In My Opinion: A Look Toward the Future
"With remarkable creativity and collegiality, our faculty are working across disciplines in ways not often seen in higher education."
From the Spring 2007 Pacific Review
By Donald V. DeRosa
University of the Pacific's mission is to provide a superior, student-centered learning experience integrating liberal arts and professional education and preparing individuals for lasting achievement and responsible leadership in their careers and communities.
The Board's commitment to Pacific's mission provided the foundation for an inclusive strategic planning process launched in January 2005. The plans now being forged are a response to the challenge issued by the Board: to secure Pacific as the West's most distinctive student-centered national university.
We are building upon Pacific's pioneering history of firsts through a series of initiatives that will focus attention on interdisciplinary programs, student leadership and citizenship development and international education. If executed well, these programs will be truly distinctive.
With remarkable creativity and collegiality, our faculty are working across disciplines in ways not often seen in higher education. Below are a few examples of the innovative work underway across all three Pacific campuses.
Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Professor Cynthia Wagner Weick of the Eberhardt School of Business and other faculty and students from business, pharmacy, dentistry, law, engineering and computer science have come together for the purpose of developing initiatives related to innovation and entrepreneurship. In December, MBA and MBA/PharmD students presented their preliminary plan for a Health Care Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center to campus and community leaders.
Nanotechnology Initiative: In 1931, Pacific organic chemistry professor Samuel Kistler made one of the first nanotechnology discoveries through his work with aerogel, an exceptionally lightweight material used by NASA in space exploration. Under the leadership of Professor Dieter Cremer of the College, Pacific strives to continue our innovative work in this field. Faculty from chemistry, law, business, the humanities and the social sciences are jointly seeking funding for the initiative. This unique program will allow undergraduates in multiple disciplines to work alongside faculty doing research Professor Cremer describes as "revolutionary," gaining experiences most often limited to graduate students in the physical sciences.
Pipeline Project: Dean Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker (Law) describes the collaboration of faculty in law, education and the College in the development of the Pipeline Project as "nothing less than catalytic." This initiative takes on the task of educating at risk K-12 students through law-themed curriculum and law-related civic and leadership activities. Program goals include higher rates of high school graduation and success in college. This emerging model of law school involvement throughout the K-12 pipeline simply does not exist elsewhere. Our law school is also partnering with the California State Bar Association in identifying and developing content for the program.
First-Year Experience: Dean of Students Joanna Royce-Davis, General Education Director Lou Matz and Assistant Dean of Students Peggy Rosson are leading an effort to build a first-year student experience in which social and academic skills, leadership, ethics and civic engagement and intercultural awareness are emphasized both inside and outside the classroom. Students will document and reflect on their experiences and development at Pacific through an electronic portfolio that is begun in their first semester.
Finally, I would like to comment on our work on emotional intelligence, stimulated by the well-known cognitive psychologist, Daniel Goleman. During his visit in October, Dan inspired us to design a program to strengthen emotional intelligence in our students. I have invited a group of faculty and staff to consider how Goleman's work might help us identify and recruit students with an aptitude for leadership as well as how to develop emotional intelligence and leadership through curricular and co-curricular experiences. Such a program has the potential to be pioneering in higher education.
The planning process has generated considerable momentum and enthusiasm. The resulting plan, Pacific Rising, 2008-2015, leaves no question as to where we are going.
