fact, a good indication that he is a president worthy of our times is the fact that he recognized that some content from the presentation will have already gone out in texts and tweets while he was presenting. Gone are the days where you can control the release of information given to a group of people.
I thought I would just share three things that indicated to me, once again, that he is a president for our time. Of course there were the pieces we all knew would be there. The Chronicle-Tribune already captured his passion for global education. We all know that IWU needs to continue its diversification in terms of serving students of all ethnicities and having a faculty/administration that looks more like the diverse kingdom of God. We all knew those pieces would be there--and they were.
But here are three elements of his vision that to me were particularly important at this point in our history.
1. He would like us to steer toward the goal of IWU being a truly great university. In itself, there's nothing remarkable about this statement. It was how he defined it in terms of the story of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Anyone who would be truly great must be a servant.
In other words, he did not define greatness in terms of how much our faculty publishes or how good we look to the rest of the academy. He defined greatness in terms of how well we serve our students. You do things differently if your goal is to look good to academics and important outsiders than if your goal is to serve your students. The one approach says, "what makes this work best." The other says, "what will make other people admire us." I fear that some elements of IWU have been gravitating toward the latter.
2. Following on my first observation, he ironically began with a recognition that other institutions already look to us for ideas on how to innovate in the light of our changing technological times. IWU's online and distance programs have always been an ironic source of both admiration and mockery. Traditional academia has always tended to mock us (I think of the seminary president who, upon being newly elected, held up our seminary curriculum to his faculty and mocked, "This is not what we will be doing here." Yet here we are in the top 25% of seminaries after 4 years).
Of course we know that the kinds of institutions that used to mock things like online education are now often the ones that are in major financial crisis, even in danger of closing. It is deeply ironic that anyone would want to make IWU like institutions that, for all intents and purposes, are struggling to survive in our changing times. Dr. Wright did not say anything explicitly, but I noted to myself what was implied in his beginning: he recognizes that we are already more of a benchmark ourselves rather than an institution that needs to fix itself by benchmarking other, generally failing institutions.
3. The final thing that stuck out to me was his strategy on the structure of the institution. Again, he noted that across the academy, the prevailing practice is to structure an organization around disciplines. This is how everyone does it. You have schools of business that teach all the business in the university.
But he recognized that it has historically been more effective at IWU to structure by modality. You have to admire a leader who isn't afraid to do something different than everyone else--especially when it represents true insight. In effect, he proposes an operational grouping of the university around two halves, primarily residential and primarily non-residential. He proposed decentralizing leadership and to some extent infrastructure.
It was at this point that I tweeted yesterday what a smart cookie he was. This is brilliant and exactly the kind of thing the most effective organizations of our age are doing. Wright cited a term coined by Dee Hock, founder of VISA: "chaordic." You create structures that empower creativity on the part of your people. You structure a place around what it does, function over form.
What a breath of fresh air! Traditional academia is like algebra next to this calculus. It wants nice symmetrical boxes that look pretty on an organizational chart. Dr. Wright proposes a structure that focuses on functionality--to do the work--over formality. It is substance over form.
I was tremendously encouraged. This vision was the best of IWU past, poised to continue into the future. All the indications so far, from big statements to little things he has done, are very positive for his presidency going forward.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Preachers and Presidents...
It was announced yesterday that IWU has a new president. Provost David Wright has become President David Wright. Dr. Wright is well known far and wide for his innovation, his burden for global witness (he's an MK by heritage), his academic-institutional prowess, and his wisdom in general. I think we will be truly amazed at the creative things that will come out of his presidency.
As an example of his wisdom, Steve Deneff quoted him at the Emerging Preachers Conference this week, which was a cooperative between College Wesleyan Church and Wesley Seminary. Deneff remembers David telling him that there were three basic kinds of preachers: 1) those who are gifted with words, 2) those who are gifted with people, and 3) those who are gifted with organization.
I thought the preaching conference went great, with Lenny Luchetti being the main force behind it. Some of the emerging preachers preached and coach teams gave them valuable feedback. Great insights were doled out by the likes of Steve Deneff, Keith Drury, Wayne Schmidt, Lenny Luchetti, and Safiyah Fosua. I find conferences rare where insights are as common as they were at this conference.
Great experience!
I'm off to Turkey for a few days, so my posts may become sporadic... or maybe they won't. :-)
As an example of his wisdom, Steve Deneff quoted him at the Emerging Preachers Conference this week, which was a cooperative between College Wesleyan Church and Wesley Seminary. Deneff remembers David telling him that there were three basic kinds of preachers: 1) those who are gifted with words, 2) those who are gifted with people, and 3) those who are gifted with organization.
I thought the preaching conference went great, with Lenny Luchetti being the main force behind it. Some of the emerging preachers preached and coach teams gave them valuable feedback. Great insights were doled out by the likes of Steve Deneff, Keith Drury, Wayne Schmidt, Lenny Luchetti, and Safiyah Fosua. I find conferences rare where insights are as common as they were at this conference.
Great experience!
I'm off to Turkey for a few days, so my posts may become sporadic... or maybe they won't. :-)
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